Why Laura, how your cheeks burn!" exclaimed Mrs. Arnot as she entered her niece"s room one afternoon.
"Now, don"t laugh at me for being so foolish, but I have become absurdly excited over this story. Scott was well called the "Wizard of the North." What a spell he weaves over his pages! When reading some of his descriptions of men and manners in those old chivalric times, I feel that I have been born some centuries too late--in our time everything is so matter-of-fact, and the men are so prosaic. The world moves on with a steady business jog, or, to change the figure, with the monotonous clank of uncle"s machinery. My castle in the air would be the counterpart of those which Scott describes."
"Romantic as ever," laughed her aunt; "and that reminds me, by the way, of the saying that romantic girls always marry matter-of-fact men, which, I suppose, will be your fate. I confess I much prefer our own age. Your stony castles make me shiver with a sense of discomfort; and as for the men, I imagine they are much the same now as then, for human nature does not change much."
"O, auntie, what a prosaic speech! Uncle might have made it himself. The idea of men being much the same now! Why, in that day there were the widest and most picturesque differences between men of the same rank.
There were horrible villains, and then to vanquish these and undo the mischief they were ever causing, there were knights _sans peur et sans reproche._ But now a gentleman is a gentleman, and all made up very much in the same style, like their dress coats. I would like to have seen at least one genuine knight--a man good enough and brave enough to do and to dare anything to which he could be impelled by a most chivalric sense of duty. About the most heroic thing a man ever did for me was to pick up my fan."
Mrs. Arnot thought of one man whose heart was almost breaking for her, and yet who maintained such a quiet, masterful self-control that the object of his pa.s.sion, which had become like a torturing flame, was not subjected to even the slightest annoyance; and she said, "You are satirical today. In my opinion there are as true knights now as your favorite author ever described."
"Not in Hillaton," laughed Laura, "or else their disguise is perfect."
"Yes, in Hillaton," replied Mrs. Arnot, with some warmth, "and among the visitors at this house. I know of one who bids fair to fulfil my highest ideal of knighthood, and I think you will do me the justice to believe that my standard is not a low one."
"Auntie, you fairly takeaway my breath!" said Laura, in the same half-jesting spirit. "Where have my eyes been? Pray, who is this paragon, who must, indeed, be nearly perfect, to satisfy your standard?"
"You must discover him for yourself; as you say, he appears to be but a gentleman, and would be the last one in the world to think of himself as a knight, or to fill your ideal of one. You must remember the character of our age. If one of your favorite knights should step, armed _cap-a-pie,_ out of Scott"s pages, all the dogs in town would be at his heels, and he would probably bring up at the station-house. My knight promises to become the flower of his own age. Now I think of it, I do not like the conventional word "flower," as used in this connection, for my knight is steadily growing strong like a young oak. I hope I may live to see the man he will eventually become."
"You know well, auntie," said Laura, "that I have not meant half I have said. The men of our day are certainly equal to the women, and I shall not have to look far to find my superior in all respects. I must admit, however, that your words have piqued my curiosity, and I am rather glad you have not named this "heart of oak," for the effort to discover him will form a pleasant little excitement."
"Were I that way inclined," said Mrs. Arnot, smiling, "I would be willing to wager a good deal that you will hit upon the wrong man."
Laura became for a time quite a close student of human nature, observing narrowly the physiognomy and weighing the words and manner, of her many gentleman acquaintances; but while she found much to respect, and even to admire, in some, she was not sure that any one of them answered to her aunt"s description. Nor could she obtain any further light by inquiring somewhat into their antecedents. As for Mrs. Arnot, she was considerably amused, but continued perfectly non-committal.
After Laura had quite looked through her acquaintances Haldane made one of his infrequent calls, but as Mr. Beaumont was also present she gave to her quondam lover scarcely more than a kindly word of greeting, and then forgot his existence. It did not occur to her, any more than it would to Haldane himself, that he was the knight.
Mr. Arnot, partly out of a grim humor peculiarly his own, and partly to extenuate his severity toward the youth, had sent to his niece all the city papers containing unfavorable references to Haldane, and to her mind the a.s.sociations created by those disgraceful scenes were still inseparable from him. She honestly respected him for his resolute effort to reform, as she would express it, and as a sincere Christian girl she wished him the very best of success, but this seemed as far as her regard for him could ever go. She treated him kindly where most others in her station would not recognize him at all, but such was the delicacy and refinement of her nature that she shrank from one who had been capable of acts like his. The youth who had annoyed her with his pa.s.sion, whom she had seen fall upon the floor in gross intoxication, who had been dragged through the streets as a criminal, and who twice had been in jail, was still a vivid memory. She knew comparatively little about, and did not understand, the man of to-day. Beyond the general facts that he was doing well and doing good, it was evident that, by reason of old and disagreeable a.s.sociations, she did not wish to hear much about him, and Mrs. Arnot had the wisdom to see that time and the young man"s own actions would do more to remove prejudice from the mind of her niece, as well as from the memory of society in general, than could any words of hers.
Of course, such a girl as Laura had many admirers, and among them Mr.
Beaumont was evidently winning the first place in her esteem. Whether he were the knight that her aunt had in mind or no, she was not sure, but he realized her ideal more completely than any man whom she had ever met. He did, indeed, seem the "perfect flower of his age," although she was not so sure of the oak-like qualities. She often asked herself wherein she could find fault with him or with all that related to him, and even her delicate discrimination could scarcely find a vulnerable point. He was fine-looking, his heavy side-whiskers redeeming his face from effeminacy; he was tall and elegant in his proportions; his taste in his dress was quiet and faultless; he possessed the most refined and highly cultured mind of any man whom she had known; his family was exceedingly proud and aristocratic, but as far as there can be reason for these characteristics, this old and wealthy family had such reason.
Laura certainly could not find fault with these traits, for from the first Mr. Beaumont"s parents had sought to pay her especial attention.
It was quite evident that they thought that the orphaned girl who was so richly dowered with wealth and beauty might make as good a wife for their matchless son as could be found, and such an opinion on their part was, indeed, a high compliment to Laura"s birth and breeding. No one else in Hillaton would have been thought of with any equanimity.
The son was inclined to take the same view as that entertained by his parents, but, as the party most nearly interested, he felt it inc.u.mbent upon him to scrutinize very closely and deliberately the woman who might become his wife, and surely this was a sensible thing to do.
There was nothing mercenary or coa.r.s.e in his delicate a.n.a.lysis and close observation. Far from it. Mr. Beaumont was the last man in the world to look a lady over as he would a bale of merchandise. More than all things else, Mr. Beaumont was a _connoisseur_, and he sought Mrs. Arnot"s parlors with increasing frequency because he believed that he would there find the woman best fitted to become the chief ornament of the stately family mansion.
Laura had soon become conscious of this close tentative scrutiny, and at first she had been inclined to resent its cool deliberateness. But, remembering that a man certainly has a right to learn well the character of the woman whom he may ask to be his wife, she felt that there was nothing in his action of which she could complain; and it soon became a matter of pride with her, as much as anything else, to satisfy those fastidious eyes that hitherto had critically looked the world over, and in vain, for a pearl with a l.u.s.tre sufficiently clear. She began to study his taste, to dress for him, to sing for him, to read his favorite authors; and so perfect was his taste that she found herself aided and enriched by it. He was her superior in these matters, for he had made them his life-study. The first hour that she spent with him in a picture-gallery was long remembered, for never before had those fine and artistic marks which make a painting great been so clearly pointed out to her. She was brought to believe that this man could lead her to the highest point of culture to which she could attain, and satisfy every refined taste that she possessed. It seemed as if he could make life one long gallery of beautiful objects, through which she might stroll in elegant leisure, ever conscious that lie who stood by to minister and explain was looking away from all things else in admiration of herself.
The prospect was too alluring. Laura was not an advanced female, with a mission; she was simply a young and lovely woman, capable of the n.o.blest action and feeling should the occasion demand them, but naturally luxurious and beauty-loving in her tastes, and inclined to shun the prosaic side of life.
She made Beaumont feel that she also was critical and exacting. She had lived too long under Mrs. Arnot"s influence to be satisfied with a man who merely lived for the pleasure he could get out of each successive day. He saw that she demanded that he should have a purpose and aim in life, and he skilfully met this requirement by frequently descanting on aesthetic culture as the great lever which could move the world, and by suggesting that the great question of his future was how he could best bring this culture to the people. As a Christian, she took issue with him as to its being the great lever, but was enthusiastic over it as a most powerful means of elevating the ma.s.ses, and she often found herself dreaming over how much a man gifted with Mr. Beaumont"s exquisite taste and large wealth could do by placing within the reach of the mult.i.tude objects of elevating art and beauty.
By a fine instinct she felt, rather than saw, that Mrs. Arnot did not specially like the seemingly faultless man, and was led to believe that her aunt"s ideal knight was to be found among some of the heartier young men who were bent on doing good in the old-fashioned ways; and, with a tendency not unnatural in one so young and romantic, she thought of her aunt as being a bit old-fashioned and prosaic herself. In her youthful and ardent imagination Beaumont came to fill more and more definitely her ideal of the modern knight--a man who summed up within himself the perfect culture of his age, and who was proposing to diffuse that culture as widely as possible.
"You do not admire Mr. Beaumont," said Laura a little abruptly to her aunt one day.
"You are mistaken, Laura; I do admire him very much."
"Well, you do not like him, then, to speak more correctly; he takes no hold upon your sympathies."
"There is some truth in your last remark, I must admit. For some reason he does not. Perhaps it is my fault, and I have sometimes asked myself, Is Mr. Beaumont capable of strong affection or self-sacrificing action?
has he much heart?"
"I think you do him injustice in these respects," said Laura warmly.
"Quite probably," replied Mrs. Arnot, adding with a mischievous smile, which brought the rich color to her niece"s cheeks, "Perhaps you are in a better position to judge of his possession of these qualities than I am. Thus far he has given me only the opportunity of echoing society"s verdict--He is a perfect gentleman. I wish he were a better Christian,"
she concluded gravely.
"I think he is a Christian, auntie."
"Yes, dear, in a certain aesthetic sense. But far be it from me to judge him. Like the rest of the world, I respect him as an honorable gentleman."
A few days after this conversation Mr. Beaumont drove a pair of coal-black horses to Mrs. Arnot"s door, and invited Laura to take a drive. When, in the twilight, she returned, she went straight to her aunt"s private parlor, and, curling down at her knees, as was her custom when a child, said:
"Give me your blessing, auntie; your congratulations, also--I hope, although I am not so sure of these. I have found my knight, though probably not yours. See!" and she held up her finger, with a great flashing diamond upon it.
Mrs. Arnot took the girl in her arms and said, "I do bless you, my child, and I think I can congratulate you also. On every principle of worldly prudence and worldly foresight I am sure I can. It will be very hard ever to give you up to another; and yet I am growing old, and I am glad that you, who are such a sacred charge to me, have chosen one who stands so high in the estimation of all, and who is so abundantly able to gratify your tastes."
"Yes, auntie, I think I am fortunate," said Laura, with complacent emphasis. "I have found a man not only able to gratify all my tastes--and you know that many of them are rather expensive--but he himself satisfies my most critical taste, and even fills out the ideal of my fancy."
Mrs. Arnot gave a sudden sigh.
"Now, auntie, what, in the name of wonder, can that foreboding sigh mean?"
"You have not said that he satisfied your heart."
"O, I think he does fully," said Laura, hastily, though with a faint misgiving. "These tender feelings will come in their own good time. We have not got far enough along for them yet. Besides, I never could have endured a pa.s.sionate lover. I was cured of any such tastes long ago, you remember," she added, with a faint laugh.
"Poor Egbert!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Arnot, with such sad emphasis that Laura looked up into her face inquiringly as she asked:
"You don"t think he will care much, do you?"
"Yes, Laura; you know he will care, perhaps more deeply than I do; but I believe that he will wish you happiness as truly and honestly as myself."
"O, auntie! how can it be that he will care as much as yourself?"
"Is it possible, Laura, that you have failed to detect his regard for you in all these months? I detected it at a glance, and felt sure that you had also."
"So I did, auntie, long since, but I supposed it was, as you say, a mere regard that did not trouble him much. I should be sorry to think that it was otherwise."
"At all events, it has not troubled you much, whatever it may have cost him. You hardly do Haldane justice. Your allusion to his former pa.s.sion should remind you that he still possesses the same ardent and impetuous nature, out it is under control. You cannot return his deep, yet un.o.btrusive, love, and, as the world is const.i.tuted, it is probably well for you that this is true; but I cannot bear that it should have no better reward than your last rather contemptuous allusion."
"Forgive me, auntie; I did not imagine that he felt as you seem to think. Indeed, in my happiness and preoccupation, I have scarcely thought of him at all. His love has, in truth, been un.o.btrusive. So scrupulously has he kept it from my notice that I had thought and hoped that it had but little place in his mind. But if you are right, I am very, very sorry. Why is the waste of these precious heart-treasures permitted?" and gathering tears attested her sincerity.
"That is an old, old question, which the world has never answered. The scientists tell us that by a law of nature no force is ever lost. If this be true in the physical world, it certainly should be in the spiritual. I also believe that an honest, unselfish love can enrich the heart that gives it, even though it receives no other reward. But you have no occasion to blame yourself, Laura. It is one of those things which never could have been helped. Besides, Haldane is serving a Master who is pledged to shape seeming evils for his good. I had no thought of speaking of him at all, only your remark seemed so like injustice that I could not be silent. In the future, moreover, you may do something for him. Society is too unrelenting, and does not sufficiently recognize the struggle he has made, and is yet making; and he is so morbidly sensitive that he will not take anything that even looks like social alms. You will be in a position to help him toward the recognition which he deserves, for I should be sorry to see him become a lonely and isolated man. Of course, you will have to do this very carefully, but your own graceful tact will best guide you in this matter. I only wish you to appreciate the brave fight he is making and the character he is forming, and not to think of him merely as a commonplace, well-meaning man, who is at last trying to do right, and who will be fairly content with life if he can secure his bread and b.u.t.ter."