A Love Story.
by A Bushman.
Preface.
The author of these pages considered that a lengthened explanation might be necessary to account for the present work.
He had therefore, at some length, detailed the motives that influenced him in its composition. He had shown that as a solitary companionless bushman, it had been a pleasure to him in his lone evenings
"To create, and in creating live A being more intense."
He had expatiated on the love he bears his adopted country, and had stated that he was greatly influenced by the hope that although
"Sparta hath many a worthier son than he,"
this work might be the humble cornerstone to some enduring and highly ornamented structure.
The author however fortunately remembered, that readers have but little sympathy with the motives of authors; but expect that their works should amuse or instruct them. He will therefore content himself, with giving a quotation from one of those old authors, whose "well of English undefined" shames our modern writers.
He intreats that the indulgence prayed for by the learned Cowell may be accorded to his humble efforts.
"My true end is the advancement of knowledge, and therefore have I published this poor work, not only to impart the good thereof, to those young ones that want it, but also to draw from the learned, the supply of my defects.
"Whosoever will charge these travails with many oversights, he shall need no solemn pains to prove them.
"And upon the view taken of this book sithence the impression, I dare a.s.sure them, that shall observe most faults therein, that I, by gleaning after him, will gather as many omitted by him, as he shall shew committed by me.
"What a man saith well is not, however, to be rejected, because he hath some errors; reprehend who will, in G.o.d"s name, that is, with sweetness, and without reproach.
"So shall he reap hearty thanks at my hands, and thus more soundly help in a few months, than I by tossing and tumbling my books at home, could possibly have done in some years."
A Love Story
Chapter I.
The Family.
"It was a vast and venerable pile."
"Oh, may"st thou ever be as now thou art, Nor unbeseem the promise of thy spring."
The mansion in which dwelt the Delmes was one of wide and extensive range. Its centre slightly receded, leaving a wing on either side.
Fluted ledges, extending the whole length of the building, protruded above each story. These were supported by quaint heads of satyr, martyr, or laughing triton. The upper ledge, which concealed the roof from casual observers, was of considerably greater projection. Placed above it, at intervals, were b.a.l.l.s of marble, which, once of pure white, had now caught the time-worn hue of the edifice itself. At each corner of the front and wings, the b.a.l.l.s were surmounted by the family device--the eagle with extended wing. One claw closed over the stone, and the bird rode it proudly an" it had been the globe. The portico, of a pointed Gothic, would have seemed heavy, had it not been lightened by gla.s.s doors, the vivid colours of which were not of modern date. These admitted to a capacious hall, where, reposing on the wide-spreading antlers of some pristine tenant of the park, gleamed many a piece of armour that in days of yore had not been worn ingloriously.
The Delme family was an old Norman one, on whose antiquity a peerage could have conferred no new l.u.s.tre. At the period when the aristocracy of Great Britain lent themselves to their own diminution of importance, by the prevalent system of rejecting the poorer cla.s.s of tenantry, in many instances the most attached,--the consequence was foreseen by the then proprietor of Delme Park, who, spurning the advice of some interested few around him, continued to foster those whose ancestors had served his. The Delmes were thus enabled to retain--and they deserved it--that fair homage which rank and property should ever command. As a family they were popular, and as individuals universally beloved.
At the period we speak of, the Delme family consisted but of three members: the baronet, Sir Henry Delme; his brother George, some ten years his junior, a lieutenant in a light infantry regiment at Malta; and one sister, Emily, Emily Delme was the youngest child; her mother dying shortly after her birth. The father, Sir Reginald Delme, a man of strong feelings and social habits, never recovered this blow. Henry Delme was barely fifteen when he was called to the baronetcy and to the possession of the Delme estates. It was found that Sir Reginald had been more generous than the world had given him credit for, and that his estates were much enc.u.mbered. The trustees were disposed to rest contented with paying off the strictly legal claims during Sir Henry"s minority. This the young heir would not accede to. He waited on his most influential guardian--told him he was aware his father, from hospitality and good nature, had incurred obligations which the law did not compel his son to pay; but which he could not but think that equity and good feeling did. He begged that these might be added to the other claims, and that the trustees would endeavour to procure him a commission in the army. He was gazetted to a cornetcy; and entered life at an age when, if the manlier traits are ready to be developed, the worthless ones are equally sure to unfold themselves. Few of us that have not found the first draught of life intoxicate! Few of us that have not then run wild, as colts that have slipped their bridle!
Experience--that mystic word--is wanting; the retrospect of past years wakes no sigh; expectant youth looks forward to future ones without a shade of distrust. The mind is elastic--the body vigorous and free from pain; and it is then youth inwardly feels, although not daring to avow it, the almost total impossibility that the mind should wax less vigorous, or the body grow helpless, and decay.
But Sir Henry was cast in a finer mould, nor did his conduct at this dangerous period detract from this his trait of boyhood. He joined his regiment when before the enemy, and, until he came of age, never drew on his guardians for a shilling. Delme"s firmness of purpose, and his after prudence, met with their due reward. The family estates became wholly unenc.u.mbered, and Sir Henry was enabled to add to the too scanty provision of his sister, as well as to make up to George, on his entering the army, a sum more than adequate to all his wants. These circ.u.mstances were enough to endear him to his family; and, in truth, amidst all its members, there prevailed a confidence and an unanimity which were never for an instant impaired. There was one consequence, however, of Sir Henry Delme"s conduct that _he_, at the least, foresaw not, but which was gradually and unconsciously developed. In pursuing the line of duty he had marked out--in acting up to what he knew was right--his mind became _too_ deeply impressed with the circ.u.mstances which had given rise to his determination. It overstepped its object.
The train of thought, to which necessity gave birth, continued to pervade when that necessity no longer existed. His wish to re-establish his house grew into an ardent desire to aggrandize it. His ambition appeared a legitimate one. It grew with his years, and increased with his strength.
Many a time, on the lone bivouac, when home presents itself in its fairest colours to the soldier"s mind, would Delme"s prayer be embodied, that his house might again be elevated, and that his descendants might know _him_ as the one to whom they were indebted for its rise. Delme"s ambitious thoughts were created amidst dangers and toil, in a foreign land, and far from those who shared his name. But his heart swelled high with them as he again trod his native soil in peace--as he gazed on the home of his fathers, and communed with those nearest and dearest to him on earth. Sir Henry considered it inc.u.mbent on him to exert every means that lay in his power to promote his grand object. A connection that promised rank and honours, seemed to him an absolute essential that was worth any sacrifice. Sir Henry never allowed himself to look for, or give way to, those sacred sympathies, which the G.o.d of nature hath implanted in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of all of us. Delme had arrived at middle age ere a feeling incompatible with his views arose. But his had been a dangerous experiment. Our hearts or minds, or whatever it may be that takes the impression, resemble some crystalline lake that mirrors the smallest object, and heightens its beauty; but if it once gets muddied or ruffled, the most lovely object ceases to be reflected in its waters.
By the time that lake is clear again, the fairy form that ere while lingered on its bosom is fled for ever.
Thus much in introducing the head of the family. Let us now attempt to sketch the gentle Emily.
Emily Delme was not an ordinary being. To uncommon talents, and a mind of most refined order, she united great feminine propriety, and a total absence of those arts which sometimes characterise those to whom the accident of birth has given importance. With unerring discrimination, she drew the exact line between vivacity and satire, true religion and its semblance. She saw through and pitied those who, pluming themselves on the faults of others, and imparting to the outward man the ascetic inflexibility of the inner one, would fain propagate on all sides their rigid creed, forbidding the more favoured commoners of nature even to sip joy"s chalice. If not a saint, however, but a fair, confiding, and romantic girl, she was good without misanthropy, pure without pretension, and joyous, as youth and hopes not crushed might make her.
She was one of those of whom society might justly be proud. She obeyed its dictates without question, but her feelings underwent no debas.e.m.e.nt from the contact. If not a child of nature, she was by no means the slave of art.
Emily Delme was more beautiful than striking. She impressed more than she exacted. Her violet eye gleamed with feeling; her smile few could gaze on without sympathy--happy he who might revel in its brightness!
If aught gave a peculiar tinge to her character, it was the pride she felt in the name she bore,--this she might have caught from Sir Henry,--the interest she took in the legends connected with that name, and the gratification which the thought gave her, that by her ancestors, its character had been but rarely sullied, and never disgraced.
These things, it may be, she had accustomed herself to look on in a light too glowing: for these things and all mundane ones are vain; but her character did not consequently suffer. Her lip curled not with hauteur, nor was her brow raised one shadow the more. The remembrance of the old Baronetcy were on the ensanguined plain,--of the matchless loyalty of a father and five valiant sons in the cause of the Royal Charles,--the pondering over tomes, which in language obsolete, but true, spoke of the grandeur--the deserved grandeur of her house; these might be recollections and pursuits, followed with an ardour too enthusiastic, but they stayed not the hand of charity, nor could they check pity"s tear. If her eye flashed as she gazed on the ancient device of her family, reposing on its time worn pedestal, it could melt to the tale of the houseless wanderer, and sympathise with the sorrows of the fatherless.
Chapter II.
The Alb.u.m.
"Oh that the desert were my dwelling place, With one fair spirit for my minister; That I might all forget the human race, And, hating no one, love but only her."
A cheerful party were met in the drawing room of Delme. Clarendon Gage, a neighbouring land proprietor, to whom Emily had for a twelvemonth been betrothed, had the night previous returned from a continental tour. In consequence, Emily looked especially radiant, Delme much pleased, and Clarendon superlatively happy. Nor must we pa.s.s over Mrs. Glenallan, Miss Delme"s worthy aunt, who had supplied the place of a mother to Emily, and who now sat in her accustomed chair, with an almost sunny brow, quietly pursuing her monotonous tambouring. At times she turned to admire her niece, who occasionally walked to the gla.s.s window, to caress and feed an impudent white peac.o.c.k; which one moment strutted on the wide terrace, and at another l.u.s.tily tapped for his bread at ne of the lower panes.
"I am glad to see you looking so well, Clarendon!"
"And I can return the compliment, Delme! Few, looking at you now, would take you for an old campaigner."
The style of feature in Delme and Clarendon was very dissimilar. Sir Henry was many years Gage"s senior; but his manly bearing, and dark decided features, would bear a contrast with even the tall and elegant, although slight form of Clarendon. The latter was very fair, and what we are accustomed to call English-looking. His hair almost, but not quite, flaxen, hung in thick curls over his forehead, and would have given an effeminate expression to the face, were it not for the peculiar flash of the clear blue eye.
"Come! Clarendon," said Emily, "I will impose a task. You have written twice in my alb.u.m; once, years ago, and the second time on the eve of our parting. Come! you shall read us both effusions, and then write a sonnet to our happy meeting. Would that dear George were here now!"
Gage took up the book. It was a moderately-sized volume, bound in crimson velvet. It was the fashion to keep alb.u.ms _then_. It glittered not in a binding of azure and gold, nor were its momentous secrets enclosed by one of Bramah"s locks. The Spanish proverb says, "Tell me who you are with, and I will tell you what you are." Ours, in that alb.u.m age, used to be, "Show me your sc.r.a.p book, I will tell you your character." Emily"s was not one commencing with--
"I never loved a dear gazelle!"