Suddenly she beckoned to him, and he approached and seated himself by her side.
"Mr. Maltravers," said Valerie, then, with great sweetness in her voice,--"I have not yet expressed to you the delight I have felt from your genius. In absence you have suffered me to converse with you--your books have been to me dear friends; as we shall soon part again, let me now tell you of this, frankly and without compliment."
This paved the way to a conversation that approached more on the precincts of the past than any they had yet known. But Ernest was guarded; and Valerie watched his words and looks with an interest she could not conceal--an interest that partook of disappointment.
"It is an excitement," said Valerie, "to climb a mountain, though it fatigue; and though the clouds may even deny us a prospect from its summit--it is an excitement that gives a very universal pleasure, and that seems almost as if it were the result of a common human instinct which makes us desire to rise--to get above the ordinary thoroughfares and level of life. Some such pleasure you must have in intellectual ambition, in which the mind is the upward traveller."
"It is not the _ambition_ that pleases," replied Maltravers, "it is the following a path congenial to our tastes, and made dear to us in a short time by habit. The moments in which we look beyond our work, and fancy ourselves seated beneath the Everlasting Laurel, are few. It is the work itself, whether of action or literature, that interests and excites us. And at length the dryness of toil takes the familiar sweetness of custom. But in intellectual labour there is another charm--we become more intimate with our own nature. The heart and the soul grow friends, as it were, and the affections and the aspirations unite. Thus, we are never without society--we are never alone; all that we have read, learned and discovered, is company to us. This is pleasant," added Maltravers, "to those who have no clear connections in the world without."
"And is that your case?" asked Valerie, with a timid smile.
"Alas, yes! and since I conquered one affection,--Madame de Ventadour, I almost think I have outlived the capacity of loving. I believe that when we cultivate very largely the reason or the imagination, we blunt, to a certain extent, our young susceptibilities to the fair impressions of real life. From "idleness," says the old Roman poet, "Love feeds his torch.""
"You are too young to talk thus."
"I speak as I feel."
Valerie said no more. Shortly afterwards Lord Doningdale approached them, and proposed that they should make an excursion the next day to see the ruins of an old abbey, some few miles distant.
CHAPTER X.
"If I should meet thee After long years, How shall I greet thee?"--BYRON.
IT was a smaller party than usual the next day, consisting only of Lord Doningdale, his son George Herbert, Valerie and Ernest. They were returning from the ruins, and the sun, now gradually approaching the west, threw its slant rays over the gardens and houses of a small, picturesque town, or, perhaps, rather village, on the high North Road.
It is one of the prettiest places in England, that town or village, and boasts an excellent old-fashioned inn, with a large and quaint pleasure-garden. It was through the long and straggling street that our little party slowly rode, when the sky became suddenly overcast, and, a few large hailstones falling, gave notice of an approaching storm.
"I told you we should not get safely through the day," said George Herbert. "Now we are in for it."
"George, that is a vulgar expression," said Lord Doningdale, b.u.t.toning up his coat. While he spoke, a vivid flash of lightning darted across their very path, and the sky grew darker and darker.
"We may as well rest at the inn," said Maltravers: "the storm is coming on apace, and Madame de Ventadour--"
"You are right," interrupted Lord Doningdale; and he put his horse into a canter.
They were soon at the door of the old hotel. Bells rang dogs barked--hostlers ran. A plain, dark, travelling post-chariot was before the inn-door; and, roused perhaps by the noise below, a lady in the "first-floor front, No. 2," came to the window. This lady owned the travelling-carriage, and was at this time alone in that apartment. As she looked carelessly at the party, her eyes rested on one form--she turned pale, uttered a faint cry, and fell senseless on the floor.
Meanwhile, Lord Doningdale and his guests were shown into the room next to that tenanted by the lady. Properly speaking, both the rooms made one long apartment for b.a.l.l.s and county meetings, and the division was formed by a thin part.i.tion, removable at pleasure. The hail now came on fast and heavy, the trees groaned, the thunder roared; and in the large, dreary room there was a palpable and oppressive sense of coldness and discomfort. Valerie shivered--a fire was lighted--and the Frenchwoman drew near to it.
"You are wet, my dear lady," said Lord Doningdale. "You should take off that close habit, and have it dried."
"Oh, no; what matters it?" said Valerie bitterly, and almost rudely.
"It matters everything," said Ernest; "pray be ruled."
"And do you care for me?" murmured Valerie.
"Can you ask that question?" replied Ernest, in the same tone, and with affectionate and friendly warmth.
Meanwhile, the good old lord had summoned the chambermaid, and, with the kindly imperiousness of a father, made Valerie quit the room. The three gentlemen, left together, talked of the storm, wondered how long it would last, and debated the propriety of sending to Doningdale for the carriage. While they spoke, the hail suddenly ceased, though clouds in the distant horizon were bearing heavily up to renew the charge. George Herbert, who was the most impatient of mortals, especially of rainy weather in a strange place, seized the occasion, and insisted on riding to Doningdale, and sending back the carriage.
"Surely a groom would do as well, George," said the father.
"My dear father, no; I should envy the rogue too much. I am bored to death here. Marie will be frightened about us. Brown Bess will take me back in twenty minutes. I am a hardy fellow, you know. Good-bye."
Away darted the young sportsman, and in two minutes they saw him spur gaily from the inn-door.
"It is very odd that _I_ should have such a son," said Lord Doningdale, musingly,--"a son who cannot amuse himself indoors for two minutes together. I took great pains with his education, too. Strange that people should weary so much of themselves that they cannot brave the prospect of a few minutes pa.s.sed in reflection--that a shower and the resources of their own thoughts are evils so galling--very strange indeed. But it is a confounded climate this, certainly. I wonder when it will clear up."
Thus muttering, Lord Doningdale walked, or rather marched, to and fro the room, with his hands in his coat pockets, and his whip sticking perpendicularly out of the right one. Just at this moment the waiter came to announce that his lordship"s groom was without, and desired much to see him. Lord Doningdale had then the pleasure of learning that his favourite grey hackney, which he had ridden, winter and summer, for fifteen years, was taken with shivers, and, as the groom expressed it, seemed to have "the colic in its bowels!"
Lord Doningdale turned pale, and hurried to the stables without saying a word.
Maltravers, who, plunged in thought, had not overheard the low and brief conference between master and groom, remained alone, seated by the fire, his head buried in his bosom, and his arms folded.
Meanwhile, the lady, who occupied the adjoining chamber, had recovered slowly from her swoon. She put both hands to her temples, as if trying to recollect her thoughts. Hers was a fair, innocent, almost childish face; and now, as a smile shot across it, there was something so sweet and touching in the gladness it shed over that countenance, that you could not have seen it without strong and almost painful interest.
For it was the gladness of a person who has known sorrow. Suddenly she started up, and said: "No, then! I do not dream. He is come back--he is here--all will be well again! Ha! it is his voice. Oh, bless him, it is _his_ voice!" She paused, her finger on her lip, her face bent down. A low and indistinct sound of voices reached her straining ear through the thin door that divided her from Maltravers. She listened intently, but she could not overhear the import. Her heart beat violently. "He is not alone!" she murmured, mournfully. "I will wait till the sound ceases, and then I will venture in!"
And what was the conversation carried on in that chamber? We must return to Ernest. He was sitting in the same thoughtful posture when Madame de Ventadour returned.
The Frenchwoman coloured when she found herself alone with Ernest, and Ernest himself was not at his ease.
"Herbert has gone home to order the carriage, and Lord Doningdale has disappeared, I scarce know whither. You do not, I trust, feel the worse for the rain?"
"No," said Valerie.
"Shall you have any commands in London?" asked Maltravers; "I return to town to-morrow."
"So soon!" and Valerie sighed. "Ah!" she added, after a pause, "we shall not meet again for years, perhaps. Monsieur de Ventadour is to be appointed amba.s.sador to the Court and so--and so--. Well, it is no matter. What has become of the friendship we once swore to each other?"
"It is here," said Maltravers, laying his hand on his heart. "Here, at least, lies the half of that friendship which was my charge; and more than friendship, Valerie de Ventadour--respect--admiration--grat.i.tude.
At a time of life when pa.s.sion and fancy, most strong, might have left me an idle and worthless voluptuary, you convinced me that the world has virtue, and that woman is too n.o.ble to be our toy--the idol of to-day, the victim of to-morrow. Your influence, Valerie, left me a more thoughtful man--I hope a better one."
"Oh!" said Madame de Ventadour, strongly affected; "I bless you for what you tell me: you cannot know--you cannot guess how sweet it is to me.
Now I recognise you once more. What--what did my resolution cost me? Now I am repaid!"
Ernest was moved by her emotion, and by his own remembrances; he took her hand, and pressing it with frank and respectful tenderness--"I did not think, Valerie," said he, "when I reviewed the past, I did not think that you loved me--I was not vain enough for that; but, if so, how much is your character raised in my eyes--how provident, how wise your virtue! Happier and better for both, our present feelings, each to each, than if we had indulged a brief and guilty dream of pa.s.sion, at war with all that leaves pa.s.sion without remorse, and bliss without alloy. Now--"
"Now," interrupted Valerie, quickly, and fixing on him her dark eyes--"now you love me no longer! Yet it is better so. Well, I will go back to my cold and cheerless state of life, and forget once more that Heaven endowed me with a heart!"
"Ah, Valerie! esteemed, revered, still beloved, not indeed with the fires of old, but with a deep, undying, and holy tenderness, speak not thus to me. Let me not believe you unhappy; let me think that, wise, sagacious, brilliant as you are, you have employed your gifts to reconcile yourself to a common lot. Still let me look up to you when I would despise the circles in which you live, and say: "On that pedestal an altar is yet placed, to which the heart may bring the offerings of the soul.""
"It is in vain--in vain that I struggle," said Valerie, half-choked with emotion, and clasping her hands pa.s.sionately. "Ernest, I love you still--I am wretched to think you love me no more: I would give you nothing--yet I exact all; my youth is going--my beauty dimmed--my very intellect is dulled by the life I lead; and yet I ask from you that which your young heart once felt for me. Despise me, Maltravers, I am not what I seemed--I am a hypocrite--despise me."
"No," said Ernest, again possessing himself of her hand, and falling on his knee by her side. "No, never-to-be-forgotten, ever-to-be-honoured Valerie, hear me." As he spoke, he kissed the hand he held; with the other, Valerie covered her face and wept bitterly, but in silence.
Ernest paused till the burst of her feelings had subsided, her hand still in his--still warmed by his kisses--kisses as pure as cavalier ever impressed on the hand of his queen.
At this time, the door communicating with the next room gently opened.