The answer sounded jarringly on the irritated nerves of the disappointed rival.
"You do me more honour than I desire," said he, "in interesting yourself, however lightly, in my schemes or fortune!"
"Young man," replied Aram, coldly, "I never see the impetuous and yearning spirit of youth without a certain, and it may be, a painful interest. How feeble is the chance, that its hopes will be fulfilled!
Enough, if it lose not all its loftier aspirings, as well as its brighter expectations."
Nothing more aroused the proud and fiery temper of Walter Lester than the tone of superior wisdom and superior age, which his rival a.s.sumed towards him. More and more displeased with his present companion, he answered, in no conciliatory tone, "I cannot but consider the warning and the fears of one, neither my relation nor my friend, in the light of a gratuitous affront."
Aram smiled as he answered,
"There is no occasion for resentment. Preserve this hot spirit, and high self-confidence, till you return again to these scenes, and I shall be at once satisfied and corrected."
"Sir," said Walter, colouring, and irritated more by the smile than the words of his rival, "I am not aware by what right or on what ground you a.s.sume towards me the superiority, not only of admonition but reproof.
My uncle"s preference towards you gives you no authority over me. That preference I do not pretend to share."--He paused for a moment, thinking Aram might hasten to reply; but as the Student walked on with his usual calmness of demeanour, he added, stung by the indifference which he attributed, not altogether without truth, to disdain, "And since you have taken upon yourself to caution me, and to forebode my inability to resist the contamination, as you would term it, of the world, I tell you, that it may be happy for you to bear so clear a conscience, so untouched a spirit as that which I now boast, and with which I trust in G.o.d and my own soul I shall return to my birth-place. It is not the holy only that love solitude; and men may shun the world from another motive than that of philosophy."
It was now Aram"s turn to feel resentment, and this was indeed an insinuation not only unwarrantable in itself, but one which a man of so peaceable and guileless a life, affecting even an extreme and rigid austerity of morals, might well be tempted to repel with scorn and indignation; and Aram, however meek and forbearing in general, testified in this instance that his wonted gentleness arose from no lack of man"s natural spirit. He laid his hand commandingly on young Lester"s shoulder, and surveyed his countenance with a dark and menacing frown.
"Boy!" said he, "were there meaning in your words, I should (mark me!) avenge the insult;--as it is, I despise it. Go!"
So high and lofty was Aram"s manner--so majestic was the sternness of his rebuke, and the dignity of his bearing, as he now waving his hand turned away, that Walter lost his self-possession and stood fixed to the spot, absorbed, and humbled from his late anger. It was not till Aram had moved with a slow step several paces backward towards his home, that the bold and haughty temper of the young man returned to his aid.
Ashamed of himself for the momentary weakness he had betrayed, and burning to redeem it, he hastened after the stately form of his rival, and planting himself full in his path, said, in a voice half choked with contending emotions,
"Hold!--you have given me the opportunity I have long desired; you yourself have now broken that peace which existed between us, and which to me was more bitter than wormwood. You have dared,--yes, dared to use threatening language towards me. I call on you to fulfil your threat. I tell you that I meant, I designed, I thirsted to affront you. Now resent my purposed--premeditated affront as you will and can!"
There was something remarkable in the contrasted figures of the rivals, as they now stood fronting each other. The elastic and vigorous form of Walter Lester, his sparkling eyes, his sunburnt and glowing cheek, his clenched hands, and his whole frame, alive and eloquent with the energy, the heat, the hasty courage, and fiery spirit of youth; on the other hand,--the bending frame of the student, gradually rising into the dignity of its full height--his pale cheek, in which the wan hues neither deepened nor waned, his large eye raised to meet Walter"s bright, steady, and yet how calm! Nothing weak, nothing irresolute could be traced in that form--or that lofty countenance; yet all resentment had vanished from his aspect. He seemed at once tranquil and prepared.
"You designed to affront me!" said he; "it is well--it is a n.o.ble confession;--and wherefore? What do you propose to gain by it?--a man whose whole life is peace, you would provoke to outrage? Would there be triumph in this, or disgrace?--A man whom your uncle honours and loves, you would insult without cause--you would waylay--you would, after watching and creating your opportunity, entrap into defending himself.
Is this worthy of that high spirit of which you boasted?--is this worthy a generous anger, or a n.o.ble hatred? Away! you malign yourself. I shrink from no quarrel--why should I? I have nothing to fear: my nerves are firm--my heart is faithful to my will; my habits may have diminished my strength, but it is yet equal to that of most men. As to the weapons of the world--they fall not to my use. I might be excused by the most punctilious, for rejecting what becomes neither my station nor my habits of life; but I learnt this much from books long since, "hold thyself prepared for all things:"--I am so prepared. And as I can command the spirit, I lack not the skill, to defend myself, or return the hostility of another." As Aram thus said, he drew a pistol from his bosom; and pointed it leisurely towards a tree, at the distance of some paces.
"Look," said he, "you note that small discoloured and white stain in the bark--you can but just observe it;--he who can send a bullet through that spot, need not fear to meet the quarrel which he seeks to avoid."
Walter turned mechanically, and indignant, though silent, towards the tree. Aram fired, and the ball penetrated the centre of the stain. He then replaced the pistol in his bosom, and said:--
"Early in life I had many enemies, and I taught myself these arts. From habit, I still bear about me the weapons I trust and pray I may never have occasion to use. But to return.--I have offended you--I have incurred your hatred--why? What are my sins?"
"Do you ask the cause?" said Walter, speaking between his ground teeth.
"Have you not traversed my views--blighted my hopes--charmed away from me the affections which were more to me than the world, and driven me to wander from my home with a crushed spirit, and a cheerless heart. Are these no cause for hate?"
"Have I done this?" said Aram, recoiling, and evidently and powerfully affected. "Have I so injured you?--It is true! I know it--I perceive it--I read your heart; and--bear witness Heaven!--I felt for the wound that I, but with no guilty hand, inflict upon you. Yet be just:--ask yourself, have I done aught that you, in my case, would have left undone? Have I been insolent in triumph, or haughty in success? if so, hate me, nay, spurn me now."
Walter turned his head irresolutely away.
"If it please you, that I accuse myself, in that I, a man seared and lone at heart, presumed to come within the pale of human affections;--that I exposed myself to cross another"s better and brighter hopes, or dared to soften my fate with the tender and endearing ties that are meet alone for a more genial and youthful nature;--if it please you that I accuse and curse myself for this--that I yielded to it with pain and with self-reproach--that I shall think hereafter of what I unconsciously cost you with remorse--then be consoled!"
"It is enough," said Walter; "let us part. I leave you with more soreness at my late haste than I will acknowledge, let that content you; for myself, I ask for no apology or--."
"But you shall have it amply," interrupted Aram, advancing with a cordial openness of mien not usual to him. "I was all to blame; I should have remembered you were an injured man, and suffered you to have said all you would. Words at best are but a poor vent for a wronged and burning heart. It shall be so in future, speak your will, attack, upbraid, taunt me, I will bear it all. And indeed, even to myself there seems some witchcraft, some glamoury in what has chanced. What! I favoured where you love? Is it possible? It might teach the vainest to forswear vanity. You, the young, the buoyant, the fresh, the beautiful?--And I, who have pa.s.sed the glory and zest of life between dusty walls; I who--well, well, fate laughs at probabilities!"
Aram now seemed relapsing into one of his more abstracted moods; he ceased to speak aloud, but his lips moved, and his eyes grew fixed in reverie on the ground. Walter gazed at him for some moments with mixed and contending sensations. Once more, resentment and the bitter wrath of jealousy had faded back into the remoter depths of his mind, and a certain interest for his singular rival, despite of himself, crept into his breast. But this mysterious and fitful nature, was it one in which the devoted Madeline would certainly find happiness and repose?--would she never regret her choice? This question obtruded itself upon him, and while he sought to answer it, Aram, regaining his composure, turned abruptly and offered him his hand. Walter did not accept it, he bowed with a cold respect. "I cannot give my hand without my heart," said he; "we were foes just now; we are not friends yet. I am unreasonable in this, I know, but--"
"Be it so," interrupted Aram; "I understand you. I press my good will on you no more. When this pang is forgotten, when this wound is healed, and when you will have learned more of him who is now your rival, we may meet again with other feelings on your side."
Thus they parted, and the solitary lamp which for weeks past had been quenched at the wholesome hour in the Student"s home, streamed from the cas.e.m.e.nt throughout the whole of that night; was it a witness of the calm and learned vigil, or of the unresting heart?
CHAPTER XI.
THE FAMILY SUPPER.--THE TWO SISTERS IN THEIR CHAMBER.
--A MISUNDERSTANDING FOLLOWED BY A CONFESSION.--WALTER"S APPROACHING DEPARTURE AND THE CORPORAL"S BEHAVIOUR THEREON.-- THE CORPORAL"S FAVOURITE INTRODUCED TO THE READER.--THE CORPORAL PROVES HIMSELF A SUBTLE DIPLOMATIST.
So we grew together Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in part.i.tion.
--Midsummer Night"s Dream.
The Corporal had not taken his measures so badly in this stroke of artilleryship.--Tristram Shandy.
It was late that evening when Walter returned home, the little family were a.s.sembled at the last and lightest meal of the day; Ellinor silently made room for her cousin beside herself, and that little kindness touched Walter. "Why did I not love her?" thought he, and he spoke to her in a tone so affectionate, that it made her heart thrill with delight. Lester was, on the whole, the most pensive of the group, but the old and young man exchanged looks of restored confidence, which, on the part of the former, were softened by a pitying tenderness.
When the cloth was removed, and the servants gone, Lester took it on himself to break to the sisters the intended departure of their cousin. Madeline received the news with painful blushes, and a certain self-reproach; for even where a woman has no cause to blame herself, she, in these cases, feels a sort of remorse at the unhappiness she occasions. But Ellinor rose suddenly and left the room.
"And now," said Lester, "London will, I suppose, be your first destination. I can furnish you with letters to some of my old friends there: merry fellows they were once: you must take care of the prodigality of their wine. There"s John Courtland--ah! a seductive dog to drink with. Be sure and let me know how honest John looks, and what he says of me. I recollect him as if it were yesterday; a roguish eye, with a moisture in it; full cheeks; a straight nose; black curled hair; and teeth as even as dies:--honest John shewed his teeth pretty often, too: ha, ha! how the dog loved a laugh. Well, and Peter Hales--Sir Peter now, has his uncle"s baronetcy--a generous, open-hearted fellow as ever lived--will ask you very often to dinner--nay, offer you money if you want it: but take care he does not lead you into extravagances: out of debt, out of danger, Walter. It would have been well for poor Peter Hales, had he remembered that maxim. Often and often have I been to see him in the Marshalsea; but he was the heir to good fortunes, though his relations kept him close; so I suppose he is well off now. His estates lie in--shire, on your road to London; so, if he is at his country-seat, you can beat up his quarters, and spend a month or so with him: a most hospitable fellow."
With these little sketches of his cotemporaries, the good Squire endeavoured to while the time; taking, it is true, some pleasure in the youthful reminiscences they excited, but chiefly designing to enliven the melancholy of his nephew. When, however, Madeline had retired, and they were alone, he drew his chair closer to Walter"s, and changed the conversation into a more serious and anxious strain. The guardian and the ward sate up late that night; and when Walter retired to rest, it was with a heart more touched by his uncle"s kindness, than his own sorrows.
But we are not about to close the day without a glance at the chamber which the two sisters held in common. The night was serene and starlit, and Madeline sate by the open window, leaning her face upon her hand, and gazing on the lone house of her lover, which might be seen afar across the landscape, the trees sleeping around it, and one pale and steady light gleaming from its lofty cas.e.m.e.nt like a star.
"He has broken faith," said Madeline: "I shall chide him for this to-morrow. He promised me the light should be ever quenched before this hour."
"Nay," said Ellinor in a tone somewhat sharpened from its native sweetness, and who now sate up in the bed, the curtain of which was half-drawn aside, and the soft light of the skies rested full upon her rounded neck and youthful countenance--"nay, Madeline, do not loiter there any longer; the air grows sharp and cold, and the clock struck one several minutes since. Come, sister, come!"
"I cannot sleep," replied Madeline, sighing, "and think that yon light streams upon those studies which steal the healthful hues from his cheek, and the very life from his heart."
"You are infatuated--you are bewitched by that man," said Ellinor, peevishly.
"And have I not cause--ample cause?" returned Madeline, with all a girl"s beautiful enthusiasm, as the colour mantled her cheek, and gave it the only additional loveliness it could receive. "When he speaks, is it not like music?--or rather, what music so arrests and touches the heart? Methinks it is Heaven only to gaze upon him--to note the changes of that majestic countenance--to set down as food for memory every look and every movement. But when the look turns to me--when the voice utters my name, ah! Ellinor, then it is not a wonder that I love him thus much: but that any others should think they have known love, and yet not loved him! And, indeed, I feel a.s.sured that what the world calls love is not my love. Are there more Eugenes in the world than one? Who but Eugene could be loved as I love?"
"What! are there none as worthy?" said Ellinor, half smiling.
"Can you ask it?" answered Madeline, with a simple wonder in her voice; "Whom would you compare--compare! nay, place within a hundred grades of the height which Eugene Aram holds in this little world?"
"This is folly--dotage;" said Ellinor, indignantly: "Surely there are others, as brave, as gentle, as kind, and if not so wise, yet more fitted for the world."
"You mock me," replied Madeline, incredulously; "whom could you select?"
Ellinor blushed deeply--blushed from her snowy temples to her yet whiter bosom, as she answered,
"If I said Walter Lester, could you deny it?"