Mainwaring started like a culprit.
"Never fear," whispered Ardworth; "he has no suspicion of you, I"m sure. Shake hands. When shall we meet again? Is it not odd, I, who am a republican by theory, taking King George"s pay to fight against the French? No use stopping now to moralize on such contradictions. John, Tom,--what"s your name?--here, my man, here, throw that portmanteau on your shoulder and come to the lodge." And so, full of health, hope, vivacity, and spirit, John Walter Ardworth departed on his career.
Meanwhile Mainwaring slowly took his way to Sir Miles. As he approached the gallery, he met Lucretia, who was coming from her own room. "Sir Miles has sent for me," he said meaningly. He had time for no more, for the valet was at the door of the gallery, waiting to usher him to his host. "Ha! you will say not a word that can betray us; guard your looks too!" whispered Lucretia, hurriedly; "afterwards, join me by the cedars." She pa.s.sed on towards the staircase, and glanced at the large clock that was placed there. "Past eleven! Vernon is never up before twelve. I must see him before my uncle sends for me, as he will send if he suspects--" She paused, went back to her room, rang for her maid, dressed as for walking, and said carelessly, "If Sir Miles wants me, I am gone to the rectory, and shall probably return by the village, so that I shall be back about one." Towards the rectory, indeed, Lucretia bent her way; but half-way there, turned back, and pa.s.sing through the plantation at the rear of the house, awaited Mainwaring on the bench beneath the cedars. He was not long before he joined her. His face was sad and thoughtful; and when he seated himself by her side, it was with a weariness of spirit that alarmed her.
"Well," said she, fearfully, and she placed her hand on his.
"Oh, Lucretia," he exclaimed, as he pressed that hand with an emotion that came from other pa.s.sions than love, "we, or rather I, have done great wrong. I have been leading you to betray your uncle"s trust, to convert your grat.i.tude to him into hypocrisy. I have been unworthy of myself. I am poor, I am humbly born, but till I came here, I was rich and proud in honour. I am not so now. Lucretia, pardon me, pardon me!
Let the dream be over; we must not sin thus; for it is sin, and the worst of sin,--treachery. We must part: forget me!"
"Forget you! Never, never, never!" cried Lucretia, with suppressed but most earnest vehemence, her breast heaving, her hands, as he dropped the one he held, clasped together, her eyes full of tears,--transformed at once into softness, meekness, even while racked by pa.s.sion and despair.
"Oh, William, say anything,--reproach, chide, despise me, for mine is all the fault; say anything but that word "part." I have chosen you, I have sought you out, I have wooed you, if you will; be it so. I cling to you, you are my all,--all that saves me from--from myself," she added falteringly, and in a hollow voice. "Your love--you know not what it is to me! I scarcely knew it myself before. I feel what it is now, when you say "part.""
Agitated and tortured, Mainwaring writhed at these burning words, bent his face low, and covered it with his hands.
He felt her clasp struggling to withdraw them, yielded, and saw her kneeling at his feet. His manhood and his grat.i.tude and his heart all moved by that sight in one so haughty, he opened his arms, and she fell on his breast. "You will never say "part" again, William!" she gasped convulsively.
"But what are we to do?"
"Say, first, what has pa.s.sed between you and my uncle."
"Little to relate; for I can repeat words, not tones and looks.
Sir Miles spoke to me, at first kindly and encouragingly, about my prospects, said it was time that I should fix myself, added a few words, with menacing emphasis, against what he called "idle dreams and desultory ambition," and observing that I changed countenance,--for I felt that I did,--his manner became more cold and severe. Lucretia, if he has not detected our secret, he more than suspects my--my presumption. Finally, he said dryly, that I had better return home, consult with my father, and that if I preferred entering into the service of the Government to any mercantile profession, he thought he had sufficient interest to promote my views. But, clearly and distinctly, he left on my mind one impression,--that my visits here are over."
"Did he allude to me--to Mr. Vernon?"
"Ah, Lucretia! do you know him so little,--his delicacy, his pride?"
Lucretia was silent, and Mainwaring continued:--
"I felt that I was dismissed. I took my leave of your uncle; I came hither with the intention to say farewell forever."
"Hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+ that thought is over. And you return to your father"s,--perhaps better so: it is but hope deferred; and in your absence I can the more easily allay all suspicion, if suspicion exist.
But I must write to you; we must correspond. William, dear William, write often,--write kindly; tell me, in every letter, that you love me,--that you love only me; that you will be patient, and confide."
"Dear Lucretia," said Mainwaring, tenderly, and moved by the pathos of her earnest and imploring voice, "but you forget: the bag is always brought first to Sir Miles; he will recognize my hand. And to whom can you trust your own letters?"
"True," replied Lucretia, despondingly; and there was a pause. Suddenly she lifted her head, and cried: "But your father"s house is not far from this,--not ten miles; we can find a spot at the remote end of the park, near the path through the great wood: there I can leave my letters; there I can find yours."
"But it must be seldom. If any of Sir Miles"s servants see me, if--"
"Oh, William, William, this is not the language of love!"
"Forgive me,--I think of you!"
"Love thinks of nothing but itself; it is tyrannical, absorbing,--it forgets even the object loved; it feeds on danger; it strengthens by obstacles," said Lucretia, tossing her hair from her forehead, and with an expression of dark and wild power on her brow and in her eyes. "Fear not for me; I am sufficient guard upon myself. Even while I speak, I think,--yes, I have thought of the very spot. You remember that hollow oak at the bottom of the dell, in which Guy St. John, the Cavalier, is said to have hid himself from Fairfax"s soldiers? Every Monday I will leave a letter in that hollow; every Tuesday you can search for it, and leave your own. This is but once a week; there is no risk here."
Mainwaring"s conscience still smote him, but he had not the strength to resist the energy of Lucretia. The force of her character seized upon the weak part of his own,--its gentleness, its fear of inflicting pain, its reluctance to say "No,"--that simple cause of misery to the over-timid. A few sentences more, full of courage, confidence, and pa.s.sion, on the part of the woman, of constraint and yet of soothed and grateful affection on that of the man, and the affianced parted.
Mainwaring had already given orders to have his trunks sent to him at his father"s; and, a hardy pedestrian by habit, he now struck across the park, pa.s.sed the dell and the hollow tree, commonly called "Guy"s Oak,"
and across woodland and fields golden with ripening corn, took his way to the town, in the centre of which, square, solid, and imposing, stood the respectable residence of his bustling, active, electioneering father.
Lucretia"s eye followed a form as fair as ever captivated maiden"s glance, till it was out of sight; and then, as she emerged from the shade of the cedars into the more open s.p.a.ce of the garden, her usual thoughtful composure was restored to her steadfast countenance. On the terrace, she caught sight of Vernon, who had just quitted his own room, where he always breakfasted alone, and who was now languidly stretched on a bench, and basking in the sun. Like all who have abused life, Vernon was not the same man in the early part of the day. The spirits that rose to temperate heat the third hour after noon, and expanded into glow when the lights shone over gay carousers, at morning were flat and exhausted. With hollow eyes and that weary fall of the muscles of the cheeks which betrays the votary of Bacchus,--the convivial three-bottle man,--Charley Vernon forced a smile, meant to be airy and impertinent, to his pale lips, as he rose with effort, and extended three fingers to his cousin.
"Where have you been hiding? Catching bloom from the roses? You have the prettiest shade of colour,--just enough; not a hue too much. And there is Sir Miles"s valet gone to the rectory, and the fat footman puffing away towards the village, and I, like a faithful warden, from my post at the castle, all looking out for the truant."
"But who wants me, cousin?" said Lucretia, with the full blaze of her rare and captivating smile.
"The knight of Laughton confessedly wants thee, O damsel! The knight of the Bleeding Heart may want thee more,--dare he own it?"
And with a hand that trembled a little, not with love, at least, it trembled always a little before the Madeira at luncheon,--he lifted hers to his lips.
"Compliments again,--words, idle words!" said Lucretia, looking down bashfully.
"How can I convince thee of my sincerity, unless thou takest my life as its pledge, maid of Laughton?"
And very much tired of standing, Charley Vernon drew her gently to the bench and seated himself by her side. Lucretia"s eyes were still downcast, and she remained silent; Vernon, suppressing a yawn, felt that he was bound to continue. There was nothing very formidable in Lucretia"s manner.
""Fore Gad!" thought he, "I suppose I must take the heiress after all; the sooner "t is over, the sooner I can get back to Brook Street."
"It is premature, my fair cousin," said he, aloud,--"premature, after less than a week"s visit, and only some fourteen or fifteen hours"
permitted friends.h.i.+p and intimacy, to say what is uppermost in my thoughts; but we spendthrifts are provokingly handsome! Sir Miles, your good uncle, is pleased to forgive all my follies and faults upon one condition,--that you will take on yourself the task to reform me. Will you, my fair cousin? Such as I am, you behold me. I am no sinner in the disguise of a saint. My fortune is spent, my health is not strong; but a young widow"s is no mournful position. I am gay when I am well, good-tempered when ailing. I never betrayed a trust,--can you trust me with yourself?"
This was a long speech, and Charley Vernon felt pleased that it was over. There was much in it that would have touched a heart even closed to him, and a little genuine emotion had given light to his eyes, and color to his cheek. Amidst all the ravages of dissipation, there was something interesting in his countenance, and manly in his tone and his gesture. But Lucretia was only sensible to one part of his confession,--her uncle consented to his suit. This was all of which she desired to be a.s.sured, and against this she now sought to screen herself.
"Your candour, Mr. Vernon," she said, avoiding his eye, "deserves candour in me; I cannot affect to misunderstand you. But you take me by surprise; I was so unprepared for this. Give me time,--I must reflect."
"Reflection is dull work in the country; you can reflect more amusingly in town, my fair cousin."
"I will wait, then, till I find myself in town."
"Ah, you make me the happiest, the most grateful of men," cried Mr. Vernon, rising, with a semi-genuflection which seemed to imply, "Consider yourself knelt to,"--just as a courteous a.s.sailer, with a motion of the hand, implies, "Consider yourself horsewhipped."
Lucretia, who, with all her intellect, had no capacity for humour, recoiled, and looked up in positive surprise.
"I do not understand you, Mr. Vernon," she said, with austere gravity.
"Allow me the bliss of flattering myself that you, at least, are understood," replied Charley Vernon, with imperturbable a.s.surance. "You will wait to reflect till you are in town,--that is to say, the day after our honeymoon, when you awake in Mayfair."
Before Lucretia could reply, she saw the indefatigable valet formally approaching, with the antic.i.p.ated message that Sir Miles requested to see her. She replied hurriedly to this last, that she would be with her uncle immediately; and when he had again disappeared within the porch, she said, with a constrained effort at frankness,--
"Mr. Vernon, if I have misunderstood your words, I think I do not mistake your character. You cannot wish to take advantage of my affection for my uncle, and the pa.s.sive obedience I owe to him, to force me into a step of which--of which--I have not yet sufficiently considered the results. If you really desire that my feelings should be consulted, that I should not--pardon me--consider myself sacrificed to the family pride of my guardian and the interests of my suitor--"
"Madam!" exclaimed Vernon, reddening.
Pleased with the irritating effect her words had produced, Lucretia continued calmly, "If, in a word, I am to be a free agent in a choice on which my happiness depends, forbear to urge Sir Miles further at present; forbear to press your suit upon me. Give me the delay of a few months; I shall know how to appreciate your delicacy."
"Miss Clavering," answered Vernon, with a touch of the St. John haughtiness, "I am in despair that you should even think so grave an appeal to my honour necessary. I am well aware of your expectations and my poverty. And, believe me, I would rather rot in a prison than enrich myself by forcing your inclinations. You have but to say the word, and I will (as becomes me as a man and gentleman) screen you from all chance of Sir Miles"s displeasure, by taking it on myself to decline an honour of which I feel, indeed, very undeserving."