"Do you and Olivia correspond?" Eugene then asked.
"Seldom: Olivia lately has been a very bad correspondent."
"No wonder; she has had other things to think of lately. She has been going on at a fine rate this season in London, nearly driven Louis mad.
At last he took the children down to Silverton, and left her behind."
"Poor dear Louis!" murmured Mary, with sorrowful concern.
"Yes, Mary, you and I would have been very different."
At those words, into which were thrown a most thrilling amount of tenderness, both of look and accent, Eugene paused.
They had hitherto been pacing slowly up and down a certain part of the retired grounds, but now pressing his companion"s arm close to his heart, he said in an agitated voice.
"And now, Mary, how shall I ever make up my mind to leave you; and how shall I exist without you?"
Mary had just lifted up her pale face with a look of piteous sorrow, at words which she felt at once were preliminaries to the bitter parting, when their attention was attracted by the voices of her sister"s children, announcing them to have advanced in closer proximity than the discreet tact of their attendant had previously permitted. But on glancing in that direction, Eugene was not a little disconcerted to behold slowly advancing amongst the young group, a lady whom it needed not Mary"s murmured explanation to denote to him at once as her sister.
There was nothing to do but for them to advance and meet one another.
Mary"s former pallor had been speedily chased by a deep blush, and with nervous embarra.s.sment she murmured an introduction.
Eugene"s manner too was consciously confused.
Mrs. Gillespie, whatever might have been the surprise and interest she felt on finding her sister so accompanied, was all calm and quiet civility, such as that with which she might have received any strange acquaintance of Mary"s.
And Eugene--ominous as this cool reception might appear of the feeling generally entertained by the family of Mary towards him--could not but hail it as a relief to the embarra.s.sment of his present situation, and consider the course of conduct she thus pursued, that of a lady-like and sensible person such, as he could at once perceive in their short interview, his sister-in-law elect to be.
So they walked down the shady walk together: Mary anxious and silent, Mrs. Gillespie and Eugene exchanging common place observations respecting Edinburgh, and his intended expedition to the Moors.
Then the lady paused, as if intending to show that she purposed proceeding in a different direction to that of her new companion. And, understanding the hint, Eugene Trevor turned, and taking Mary"s hand pressed it as fondly, and gazed into her pale face as significantly as he dared, murmured a few incoherent syllables of parting, then bowed to the sister, and departed.
CHAPTER II.
Tell us, maiden, hast thou found him Thus delicious, thus divine?
Doth such witchery breathe around him?
Is his spirit so benign?
Doth he shed o"er heart and brain More of pleasure or of pain?
MOULTRIE.
Mary suffered Mrs. Gillespie to draw her arm affectionately within her own, and the sisters then walked on a little way, in silence, which Alice was the first to break.
"And that then was Eugene Trevor, Mary?" she said half interrogatively, half in soliloquy.
"Yes, that was Eugene," was the answer, accompanied by a deep-drawn sigh.
But there had been something in Mrs. Gillespie"s tone which caused her at the same moment to turn her eyes anxiously upon her face, as if to discover what impression the "Eugene Trevor," thus significantly emphasized, had made upon the speaker.
"Is he like what you expected?" she then timidly inquired.
"Yes--no--that is to say, not exactly," was the sister"s rather hesitating reply.
"He is looking ill now," Mary continued; "and you did not see him to advantage. It was of course rather an embarra.s.sing meeting for him, under existing circ.u.mstances, he not knowing exactly how you might be inclined to approve of our interview, just at present; but I should think from it having been so perfectly accidental, no one could blame him, or object to its having occurred."
"Not in the least, dear Mary, I am sure--if it was a meeting calculated to raise and strengthen your spirits. And it _has_ made you happier, I hope," looking rather doubtfully into Mary"s pale and anxious countenance, on which too the traces of tears were plainly visible.
"Oh, yes, Alice!" Mary faintly replied. "Seeing Eugene was, indeed, a pleasure most welcome and unexpected; but then you know the parting again for so long a time--and--and--" turning her head away with a sigh, "altogether it might be called rather a painful pleasure."
"But then, Mary, six months will so soon pa.s.s away."
"Yes, certainly," hesitated Mary; but there was no very cheerful security in her tone.
Mrs. Gillespie did not press her sister further on the subject just then, for she plainly perceived that altogether it was one in which truly as much of pain as pleasure was commingled. Of course she informed her husband of the occurrence; and Mary too spoke of it as openly as was possible, though the reserve she was forced in a great measure to maintain respecting the substance of the interview, the more confirmed her relations in their suspicions, as to its having been one of no very satisfactory nature.
"And what, as far as you were able to judge, in so short a time, did you think of your intended brother-in-law, my dear Alice?" the husband inquired of his wife the evening after the meeting; "for I know you consider yourself a first rate physiognomist."
"What do I think of him Robert?"--with a sigh--"poor Mary."
"Why, poor Mary, do you not like his appearance?"
"I should not much _like_ to trust my happiness, or that of any one I loved, to his keeping."
"Indeed! he is very good-looking at any rate."
"Yes, handsome certainly--eyes, such as you perhaps have seldom, if ever seen, and which, if they would only look you full in the face, are certainly calculated to do a great deal of execution. But he did not look so into mine; and there was something about his countenance altogether which I cannot explain--something which, though I can fancy it well calculated to make an impression--of some sort or another, over one"s mind--I confess on mine--to have been one, which is far from _canny_. His looks too bespeak him, I am afraid, to be suffering rather from the jading effects of London dissipation, than the gentler pains and anxieties attendant on his situation, as a lover separated from the object of his affection."
Mr. Gillespie looked concerned at this report, feeling a great interest in his amiable young sister-in-law. And though he generally expressed mistrust, with respect to his wife"s too hasty reliance on her first impressions, still he was often in the end forced to acknowledge their frequent accuracy.
Yet at the same time, as the countenance of the lover did not in any way alter the case with regard to Mary"s position or circ.u.mstances, there was nothing to be said or done by her friends whilst awaiting the issue of affairs, but to observe with regret that though with the same meek "patience, abnegation of self, and devotion to others," their sister pursued the even tenor of her way, the cheerful serenity which before had continued to shine forth in her countenance, and characterize her bearing, had departed. Her mind had been evidently unsettled by the _rencontre_ with Eugene Trevor--her heart"s calm rest disturbed.
How was it indeed with Mary? Had the hints conveyed by Eugene during their interview depressed her hopes, and re-awakened her misgivings as to the happy issue of the year"s probation? Or more bitter still--had anything in that same interview occurred to give that first disenchanting touch, which by degrees detracts from the perfect charm which has. .h.i.therto robed our idol, and we see the image of goodness and beauty, whose idol shape we worshipped, melting from our sight, and though still it binds the fatal spell, and still it draws us on, the spirit of our love is changed--a shadow has fallen upon it. We feel it to be "of the earth earthy."
Had Mary received any startling impression, her feelings any _boulvers.e.m.e.nt_, by beholding Eugene Trevor for the first time so unlike the Eugene she had hitherto loved--under the irritating disturbing influences of opposition and reverse.
But from whatever cause they might proceed, certainly "the gloom and the shadow" spread broader and deeper on her brow; and when on his return from the Moors, Eugene Trevor, probably for the chance of another interview, revisited the Scotch metropolis, he learnt, by particular inquiry of a maid-servant he found standing by the door of Mr.
Gillespie"s closed house, that the family had left Edinburgh, and gone to the sea-side.
"Were they all well?" he inquired.
"All well, only the young lady, Mrs. Gillespie"s sister, a little pale, and pining for country air. So the young Maister Arthur had come, and persuaded them to put up their gear, and take the bairns and all to the sea; but the maister was expected home the morrow, if the gentleman liked to step up and see him."
We may imagine that Trevor had no inclination to tarry for this purpose, and that same day left Scotland _en route_ for Montrevor.