"I understand from Mr. Moseley," continued Denbigh, with a smile, "that our obligation is at least mutual; to your, perseverance and care, Miss Moseley, after the physicians had given me up, I believe I am, under Providence, indebted for my recovery."
Emily was not vain, and least of all addicted to a display of any of her acquirements; very few even of her friends knew she ever held a pencil in her hand; yet did she now unaccountably throw open her portfolio, and offer its contents to the examination of her companion. It was done almost instantaneously, and with great freedom, though not without certain flushings of the face and heavings of the bosom, that would have eclipsed Grace Chatterton in her happiest moments of natural flattery. Whatever might have been the wishes of Mr. Denbigh to pursue a subject which had begun to grow extremely interesting, both from its import and the feelings" of the parties, it would have been rude to decline viewing the contents of a lady"s portfolio. The drawings were, many of them, interesting, and the exhibitor of them now appeared as anxious to remove them in haste, as she had but the moment before been to direct his attention to her performances. Denbigh would have given much to dare to ask for the paper so carefully secreted in the private drawer; but neither the princ.i.p.al agency he had himself in the scene, nor delicacy to his companion"s wish for concealment, would allow of the request.
"Doctor Ives! how happy I am to see you," said Emily, hastily closing her portfolio, and before Denbigh had gone half through its contents; "you have become almost a stranger to us since Clara left us."
"No, no, my little friend, never a stranger, I hope, at Moseley Hall,"
cried the doctor, pleasantly; "George, I am happy to see you look so well--you have even a color--there is a letter for you, from Marian."
Denbigh took the letter eagerly, and retired to a window to peruse it. His hand shook as he broke the seal, and his interest in the writer, or its contents, could not have escaped the notice of any observer, however indifferent.
"Now, Miss Emily, if you will have the goodness to order me a gla.s.s of wine and water after my ride, believe me, you will do a very charitable act," cried the doctor, as he took his seat on the sofa.
Emily was standing by the little table, deeply musing on the contents of her portfolio; for her eyes were intently fixed on the outside, as if she expected to see through the leather covering their merits and faults.
"Miss Emily Moseley," continued the doctor, gravely, "am I to die of thirst or not, this warm day?"
"Do you wish anything, Doctor Ives?"
"A servant to get me a gla.s.s of wine and water."
"Why did you not ask me, my dear sir?" said Emily, as she threw open a cellaret, and handed him what he wanted.
"There, my dear, there is a great plenty," said the doctor, with an arch expression; "I really thought I had asked you thrice--but I believe you were studying something in that portfolio."
Emily blushed, and endeavored to laugh at her own absence of mind; but she would have given the world to know who Marian was.
Chapter XX.
As a month had elapsed since he received his wound, Denbigh took an opportunity, one morning at breakfast, where he was well enough now to meet his friends, to announce his intention of trespa.s.sing no longer on their kindness, but of returning that day to the rectory. The communication distressed the whole family, and the baronet turned to him in the most cordial manner, as he took one of his hands; and said with an air of solemnity--
"Mr. Denbigh, I could wish you to make this house your home; Dr. Ives may have known you longer, and may have the claim of relationship on you, but I am certain he cannot love you better; and are not the ties of grat.i.tude as binding as those of blood?"
Denbigh was affected by the kindness of Sir Edward"s manner.
"The regiment I belong to, Sir Edward, will be reviewed next week, and it has become my duty to leave here; there is one it is proper I should visit, a near connexion, who is acquainted with the escape I have met with, and wishes naturally to see me; besides, my dear Sir Edward, she has many causes of sorrow, and it is a debt I owe her affection to endeavor to relieve them."
It was the first time he had ever spoken of his family, or hardly of himself, and the silence which prevailed plainly showed the interest his listeners took in the little he uttered.
That connexion, thought Emily--I wonder if her name be Marian? But nothing further pa.s.sed, excepting the affectionate regrets of her father, and the promises of Denbigh to visit them again before he left B----, and of joining them at L---- immediately after the review of which he had spoken.
As soon as he had breakfasted, John drove him in his phaeton to the rectory.
Mrs. Wilson, like the rest of the baronet"s family, had been too deeply impressed with the debt they owed this young man to interfere with her favorite system of caution against too great an intimacy between her niece and her preserver. Close observation and the opinion of Dr. Ives had prepared her to give him her esteem; but the gallantry, the self-devotion he had displayed to Emily was an act calculated to remove heavier objections than she could imagine as likely to exist to his becoming her husband. That he meant it, was evident from his whole deportment of late.
Since the morning the portfolio was produced, Denbigh had given a more decided preference to her niece. The nice discrimination of Mrs, Wilson would not have said his feelings had become stronger, but that he labored less to conceal them. That he loved her niece she suspected from the first fortnight of their acquaintance, and it had given additional stimulus to her investigation into his character; but to doubt it, after stepping between her and death, would have been to have mistaken human nature.
There was one qualification she would have wished to have been certain he possessed: before this accident, she would have made it an indispensable one; but the grat.i.tude, the affections of Emily, she believed now to be tab deeply engaged to make the strict inquiry she otherwise would have done; and she had the best of reasons for believing that if Denbigh were not a true Christian, he was at least a strictly moral man, and a.s.suredly one who well understood the beauties of a religion she almost conceived it impossible for any impartial and intelligent man long to resist. Perhaps Mrs. Wilson, having in some measure interfered with her system, like others, had, on finding it impossible to conduct so that reason would justify all she did, began to find reasons for what she thought best to be done under the circ.u.mstances. Denbigh, however, both by his acts and his opinions, had created such an estimate of his worth in the breast of Mrs.
Wilson, that there would have been but little danger of a repulse had no fortuitous accident helped him in his way to her favor.
"Who have we here?" said Lady Moseley. "A landaulet and four--the Earl of Bolton, I declare!"
Lady Moseley turned from the window with that collected grace she so well loved, and so well knew how to a.s.sume, to receive her n.o.ble visitor. Lord Bolton was a bachelor of sixty-five, who had long been attached to the court, and retained much of the manners of the old school. His princ.i.p.al estate was in Ireland, and most of that time which his duty at Windsor did not require he gave to the improvement of his Irish property. Thus, although on perfectly good terms with the baronet"s family, they seldom met. With General Wilson he had been at college, and to his widow he always showed much of that regard he had invariably professed for her husband, The obligation he had conferred, unasked, on Francis Ives, was one conferred on all his friends, and his reception was now warmer than usual.
"My Lady Moseley," said the earl, bowing formally on her hand, "your looks do ample justice to the air of Northamptonshire. I hope you enjoy your usual health."
Then, waiting her equally courteous answer, he paid his compliments, in succession, to all the members of the family; a mode undoubtedly well adapted to discover their several conditions, but not a little tedious in its operations, and somewhat tiresome to the legs.
"We are under a debt of grat.i.tude to your lordship," said Sir Edward, in his simple and warm-hearted way, "that I am sorry it is not in our power to repay more amply than by our thanks."
The earl was, or affected to be, surprised, as he required an explanation.
"The living at Bolton," said Lady Moseley, with dignity.
"Yes," continued her husband; "in giving the living to Frank you did me a favor, equal to what you would have done had he been my own child; and unsolicited, too, my lord, it was an additional compliment."
The earl sat rather uneasy during this speech, but the love of truth prevailed; for he had been too much round the person of our beloved sovereign not to retain all the impressions of his youth; and after a little struggle with his self-love, he answered--
"Not unsolicited, Sir Edward. I have no doubt, had nay better fortune allowed me the acquaintance of my present rector, his own merit would have obtained what a sense of justice requires I should say was granted to an applicant to whom the ear of royalty itself would not have been deaf."
It was the turn of the Moseleys now to look surprised, and Sir Edward ventured to ask an explanation.
"It was my cousin, the Earl of Pendennyss, who applied for it, as a favor done to himself; and Pendennyss is a man not to be refused anything."
"Lord Pendennyss!" exclaimed Mrs. Wilson, with animation; "and in what way came we to be under this obligation to Lord Pendennyss?"
"He did me the honor of a call during my visit to Ireland, madam," replied the earl; "and on inquiring of my steward after his old friend, Doctor Stevens, learnt his death, and the claims of Mr. Ives; but the reason he gave _me_ was his interest in the widow of General Wilson," bowing with much solemnity to the lady as he spoke.
"I am gratified to find the earl yet remembers us," said Mrs. Wilson, struggling to restrain her tears. "Are we to have the pleasure of seeing him soon?"
"I received a letter from him yesterday, saying he should be here in all next week, madam." And turning pleasantly to Jane and her sister, he continued, "Sir Edward, you have here rewards fit for heavier services, and the earl is a great admirer of female charms."
"Is he not married, my lord?" asked the baronet, with great simplicity.
"No, baronet, nor engaged; but how long he will remain so after his hardihood in venturing into this neighborhood, will, I trust, depend on one of these young ladies."
Jane looked grave--for trifling on love was heresy, in her estimation; but Emily laughed, with an expression in which a skilful physiognomist might have read--if he means me, he is mistaken.
"Your cousin, Lord Chatterton, has found interest, Sir Edward," continued the peer, "to obtain his father"s situation; and if reports speak truth, he wishes to become more nearly related to you, baronet."
"I do not well see how that can happen," said Sir Edward with a smile, and who had not art enough to conceal his thoughts, "unless he takes my sister here."
The cheeks of both the young ladies now vied with the rose; and the peer, observing he had touched on forbidden ground, added, "Chatterton was fortunate to find friends able to bear up against the powerful interest of Lord Haverford."
"To whom was he indebted for the place, my lord?" asked Mis. Wilson.
"It was whispered at court, madam," said the earl, sensibly lowering his voice, and speaking with an air of mystery "and a lord of the bed-chamber is fonder of discoveries than a lord of the council--that His Grace of Derwent threw the whole of his parliamentary interest into the scale on the baron"s side, but you are not to suppose," raising his hand gracefully, with a wave of rejection, "that I speak from authority; only a surmise, Sir Edward, only a surmise, my lady."