"Why cannot I make this glorious a.s.surance of faith my own?" thought Emmie. "Why am I, a Christian girl in an English home, troubled with fears which would better beseem some poor ignorant African, worshipping his fetich, and knowing nothing of a protecting, loving G.o.d! I must struggle against this enemy, mistrust; I must try to bring my very thoughts into subjection,--those thoughts now so full of fears dishonouring to my gracious Master. Where is my reason,--where is my faith? I cannot believe that there is real danger in sleeping next to the bricked-up room, or even my selfishness would hardly have induced me to put dear Bruce in a post of peril. I must have been secretly a.s.sured that the danger existed only in fancy. But I am now too weary to be able to reason; I need a night"s rest to enable me to distinguish between facts and the creations of an excited brain. I am so tired--my nerves are so weak! I shall scarcely now be able to rouse my mind even for the exercise of prayer, and by prayer alone dare I hope to conquer mistrust."
Emmie"s rest was on that night troubled by a confused medley of dreams, the natural consequences of the excitement which she had undergone through the preceding day. Nothing was distinct, but the images of Harper and Jael Jessel mixed themselves up with the phantoms which their weird stories had raised in the imaginative mind of the girl. Emmie, early deprived of the guidance of a sensible mother, had often made an unprofitable use of her leisure; she had read much of the literature which is called sensational; she had pondered over tales of horror; her mind had been fed on unwholesome food. Emmie had let fancy lead her where it list, and it would be no easy task to undo the mischief wrought in idle hours under the name of amus.e.m.e.nt.
Morning came at last, and brightness and hope with the morning. How different objects appear in sunshine from what they seem to be when only faintly visible at night! Emmie gazed from her window, and greatly admired the prospect before her. Never, perhaps, in a well-wooded country, does Nature display more exquisite beauty than in the early part of November, when the foliage, thinned indeed, but brilliant in tints of crimson and gold, varied with russet and green, is lit up by the glorious sun. The orb of day, just rising, was overhung by rosy clouds; the air was fresh and fragrant after the storm; myriads of dew-drops glittered on the lawn; all was brightness above and below!
Emmie thought that she could be very happy even at Myst Court, and antic.i.p.ated with pleasure looking over the mansion, exploring the grounds, and examining the state of the garden.
When Emmie quitted her little room, the sunlight was streaming through the large east window which lighted the staircase, throwing gorgeous stains of crimson and azure from its coloured panes upon the wide oaken steps. What had been dreary and ghost-like by night, had become picturesque and romantic by day. Emmie tripped lightly down to the breakfast-room, where she found Bruce looking out his place in the book of family prayers.
"Did you sleep well?" was the sister"s eager greeting as she approached her brother; for Emmie had reproached herself a little for exposing Bruce to the chance of any nocturnal annoyance by the exchange of the rooms.
"I slept very well,--never better," replied Bruce with a slightly sarcastic smile. "I had no expectation of seeing goblin or ghost, and was certainly troubled by none. I never knew a place more perfectly still; so far as I could judge, not a mouse stirred or a cricket chirrupped in the so-called haunted chamber. But that west room is by far too pretty and luxurious for a student like me. As ladies are allowed to change their minds once, I would strongly advise you, Emmie, to let us resume the first arrangement: do you go back to the west room, and let me study or sulk in my own little cell."
"Not now," replied Emmie Trevor; and, to do her justice, her motive in declining the second change was as much consideration for her brother"s comfort as the repugnance, which she had not yet quite overcome, to sleeping next door to the haunted chamber.
"Why has Master Vibert not made his appearance either at prayers or at breakfast?" asked Bruce, when, half an hour afterwards, he was enjoying the cup of hot coffee prepared by his sister.
"Vibert was tired last night, and has probably overslept himself,"
replied Emmie.
"Not he," said Bruce, "for I saw him from my window this morning, more than an hour ago, loitering about the grounds. Vibert must have heard the gong sound for breakfast. No; the fact is--you must have seen it from his manner last evening--that Vibert is in a huff because I called him a selfish idiot."
"I am so very, _very_ sorry that you called him that," cried Emmie, with a look of distress. "You do not consider, dear Bruce, what real harm your sternness may do to our younger brother. Vibert is so affectionate--"
"He cares for no one on earth but himself," said Bruce. "Look at his conduct yesterday, and think what might have been its result."
"Driving off from the station without waiting for you was but a foolish, boyish prank," pleaded Emmie. "As for the accident that occurred, that cannot be laid to Vibert"s charge; it was caused by my catching hold of his arm just when the pony was turning a corner."
"What made you do that?" inquired Bruce.
"I was foolishly frightened at the lightning," replied Emmie meekly.
"Frightened, always frightened, at everything and at nothing!" said Bruce, but rather in sorrow than in anger. He was far more indulgent to the failings of Emmie than he was to those of Vibert.
The gentle girl, who was very anxious to bring about a reconciliation between her two brothers continued her mild expostulation with Bruce.
"I am sure that you do not think Vibert an idiot, though he may, perhaps, be a little selfish. I have heard you say yourself that Vibert has plenty of brain."
"If he were not too lazy and self-indulgent to work it," interrupted the elder brother.
"You do not think--you never have thought poor dear Vibert a selfish idiot," persisted Emmie; "and oh! Bruce, if I could only persuade you to tell him that you are sorry for having spoken that one hasty word, if--"
"Apologize to Vibert! never!" cried Bruce, and he pushed his chair back from the table.
"Surely it is n.o.ble, generous, right to own to a brother that in a hasty moment we have done him a wrong!" said Emmie with an earnestness which brought the moisture into her eyes.
Bruce made no reply to his sister, but rose from his seat and left the room; not hurriedly, not pa.s.sionately, but with that expression on his calm face in which Emmie easily read the unuttered thought, "I need no one"s advice to guide me, and I will receive rebuke from no one."
Emmie breathed a heavy sigh. Bruce was in other points so n.o.ble, so good,--oh, why did he shut and bar so firmly against the entrance of duty and affection one haunted room of his heart! Emmie was distressed on account of Vibert; she knew that her volatile younger brother needed the support of the stronger sense, the firmer principle of the elder,--that the influence of Bruce might be of inestimable importance to Vibert. And all this influence was to be worse than thrown away, because the professed follower of Him who was meek and lowly would not bend his proud spirit to own that he had committed a fault!
CHAPTER XII.
THE STRANGER.
Bruce had scarcely quitted the breakfast-room before it was entered by Vibert.
"Quick, Emmie, a cup of your delicious hot coffee! I"ve been out these two hours, and have come in with a hunter"s appet.i.te!" exclaimed the youth, who was looking even handsomer than usual, with his clear complexion brightened by the invigorating effects of the fresh morning air. Vibert applied himself with energy to the work of cutting slices from the cold ham which had been placed on the side-board.
Emmie poured out the warm beverage for her brother, who turned round to bid her add plenty of cream. "Cream is the one country luxury to balance against country cookery," he laughingly observed. "If that virago-looking Hannah continue to reign in the kitchen, I shall be driven to live upon cream, or be famished!"
Vibert did not appear likely to be famished as he sat at the well-spread table, doing ample justice to his slices of ham. Emmie had finished her own breakfast, but remained to keep her brother company.
"Since you were such an early riser to-day," she observed, "why were you absent from prayers?"
"Because I can"t stand hearing the prayers read by Bruce!" exclaimed Vibert with some indignation. "It"s a mockery for him to call his own brother a selfish idiot, to treat him as if he were a slave or a dog, and then to kneel down and pray like a saint, asking for meekness and mercy, and all kinds of graces which he never had, and never wishes to have. If that be not downright hypocrisy, I know not what is deserving of the name."
"Bruce is the very last person in the world who would play the hypocrite," cried Emmie. "As for the harsh name which he gave you, I believe that in his heart he is sorry for what he said in a moment of ill-humour."
"Then why does he not own frankly that he is sorry?" cried Vibert. "If Bruce would but confess that he regrets his hasty words, I"d hold out my hand at once and say, "Let by-gones be by-gones, old boy; I"m not the fellow to harbour a grudge." But Bruce would not own a fault were it to save his life or mine. Pride--that pride that repels advice, resents reproof, and refuses to acknowledge an error (how well the captain described it!)--that is Bruce"s pet sin, and he"ll carry it with him to his grave."
"G.o.d forbid!" faintly murmured Emmie.
"Bruce and I are to begin daily studies at S---- next Monday," continued Vibert, who was making good progress with his breakfast whilst he kept up the conversation. "I know that papa imagines that the way to keep me safe and out of mischief, is to yoke me to one whom he considers the impersonification of sense and sobriety. He"d couple a greyhound with a surly mastiff; but the greyhound, at least, will strain hard against the connecting strap. If Bruce start early, I will start late; if he walk fast, I will walk slowly; I"ll keep as wide apart from him as the tether will let me get;--in plain words, I"ll have as little to do with Bruce as I possibly can."
"Vibert, dear Vibert, it so grieves me that you should feel thus towards him," cried Emmie. "Bruce is not without his faults, but he is a n.o.ble-minded, unselfish--"
"Unselfish! I deny it!" exclaimed Vibert, while he kept the morsel which he was just about to convey to his lips suspended on his fork.
"Unselfish indeed! when he has taken advantage of being sent on in front to make arrangements to secure the very best room in the house for himself!"
"He never did," cried Emmie eagerly. "The west room was prepared for me, but I could not endure it, and, as a matter of kindness, Bruce exchanged our respective apartments."
"Why could you not endure that capital room?" asked Vibert in surprise.
Emmie, who had been wishing, praying that she might be enabled to act the part of a faithful counsellor and friend to her younger brother, felt painfully that she had to step down from her position of vantage, as she owned, with a blush, that she had not liked to sleep next door to the bricked-up room.
Vibert burst out laughing. "So the chivalrous Bruce took the dangerous post!" he exclaimed. "Would I not just like to give him a fright!"
"Don"t, oh! don"t play any foolish practical joke!" exclaimed Emmie.
"I"m afraid that it would not answer," said Vibert, still laughing.
"Bruce is a hard-headed chap, who sifts everything to the bottom. He"d be as likely as not to cleave a ghost"s skull with a poker, and I"ve no fancy to try whether he hits as hard with his hand as he yesterday did with his tongue. But let"s talk no more about Bruce. As soon as I"ve finished my breakfast, you and I shall go into the grounds and have a ramble together. You"ve not yet seen the outside of our mansion, for when we arrived here last night you had not enough light to distinguish Aladdin"s palace from a Hottentot kraal."
The brother and sister soon sauntered out on the terrace on the east side of the house, which was bathed in glowing sunshine. The air was so mild that Emmie had merely thrown a light blue scarf over her head and shoulders as a protection from the breeze; winter wraps would have been oppressive, and she enjoyed the luxury of being able to go out without donning bonnet or gloves. The terrace overlooked the lawn and the garden: the latter had once been fine, and had still a prim grace of its own.
"I rather like this old family mansion," cried Vibert, glancing up at the building, which had been constructed of dark red brick, with handsome facings of stone. "There is something stately about it, as if it had seen better days, and remembered them still. Myst Court looks something like William and Mary"s part of Hampton Court Palace."