However satisfied of its injustice, Forester made no reply to this burst of pa.s.sion, but sat without speaking as she resumed:--
"You will say there are knaves in every country, and that this Gleeson was of our rearing; but I deny it, sir. I tell you he was a base counterfeit we have borrowed from yourselves. That meek, submissive manner, that patient drudgery of office, that painstaking, petty rect.i.tude, make up "your respectable men;" and in this garb of character the business of life goes on with you. And why? Because you take it at its worth. But here, in Ireland, we go faster; trust means full confidence,--confidence without limit or bound; and then, too often, ruin without redemption. Forgive me, sir; age and sorrow both have privileges, and I perhaps have more cause than most others to speak warmly on this theme. Now, let me escape my egotism by asking you to eat, for I see we have forgotten our supper all this time."
From that moment Miss Daly never adverted further to the burden of her brother"s letter, but led Forester to converse about his journey and the people whom, even in his brief experience, he perceived to be so unlike the peasantry of the West.
"Yes," said she, in reply to an observation of his, "these diversities of character observable in different places are doubtless intended, like the interminable varieties of natural productions, to increase our interest in life, and, while extending the sphere of speculation, to contribute to our own advancement. Few people, perhaps not any, are to be found without some traits of amiability; here there is much to be respected, and, when habit has dulled the susceptibility of first impressions, much also to be liked. But shall I not have the pleasure of showing you my neighbors and my neighborhood?"
"My visit must be of the shortest; I rather took than obtained my leave of absence."
"Well, even a brief visit will do something; for my neighbors all dwell in cottages, and my neighborhood comprises the narrow strip of coast between this hut and the sea, whose plash you hear this minute.
To-morrow you will be rested from your journey, and if the day permits we "ll try the Causeway."
Forester accepted the invitation so frankly proffered, and went to his room not sorry to lay his head upon a pillow after two weary nights upon the road.
Forester was almost shocked as he entered the breakfast-room on the following morning to see the alteration in Miss Daly"s appearance. She had evidently pa.s.sed a night of great sorrow, and seemed with difficulty to bear up against the calamitous tidings of which he was the bearer.
She endeavored, it is true, to converse on matters of indifference,--the road he had travelled, the objects he had seen, and so on; but the effort was ever interrupted by broken s.n.a.t.c.hes of reflection that would vent themselves in words, and all of which bore on the Knight and his fortunes.
To Forester"s account of her brother Bagenal"s devotion to his friend she listened with eager interest, asking again and again what part he had taken, whether his counsels were deemed wise ones, and if he still enjoyed to the fullest extent the confidence of his old friend.
"It is no friendship of yesterday, sir," said she, with a heightened color and a flashing eye; "they knew each other as boys, they walked the mountains together as young men, speculated on the future paths fate might open before them, and the various ambitions which, even then, stirred within them. Bagenal was ever rash, headstrong, and impetuous, rarely firm in purpose till some obstacle seemed to defy its accomplishment. Maurice--the Knight, I mean--was not less resolute when roused, but more often so much disposed to concede to others that he would postpone his wishes to their own; and once believing himself in any way pledged to a course, would forget all, save the fulfilment of the implied promise. Such were the two dispositions, which, acting and reacting on each other, effected the ruin of both: the one wasted in eccentricity what the other squandered in listless indifference; and with abilities enough to have won distinction for humble men, they have earned no other reputation than that of singularity or convivialism.
"As for Bagenal," she said, after a pause, "wealth was never but an inc.u.mbrance to him; he was one of those persons who never saw any use for money, save in the indulgence of mere caprice; he treated his great fortune as a spoiled child will do a toy, and never rested till he had pulled it to pieces, and perhaps derived the same moral lesson too,--astonishment at the mere trifle which once amused him. But Maurice Darcy,--whose tastes were ever costly and cultivated, who regarded splendor not as the means of vulgar display, but as the fitting accompaniment of a house ill.u.s.trious by descent and deeds, and deemed that all about and around him should bear the impress of himself, generous and liberal as he was,--how is he to bear this reverse? Tell me of Lady Eleanor; and Miss Darcy, is she like the Knight, or has her English blood given the character to her beauty?"
"She is very like her father," said Forester, "but more so even in disposition than in features."
"How happy I am to hear it," said Miss Daly, hastily; "and she is, then, high-spirited and buoyant? What gifts in an hour like this!"
"You say truly, madam, she will not sink beneath the stroke, believe me."
"Well, this news has reconciled me to much of your gloomier tidings,"
said Miss Daly; "and now let us wander out upon the hills; I feel as if we could talk more freely as we stroll along the beach."
Miss Daly arose as she spoke, and led the way through the little garden wicket, which opened on a steep pathway down to the sh.o.r.e.
"This will be a favorite walk with Helen, I"m certain," said she. "The caves are all accessible at low water, and the view of Fairhead finer than from any other point. I must instruct you to be a good and a safe guide. I must teach you all the art and mystery of the science, make you learned in the chronicles of Dunluce, and rake up for you legends of ghostcraft and shipwreck enough to make the fortunes of a romancer."
"I thank you heartily," said Forester; "but I cannot remain here to meet my friends."
"Oh, I understand you," said Miss Daly, who in reality put a wrong interpretation on his words; "but you shall be my guest. There is a little village about four miles from this, where I intend to take up my abode. I hope you will not decline hospitality which, if humble, is at least freely proffered."
"I regret deeply," said Forester, and he spoke in a tone of sorrow, "that I cannot accept your kindness. I stand in a position of no common difficulty at this moment." He hesitated, as if doubting whether to proceed or not, and then, in a more hurried voice, resumed: "There is no reason why I should obtrude my own petty cares and trials where greater misfortunes are impending; but I cannot help telling you that I have been rash enough, in a moment of impatience, to throw up an appointment I held on the Viceroy"s Staff, and I know not how far the step may yet involve me with my relatives."
"Tell me how came you first acquainted with the Darcys?" said Miss Daly, as if following out in her own mind a train of thought.
"I will be frank with you," said Forester, "for I cannot help being so; there are cases where confidence is not a virtue, but a necessity. Every word you speak, every tone of your voice, is so much your brother"s that I feel as if I were confiding to him in another form. I learned to know the Knight of Gwynne in a manner which you may deem, perhaps, little creditable to myself, though I trust you will see that I neither abused the knowledge nor perverted the honor of the acquaintanceship. It was in this wise."
Briefly, but without reserve, Forester narrated the origin of his first journey to the West, and, without implicating the honor of his relative, Lord Castlereagh, explained the nature of his mission, to ascertain the sentiments of the Knight, and the possibility of winning him to the side of the Government. His own personal adventures could not, of course, be omitted, in such a narrative; but he touched on the theme as slightly as he could, and only dwelt on the kindness he had experienced in his long and dangerous illness, and the long debt of grat.i.tude which bound him to the family.
Of the intimacy that succeeded he could not help speaking, and, whether from his studied avoidance of her name, or that, when replying to any question of Miss Daly"s concerning Helen Darcy, his manner betrayed agitation, certain it is that when he concluded, Miss Daly"s eyes were turned towards him with an expression of deep significance that called the color to his cheek.
"And so, sir," said she, in a slow and measured voice, "you went down to play the tempter, and were captured yourself. Come, come, I know your secret; you have told it by signs less treacherous than words; and Helen,--for I tell you freely my interest is stronger for her,--how is she disposed towards you?"
Forester never spoke, but hung his head abashed and dejected.
"Yes, yes, I see it all," said Miss Daly, hurriedly; "you would win the affection of a generous and high-souled girl by the arts which find favor in your more polished world, and you have found that the fascinations of manner and the glittering _eclat_ of an aide-de-camp have failed. Now, take my counsel. But first let me ask, is this affection the mere prompting of an idle or capricious moment, or do you love her with a pa.s.sion round which the other objects of your life are to revolve and depend? I understand that pressure of the hand; it is enough. My advice is simple. You belong to a profession second to none in its high and great rewards: do not waste its glorious opportunities by the life of a courtier; be a soldier in feeling as well as in garb; let her whose heart you would win, feel that in loving you she is paying the tribute to qualities that make men esteem and respect you; that she is not bestowing her hand upon the mere favorite of a Court, but on one whose ambitions are high, and whose darings are generous. Oh! leave nothing, or as little as you may, to mere influence; let your boast be, and it will be a proud one, that with high blood and a n.o.ble name you have started fairly in the race, and distanced your compet.i.tors. This is my counsel. What think you of it?"
"I will follow it," said Forester, firmly; "I will follow it, though, I own it to you, it suggests no hope, where hope would be happiness."
"Well, then," said Miss Daly, "you shall spend this day with me, and I will not keep you another; you have made me your friend by this confidence, and I will use the trust with delicacy and with fidelity."
"May I write to you?" said Forester, "and will you let me hear from you again?"
"With pleasure; I should have asked it myself had you not done so. Now, let us talk of the first steps to be taken in this affair; and here is a bench where we can rest ourselves while we chat."
Forester sat down beside her, and, in the freedom of one to whom fortune had so unexpectedly presented a confidante, opened all the secret store of his cares and hopes and fears. It was late when they turned again towards "the Corvy," but the youth"s step was lighter, and his brow more open, while his heart was higher than many a previous day had found him.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE KNIGHT"S RETURN
We must now for a brief s.p.a.ce, return to the Knight, as with a heavy heart he journeyed homeward. Never did the long miles seem so wearisome before, often and often as he had travelled them. The little accidental delays, which once he had met with a ready jest, and in a spirit of kindly indulgence, he now resented as so many intentional insults upon his changed and ruined fortune. The gossiping landlords, to whom he had ever extended so much of freedom, he either acknowledged coldly, or repelled with distance; their liberties were now construed into want of deference and respect; the very jestings of the postboys to each other seemed so many covert impertinences, and equivocal allusions to himself; for even so much will the stroke of sudden misfortune change the nature, and convert the contented and happy spirit into a temperament of gloomy sorrow and suspicion.
Unconscious of his own altered feelings, and looking at every object through the dim light of his own calamity, he hurried along, not, as of old, recognizing each well-known face, saluting this one, inquiring after that; he sat back in his carriage, and, with his hat drawn almost over his eyes, neither noticed the way nor the wayfarers.
In this mood it was he entered Castlebar. The sight of his well-remembered carriage drew crowds of beggars to the door of the inn, every one of whom had some special prayer for aid, or some narrative of sickness for his hearing. By the time the horses drew up, the crowd numbered some hundreds of every variety, not only in age, but in raggedness, all eagerly calling on him by name, and imploring his protection on grounds the most strange and dissimilar.
"I knew the sound of the wheels; ax Biddy if I did n"t say it was his honor was coming!" cried one, in a sort of aside intended for the Knight himself.
"Ye "re welcome home, sir; long may you reign over us," said an old fellow with a beard like a pilgrim. "I dreamed I seen you last night standing at the door there, wid a half-crown in your fingers. "Ouid Luke," says you, "come here!----""
A burst of rude laughter drowned this sage parable, while a good-looking young woman, with an expression of softness in features degraded by poverty and its consequences, courtesied low, and tried to attract his notice, as she held up a miserable-looking infant to the carriage window. "Clap them, acushla! "t is proud he is to see you back again, sir; he never forgets the goold guinea ye gave him on New Year"s Day!
Don"t be pushin" that way, you rude cray-tures; you want to hurt the child, and it"s the image of his honor."
"Many returns of the blessed sason to you," growled out a creature in a bonnet, but in face and figure far more like a man than a woman; "throw us out a fippenny to buy two ounces of tay. Asy, asy; don"t be drivin"
me under the wheels--ugh! it"s no place for a faymale, among such rapscallions."
"What did they give you, Maurice? how much did you get, honey?" cried a tall and almost naked fellow, that leaned over the heads of several others, and put his face close to the gla.s.s of the carriage, which, for safety"s sake, the Knight now let down, while he called aloud to the postboys to make haste and bring out the horses.
"Tell us all about it, Maurice, my boy,--are you a lord, or a bishop?"
cried the tall fellow, with an eagerness of face that told his own sad bereavement, for he was deranged in intellect from a fall from one of the cliffs on the coast. "By my conscience, I think I must change my politics myself soon; my best pantaloons is like Nat Fitzgibbon,--it has resigned its sate! Out with a bit of silver here!--quick, I didn"t kiss the King"s face this ten days."
To all these entreaties Darcy seemed perfectly deaf; if his eyes wandered over the crowd, they noticed nothing there, nor did he appear to listen to a word around him, while he again asked why the horses were not coming.
"We"re doing our best, your honor," cried a postboy, "but it"s mighty hard to get through these divils; they won"t stir till the beasts is trampling them down."
"Drive on, then, and let them take care of themselves," said the Knight, sternly.
"O blessed Father! there"s a way to talk of the poor! O heavenly Vargin!