"Turn, Harleigh, turn! and see thy willing martyr!--Behold, perfidious Ellis! behold thy victim!"
Instantly, though with agony, he quitted the sinking Ellis to dart forward.
The large wrapping coat, the half mask, the slouched hat, and embroidered waistcoat, had rapidly been thrown aside, and Elinor appeared in deep mourning; her long hair, wholly unornamented, hanging loosely down her shoulders. Her complexion was wan, her eyes were fierce rather than bright, and her hair was wild and menacing.
"Oh Harleigh!--adored Harleigh!--" she cried, as he flew to catch her desperate hand;--but he was not in time; for, in uttering his name, she plunged a dagger into her breast.
The blood gushed out in torrents, while, with a smile of triumph, and eyes of idolizing love, she dropt into his arms, and clinging round him, feebly articulated, "Here let me end!--accept the oblation--the just tribute--of these dear, delicious, last moments!"
Almost petrified with horrour, he could with difficulty support either her or himself; yet his presence of mind was sooner useful than that of any on the company; the ladies of which were hiding their faces, or running away; and the men, though all eagerly crowding to the spot of this tremendous event, approaching rather as spectators of some public exhibition, than as actors in a scene of humanity. Harleigh called upon them to fly instantly for a surgeon; demanded an arm-chair for the bleeding Elinor, and earnestly charged some of the ladies to come to her aid.
Selina, who had made one continued scream resound through the apartment, from the moment that her sister discovered herself, rapidly obeyed the summons, with Ireton, who, being unable to detain, accompanied her. Mrs Maple, thunderstruck by the apparition of her niece, scandalized by her disguise, and wholly unsuspicious of her purpose, though sure of some extravagance, had pretended sudden indisposition, to escape the shame of witnessing her disgrace; but ere she could get away, the wound was inflicted, and the public voice, which alone she valued, forced her to return.
A surgeon of eminence, who was accidentally in the a.s.sembly, desired the company to make way; declaring no removal to be practicable, till he should have stopt the effusion of blood.
The concert was immediately broken up; the a.s.sembly, though curious and unwilling, dispersed; and the apparatus for dressing the wound, was speedily at hand:--but to no purpose. Elinor would not suffer the approach of the surgeon; would not hear of any operation, or examination; would not receive any a.s.sistance. Looks of fiery disdain were the only answers that she bestowed to the pleadings of Mrs Maple, the shrieks of Selina, the remonstrances of the surgeon, and the entreaties of every other. Even to the supplications of Harleigh she was immovable; though still she fondly clung to him, uttering from time to time, "Long--long wished for moment! welcome, thrice welcome to my wearied soul!"
The shock of Harleigh was unspeakable, and it was aggravated by almost indignant exhortations, e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed from nearly every person present, that he would s.n.a.t.c.h the self-devoted enthusiast from this untimely end, by returning her heroic tenderness.
Mrs Maple was now covered with shame, from apprehension that this conduct might be imputed either to any precepts or any neglect of her own.
"My poor niece is quite light-headed, Mr Harleigh," she cried, "and knows not what she says."
Fury started into the eyes of Elinor as she caught these words, and neither prayers nor supplications could silence or quiet her. "No, Mrs Maple, no!" she cried, "I am not light-headed! I never so perfectly knew what I said, for I never so perfectly spoke what I thought. Is it not time, even yet, to have done with the puerile trammels of prejudice?--Yes! I here cast them to the winds! And, in the dauntless hour of willing death, I proclaim my sovereign contempt of the whole race of mankind! of its cowardly subterfuges, its mean a.s.similations, its heartless subtleties! Here, in the sublime act of voluntary self-extinction, I exult to declare my adoration of thee,--of thee alone, Albert Harleigh! of thee and of thy haughty,--matchless virtues!"
Gasping for breath, she leant, half motionless, yet smiling, and with looks of transport, upon the shoulder of Harleigh; who, ashamed, in the midst of his concern, at his own situation, thus publicly avowed as the object of this desperate act; earnestly wished to retreat from the gazers and remarkers, with whom he shared the notice and the wonder excited by Elinor. But her danger was too eminent, and the scene was too critical, to suffer self to predominate. Gently, therefore, and with tenderness, he continued to support her; carefully forbearing either to irritate her enthusiasm, or to excite her spirit of controversy, by uttering, at such a crisis, the exhortations to which his mind and his principles pointed: or even to soothe her feeling too tenderly, lest misrepresentation should be mischievous, either with herself or with others.
The surgeon declared that, if the wound were not dressed without delay, no human efforts could save her life.
"My life? save my life?" cried Elinor, reviving from indignation: "Do you believe me so ign.o.ble, as to come hither to display the ensigns of death, but as scare crows, to frighten lookers on to court me to life?
No! for what should I live? To see the hand of scorn point at me? No, no, no! I come to die: I bleed to die; and now, even now, I talk to die!
to die--Oh Albert Harleigh! for thee:--Dost thou sigh, Harleigh?--Do I hear thee sigh?--Oh Harleigh! generous Harleigh!--for me is it thou sighest?--"
Deeply oppressed, "Elinor," he answered, "you make me indeed wretched!"
"Ebb out, then, oh life!" cried she, "in this extatic moment! Harleigh no longer is utterly insensible!--Well have I followed my heart"s beating impulse!--Harleigh! Oh n.o.ble Harleigh!--"
Spent by speech and loss of blood, she fainted.
Harleigh eagerly whispered Mrs Maple, to desire that the surgeon would s.n.a.t.c.h this opportunity for examining, and, if possible, dressing the wound.
This, accordingly, was done, all who were not of some use, retiring.
Harleigh himself, deeply interested in the event, only retreated to a distant corner; held back by discretion, honour, and delicacy, from approaching the spot to which his wishes tended.
The surgeon p.r.o.nounced, that the wound was not in its nature mortal; though the exertions and emotions which had succeeded it, gave it a character of danger, that demanded the extremest attention, and most perfect tranquillity.
The satisfaction with which Harleigh heard the first part of this sentence, though it could not be counter-balanced, was cruelly checked by its conclusion. He severely felt the part that he seemed called upon to act; and had a consciousness, that was dreadful to himself, of his powers, if upon her tranquillity alone depended her preservation.
She soon recovered from her fainting fit; though she was too much weakened and exhausted, both in body and spirits, to be as soon restored to her native energies. The moment, therefore, seemed favourable for her removal: but whither? Lewes was too distant; Mrs Maple, therefore, was obliged to apply for a lodging in the hotel; to which, with the a.s.siduous aid of Harleigh, Elinor, after innumerable difficulties, and nearly by force, was conveyed.
The last to quit the apartment in which this b.l.o.o.d.y scene had been performed, was Ellis; who felt restored by fright for another, to the strength of which she had been robbed by affright for herself. Her sufferings, indeed, for Elinor, her grief, her horrour, had set self wholly aside, and made her forget all by which, but the moment before, she had been completely absorbed. She durst not approach, yet could not endure to retreat. She remained alone in the orchestra, from which all the band had been dismissed. She looked not once at Harleigh; nor did Harleigh once dare turn her way. In the shock of this scene, she thought it would be her duty to see him no more; for though she was una.s.sailed by remorse, since unimpeached by self-reproach--for when had she wilfully, or even negligently, excited jealousy?--still she could not escape the inexpressible shock, of knowing herself the cause, though not, like Harleigh, the object of this dreadful deed.
When Elinor, however, was gone, she desired to hurry to her lodgings.
Miss Arbe had forgotten, or neglected her, and she had no carriage ordered. But the terrific magnitude of the recent event, divested minor difficulties of their usual powers of giving disturbance. "Tis only when we are spared great calamities, that we are deeply affected by small circ.u.mstances. The pressing around her, whether of avowed, or discreet admirers; the buzz of mingled compliments, propositions, interrogtories or entreaties; which, at another time, would have embarra.s.sed and distressed her, now scarcely reached her ears, and found no place in her attention; and she quietly applied for a maid-servant of the hotel; leaning upon whose arm she reached, sad, shaken, and agitated, the house of Miss Matson.
Before she would even attempt to go to rest, she sent a note of enquiry to Mr Naird, the surgeon, whom she had seen at Mrs Maple"s: his answer was consonant to what he had already p.r.o.nounced to Harleigh.
CHAPTER x.x.xIX
Nothing now appeared so urgent to Ellis, as flying the fatal sight of Harleigh. To wander again alone, to seek strange succour, new faces, and unknown haunts; to expose her helplessness, plead her poverty, and confess her mysterious, nameless situation; even to risk delay in receiving the letter upon which hung all her ultimate expectations, seemed preferable to the danger of another interview, that might lead to the most horrible of catastrophes;--if, already, the danger were not removed by a termination the most tragic.
To escape privately from Brighthelmstone, and commit to accident, since she had no motive for choice, the way that she should go, was, therefore her determination. Her debts were all paid, save what their discharge had made her incur with that very Harleigh from whom she must now escape; though to the resources which he had placed in her hands, she owed the liberation from her creditors, that gave her power to be gone; and must owe, also, the means for the very flight which she projected from himself. Severely she felt the almost culpability of an action, that risked implications of encouragement to a persevering though rejected man. But the horrour of instigating self-murder conquered every other; even the hard necessity of appearing to act wrong, at the very moment when she was braving every evil, in the belief that she was doing right.
She ordered a post-chaise, in which she resolved to go on stage; and then to wait at some decent house upon the road, for the first pa.s.sing public vehicle; in which, whithersoever it might be destined, she would proceed.
At an early hour the chaise was ready; and she was finishing her preparations for removal, when a tap at her chamber-door, to which, imagining it given by the maid, she answered, "Come in," presented Harleigh to her affrighted view.
"Ah heaven!" she cried, turning pale with dismay, "are you then fixed, Mr Harleigh, to rob me of peace for life?"
"Be not," cried he, rapidly, "alarmed! I will not cost you a moment"s danger, and hardly a moment"s uneasiness. A few words will remove every fear; but I must speak them myself. Elinor is at this instant out of all but wilful danger; wilful danger, however, being all that she had had to encounter, it must be guarded against as sedulously as if it were inevitable. To this end, I must leave Brighthelmstone immediately--"
"No, Sir," interrupted Ellis; "it is I who must leave Brighthelmstone; your going would be the height of inhumanity."
"Pardon me, but it is to clear this mistake that, once more, I force myself into your sight. I divined your design when I saw an empty post-chaise drive up to your door; which else, at a time such as this, I should un.o.btrusively have pa.s.sed."
"Quick! quick!" cried Ellis, "every moment affrights me!"
"I am gone. I cannot oppose, for I partake your fears. Elinor has demanded to see us together to-morrow morning."
"Terrible!" cried Ellis, trembling; "what may be her design? And what is there not to dread! Indeed I dare not encounter her!"
"There can be, unhappily, but one opinion of her purpose," he answered: "She is wretched, and from impatience of life, wishes to seek death.
Nevertheless, the cause of her disgust to existence not being any intolerable calamity, though the most probing, perhaps, of disappointments, life, with all its evils, still clings to her; and she as little knows how to get rid of, as how to support it."
"You cannot, Sir, mean to doubt her sincerity?"
"Far from it. Her mind is as n.o.ble as her humour and taste are flighty; yet, where she has some great end in view, she studies, in common with all those with whom the love of frame is the ruling pa.s.sion, Effect, public Effect, rather than what she either thinks to be right, or feels to be desirable."
"Alas, poor Miss Joddrel! You are still, then, Sir, unmoved--" She stopt, and blushed, for the examining eyes of Harleigh said, "Do you wish to see me conquered?"
Pleased that she stopt, enchanted that she blushed, an expression of pleasure illumined his countenance, which instantly drew into that of Ellis a cold severity, that chilled, or rather that punished his rising transport. Ah! thought he, was it then but conscious modesty, not anxious doubt, that mantled in her cheek?
"Pity," he returned, "in a woman to a man, is grateful, is lenient, is consoling. It seems an attribute of her s.e.x, and the haughtiest of ours accepts it from her without disdain or disgrace; but pity from a man--upon similar causes--must be confined to his own breast. Its expression always seems insolent. Who is the female that could wish, that could even bear to excite it? Not Elinor, certainly! with all her excentricities, she would consider it as an outrage."