Above the spring had been erected a Gothic arch of grey stone, round which grew a few fine birch-trees. In short, nature had intended the spot for picnics. There was fine water, and an interesting tradition; and as the parties always bring, or always should bring, a trained punster, champagne, and cold pasties, what more ought Nature to have provided?
"Come, Mrs. Lorraine, I will tie Gypsey to this ash, and then you and I will rest ourselves beneath these birch-trees, just where the fairies dance."
"Oh, delightful!"
"Now, truly, we should have some book of beautiful poetry to while away an hour. You will blame me for not bringing one. Do not. I would sooner listen to your voice; and, indeed, there is a subject on which I wish to ask your particular advice."
"Is there?"
"I have been thinking that this is a somewhat rash step of the Marquess; this throwing himself into the arms of his former bitterest enemy, Cleveland."
"You really think so?"
"Why, Mrs. Lorraine, does it appear to you to be the most prudent course of action which could have been conceived?"
"Certainly not."
"You agree with me, then, that there is, if not cause for regret at this engagement, at least for reflection on its probable consequences?"
"I quite agree with you."
"I know you do. I have had some conversation with the Marquess upon this subject this very morning."
"Have you?" eagerly exclaimed the lady, and she looked pale and breathed short.
"Ay; and he tells me you have made some very sensible observations on the subject. "Tis pity they were not made before Mr. Cleveland left; the mischief might then have been prevented."
"I certainly have made some observations."
"And very kind of you. What a blessing for the Marquess to have such a friend!"
"I spoke to him," said Mrs. Felix, with a more a.s.sured tone, "in much the same spirit as you have been addressing me. It does, indeed, seem a most imprudent act, and I thought it my duty to tell him so."
"Ay, no doubt; but how came you, lady fair, to imagine that _I_ was also a person to be dreaded by his Lordship; _I_, Vivian Grey!"
"Did I say _you_?" asked the lady, pale as death.
"Did you not, Mrs. Felix Lorraine? Have you not, regardless of my interests, in the most unwarrantable and unjustifiable manner; have you not, to gratify some private pique which you entertain against Mr.
Cleveland; have you not, I ask you, poisoned the Marquess" mind against one who never did aught to you but what was kind and honourable?"
"I have been imprudent; I confess it; I have spoken somewhat loosely."
"Now, listen to me once more," and Vivian grasped her hand. "What has pa.s.sed between you and Mr. Cleveland it is not for me to inquire. I give you my word of honour that he never even mentioned your name to me. I can scarcely understand how any man could have incurred the deadly hatred which you appear to entertain for him. I repeat, I can contemplate no situation in which you could be placed together which would justify such behaviour. It could not be justified, even if he had spurned you while--kneeling at his feet."
Mrs. Felix Lorraine shrieked and fainted. A sprinkling from the fairy stream soon recovered her. "Spare me! spare me!" she faintly cried: "say nothing of what you have seen."
"Mrs. Lorraine, I have no wish. I have spoken thus explicitly that we may not again misunderstand each other. I have spoken thus explicitly, I say, that I may not be under the necessity of speaking again, for if I speak again it must not be to Mrs. Felix Lorraine. There is my hand; and now let the Elfin"s Well be blotted out of our memories."
Vivian drove rapidly home, and endeavoured to talk in his usual tone and with his usual spirit; but his companion could not be excited. Once, ay twice, she pressed his hand, and as he a.s.sisted her from the phaeton she murmured something like a blessing. She ran upstairs immediately. Vivian had to give some directions about the ponies; Gipsey was ill, or f.a.n.n.y had a cold, or something of the kind; and so he was detained for about a quarter of an hour before the house, speaking most learnedly to grooms, and consulting on cases with a skilled gravity worthy of Professor Coleman.
When he entered the house he found the luncheon prepared, and Mrs. Felix pressed him earnestly to take some refreshment. He was indeed wearied, and agreed to take a gla.s.s of hock and seltzer.
"Let me mix it for you," said Mrs. Felix; "do you like sugar?"
Tired with his drive, Vivian Grey was leaning on the mantelpiece, with his eyes vacantly gazing on the looking-gla.s.s which rested on the marble slab. It was by pure accident that, reflected in the mirror, he distinctly beheld Mrs. Felix Lorraine open a small silver box, and throw some powder into the tumbler which she was preparing for him. She was leaning down, with her back almost turned to the gla.s.s, but still Vivian saw it distinctly. A sickness came over him, and ere he could recover himself his Hebe tapped him on the shoulder.
[Ill.u.s.tration: small silver box]
"Here, drink, drink while it is effervescent."
"I cannot drink," said Vivian, "I am not thirsty; I am too hot; I am anything--"
"How foolish you are! It will be quite, spoiled."
"No, no; the dog shall have it. Here, Fidele, you look thirsty enough; come here--"
"Mr. Grey, I do not mix tumblers for dogs," said the lady, rather agitated: "if you will not take it," and she held it once more before him, "here it goes for ever." So saying she emptied the tumbler into a large globe of gla.s.s, in which some gold and silver fish were swimming their endless rounds.
CHAPTER V
This last specimen of Mrs. Felix Lorraine was somewhat too much even for the steeled nerves of Vivian Grey, and he sought his chamber for relief.
"Is it possible? Can I believe my senses? Or has some demon, as we read of in old tales, mocked me in a magic mirror? I can believe anything.
Oh! my heart is very sick! I once imagined that I was using this woman for my purpose. Is it possible that aught of good can come to one who is forced to make use of such evil instruments as these? A horrible thought sometimes comes over my spirit. I fancy that in this mysterious foreigner, that in this woman, I have met a kind of double of myself.
The same wonderful knowledge of the human mind, the same sweetness of voice, the same miraculous management which has brought us both under the same roof: yet do I find her the most abandoned of all beings; a creature guilty of that which, even in this guilty age, I thought was obsolete. And is it possible that I am like her? that I can resemble her? that even the indefinite shadow of my most unhallowed thought can for a moment be as vile as her righteousness? O G.o.d! the system of my existence seems to stop. I cannot breathe." He flung himself upon his bed, and felt for a moment as if he had quaffed the poisoned draught so lately offered.
"It is not so; it cannot be so; it shall not be so! In seeking the Marquess I was unquestionably impelled by a mere feeling of self-interest; but I have advised him to no course of action in which his welfare is not equally consulted with my own. Indeed, if not principle, interest would make me act faithfully towards him, for my fortunes are bound up in his. But am I ent.i.tled, I, who can lose nothing, am I ent.i.tled to play with other men"s fortunes? Am I all this time deceiving myself with some wretched sophistry? Am I, then, an intellectual Don Juan, reckless of human minds, as he was of human bodies; a spiritual libertine? But why this wild declamation? Whatever I have done, it is too late to recede; even this very moment delay is destruction, for now it is not a question as to the ultimate prosperity of our worldly prospects, but the immediate safety of our very bodies.
Poison! O G.o.d! O G.o.d! Away with all fear, all repentance, all thought of past, all reckoning of future. If I be the Juan that I fancied myself, then Heaven be praised! I have a confidant in all my troubles; the most faithful of counsellors, the craftiest of valets; a Leporello often tried and never found wanting: my own good mind. And now, thou female fiend! the battle is to the strongest; and I see right well that the struggle between two such spirits will be a long and a fearful one. Woe, I say, to the vanquished! You must be dealt with by arts which even yourself cannot conceive. Your boasted knowledge of human nature shall not again stand you in stead; for, mark me, from henceforward Vivian Grey"s conduct towards you shall have no precedent in human nature."
As Vivian re-entered the drawing-room he met a servant carrying in the globe of gold and silver fishes.
"What, still in your pelisse, Mrs. Lorraine!" said Vivian. "Nay, I hardly wonder at it, for surely, a prettier pelisse never yet fitted prettier form. You have certainly a most admirable taste in dress; and this the more surprises me, for it is generally your plain personage that is the most recherche in frills and fans and flounces."
The lady smiled.
"Oh! by-the-bye," continued her companion, "I have a letter from Cleveland this morning. I wonder how any misunderstanding could possibly have existed between you, for he speaks of you in such terms."
"What does he say?" was the quick question.
"Oh! what does he say?" drawled out Vivian; and he yawned, and was most provokingly uncommunicative.
"Come, come, Mr. Grey, do tell me."
"Oh! tell you, certainly. Come, let us walk together in the conservatory:" so saying, he took the lady by the hand, and they left the room.