"Merciful Father!" said the cook, "I"m in a doldrum; can I be sure that you don"t come from Sir Robert Whitecraft, the notorious blackguard?"
"Lanigan, I am w.i.l.l.y Reilly: my voice ought to tell you so; but I wish to see and speak with my dear _Cooleen Bawn_."
"Oh, my G.o.d, sir!" replied Lanigan, "but this love makes strange transmigrations. She won"t know you, sir."
"Make your mind easy on that point," replied Reilly; "only let her know that I am here."
"Come down to the kitchen then, sir, and I shall put you into the servants" hall, which branches off it. It is entered, besides, by a different door from that of the kitchen, and while you stay there--and you can pa.s.s into it without going through the kitchen--I will try to let her know where you are. She has at present a maid who was sent by Sir Robert Whitecraft, and she is nothing else than a spy; but it"ll go hard, or I"ll baffle her."
He accordingly placed Reilly in the servants" hall, and on his way to the drawing-room met Miss Folliard going to her own apartment, which commanded a view of the front of the house. He instantly communicated to her the fact of Reilly"s presence in the servants" hall; "but,"
added Lanigan, "you won"t know him--his own mother, if she was livin", wouldn"t know a bone in his body."
"Oh!" she replied, whilst her eyes flashed fearfully, in fact, in a manner that startled the cook--"oh! if he is there I shall soon know him. He has a voice, I think--he has a voice! Has he not, Lanigan?"
"Yes, ma"am," replied Lanigan, "he has a voice, and a heart too."
"Oh! yes, yes," she said, "I must go to him; they want to marry me to that monster--to that bigot and persecutor, on this very day month; but, Lanigan, it shall never be--death a thousand times sooner than such a union. If they attempt to bind us, death shall cut the link asunder--that I promise you, Lanigan. But I must go to him--I must go to him."
She ran down the stairs as she spoke, and Lanigan, having looked after her, seemed deeply concerned.
"My G.o.d!" he exclaimed, "what will become of that sweet girl if she is forced to marry that wealthy scoundrel? I declare to my G.o.d I hardly think she is this moment in her proper senses. There"s a fire in her eyes; and something in her manner, that I never observed before. At all events, I have locked the door that opens from the kitchen into the servants" hall, so that they cannot be interrupted from that quarter."
When the _Cooleen Bawn_ entered, she shrank back instinctively.
The disguise was so complete that she could not impose even on her imagination or her senses. The complexion was different, in fact, quite sallow; the beard long, and the costume such as we have described it.
There was, in fact, something extremely ludicrous in the meeting. Here was an elegant and beautiful young woman of fashion, almost ready, as it were, to throw herself in the arms of a common pauper, with a beard upon him better than half an inch long. As it was, she stopped suddenly and retreated a step or two, saying, as she did so:
"This must be some mistake. Who are you?"
"Helen!"
"Reilly! oh, that voice has set all right. But, my G.o.d, who could know you--in this disguise?"
They approached, and Reilly, seizing her hand, said, "I will shake hands with you; but until this disguise is off I would consider it sacrilege to approach nearer to your person."
"No disguise can ever shut you out from my heart, dear Reilly; but what is to be done? I have discovered, by one of my maids, who overheard my father say, in a short soliloquy--"Well, thank G.o.d, she"ll be Sir Robert"s wife within a month, and then my mind will be easy at last."
Oh! I"m glad you did not leave this country. But, as I said, what is to be done? What will become of us?"
"Under our peculiar circ.u.mstances," replied Reilly, "the question cannot, for the present at least, be answered. As for leaving the country, I might easily have done it, but I could not think of leaving you to the snares and windings of that villain. I declare solemnly, I would rather die than witness a union between you and him."
"But what, think you, should I feel? You would be only a spectator of the sacrifice, whereas I should be the victim."
"Do not be cast down, my love; whilst I have life, and a strong arm, it snail never be. Before I go I shall make arrangements with Lanigan when and where to see you again."
"It will be a matter of some difficulty," she replied, "for I am now under the strictest surveillance. I am told, and I feel it, that Whitecraft has placed a spy upon all my motions."
"How is that?" inquired Reilly. "Are you not under the protection of your father, who, when occasion is necessary, has both pride and spirit?"
"But my poor credulous father is, notwithstanding, easily imposed on. I know not exactly the particulars," replied the lovely girl, "but I can easily suspect them. My father it was, certainly, who discharged my last maid, Ellen Connor, because, he said, he did not like her, and because, he added, he would put a better and a more trustworthy one in her place.
I cannot move that she is not either with me or after me; nay, I cannot write a note that she does not immediately acquaint papa, who is certain to stroll into my apartment and ask to see the contents of it, adding, "Helen, when a young lady of rank and property forms a clandestine and disgraceful attachment it is time that her father should be on the lookout; so I will just take the liberty of throwing my eye over this little billet-doux." I told him often that he was at liberty to inspect every line I should write, but that I thought that very few parents would express such want of confidence in their daughters, if, like me, the latter had deserved such confidence at their hands as I did at his."
"What is the name of your present maid?" asked Reilly, musing.
"Oh," replied Miss Folliard, "I have three maids altogether, but she has been installed as own maid. Her name is Eliza Herbert."
"A native of England, is she not? Eliza Herbert!" he exclaimed; "in the lowermost depths of perdition there is not such a villain. This Eliza Herbert is neither more nor less than one of his--but I will not pain your pure and delicate mind by mentioning at further length what she is and was to him. The clergyman of the parish, Mr. Brown, knows the whole circ.u.mstances. See him at church, and get him to communicate them to your father. The fact is, this villain, who is at once cunning and parsimonious, had a double motive, each equally base and diabolical, in sending her here. In the first place, he wished, by getting her a good place, to make your father the unconscious means of rewarding her profligacy; and in the second of keeping her as a spy upon you."
A blush, resulting from her natural sense of delicacy, as well as from the deepest indignation at a man who did not scruple to place the woman whom he looked upon as almost immediately to become his wife, in the society of such a wretch--such a blush, we say, overspread her whole neck and face, and for about two minutes she shed bitter tears. But she felt the necessity of terminating their interview, from an apprehension that Miss Herbert, as she was called, on not finding her in the room, might inst.i.tute a search, and in this she was not mistaken.
She had scarcely concluded when the shrill voice of Miss Herbert was heard, as she rushed rapidly down the stairs, screaming, "Oh, la! oh, dear me! oh, my goodness! Where, where--oh, bless me, did any one see Miss Folliard?"
Lanigan, however, had prepared for any thing like a surprise. He planted himself, as a sentinel, at the foot of the stairs, and the moment he heard the alarm of Miss Herbert on her way down, he met her half way up, after having given a loud significant cough.
"Oh, cook, have you seen Miss Folliard? I can"t find her in the house!"
"Is her father in his study, Miss Herbert? because I want to see him; I"m afeared there"s a screw loose. I did see Miss Folliard; she went out a few minutes ago--indeed she rather stole out towards the garden, and, I tell you the truth, she had a--condemned look of her own. Try the garden, and if you don"t find her there, go to the back gate, which you"ll be apt to find open."
"Oh, I will, I will; thank you, cook. I"m certain it"s an elopement."
"Indeed, I wouldn"t be surprised to find," replied Lanigan, "that she is with Reilly this moment; any way you haven"t a minute to lose."
She started towards the garden, which she ran over and over; and there we shall leave her, executing the fool"s errand upon which Lanigan had sent her. "Now," said he, going in, "the coast"s clear; I have sent that impertinent jade out to the garden, and as the back gate is open--the gardener"s men are wheeling out the rubbish--and they are now at dinner--I say, as the back gate is open, it"s ten to one but she"ll scour the country. Now, Miss Folliard, go immediately to your room; as for this poor man, I will take care of him."
"Most sincerely do I thank you, Lanigan; he will arrange with you when and where to see me again. Farewell, Reilly--farewell; rely upon my constancy;" and so they parted, Reilly to the kitchen, and the _Cooleen Bawn_ to her own room.
"Come into the pantry, poor man," said good-natured Lanigan, addressing our hero, "till I give you" something to eat and drink."
"Many thanks to you, sir," replied he; "troth and whaix, I didn"t taste a morshel for the last fwhour--hugh--hugh-and twenty hours; and sure, sir, it"s this cough that"s killin" me by inches."
A thought struck Lanigan, who had been also spoken to by the gardener, about half an hour before, to know if he could tell him where he might have any chance of finding an a.s.sistant. At all events they went into the pantry, when Lanigan, after having pulled to the door, to prevent their conversation from being overheard, disclosed a project, which had just entered his head, of procuring Reilly employment in the garden.
Here it was arranged between them that the latter, who was both a good botanist and florist, should be recommended to the gardener as an a.s.sistant. To be sure, his dress and appearance were both decidedly against him; but still they relied upon the knowledge which Reilly confidently a.s.sured the cook that he possessed. After leaving the pantry with Lanigan, whom our hero thanked in a thorough brogue, the former called after him, as he was going away:
"Come here again, my good man."
"What is it, shir? may G.o.d bless you anyhow, for your charity to the--hugh--hugh--hugh--to the poor man. Oh, then, but it"s no wondher for you all to be fat and rosy upon sich beautiful vittles as you gave to me, shir. What is it, achora? and may the Lord mark you with grace!"
"Would you take employment from the master, his honor Mr. Folliard, if you got it?"
"Arrah now, shir, you gave me my skinful of what was gud; but don"t be luakin" fwhun o" me after. Would I take employment, achora?--ay, but where would I get it?"
"Could you work in a garden? Do you know any thing about plants or flowers?"
"Oh thin, that I may never sup sarra (sorrow), but that"s just what I"m fwhit fwhor."
"I"m afeared this scoundrel is but an imposthor afther all," whispered Lanigan to the other servants; "but in ordher to make sure, we"ll try him. I say--what"s this your name is?"
"Solvesther M"Bethershin, shir."
"Well, now, would you have any objection to come with me to the garden and see I the gardener? But hould, here he is. Mr. Malcomson," continued Lanigan, "here is a poor man, who says he understands plants and flowers, and weeds of that kind."