Charlotte Smith- Collected Poetical Works

by Charlotte Smith

  The Doctor’s proposal, however flattering it would have been to many young men, even though they declined accepting it, gave to Orlando no other pleasure than what for a moment arose in reflecting, that, in thus refusing an affluent fortune, he gave to Monimia an additional proof of his affection. His father, however, after his late conversation with the General, and some reflection alone, began to see this offer in a more favourable light than it had as first appeared to him; and notwithstanding the little inclination he felt for the family of Hollybourn, he was now of an age and under circumstances which gave to such a fortune as Orlando was now offered its full value in his opinion. His mind, already accustomed to contemplate the marriage of General Tracy with Isabella as a desirable event, more easily accommodated itself to think with approbation of another match equally dazzling, when opposed to the present uncertain situation of Orlando. After taking, therefore, some turns in his Study alone, he sent for his son, and entreated of him to forbear giving the Doctor an answer at least for two or three days.

  Orlando, who had never hesitated himself what answer to give, imagined it impossible to give it too soon. – ‘Surely, Sir,’ said he, ‘as I cannot accept this good Doctor’s very obliging proposals, it will be useless and uncivil to delay a moment saying so, which I will say in a letter in the least displeasing manner I can; but which, however, I must beg leave to do this evening.’

  ‘I beg then that you will not,’ said Somerive in a more peremptory tone than he was accustomed to use – ‘In such an affair I will not act without consulting Mrs Rayland.’

  ‘Mrs Rayland, Sir,’ answered Orlando, ‘will, I am very sure, either not interfere, or, if she does, it will not be to recommend Miss Hollybourn.’

  ‘We will enquire that,’ replied his father coldly; ‘in the mean time you have my directions not to write to Dr Hollybourn.’

  ‘Till when, Sir?’

  ‘At least not till after I know Mrs Rayland’s opinion.’

  ‘All the opinions upon earth, Sir,’ cried Orlando, ‘will not make me change my resolutions.’

  ‘I thank you, however, Orlando,’ said Somerive, ‘for avowing how little deference you pay to mine.’

  ‘Dear Sir, it was only half an hour since you seemed as little disposed to listen to this unexpected overture as I am.’

  ‘I had not then thought of it properly. You are young, and rash enough to determine on the most important matters in ten minutes – I am not; and therefore I again desire you will not write to Dr Hollybourn this afternoon.’

  Orlando, a good deal hurt at this change in his father’s sentiments, and dreading importunity on an affair of such a nature, then enquired if he might himself wait upon Mrs Rayland? – Somerive answered, ‘You may, if you will at the same time deliver a letter from me in explanation, and say nothing yourself till that letter shall be read.’

  This Orlando promised, being pretty certain that Mrs Rayland would be much less anxious for this connection than Mr Somerive supposed, who now desired him to send his mother into the Study. – He obeyed; and left them to consult together on this unexpected offer, and write to Mrs Rayland, with whom he proposed dining, and had engaged to return to his father with her answer early in the evening.

  Orlando now saw only persecution and trouble preparing for him at home during his short stay, for the tears and tenderness of his mother were infinitely more formidable to him than any other mode of interference. – To Selina, whom he called out to walk with him in the shrubbery, while this conference was holding, and this letter writing, he communicated all he felt. She had only tears to give him; for, to resist her father’s commands, or even his wishes, seemed to her impossible. She trembled at the idea of Orlando’s withstanding those wishes, yet knew enough of his invincible attachment to Monimia to be assured that he could never yield to them.

  A servant at length brought to Orlando the letter to Mrs Rayland for which he had waited, and he took his way to the Hall.

  As he had promised his father not to speak upon it before Mrs Rayland had read the contents, he sent it up by one of the footmen, with a message importing that he waited her commands.

  In this uneasy interval he dared not go in search of Monimia, nor could he detach his thoughts a moment from the subject of a proposal which threatened to empoisen the few days of delight which he had promised himself. Restless and anxious, he walked backwards and forwards in the Study with uncertain steps, now listening to every noise in hopes of receiving a summons to attend Mrs Rayland; and now believing, from the delay, that she saw the proposal of Dr Hollybourn in a favourable light, and was writing to his father to enforce its acceptance.

  At length he was desired to walk up stairs; and, with a fluttering heart, he entered the apartment of Mrs Rayland, who began by saying – ‘You know, I suppose, the contents of the letter my kinsman Mr Somerive has taken the trouble to send me?’

  Orlando answered, that he certainly did.

  ‘And pray, Sir, have you any wish to accept this offer? An offer! – The world methinks is strangely changed! – For a man to offer his daughter – is such an indecorum – In my time such a proceeding was unheard of – But however we live and learn! – I have heard that the way of these days is to send young women to market like cattle: but there is something perfectly shocking in it to me. – However, I suppose, to people of the world it is nothing new or extraordinary. – Pray, Sir, what are your intentions?’

  Orlando immediately saw, and saw with inexpressible pleasure, that Mrs Rayland was averse to the alliance with Dr Hollybourn. He answered therefore – ‘My intentions, Madam, are to decline an offer which certainly lays me under great obligation to Dr Hollybourn, but which the profession I have chosen, and my inability to offer Miss Hollybourn an heart such as her fortune and merit give her a right to expect, render it impossible for me to accept.’

  Mrs Rayland, pleased to see that Orlando had no desire to become independent of her, or to force her to a positive declaration of her future intentions in regard to him, which she fancied his father wished to do by engaging her to give her sentiments on this proposal, now smiled very graciously upon him, and said, ‘I think you right, cousin Orlando. – Dr Hollybourn is to be sure a very worthy man: – his daughter, they say, is a young person well brought up; and the fortune is very large, which first and last he can give her, besides what he is always telling me he is to expect from his brother the bishop. – But, you are yet a very young man, cousin; and in truth it seems to me to be time enough to think of marrying. – The fortune of this young woman is certainly very considerable: but, perhaps, not greater than at some time or other – (she hesitated as if afraid of saying too much) – I say, by the time your settling in life is advisable, perhaps you may not have occasion to make fortune an object in marrying, so much as a good family. – Dr Hollybourn talks of his indeed, which is not well judged; for there are people who recollect both the Doctor and his brother, the bishop, in very humble stations compared to what they are now. God forbid, though, that I should despise them therefore! not at all; that is not my meaning – And to be sure your family, my cousin, has not of itself much pretensions to match with ancient blood – (and again she hesitated as fearing to betray her intentions too far) – I say, if ever you are in a situation to marry, I would advise that you think of a woman of a good family at least.’

  Orlando waited with impatience for the conclusion of this speech; and then falteringly and eagerly asked of Mrs Rayland, if she would have the goodness to put into writing her opinion on this subject?

  This, however, she refused, as she said she would not appear to interfere in it upon any account. – ‘Will you then, Madam, take the trouble to see my father? – Will you allow him to wait upon you? – for he is so anxious for me, and, I believe, thinks this affair likely to be so agreeable to you, that he will be hardly easy unless he hears your sentiments.’

  Mrs Rayland, drawing herself up, as was her way, said – ‘I shall be glad to see Mr Somerive on any matter tha
t relates to you, cousin, though on this occasion I own it seems very needless. – However, you have my leave to say, that I shall be ready to talk over this business with my kinsman, provided, as I said before, I am not supposed by Dr Hollybourn or his family to interfere.’

  Orlando, impatient to have this affair concluded at once and for ever, now asked if his father might wait upon her that afternoon? – ‘When he pleased,’ was the answer; – and Orlando, fearing that if she was left long to consider of it she might change her mind as his father had done before, now ran to West Wolverton with the utmost speed, quite forgetting that he was to have dined with Mrs Rayland, or that dining at all was necessary.

  When he arrived there, he hastened to related to his father and his mother, whom he found together, the purport of his conference with Mrs Rayland; to whom Mr Somerive agreed to go immediately after dinner, though he seemed visibly disappointed; while Mrs Somerive, who had for a moment indulged herself with the hopes that her Orlando, instead of continuing in dependence on the caprice of Mrs Rayland, and of being separated from her by an hazardous profession, might be placed at once in great affluence, and in the immediate neighbourhood, relinquished those hopes with a deep sigh, but said nothing to her son on a point where it would now be useless.

  Mr Somerive, finding the General was gone on a visit to Stockton’s, from whence it was probable he would not return till half an hour after four, determined to hasten to Mrs Rayland before dinner. He got on horseback, therefore; and, attended by Orlando, on their arrival at the Hall he expressed to his son some apprehensions that the lady of the house might be at dinner: but Orlando, whose impatience could brook no delay, declared, without a very strict enquiry into the hour, that it was not yet time, and that he was sure they might go to the parlour where she usually sat, as she had so positively said they might come at any time.

  Somerive, almost as anxious for the conference as his son, though from very different motives, agreed then to proceed. Orlando would have sent up a servant, had he met one; but none happened to appear, and he walked before his father up the stairs, and, opening the door of Mrs Rayland’s sitting room, he saw her at the table, with Mrs Lennard on one side of it, and Monimia on the other. He would have retreated, but it was too late. He was already in the room – his father already at the table, apologising to Mrs Rayland for his unreasonable intrusion. She received him with civility, but without any degree of kindness or warmth – desired he would take a chair and sit down, and then said to Monimia, who stood blushing and trembling, and not daring to look up, – ‘Mary, you will withdraw, I have business with my kinsman.’

  ‘I beg I may not disturb any body,’ cried Mr Somerive turning his eyes towards Monimia, and immediately comprehending who she was – ‘I beg I may be allowed to retire till dinner is over.’ ‘No, Sir,’ answered Mrs Rayland; ‘I shall be glad to hear your business now, and I will dismiss my people.’

  Mr Somerive again looked at Monimia as she left the room, and he saw that Orlando was lost, if his being so depended upon his attachment; for the extreme beauty, sweetness and grace of Monimia, so unlike the cherry-cheeked coarse rustic which his fancy had represented her, amazed and grieved him. He felt at once, that a young man whose heart was devoted to her, could never think of Miss Hollybourn, and that he himself could not blame an attachment to an object so lovely, however imprudent, or however ruinous.

  Mrs Lennard now offered to withdraw; but her lady bade her finish her dinner, while poor Orlando cast a melancholy look after Monimia, and then on the seat she had left, which Mrs Rayland desired him to take. The dinner was soon removed; and then Mr Somerive, in a few words, repeated the purport of his letter. Mrs Rayland, even more strongly than she had done to Orlando, expressed her wish that the offer of Dr Hollybourn might be politely declined; and though she evaded giving her reasons for it, Somerive thought he saw them unequivocally, and that, though she studiously avoided declaring it, she had determined to put Orlando into a situation in which it would be not at all necessary that he should marry, for money, a woman to whom he was indifferent.

  Mrs Rayland had very little art; yet she fancied herself a profound politician, and never considered that, while she forbore positively or even remotely to give Orlando assurances of possessing her estate, her insisting upon the propriety of his marrying, whenever he did marry, a woman of family, was in effect declaring that she meant she should be the person who was to perpetuate hers, on which she put so high a value, and thus to efface in the illustrious blood of his posterity, that alloy with the inferiority of the Somerives had mingled with that of the Raylands.

  Somerive, convinced of this even from the pains she took to conceal it, yielded at once to her wishes, and assured her he would permit Orlando with great politeness to decline Dr Hollybourn’s proposal; yet as he continued to listen to hr harangues upon family, he could not help looking significantly at Orlando – looks which his son perfectly understood to say, ‘How will this accord with your attachment to the young person who was this moment dismissed by Mrs Rayland, as one of “her people”?’

  The old Lady, however, was hardly ever in so good a humour with her relations as she became after this affair was discussed; and Mr Somerive never left the house so full of hopes that his family would be its possessors as he did after this interview, when he returned home in good spirits, though entirely relinquishing the idea of Orlando’s becoming the nephew of a bishop.

  Orlando himself, though impatient to write and dispatch the letter to Dr Hollybourn, yet staid at the Hall to drink tea, by the desire of Mrs Rayland, who gently chid him for deserting her at dinner. It was with more pain than pleasure that he heard Monimia sent for to make the tea, which had hardly happened twice within the last three years when he was in the house. Mrs Lennard cast a look at him when her Lady ordered her niece to be called; but she could make no objection without raising those suspicions which she ever appeared so solicitous to prevent. Monimia then attended. Orlando treated her as a stranger, whom he was slightly acquainted with; and Mrs Rayland did not appear to have the remotest suspicion that he had any particular regard for her: so friendly to him, as it happened, had been the mistakes and interpretations which the jealousy of Pattenson had put upon those circumstances that had so frequently threatened to betray him.

  He had settled with Monimia, the preceding night, to stay supper with his father, and return to their usual rendezvous; and their stolen glances during the half hour that they were together, in the presence of the two old ladies, confirmed this appointment.

  Early in the evening, then, Orlando took leave of Mrs Rayland, and went back to the house of his father, whose uncommon good spirits had diffused more than usual gaiety among his family. Mrs Somerive and Selina were particularly cheerful – the mother, because she saw her husband for a moment happy, and forgetting the concern he continually felt about Philip, in looking forward to the prosperity of his brother – while Selina, who had trembled for the teasing persecution she apprehended for Orlando, was delighted to find that her father would forbear to urge him on such a subject, and had acquired new confidence in the future intentions of Mrs Rayland.

  Isabella, whose marriage was now within a week to take place, and who had just received from London some of those elegant clothes which her father had ordered for her, as well as some magnificent presents from the General, was the least gay of the party: amidst all her endeavours to persuade herself that she was happy, she had of late, and particularly since she had possessed these fineries, often enquired of herself whether they had really any power to bestow happiness. She had tried on her diamond ear-rings, and a valuable pearl neck-lace; but she could not discover that she looked at all handsomer in them than when she wore nothing but a simple ribband. The General’s valet de chambre had dressed her hair; but she thought the mode unbecoming to her face, and the beautiful dark auburn hue, which had been so much admired, was no longer distinguishable. As for her intended husband, he was so far from having made any progress in
her affections since he had been received as such, that her contempt was converted into disgust. His servants had been talking among those of Somerive, of his gallantries, and, above all, of the sudden desertion of the lady who lived with him; all of which Isabella had heard from her maid, and the longer she listened to, or thought of the anecdotes thus collected, the greater became her repugnance; and yet she knew not how to retract, and was not always sure that she wished it.

  Her gravity was easily accounted for, as the day approached that was to divide her from her family; and she was suffered, after some gentle raillery, to be silent and pensive amidst the cheerful conversation of the rest.

  It was a lovely evening in early May. Orlando, having dispatched his letter, dismissed Dr Hollybourn and the disagreeable heiress from his mind, and gave it up only to pleasurable impressions and flattering hopes. In a happier frame of mind than he almost ever was in before, he joined his family in their evening walk. When they reached the house, they stopped in the court before it, to admire the beauty of the moon, and to listen to the nightingale, who seemed to be addressing to that beautiful planet her plaintive orisons. Orlando wished himself with Monimia; and thought with delight that within two hours he should be so, and should relate the unpleasant alarm of the day, only to tell her it was over, and had eventually been fortunate in drawing from Mrs Rayland declarations more than ever favourable to his future hopes.

  The whole party sat down to supper in this cheerful disposition. The General, like a happy lover, was particularly animated; and the younger girls were much amused by some anecdotes he was relating, when a servant entered hastily, and said that a gentleman who was just come post from London desired to speak to General Tracy.

  ‘To me!’ cried the General, changing countenance: ‘Impossible! I know no business any one can have with me that should give him that trouble. Pray, enquire his name, or send my servants to enquire.’