Works of Ellen Wood

by Ellen Wood

  “True. But the time since I loved Lucy can be counted by years. I loved her before I married,” he added in a low tone.

  “Why, then, have married another?” demanded Sir Henry, after a pause.

  “You may well ask it, Sir Henry,” he replied, the upright line in his brow showing out just then all too deep and plain. “I engaged myself to my first wife in an unguarded moment; as soon as the word was spoken I became aware that she was less dear to me than Lucy. I might have retracted; but the retractation would have left a stain on my honour that could never be effaced. I am, not the first man who has paid by years of penitence for a word spoken in the heat of passion.”

  True enough! Sir Henry simply nodded his head in answer.

  “Yes, I loved Lucy; I married another, loving her; I never ceased loving her all throughout my married life. And I had to force down my feelings; to suppress and hide them in the best manner that I could.”

  “And Lucy?” involuntarily uttered Sir Henry.

  “Lucy — may I dare to say it to you? — loved me,” he answered, his breath coming fast. “I believe, from my very heart, that she loved me in that early time, deeply perhaps as I loved her. I have never exchanged a word with her upon the point; but I cannot conceal from myself that it was the unhappy fact.”

  “Did you know it at the time?”

  “No!” he answered, raising his hand to his brow, on which the drops were gathering, “I did not suspect it until it was too late; until I was married. She was so child-like.”

  Sir Henry Tempest sat in silence, probably revolving the information.

  “If you had known it — what then?”

  “Do not ask me,” replied Lionel, his bewailing tone strangely full of pain. “I cannot tell what I should have done. It would have been Lucy — love — versus honour. And a Verner never sacrificed honour yet. And yet — it seems to me that I sacrificed honour in the course I took. Let the question drop, Sir Henry. It is a time I cannot bear to recur to.”

  Neither spoke for some minutes. Lionel’s face was shaded by his hand. Presently he looked up.

  “Do not part us, Sir Henry!” he implored, his voice quite hoarse with its emotion, its earnestness. “We could neither of us bear it. I have waited for her long.”

  “I will deal candidly with you,” said Sir Henry. “In the old days it was a favourite project of mine and your father’s that our families should become connected by the union of our children — you and Lucy. We only spoke of it to each other; saying nothing to our wives: they might have set to work, women fashion, and urged it on by plotting and planning: we were content to let events take their course, and to welcome the fruition, should it come. Nearly the last words Sir Lionel said to me, when he was dying of his wound, were, that he should not live to see the marriage; but lie hoped I might. Years afterwards, when Lucy was placed with Lady Verner — I knew, no other friend in Europe to whom I would entrust her — her letters to me were filled with Lionel Verner. ‘Lionel was so kind to her!’— ‘Everybody liked Lionel!’ In one shape or other you were sure to be the theme. I heard how you lost the estate; of your coming to stay at Lady Verner’s; of a long illness you had there; of your regaining the estate through the death of the Massingbirds; and — next — of your marriage to Frederick Massingbird’s widow. From that time Lucy said less: in fact, her letters were nearly silent as to you: and, for myself, I never gave another thought to the subject. Your present communication has taken me entirely by surprise.”

  “But you will give her to me?”

  “I had rather — forgive me if I speak candidly — that she married one who had not called another woman wife.”

  “I heartily wish I never had called another woman wife,” was the response of Lionel. “But I cannot alter the past. I shall not make Lucy the less happy; and, for moving her — I tell you that my love for her, throughout, has been so great, as to have put it almost beyond the power of suppression.”

  A servant entered, and said my lady was waiting tea. Lionel waved his hand towards the man with an impatient movement, and they were left at peace again.

  “You tell me that her heart is engaged in this, as well as yours?” resumed Sir Henry.

  A half-smile flitted for a moment over Lionel’s face; he was recalling Lucy’s whispered words to him that very afternoon.

  “Yes,” he answered, “her heart is bound up in me: I may almost say her life. If ever love served out its apprenticeship, Sir Henry, ours has. It is stronger than time and change.”

  “Well, I suppose you must have her,” conceded Sir Henry. “But for your own marriage, I should have looked on this as a natural result. What about the revenues of Verner’s Pride?”

  “I am in debt,” freely acknowledged Lionel. “In my wife’s time we spent too much, and outran our means. Part of my income for three or four years must be set apart to pay it off.”

  He might have said, “In my wife’s time she spent too much;” said it with truth. But, as he spared her feelings, living, so he spared her memory, dead.

  “Whoever takes Lucy, takes thirty thousand pounds on her wedding-day,” quietly remarked Sir Henry Tempest.

  The words quite startled Lionel. “Thirty thousand pounds!” he repeated mechanically.

  “Thirty thousand pounds. Did you think I should waste all my best years in India, Lionel, and save up nothing for my only child?”

  “I never thought about it,” was Lionel’s answer. “Or if I ever did think, I suppose I judged by my father. He saved no money.”

  “He had not the opportunity that I have had; and he died early. The appointment I held, out there, has been a lucrative one. That will be the amount of Lucy’s present fortune.”

  “I am glad I did not know it!” heartily affirmed Lionel.

  “It might have made the winning her more difficult, I suppose you think?”

  “Not the winning her,” was Lionel’s answer, the self-conscious smile again on his lips. “The winning your consent, Sir Henry.”

  “It has not been so hard a task, either,” quaintly remarked Sir Henry, as he rose. “I am giving her to you, understand, for your father’s sake; in the trust that you are the same honourably good man, standing well before the world and Heaven, that he was. Unless your looks belie you, you are not degenerate.”

  Lionel stood before him, almost too agitated to speak. Sir Henry stopped him, laying his hand upon his shoulder.

  “No thanks, Lionel. Gratitude? You can pay all that to Lucy after she shall be your wife.”

  They went together into the drawing-room, arm-in-arm. Sir Henry advanced straight to his daughter.

  “What am I to say to you, Lucy? He has been talking secrets.”

  She looked up, like a startled fawn. But a glimpse at Lionel’s face reassured her, bringing the roses into her cheeks. Lady Verner, wondering, gazed at them in amazement, and Lucy hid her hot cheeks on her father’s breast.

  “Am I to scold you? Falling in love without my permission!”

  The tone, the loving arm wound round her, brought to her confidence. She could almost afford to be saucy.

  “Don’t be angry, papa!” were her whispered words. “It might have been worse.”

  “Worse!” returned Sir Henry, trying to get a look at her face. “You independent child! How could it have been worse?”

  “It might have been Jan, you know, papa.”

  And Sir Henry Tempest burst into an irrepressible laugh as he sat down.

  CHAPTER XCV.

  SUNDRY ARRIVALS.

  We have had many fine days in this history, but never a finer one gladdened Deerham than the last that has to be recorded, ere its scene in these pages shall close. It was one of those rarely lovely days that now and then do come to us in autumn. The air was clear, the sky bright, the sun hot as in summer, the grass green almost as in spring. It was evidently a day of rejoicing. Deerham, since the afternoon, seemed to be taking holiday, and as the sun began to get lower in the heavens, groups in their b
est attire were wending their way towards Verner’s Pride.

  There was the centre of attraction. A fête — or whatever you might please to call it, where a great deal of feasting is going on — was about to be held on no mean scale. Innumerable tables, some large, some small, were set out in different parts of the grounds, their white cloths intimating that they were to be laden with good cheer. Tynn and his satellites bustled about, and believed they had never had such a day of work before.

  A day of pleasure also, unexampled in their lives; for their master, Lionel Verner, was about to bring home his bride.

  Everybody was flocking to the spot; old and young, gentle and simple. The Elmsleys and the half-starved Hooks; the Hautleys and those ill-doing Dawsons; the Misses West and their pupils; Lady Verner and the Frosts; Mr. Bitterworth in a hand-chair, his gouty foot swathed up in linen; Mrs. Duff, who had shut up her shop to come; Dan, in some new clothes; Mr. Peckaby and lady; Chuff the blacksmith, with rather a rolling gait; and Master Cheese and Jan. In short, all Deerham and its neighbourhood had turned out.

  This was to be Master Cheese’s last appearance on any scene — so far as Deerham was concerned. The following day he would quit Jan for good; and that gentleman’s new assistant, a qualified practitioner, had arrived, and was present. Somewhat different arrangements from what had been originally contemplated were about to be entered on, as regarded Jan. The Misses West had found their school prosper so well during the half-year it had been established that they were desirious of taking the house entirely on their own hands. They commanded the good will and respect of Deerham, if their father did not. Possibly it was because he did not, and that their position was sympathised with and commiserated, that their scheme of doing something to place themselves independent of him, obtained so large a share of patronage. They wished to take the whole house on their own hands. Easy Jan acquiesced; Lionel thought it the best thing in all ways; and Jan began to look out for another home. But Jan seemed to waver in the fixing upon one. First, he had thought of lodgings; next he went to see a small, pretty new house that had just been built close to the Misses West. “It is too small for you, Mr. Jan,” had observed Miss Deborah.

  “It will hold me and my assistant, and the boy, and a cook, and the surgery,” answered Jan. “And that’s all I want.”

  Neither the lodgings, however, nor the small house had been taken; and now it was rumoured than Jan’s plans were changed again. The report ran that the surgery was to remain where it was, and that the assistant, a gentleman of rather mature age, would remain with it; occupying Jan’s bedroom (which had been renovated after the explosion of Master Cheese), and taking his meals with the Misses West: Jan meanwhile being about that tasty mansion called Belvedere House, which was situated midway between his old residence and Deerham Court. Deerham’s curiosity was uncommonly excited on the point. What, in the name of improbability, could plain Jan Verner want with a fine place like that? He’d have to keep five or six servants, if he went there. The most feasible surmise that could be arrived at was, that Jan was about to establish a mad-house — as Deerham was in the habit of phrasing a receptacle for insane patients — of the private, genteel order. Deerham felt very curious; and Jan, being a person whom they felt at ease to question without ceremony, was besieged upon the subject. Jan’s answer (all they could get from him this time) was — that he was thinking of taking Belvedere House, but had no intention yet of setting up a mad-house. And affairs were in this stage at the present time.

  Lionel and his bride were expected momentarily, and the company of all grades formed themselves into groups as they awaited them. They had been married in London some ten days ago, where Sir Henry Tempest had remained, after quitting Deerham with Lucy. The twelvemonth had been allowed to go by consequent to the death of Sibylla. Lionel liked that all things should be done decorously and in order. Sir Henry was now on a visit to Sir Edmund Hautley and Decima: he was looking out for a suitable residence in the neighbourhood, where he meant to settle. This gathering at Verner’s Pride to welcome Lionel, had been a thought of Sir Henry’s and old Mr. Bitterworth’s. “Why not give the poor an afternoon’s holiday for once?” cried Sir Henry. “I will repay them the wages they must lose in taking it.” And so — here was the gathering, and Tynn had carried out his orders for the supply of plenty to eat and drink.

  They formed in groups, listening for the return of the carriage, which had gone in state to the railway station to receive them. All, save Master Cheese. He walked about somewhat disconsolately, thinking the proceedings rather slow. In his wandering he came upon Tynn, placing good things upon one of the tables, which was laid in an alcove.

  “When’s the feasting going to begin?” asked he.

  “Not until Mr. Verner shall have come,” replied Tynn. “The people will be wanting to cheer him; and they can’t do that well, if they are busy round the tables, eating.”

  “Who’s the feast intended for?” resumed Master Cheese.

  “It’s chiefly intended for those who don’t get feasts at home,” returned Tynn. “But anybody can partake of it that pleases.”

  “I should like just a snack,” said Master Cheese. “I had such a short dinner to-day. Now that all those girls are stuck down at the dining-table, Miss Deb sometimes forgets to ask one a third time to meat,” he added in a grumbling tone. “And there was nothing but a rubbishing rice pudding after it to-day! So I’d like to take a little, Tynn. I feel quite empty.”

  “You can take as much as you choose,” said Tynn, who had known Master Cheese’s appetite before to-day. “Begin at once, if you like, without waiting for the others. Some of the tables are spread.”

  “I think I will,” said Master Cheese, looking lovingly at a pie on the table over which they were standing. “What’s inside this pie, Tynn?”

  Tynn bent his head to look closely. “I think that’s partridge,” said he. “There are plenty of other sorts: and there’s a vast quantity of cold meats; beef and ham, and that. Sir Henry Tempest said I was not to stint ‘em.”

  “I like partridge pie,” said Master Cheese, as he seated himself before it, his mouth watering. “I have not tasted one this season. Do you happen to have a drop of bottled ale, Tynn?”

  “I’ll fetch a bottle,” answered Tynn. “Is there anything else you’d like, sir?”

  “What else is there?” asked Master Cheese. “Anything in the sweets line?”

  “There’s about a hundred baked plum puddings. My wife has got some custards, too, in her larder. The custards are not intended for out here, but you can have one.”

  Master Cheese wiped his damp face; he had gone all over into a glow of delight. “Bring a pudding and a custard or two, Tynn,” said he. “There’s nothing in the world half so nice as a plate of plum pudding swimming in custard.”

  Tynn was in the act of supplying his wants, when a movement and a noise in the distance came floating on the air. Tynn dashed the dish of custards on to the table, and ran like the rest. Everybody ran — except Master Cheese.

  It was turning slowly into the grounds — the blue and silver carriage of the Verners, its four horses prancing under their studded harness. Lionel and his wife of a few days descended from it, when they found themselves in the midst of this unexpected crowd. They had cause, those serfs, to shout out a welcome to their lord; for never again would they live in a degrading position, if he could help it. The various improvements for their welfare, which he had so persistently and hopefully planned, were not only begun, but nearly ended.

  Sir Henry clasped Lucy’s sweet face to his own bronzed one, pushing back her white bonnet to take his kiss from it. Then followed Lady Verner, then Decima, then Mary Elmsley. Lucy shook herself free, and laughed.

  “I don’t like so many kisses all at once,” said she.

  Lionel was everywhere. Shaking hands with old Mr. Bitterworth, with the Misses West, with Sir Edmund Hautley, with Lord Garle, with the Countess of Elmsley, with all that came in his way. Next he lo
oked round upon a poorer class; and the first hand taken in his was Robin Frost’s. By and by he encountered Jan.

  “Well, Jan, old fellow!” said he, his affection shining out in his earnest, dark-blue eyes, “I am glad to be with you again. Is Cheese here?”

  “He came,” replied Jan. “But where he has disappeared to, I can’t tell.”

  “Please, sir, I see’d him just now in an alcove,” interposed Dan Duff, addressing Lionel.

  “And how are you, Dan?” asked Lionel, with his kindly smile. “Saw Mr. Cheese in an alcove, did you?”

  “It was that there one,” responded Dan, extending his finger in the direction of a spot not far distant. “He was tucking in at a pie. I see’d him, please sir.”

  “I must go to him,” said Lionel, winding his arm within Jan’s, and proceeding in the direction of the alcove. Master Cheese, his hands full of cold pudding and his mouth covered with custard, started up when surprised at his feast.

  “It’s only a little bit I’m tasting,” said he apologetically, “against it’s time to begin. I hope you have come back well, sir.”

  “Taste away, Cheese,” replied Lionel, with a laugh, as he cast his eyes on some remaining fragments. “Partridge pie! do you like it?”

  “Like it!” returned Master Cheese, the tears coming into his eyes with eagerness, “I wish I could be where I should have nothing else for a whole week.”

  “The first week’s holiday you get at Bartholomew’s, you must come and pay Verner’s Pride a visit, and we will keep you supplied. Mrs. Verner will be glad to see you.”

  Master Cheese gave a great gasp. The words seemed too good to be real.

  “Do you mean it, sir?” he asked.

  “Of course I mean it,” replied Lionel. “I owe you a debt, you know. But for your having blown yourself and the room up, I might not now be in possession of Verner’s Pride. You come and spend a week with us when you can.”

  “That’s glorious, and I’m much obliged to you, sir,” said Master Cheese, in an ecstasy. “I think I’ll have just another custard on the strength of it.”