The Silver Bottle; or, The Adventures of Little Marlboro in Search of His Father
Page 16
The following day about twelve o'clock our hero took a cab and drove privately to the lodgings of Col. Field. Sending up his name as Mr. Darwell of the United States, he was ushered into the drawing room. Emma was alone. On seeing him she arose, advanced a step to offer her hand in welcome and then stopped short covered with blushes, and her cheeks in beautiful confusion. Our hero approached her with equal embarrassment. She raised her eyes, their glances met, and with a bright smile she extended her hand, which he took and pressed to his lips.
`It is long since we have met, Mr. Darwell,' she said with a trembling tone in her voice and making an effort to be firm.
`It is, in person, Miss Field, save for a moment at long intervals,' he answered, `but in memory you have not been absent from me a day since first I met you as a school-boy and received from your hand a boquet of flowers. A bud of that gift I still retain, and the memory of the giver confers upon them, still, both life and fragrance.'
We will not attempt here to record the conversation between two true and loving hearts, which for years had lived in each other's light though that light had been long obscured by the dark clouds of circumstances, now dissipated forever. Before they parted, our hero had wooed and won her as Mr. Darwell, assuring her that in a few days she should see his father and know more intimately all that related to his family.
As he was descending to the hall he encountered Russel Carryl upon the stairs with two young men, one of whom he recognised as the midshipman with whom he had fought. On seeing him, Carryl, suspecting whom he had been to call on, looked angrily upon him and then sneeringly said, so that he might hear:
`There goes the widow Darwell's protege! I wonder if he has got so wise as to know his own father?'
This infamous insult lord Henry took no notice of, feeling that when Carryl came to know his true rank and his acceptance by Miss Field, he would be sufficiently punished.
`There he goes in a wretched hired cab,' said Carryl, who kept his own tilbury and affected the excess of London fashion, and whose chief ambition was to know a nobleman. To have walked arm and arm with a lord down Regent street, he would cheerfully have given a hundred guineas!
`I wonder,' he added, `if he has had the audacity to call on Miss Field. If he has, I will cane him.'
He sent in his card and that of his friend, and was confounded and indignant by the reply brought by the footman, `that Miss Field was engaged and could not see him.'
`This is all that nameless fellow's work. He has been to see her, and as I know she has long had a liking for him, I dare say he has succeeded in blinding her eyes to his low birth, and doubtless has been defaming me.'
Here, however, this young gentleman was wrong. His rival had too noble a soul to condescend to such means to ingratiate himself into the regards of Miss Field; but, as he himself had adopted them and made the defamation of our hero to be an instrument towards his own success, he naturally attributed similar motives of action to another.
The following evening an unusually magnificent assembly was to be held at the palace of the Earl of—. Lord Henry was a great card, and although the invitations had some days been issued, he received one, and by the advice of Mr. Beufort accepted it. As he was desirous Emma should be present, he succeeded in getting an invitation for her to go in company with the family of the American Minister.
All the nobility in London was present. It was soon noised that the heir of the Duke of — was in the room, and our hero soon found himself the lion of the evening. But he thought little of the honors and adulations so long as they were not shared with Emma. At length he discovered her and was about to approach her, when he was detained to have presented to him some members of the House of Lords. In the meanwhile Emma, who knew her lover was to be there, was looking for him amid the crowd.
`How would you like to be presented to this young nobleman whom every body is taking about?' said his Excellency to her with a smile; for he had our hero's whole story from Mr. Beufort, together with whom he had dined that afternoon at C— Hotel. Therefore, knowing all the history of our hero and his love, the Minister had prepared himself for an interesting scene.
`I have no wish,' she answered, smiling.
`Well then perhaps I can find Mr. Darwell. Wait here till I cross the hall. I will seek him and bring him here. I dare say you won't object to seeing him!'
Mr. — did not wait to observe her confusion, but soon disappeared in the throng. In three minutes afterwards he returned, leading up our hero.
`You can't help yourself now, Miss Field,' said his Excellency. `Here is his lordship come to be presented to you.—Miss Field this is Lord Henry A—. Lord Henry, allow me to present you to Miss Field.'
Emma stood confounded! Could it be true? Could the minister be trifling with her? Lord Henry approached and taking her hand said in a low voice, but with a smile,
`Emma, I trust that you will keep the promise you made to me as Mr. Darwell, now that you see me before you under the name and rank of Lord Arlborough. '
`Is this indeed true?' she asked with a deep flush of joy.
`It is. My father is the Lord Ferdinand, eldest son of the Duke of A—.'
At this moment several persons of high rank came up to be presented to the lion of the evening, and the formality of the presentation convinced her that all was true. She now trembled for herself, and would have feared that she should be no longer regarded by him, but for the sweet echo of the words he had spoken to her.
As His Excellency had been pressingly importuned by Mr. Russel Carryl to use his influence to get him an invitation to this noble party, he finally consented and was so far successful as to have permission to attach Mr. Carryl to his suite. Russel Carryl was therefore present; but he had not yet seen Miss Field, nor encountered our hero.
`Where, sir, is this distinguished young nobleman, the heir of the title of Duke of Arlborough, every one is talking about, as just arrived from the continent, where he has been since a boy?' asked Russel Carryl of the American minister, coming up to him with his back towards lord Henry.
`Would you like to be presented?'
`Above all things,' answered the young man.
`There he stands talking with Miss Field, his back towards us. I will present you if you will approach with me. My lord, allow me to present —'
`That—that is not the Lord A—!' suddenly exclaimed Russel Carryl, starting back in the utmost surprise and confusion, on getting a glimpse at the profile of his rival.
`It is the same! My lord, I beg leave to present to you, at his particular desire. Mr. Russel Carryl, who —.'
Both our hero and Miss Field turned round at this name. Russel Carryl stood for a moment petrified with astonishment, enduring the cold and haughty gaze of the man he had injured, and then covered with confusion and vexation which no words can describe, he abruptly broke from the minister and hastened to bury his disgrace and well merited contempt amid the crowd. The triumph of our hero was complete! He felt at that moment of triumph fully avenged of all the wrongs then man had heaped upon him!
We have now only to close our story in the good old fashioned way, that is with announcing the marriage of the hero and heroine, which took place with great splendor three months afterwards, at the Palace of the Duke of A — in London. It would have been celebrated earlier; but our hero as faithful in his love and attachment to good Dame Darwell, as he had been in his devotion to the maiden who had won his young heart, would not have the marriage take place without the worthy Dame's presence. He, therefore, sent over for her, and sure enough Dame Darwell was there in person present at the wedding; but to tell how happy the good Dame was, we should have to write another book! It is hardly necessary to say that she recognised Lord Ferdinand, and that he recognised her as the hostess of the Inn where they had left the infant! The good Dame has consented to remain in England with her foster son; and with this end she has made over her Inn and other property to Aunt Keezia and cousin Mariah the minister's wife, and `The Silve
r Bottle Inn' has now become the village parsonage. Russel Carryl left England precipitately, and soon after returned to the United States, where, after running through his fortune, he became intemperate, lost his character, and is now become an idle and despised frequenter of low coffee-houses, and the moneyless haunter of the vile precincts of gambling halls!
Thus we end our story. Its progress will show that virtue and perseverance will overcome every obstacle of birth, fortune, and circumstances; and that the depraved and unprincipled, though favored by these in the outset, will ultimately sink to the level of their true characters.
THE END.