Frank Fairlegh

F >> Frank E. Smedley >> Frank Fairlegh

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45

"John and Betsey Shortoats."

[Susan tears the letter, bursts into tears, and sinks back into a chair
fainting--curtain drops.]~350~~

CHAPTER XLIV -- CONFESSIONS

"....And sure the match Were rich and honourable."
--_Two Gentlemen of Verona_.

"We that are true lovers run into strange capers."
--_As You Like It_.

"....That which I would discover,
The law of friendship bids me to conceal."
--_Two Gentlemen of Verona._

"Tarry I here, I but attend on death;
But fly I hence, I fly away from life."

"DEAR me! what can it possibly mean? how I wish I could guess it!" said
the youngest Miss Simper.

"Do you know what it is, Mr. Oaklands?" asked the second Miss Simper.

"I'm sure he does, he looks so delightfully wicked," added the eldest
Miss Simper, shaking her ringlets in a fascinating manner, to evince her
faith in the durability of their curl.

The eldest Miss Simper had been out four seasons, and spent the last
winter at Nice, on the strength of which she talked to young men of
themselves in the third person, to show her knowledge of the world,
and embodied in her behaviour generally a complete system of
"Matrimony-made-easy, or the whole Art of getting a good Establishment,"
proceeding from early lessons in converting acquaintances into flirts,
up to the important final clause--how to lead young men of property to
propose.

"Really," replied Oaklands, "my face must be far more expressive
and less honest than I was aware of, for I can assure you they have
studiously kept me in the dark as to the meaning."

"But you have made out some idea for yourself; it is impossible that it
should be otherwise," observed the second Miss Simper, who had rubbed
off some of her shyness upon a certain young Hebrew Professor at the
last Cambridge Installation, and become rather blue from the contact.

"Have you?" said the youngest Miss Simper, who, being as nearly a fool
as it is possible to allow that a pretty girl of seventeen can be,
rested her pretensions upon a plaintive voice and a pensive smile, which
went ~351~~ just far enough to reveal an irreproachable set of teeth,
and then faded away into an expression of gentle sorrow, the source of
which, like that of the Niger, had as yet remained undiscovered.

"Oh, he has!" exclaimed the eldest Miss Simper; "that exquisitely
sarcastic, yet tantalising curl of the upper-lip, tells me that it is
so."

"Since you press me," replied Oaklands, "I confess, I believe I have
guessed it."

"I knew it--it could not have been otherwise," exclaimed the blue belle
enthusiastically.

The youngest Miss Simper spoke not, but her appealing glance, and a
slight exhibition of the pearl-like teeth, seemed to hint that some
mysterious increase of her secret sorrow might be expected in the event
of Oaklands' refusing to communicate the results of his penetration.

"As I make it out," said Harry, "the first scene was Inn, the second
Constancy, and the third Inconstancy."

"Ah! that wretch John, he was the Inconstancy," observed the eldest Miss
Simper, "marrying for money!--the creature!--such baseness 1 but how
delightfully that dear, clever Mr. Lawless acted; he made love with such
_naive_ simplicity, too; he is quite irresistible."

"I shall take care to let him know your flattering opinion," returned
Oaklands with a faint attempt at a smile, while the gloom on his brow
grew deeper, and the Misses Simper were in their turn deserted; the
eldest gaining this slight addition to her worldly knowledge, viz., that
it is not always prudent to praise one friend to another, unless you
happen to be a little more behind the scenes than had been the case in
the present instance.

"Umph! Frank Fairlegh, where are you? come here, boy," said Mr.
Frampton, seizing one of my buttons, and towing me thereby into a
corner. "Pretty girl, your sister Fanny--nice girl, too--umph!"

"I am very glad she pleases you, sir," replied I; "as you become better
acquainted with her, you will find that she is as good as she looks--if
you like her now, you will soon grow very fond of her--everybody becomes
fond of Fanny."

"Umph! I can see one who is, at all events. Pray, sir, do you mean to
let your sister marry that good-natured, well-disposed, harum-scarum
young fool, Lawless?"

"This is a matter I leave entirely to themselves; if ~352~~ Lawless
wishes to marry Fanny, and she likes him well enough to accept him, and
his parents approve of the arrangement, I shall make no objection: it
would be a very good match for her."

"Umph! yes--she would make a very nice addition to his stud," returned
Mr. Frampton, in a more sarcastic tone than I had ever heard him use
before. "What do you suppose are the girl's own wishes? is she willing
to be Empress of the Stable?"

"Really, sir, you ask me a question which I am quite unable to answer;
young, ladies are usually reserved upon such subjects, and Fanny is
especially so; but from my own observations, I am inclined to think that
she likes him."

"Umph! dare say she does; women are always fools in these cases--men
too, for that matter--or else they would take pattern by me, and
continue in a state of single blessedness," then came an aside, "Single
wretchedness more likely, nobody to care about one--nothing to love--die
in a ditch like a beggar's dog, without a pocket-handkerchief wetted for
one--there's single blessedness for you! ride in a hearse, and have
some fat fool chuckling in the sleeve of his black coat over one's
hard-earned money. Nobody shall do that with mine, though; for I'll
leave it all to build union work-houses and encourage the slave-trade,
by way of revenging myself on society at large. Wonder why I said that,
when I don't think it! just like me--umph!"

"I am not at all sure but that this may prove a mere vision of our own
too lively imaginations, after all," replied I, "or that Lawless looks
upon Fanny in any other light than as the sister of his old friend,
and an agreeable girl to talk and laugh with; but if it should turn out
otherwise, I should be sorry to think that it is a match which will not
meet with your approval, sir."

"Oh! I shall approve--I always approve of everything--I dare say he'll
make a capital husband--he's very kind to his dogs and horses. Umph!
silly boy, silly girl--when she could easily do better, too. Umph 1
just like me, bothering myself about other people, when I might leave it
alone--silly girl though, very!"

So saying, Mr. Frampton walked away, grunting like a whole drove of
pigs, as was his wont when annoyed.

The next morning I was aroused from an uneasy sleep by the sun shining
brightly through my shutters, and, springing out of bed, and throwing
open the window, I perceived that it was one of those lovely winter days
~353~~ which appear sent to assure us that fogs, frost, and snow will
not last for ever, but that Nature has brighter things in store for us,
if we will bide her time patiently. To think of lying in bed on such
a morning was out of the question, so, dressing hastily, I threw on
a shooting jacket, and sallied forth for a stroll. As I wandered
listlessly through the park, admiring the hoar-frost which glittered
like diamonds in the early sunshine, clothing the brave old limbs of the
time-honoured fathers of the forest with a fabric of silver tissue,
the conversation I had held with Mr. Frampton about Fanny and Lawless
recurred to my mind. Strange that Harry Oaklands and Mr. Frampton--men
so different, yet alike in generous feeling and honourable
principle--should both evidently disapprove of such a union: was I
myself, then, so blinded by ideas of the worldly advantages it held
forth, that I was unable to perceive its unfitness? Would Lawless really
prize her, as Tennyson has so well expressed it in his finest poem, as

"Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse"?

and was I about to sacrifice my sister's happiness for rank and fortune,
those world-idols which, stripped of the supposititious attributes
bestowed upon them by the bigotry of their worshippers, appear, in
their true worth-lesaness, empty breath and perishable dross? But most
probably there was no cause for uneasiness; after all, I was very likely
worrying myself most unnecessarily: what proof was there that Lawless
really cared for Fanny? His attentions--oh! there was nothing in
that--Lawless was shy and awkward in female society, and Fanny had been
kind to him, and had taken the trouble to draw him out, therefore he
liked her, and preferred talking and laughing with her, rather than with
any other girl with whom he did not feel at his ease. However, even if
there should be anything more in it, it had not gone so far but that a
little judicious snubbing would easily put an end to it--I determined,
therefore, to talk to my mother about it after breakfast: she had now
seen enough of Lawless to form her own opinion of him; and if she agreed
with Oaklands and Mr. Frampton that his was not a style of character
calculated to secure Fanny's happiness, we must let her go and stay with
the Colemans, or find some other means of separating them. I had just
arrived at this conclusion, when, on passing round the stem of an old
tree which stood in the path, I encountered ~354~~ some person who was
advancing rapidly in an opposite direction, meeting him so abruptly that
we ran against each other with no small degree of violence.

"Hold hard there I you're on your wrong side, young fellow, and if
you've done me the slightest damage, even scratched my varnish, I'll
pull you up."

"I wish you had pulled up a little quicker yourself, Lawless," replied
I, for, as the reader has doubtless discovered from the style of his
address, it was none other than the subject of my late reverie with whom
I had come in collision. "I don't know whether I have scratched your
varnish, as you call it, but I have knocked the skin off my own knuckles
against the tree in the scrimmage."

"Never mind, man," returned Lawless, "there are worse misfortunes happen
at sea; a little sticking-plaster will set all to rights again. But look
here, Fairlegh," he continued, taking my arm, "I'm glad I happened to
meet you; I want to have five minutes' serious conversation with you."

"Won't it do after breakfast?" interposed I, for my fears construed
this appeal into "confirmation strong as holy writ" of my previous
suspicions, and I wished to be fortified by my mother's opinion before
I in any degree committed myself. All my precautions were, however, in
vain.

"Eh! I won't keep you five minutes, but you see this sort of thing will
never do at any price; I'm all wrong altogether--sometimes I feel as if
fire and water would not stop me, or cart-ropes hold me--then again I
grow as nervous as an old cat with the palsy, and sit moping in a
corner like an owl in fits. Last hunting-day I was just as if I was
mad--pressed upon the pack when they were getting away--rode over two or
three of the tail hounds, laid 'em sprawling on their backs, like spread
eagles, till the huntsman swore at me loud enough to split a three-inch
oak plank--went slap at everything that came in my way--took rails,
fences, and timber, all flying, rough and smooth as nature made 'em--in
short, showed the whole field the way across country at a pace which
rather astonished them, I fancy;--well, at last there was a check, and
before the hounds got on the scent again, something seemed to come over
me, so that I could not ride a bit, and kept cranning at mole-hills
and shirking gutters, till I wound up by getting a tremendous purl from
checking my horse at a wretched little fence that he could have stepped
over, and actually I felt so fainthearted that I gave it up as a bad
job, and rode home ~355~~ ready to eat my hat with vexation. But I
know what it is, I'm in love--that confounded Charade put me up to
that dodge. I fancied at first that I had got an ague, one of those
off-and-on affairs that always come just when you don't want them, and
was going to ask Ellis to give me a ball, but I found it out just in
time, and precious glad I was too, for I never could bear taking physic
since I was the height of sixpenny worth of halfpence."

"Really, Lawless, I must be getting home."

"Eh! wait a minute; you haven't an idea what a desperate state I'm in; I
had a letter returned to me yesterday, with a line from the post-office
clerk, saying no such person could be found, and when I came to look at
the address I wasn't surprised to hear it. I had written to give some
orders about a dog-cart that is building for me, and directed my letter
to 'Messrs. Lovely Fanny, Coachmakers, Long Acre'. Things can't go on in
this way, you know--I must do something--come to the point, eh?--What do
you say?"

"Upon my word," replied I, "this is a case in which I am the last person
to advise you."

"Eh I no, it is not that--I'm far beyond the reach of advice, but what
I mean is, your governor being dead--don't you see--I consider you to
stand _in propria quae maribus_, as we used to say at old Mildman's."

"_In loco parentis_ is what you are aiming at, I imagine," returned I.

"Eh! Psha, it's all the same!" continued Lawless impatiently; "but what
do you say about it? Will you give your consent, and back me up a bit in
the business?--for I'm precious nervous, I can tell you."

"Am I to understand, then," said I, seeing an explanation was
inevitable, "that it is my sister who has inspired you with this very
alarming attachment?"

"Eh! yes, of course it is," was the reply; "haven't I been talking about
her for the last ten minutes? You are growing stupid all at once; did
you think it was your mother I meant?"

"Not exactly," replied I, smiling; "but have you ever considered
what Lord Cashingtown would say to your marrying a poor clergyman's
daughter?"

"What! my governor? oh! he'd be so delighted to get me married at any
price, that he would not care who it was to, so that she was a lady. He
knows how I shirk female society in general, and he is afraid I shall
break my neck some of these fine days, and leave him the ~356~~ honour
of being the last Lord Cashingtown as well as the first."

"And may I ask whether you imagine your suit likely to be favourably
received by the young lady herself?"

"Eh! why, you see it's not so easy to tell; I'm not used to the ways of
women, exactly. Now with horses I know every action, and can guess what
they'd be up to in a minute; |for instance, if they prick up their ears,
one may expect a shy, when they lay them back you may look out for a
bite or a kick; but, unluckily, women have not got movable ears."

"No," replied I, laughing at this singular regret; "they contrive to
make their eyes answer nearly the same purpose, though. Well, Lawless,
my answer is this--I cannot pretend to judge whether you and my sister
are so constituted as to increase each other's happiness by becoming
man and wife; that is a point I must leave to her to decide; she is no
longer a child, and her destiny shall be placed in her own hands; but I
think I may venture to say that if your parents are willing to receive
her, and she is pleased to accept you, you need not fear any opposition
on the part of my mother or myself."

"That's the time of day," exclaimed Lawless, rubbing his hands with
glee, "this is something like doing business; oh! it's jolly fun to be
in love, after all. Then everything depends upon Fanny now; but how am I
to find out whether she will have me or not? eh? that's another sell."

"Ask her," replied I; and, turning down a different path, I left him to
deliberate upon this knotty point in solitude.

As I walked towards home my meditations assumed a somewhat gloomy
colouring. The matter was no longer doubtful, Lawless was Fanny's
declared suitor; this, as he had himself observed, was something like
doing business. Instead of planning with my mother how we could prevent
the affair from going any farther, I must now inform her of his offer,
and find out whether she could give me any clue as to the state of
Fanny's affections. And now that Lawless's intentions were certain, and
that it appeared by no means improbable he might succeed in obtaining
Fanny's hand, a feeling of repugnance came over me, and I began to think
Mr. Frampton was right, and that my sister was formed for better things
than to be the companion for life of such a man as Lawless. From a
reverie which thoughts like these had engendered, I was aroused by Harry
Oaklands' favourite ~357~~ Scotch terrier, which attracted my attention
by jumping and fawning upon me, and on raising my eyes I perceived the
figure of his master, leaning, with folded arms, against the trunk of an
old tree. As we exchanged salutations I was struck by an unusual air of
dejection both in his manner and appearance. "You are looking ill
and miserable this morning, Harry; is your side painful?" inquired I
anxiously.

"No," was the reply, "I believe it is doing well enough; Ellis says so;"
he paused, and then resumed in a low hurried voice, "Frank, I am going
abroad."

"Going abroad!" repeated I in astonishment, "where are you going to?
when are you going? this is a very sudden resolution, surely."

"I know it is, but I cannot stay here," he continued; "I must get
away--I am wretched, perfectly miserable."

"My dear Harry," replied I, "what is the matter? come tell me; as boys
we had no concealments from each other, and this reserve which appears
lately to have sprung up between us is not well: what has occurred to
render you unhappy?"

A deep sigh was for some minutes his only answer; then, gazing steadily
in my face, he said, "And have you really no idea?--But why should I
be surprised at the blindness of others, when I myself have only become
aware of the true nature of my own feelings when my peace of mind is
destroyed, and all chance of happiness for me in this life has fled for
ever!"

"What do you mean, my dear Harry?" replied I; "what can you refer to?"

"Have you not thought me very much altered of late?" he continued.

"Since you ask me, I have fancied that illness was beginning to sour
your temper," I replied.

"Illness of mind, not body," he resumed; "for now, when life has lost
all charm for me, I am regaining health and strength apace. You must
have observed with what a jaundiced eye I have regarded everything that
Lawless has said or done; what was the feeling, think you, which has led
me to do so? Jealousy!"

"Jealousy?" exclaimed I, as for the first time the true state of the
case flashed across me--"Oh! Harry, why did you not speak of this
sooner?"

"Why, indeed! because in my blindness I fancied the affection I
entertained for your sister was merely a brother's love, and did not
know, till the chance of losing her for ever opened my eyes effectually,
that she had ~358~~ become so essential to my happiness that life
without her would be a void. If you but knew the agony of mind I endured
while they wore acting that hateful charade last night! I quite shudder
when I think how I felt towards Lawless; I could have slain him where
he stood without a shadow of compunction. No, I must leave this place
without delay; I would not go through what I suffered yesterday again
for anything--I could not bear it."

"Oh! if we had but known this sooner," exclaimed I, "so much might have
been done--I only parted from Lawless five minutes before I met you,
telling him that if Fanny approved of his suit, neither my mother nor
I would offer the slightest opposition. But is it really too late to do
anything? shall I speak to Fanny?"

"Not for worlds!" exclaimed Oaklands impetuously; "do not attempt to
influence her in the slightest degree. If, as my fears suggest, she
really love Lawless, she must never learn that my affection for her has
exceeded that of a brother--never know that from henceforth her image
will stand between me and happiness, and cast its shadow over the whole
future of my life."

He stood for a moment, his hands pressed upon his brow as if to shut out
some object too painful to behold, and then continued abruptly, "Lawless
has proposed, then?"

"He has asked my consent, and his next step will of course be to do so,"
replied I.

"Then my fate will soon be decided," returned Oak-lands. "Now listen
to me, Frank; let this matter take its course exactly as if this
conversation had never passed between us. Should Fanny be doubtful, and
consult you, do your duty as Lawless's friend and her brother--place the
advantages and disadvantages fairly before her, and then let her decide
for herself, without in the slightest degree attempting to bias her.
Will you promise to do this, Frank?"

"Must it indeed be so? can nothing be done? no scheme hit upon?"
returned I sorrowfully.

"Nothing of the kind must be attempted," replied Oaklands sternly;
"could I obtain your sister's hand tomorrow by merely raising my finger,
I would not do so while there remained a possibility of her preferring
Lawless. Do you imagine that I could be content to be accepted out of
compassion? No," he added, more calmly, "the die will soon be cast; till
then I will remain; and if, as I fear is only too certain, Lawless's
suit is favourably received, I shall leave this place instantly--put it
on the score of health--make Ellis order me abroad--the German ~359~~
baths, Madeira, Italy, I care not, all places will be alike to me then."

"And how miserable Sir John will be at this sudden determination,"
returned I, "and he is so happy now in seeing your health restored!"

"Ah! this world is truly termed a vale of tears," replied Harry
mournfully, "and the trial hardest to bear is the sight of the
unhappiness we cause those we love. Strange that my acts seem always
fated to bring sorrow upon my father's grey head, when I would willingly
lay down my life to shield him from suffering. But do not imagine that
I will selfishly give way to grief--no; as soon as your--as soon as
Lawless is married, I shall return to England and devote myself to my
father; my duty to him, and your friendship, will be the only interests
that bind me to life."

He paused, and then added, "Frank, you know me too well to fancy that I
am exaggerating my feelings, or even deceiving myself as to the strength
of them; this is no sudden passion, my love for Fanny has been the
growth of years, and the gentle kindness with which she attended on me
during my illness--the affectionate tact (for I believe she loves me as
a brother, though I have almost doubted even that of late) with which
she forestalled my every wish, proved to me how indispensable she has
become to my happiness. But," he continued, seeing, I imagined, by the
painful expression of my face, the effect his words were producing on
me, "in my selfishness I am rendering you unhappy. We will speak no
more of this matter till my fate is certain; should it be that which
I expect, let us forget that this conversation ever passed; if, on the
contrary, Lawless should meet with a refusal--but that is an alternative
I dare not contemplate.--And now, farewell."

So saying, he wrung my hand with a pressure that vouched for his
returning strength, and left me. In spite of my walk, I had not much
appetite for my breakfast that morning.~360~~

CHAPTER XLV -- HELPING A LAME DOG OVER A STILE

"Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme;
I have tried.... No, I was not born under a rhyming planet;
Nor I cannot woo in festival terms."
--_Much Ado About Nothing_.

"Now, let the verses be bad or good, it plainly amounts to a
regular offer. I don't believe any of the lines are an inch
too long or too short; but if they were, it would be wicked
to alter them, for they are really genuine."
--_Thinks I to Myself_.

"We shall have a rare letter from him."
--_Twelfth Night_.

IT was usually my custom of an afternoon to read law for a couple of
hours, a course of training preparatory to committing myself to the
tender mercies of a special pleader; and as Sir John's well-stored
library afforded me every facility for so doing, that was the _venue_ I
generally selected for my interviews with Messrs. Blackstone, Coke
upon Lyttelton, and other legal luminaries. Accordingly, on the day
in question, after having nearly quarrelled with my mother for
congratulating me warmly on the attainment of my wishes, when I
mentioned to her Lawless's proposal, found fault with Fanny's Italian
pronunciation so harshly as to bring tears into her eyes, and grievously
offended our old female domestic by disdainfully rejecting some pet
abomination upon which she had decreed that I should lunch, I sallied
forth, and, not wishing to encounter any of the family, entered the hall
by a side door, and reached the library unobserved. To my surprise I
discovered Lawless (whom I did not recollect ever to have seen there
before, he being not much given to literary pursuits) seated, pen in
hand, at the table, apparently absorbed in the mysteries of composition.