Charles Hamilton Aïdé

“ Elizabeth's room felt stifling as she entered it, although the window leading on to the balcony stood wide open. The faint odour of a cigar rose from the verandah below. She never kept her little maid up; she was independent of all services, and began slowly to undress herself. The hands, now and again, fell listless, and once she rested her burning head between them, for some minutes, on the dressing-table. Then she heard a little movement in the verandah below—a door being closed and bolted; after which all was silence. She generally read before going to bed, but not to-night. ”

“ No one might ever replace her dear, noble father—so unselfish, so wise, so perfect in every relation of life! What an ensample he must ever be to her; and how every word of loving counsel that had fallen from his lips must be treasured by his child!
She constantly recalled what he had said about her uncle and aunt. To Elizabeth all places were alike in those first months; but there is no doubt she would have preferred solitude to the life at Farley, if her father's wishes had not weighed with her. ”

“ Opposite me sat Professor Genron, who reminded me of the statue of Voltaire in the gallery of the Théâtre Français. The same keen and cunning eyes, the same satirical smile, the head stooped forward, eager, I am sure, to catch all the meannesses of humanity, but with little sympathy for what is noble. Next to him was a Madame de Belcour, whom it amused me to watch. She is like a beautiful cat, so soft, and oh! so sentimental! On her other side was a young poet, a Monsieur Anatole Doucet, whom Madame Martineau says is a genius, as well as remarkable for his beauty. ”

“ An hour later, that same evening, under the jasmine bower at the end of the garden, but faintly lifted from darkness by the stream of lamplight out of the open drawing-room window, Colonel Wybrowe definitely asked Elizabeth to be his wife.
"Are you sure you are not mistaken?" she said, in a low, hesitating voice. "I have heard that men so often are. If you had met me in London—if you could compare me with many other girls—girls in society, who know all the things of which I am so ignorant—perhaps you would change your mind. ”

“ Elizabeth kissed her uncle and bade him good-bye, with a strange foreboding, which she remembered long afterwards.
It was the first very hot day that summer, and the three who were left at Farley spent it entirely out-of-doors, lying on rugs and cushions under the beech trees in the morning, and strolling down to the river later, where Wybrowe fished, while the ladies made tea upon the bank. It was not the sort of day that spurs talk; even Mrs. Shaw was somnolent, and the fisherman naturally flogged the stream in silence. ”

“ Hatty. Let it be enough for you, dear, to know that hereafter, whether she and I are parted or not———"
"If we are parted," interrupted Elizabeth, with a sudden audacity, born of excitement—"it shall not be my fault. I love him, and I ask him now to be my husband. I ask him to promise me this, by vows as binding as any man ever took. And I declare to you now, dearest Hatty, before God, that if he will not have me, no man ever shall." ”

“ Only you don't make allowance for poor weak human nature, including yourself."
"I don't know what you are driving at, Hatty. If I am not a fool—and I do not think I am, though very far from being the Phœnix you imagine me—but if I am not a fool, why am I to 'make allowances' for myself? Why do you say I take myself too seriously?"
"You are over-sensitive, as so many of our countrymen are; and too critical of yourself, as well as of others. You very seldom let yourself go. Your reticence is positively a disease, in a mixed company. With Miss Shaw you never seem perfectly at your ease." ”

“ What you have done is neither fair nor honourable. You have surprised a secret, and betrayed it. You have taken the surest way—if that was your object of creating an impassable gulf between me and a lady for whom I have the greatest—friendship and regard. Whatever you may choose to believe, no word of love has ever passed my lips to her—and assuredly now none ever will. But if I imitated your example, and betrayed you, Monsieur Melchior, be assured her contempt for you would be equal to my own! ”

“ Elizabeth's untiring thoughtfulness for his sister moved him to look upon this young woman, so wayward, so wilful, so eager for amusement and admiration, no matter from what tainted source, with very different eyes from those with which he had hitherto insisted on regarding her. It was no momentary impulse that had led her to leave Paris, for Hatty's sake; every hour of the day showed that her interest in the poor little invalid never flagged. She thought of everything that could tend to Hatty's comfort long before Alaric himself. ”

“ The pale, sharp-outlined face, red beard, and close-cut hair were in shadow. He turned his head at the sound of the opening door.
"She wants you," he said, in a low voice.
Elizabeth came to him: they stood side by side. The dying woman dropped one of his hands, and took Elizabeth's. Her voice was very faint, but she spoke distinctly.
"Ally—you have told me—you will never love any other woman than this. Is it true?"
"It is. Let that satisfy you, my dear," he replied, in a low, choked voice.
"And you,—Lizzie—do you love my brother? ”

“ But Elizabeth had no notion of being debarred from what she regarded as an innocent diversion, by any hints Miss Baring might drop. She talked, with unembarrassed spontaneity, across the table; her lips twitched at the poet's affectations, his paradoxes, his foamings at the mouth. She regarded him much as certain men are regarded by an indulgent public in England: men whose superficial cleverness and puerile vanity entertain for an hour, and are forgotten ”

“ He knows me as a girl, trying to become an artist, and with a little money. Therefore he will not ask me to marry him. Dear Hatty, if he knew the truth——— I will tell you the truth, and you shall judge. I am a rich woman. It could not be concealed from him much longer. My wealth has brought me nothing but misery—misery and shame. Therefore I fled from it. I wanted to live among people who didn't know I was rich, where I should not be surrounded by falsehood and deception. ”

“ Now, her governess was a clever woman, but lacking height or depth of thought. When her pupil began to reason as to cause and effect, to seek for motives, and to argue upon abstract principles of right and wrong, it was clear that mademoiselle would be left floundering. She was an upright woman, stuffed full of knowledge, and with a certain force of will; but the time was drawing near, as Mrs. Shaw saw, when Elizabeth, putting away childish things, would need something more than authority and subjunctive moods; she would require the contact of a strong and thoughtful mind. ”

“ Her appearance in the neighbourhood of Whiteburn was always a great social event. She was regarded as a walking advertisement of the last fashions, and took infinite pains to please not only the dullest men, but the dowdiest women. The favourable impression she made on Anthony as a kindly little creature, with now and again flashes of unlooked-for brightness, was no doubt strengthened by the affection she manifested for Elizabeth. Having no children of her own, she declared that she felt like a mother to her niece. ”

“ Elizabeth was not given to "confidences," and the circumstances of her case were such as to render her additionally reluctant to speak of the life from which she had severed herself by a stroke of that sharp sword we call determination.
All the same, it was impossible that so keen and interested an observer of those she loved as Miss Baring should fail to note the bitterness with which her friend spoke of men in general, of family ties, of reliance on any human being but one's self. It was far better to remain single, to trust to no one. Hatty had chosen the wiser part. ”

“ Madame Martineau laughed, but it was in a deprecatory way. Madame de Belcour morally put her hand before her face, and smiled diabolically between her fingers, like Orcagna's 'Vergoznosa del Campo Santo,' which I remember seeing at Pisa, and which my dear father told me had passed into a proverb. What Miss Baring did I could not see. The only other person present was a Russian, of preternatural ugliness, who swelled the chorus of laughter, and talked incessantly at the other end of the table. I feel a profound distaste for my company. How shall I be able to endure life among such people? ”

“ I had never known what it was to live for myself; and when I came to him I had an object, an interest, still in life. Ah, dear, whether you live by yourself or not, don't live for yourself. Don't think that painting and ambition will fill up all your life; it won't. There is nothing worth living for but to share our joys and troubles with another."
Then Elizabeth would reply that she had no intention of living a selfish life; she would always take an active interest in others. Had not Hatty reproached her with throwing herself too readily into the mêlée at Madame Martineau's? ”

“ He laughed aloud, and, at the same time, threw away the end of his cigar.
"As I said the other day, it is nice to have a secret with you. But who supplies you with money? Tell me that."
"I have some means of my own—more than Mr. Baring or his sister believe. If I choose to live as I do, that is my own affair. I have my own reasons for wishing to remain obscure, unknown, to all appearance poor. Now that I have told you the simple truth, you will understand that I had no need to get the money from any one."
"This, then, is the reason you reject my offer—because you have money of your own?" ”

“ He is, on the contrary, clever and lively, self-controlled, self-sufficing—too self-sufficing: that is it. I cannot imagine his ever falling in love; though I am not sure he would not like me to believe him capable of it. All men, or nearly all, are alike. They flirt with every girl they meet; heart has nothing to say to it. The grim American is an exception; no one can accuse him of wanting to flirt. ”

“ She would have scorned the idea that the image of Alaric Baring had in the smallest degree influenced her decision to accompany his sister to Mentone. Nor was it so. She had conceived a strong affection for Hatty; and constituted as Elizabeth was, it was obvious that whithersoever her friend was sent, she, too, must go. What did friendship mean, if one deserted a friend in the hour of need? The poor fragile American would require a woman's care; and Elizabeth, not feeling herself called to England by duty, did not hesitate to throw over her studies in Paris, and accompany her. ”

“ Her aunt's kindness had been invariable. What could be her motive for encouraging, if not instigating, this marriage? Was it the ambition to be allied to a man highly connected, and prominent in the world of fashion? It was sickening. Her aunt was so shallow, so frivolous, that she could not be expected to take other than a superficial view of marriage. But that she should allude to it, in this case, as the prospect of Elizabeth's being "landed," rankled in the girl's breast. She would certainly speak very openly to-morrow morning, not only to Rupert, but to Mrs. Shaw. ”

“ She never showed any disinclination to listen to the praises of poor Hatty's hero, to hear anecdotes of his nobility and self-sacrifice, his trenchant words to the ungodly whom he had morally knocked down, his kindly words to the humble whom he had lifted up; Elizabeth was not afraid to manifest frankly the interest she felt in the brother, when the sister and she were alone. But in his presence something of the daring which had characterized her utterances in the early pension days was gone. To-night, especially, her silence and her watchfulness of Alaric struck Hatty greatly. ”

“ That is the thing."
"He does nothing but talk about you, my dear. It is quite fatiguing."
Elizabeth shook her head. "I should be wretched, if I married him, to find, by-and-by, that he had been mistaken; to see him attracted by other women, and to know that my influence over him was gone. I should be jealously hungry for my husband's love. No divided empire would satisfy me."
"All of which means that you are already a little bit in love, Bessie;" and Mrs. Shaw laughed lightly, though she avoided her niece's searching eyes. ”

“ The strong man had gone out to commune with his own heart in solitude. Elizabeth could better endure the amiable commonplaces of the clergyman and his spouse, the purring curiosity of the spinster with the knitting, the gloom of the inexplicable man, than she could have talked to Alaric jast then. Her heart was very heavy—heavy with sorrow so complicated that it was difficult to speak to him, of all people in the world, of her sense of personal loss in his impending grief
After dinner she went and stood outside the door, in the clear moonlight. ”

“ Hatty had heard of the rich Monsieur Melchior, and his fine gallery of pictures. That he should sit to her brother would be the making of Alaric—he would spring lightly and quickly up the ladder of fame, she was sure. Elizabeth's face beamed with pleasure.
"I hope he is not too ugly," she said. "A rich Jew sounds like a pendulous nose and protruding under-lip." ”

“ Not so Elizabeth. The woman to whom she had grown so attached, if she saw the spring burst, would still be an invalid. Her day for work—the work she loved so well, and so futilely, poor soul!—was done. She might live on for years: Elizabeth had heard of frail creatures, with both lungs affected, clinging tenaciously to life. But she could not conceal from herself that, in Hatty's case, the disease made rapid progress. Still, the mutual deception common in such cases was kept up; the women trying to deceive each other, both of them anxious to deceive the man. ”

“ It had not been possible to avoid asking the young man to remain. He had come, at Elizabeth's invitation, to look at her study of an old peasant's head; and Hatty, for all her secret aversion for him, could not be so churlish as not to offer him a cup of tea. He took it as a matter of course. He was always delightfully at his ease; and Elizabeth clearly was already more so with him than with the imposing Alaric. He and his sister both felt this to be so.
Elizabeth. "How comes it, Mr. George, if you are a barrister———"
George. "Not a barrister—a solicitor" (with a smile) . ”