Edmund Yates

“ His hair was still jet-black; and though his moustache, long, sweeping, and carefully trained, was unmistakably grizzled, the colour rather added to the picturesqueness of his appearance. And the Colonel liked to be thought handsome, and elegant, and picturesque; for he was devoted to the sex, and had but little care in life beyond how best to please her who for the time being was the object of his devotion.
And yet Colonel Orpington was never seen in any suspicious solitude à deux, nor even in the loose-talking, easy-going society in which he mixed was his name ever coupled with any woman's. ”

“ Alma quies optata, veni! Not that you can be called alma quies, you restless bird of the night! What's the matter? what are you making signs about?" asked George.
"That idiot, Billy Dunlop, is with me," replied Paul, grinning; "he is doing some of his pantomime nonsense outside;" and, indeed, George Wainwright, peering out in the darkness, could make out a stout figure approaching with cautious gestures, which, when it emerged into the lamplight, proved to be Mr. Dunlop.
"Hallo, Billy! what are you at? Come in, man; light a pipe, and be happy." ”

“ George Wainwright was silent.
"And she would have let me marry Annette without any revelation of the mystery, for the sake of that wretched money; she would have embittered my future, and rendered the rest of my life hopeless and miserable. What a shameful conspiracy! What a base and wicked plot!"
"Hush, Paul!" said George Wainwright, laying his hand on his arm; "recollect of whom you are speaking."
"It is that that makes it all the worse," cried Paul. ”

“ Wainwright has to come from London to see her."
"So I have heard," said George. "Do you know my father?"
"I have seen him very often when he has been down here to visit my aunt."
"He has never attended you, I suppose, Miss Derinzy?" asked George, looking at her closely.
"Dr. Wainwright attend me! Oh dear, no," said Annette; "there was never any occasion for his doing so."
"Like most unselfish people, you make light of your own troubles," said George, "and exaggerate those of other people."
"No, indeed," said Annette; "my ailments are trifles compared with those of Mrs. Derinzy." ”

“ Stothard, how could you live without her?--how could you bear to part with her?"
"Because we were poor; we could not afford the luxury of a common home. You have no practical experience of such things, my dear; but they exist; and they warp one's nature sometimes. I believe my nature was warped, Annette; but you--your patience, your sweetness, your nobleness and generosity--have set it right again."
"And your daughter Fanny is really, really Paul's Daisy?" Annette said, with a dreamy and surprised delight in her eyes and her voice. "How delighted Paul will be to hear it, and my George!" ”

“ It passed swiftly through Daisy's mind that if ever Paul had so pleaded his own cause, with so much conviction, so much force, so much earnestness--if ever he had made her understand the worth of true love, the false allures of all beside--she would not have listened to prudence and the narrow suggestions of her worldly wisdom, but would have listened to him. It passed through her mind that this was a strong man, one who would love well and worthily, and whose wife would be honoured among women, whatever her origin. ”

“ Those who had known Paul Derinzy as the light-hearted, light-headed young man of society, enjoying himself in every possible way, extracting the greatest amount of pleasure out of every hour of his life, and allowing no sense of responsibility to weigh upon him, would hardly have recognised him in the pale, care-worn man with hollow cheeks who might be seen occasionally eating his solitary dinner at the club, but who never joined the gay circle in the smoking-room, or was to be found in any of those haunts of pleasure which formerly he had so assiduously frequented. ”

“ George left the room with a noiseless step. When he had reached the stair-foot, Daisy covered her face with her hands, and rocked herself upon her chair, in an agony of self-upbraiding.
"If he lives, he will ask me," she murmured in her torturing thoughts. "Yes, he will ask me; and I--I who a little while ago was unfit to be his wife only because of the difference in our rank--what shall I say? Far other my unfitness now--the unfitness of one who has deliberately entertained the project of degradation. ”

“ This was pleasant, but it cost trouble and time; and though the Doctor did not grudge the one, of the other he had none to spare, and he was not sorry when the time fixed for the double wedding arrived. Annette had had her way and her wish; Daisy had come to remain in the house with her; and even the sensitive girl, to whom congenial companionship and love of her kind were so strange, could not fail to be content with the affection she inspired in the so-differently-reared young woman, for whom her good breeding, her refined, her perfect ladyism, had an indescribable and attaching charm. ”

“ What could you have expected would have been the end of our acquaintance?"
"The end!" cried Paul. "I--I never thought about that; I never thought that there would be an end."
"Exactly," said Daisy; "and yet you wonder at my accusing you of want of practicality. Let us go through this matter quietly. You seek and make my acquaintance; you appear to admire me very much, and ask for opportunities of meeting me; these opportunities you have, and you then profess to be deeply in love with me. All this is very nice; we walk and talk like young people in the old story-books. ”

“ But there is a strong spice of worldliness mixed up with the simplicity of both of us: all the time that you are talking and saying your sweetest things you are in a desperate fright lest any of your acquaintances shall see you. I am perfectly keen enough to notice this; and when I tax you with it, you confess it sheepishly, and as good as tell me that it would be impossible for you, on account of your family, to enter into any lasting alliance with a milliner's assistant. Now, what on earth do you propose to yourself, my dear Paul, or did you propose, when you came here to meet me just now? ”

“ Powler and Mrs. Jupp should have admired Annette, as her style was by no means such as generally finds favour with persons in their station in life. Great black staring eyes, snub noses, firm round red cheeks, bright red lips, and jet-black hair, well bandolined and greased so as to lie flat on the head, or corkscrewed into thin ringlets, generally make up their standard of beauty. Country people have a great opinion of strength of limb and firmness of flesh; and "she be that hard," was one of the most delicate tributes which a Beachborough swain could pay. ”

“ I am sure something must have happened; but I don't know what it is."
"You recollect my hint to you at Beachborough about Theseus and Ariadne? You burst out into a rage then; what do you think now?"
"I don't know what to think," said Paul, "though it looks something like it, I am bound to confess."
"Then why don't you be a man, and break off the whole business at once?"
"Now, I like that," said Paul; "I really like that suggestion from a man who has been talking as you have been talking to me. Do you think you could?"
"No, I am sure I could not," said George. ”

“ One hot dusty afternoon Daisy is looking out of the showroom window into the deserted street--deserted save by a vagabond dog, with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, who is furtively gliding about from one bit of shade to another, and hopelessly sniffing at those places where he remembers puddles used to be in the bygone time, but where, alas, there are none now--when she hears steps upon the stairs, and turning round, recognises Miss Orpington, one of their best customers. ”

“ I would not have put myself in the way of them for my sister's sake; but I would for Fanny Stafford."
"Ah, ha!" said the Colonel to himself, "a lover instead of brother; greater virtuous indignation, infinitely more savage, but with less claim to show it."
"I have known her," continued John Merton, "for some years, and it is not too much to say that I have loved her all the time." ”

“ Paul Derinzy laughed, the quiet easy chuckle of a man of the world, as he replied to his simple senior:
"She is a good, honest girl, no doubt of that. But suppose the question of marriage had never risen between us, and she still liked to meet me and to walk with me, what then? In the gravel paths of Kensington Gardens, Pamela herself might have strolled with Captain Lovelace himself without fear. Why should not I with--with this young lady?" ”

“ It is needless to say that those channels ran with small-talk and fashionable gossip, and petty details of that London life which he had once so thoroughly enjoyed, and from which he was now so unwillingly exiled. The Captain found his interlocutor perfectly able to converse on these his favourite topics. One might have thought that Dr. Wainwright had nothing better to do than to flutter from club to mess-room, and from mess-room to boudoir, so well was he up in the chronique scandaleuse of the day, adapting his phraseology, his voice, and manner to the fashion of the times. ”

“ Stothard. Have you been talking to that horrid woman? What has she been saying to you?
"You mustn't call her a horrid woman; she has been speaking very nicely of you, and said she would send you to take a turn in the grounds with me; so I don't think her a horrid woman, of course."
"She is a horrid woman, all the same," said Annette, "and I hate her; though I shall like taking a turn in the grounds with you. Let us come out at once. What a lovely morning!"
"Yes," said George, as they stood on the steps, "but not lovely enough for you to come out without a hat; the air is anything but warm." ”

“ It would be dull and dreary either way with Paul, the latter condition worse than the former, for then she would be tied, and the bonds would be more difficult to break. And yet she could not bring herself to an open rupture with her lover. He was so kind, so attentive, so delicate, and above all, so passionately devoted to her. It must come, she thought; it would come some time or other, but not just yet. The evil day should be delayed as long as possible. And she had given no answer to Colonel Orpington. ”

“ After George left her, Daisy dropped back into the chair which she had occupied during his visit, and sat gazing vacantly into the fire.
Calm deliberation and self-examination! Those were what that strange earnest-looking man, Mr. Wainwright, had said he left her to. In the state of anxiety and excitement in which she found herself, the one was impossible, and she shrank from the other. Self-examination--what would that show her? A girl, first winning, then trifling with the affections of a warmhearted young fellow, who worshipped her and was ready to sacrifice everything in life for her. ”

“ Those persons to whom London is a home--a place to be lived in all the year round, save on the occasion of the two months' holiday, when one rushes off to the North, or to the sea, or to the Continent, returning with a renewed stock of health, and a pleasurable sense of having enjoyed yourself, but with a still more pleasurable sense of being back again in town--are very much amused at a notion prevalent amongst many worthy people who arrive at their own or at a hired house in the month of March, stay there till the end of the month of June, and go away fancying that they know London. ”

“ She is faithful to the girl's interest; and would be a cool and deliberate opponent of the Derinzys if there were any occasion for open opposition, which there will not be."
"She is of a strange, concentrated nature," said George. "I don't think she loves Annette."
"Oh dear no; I should say not," rejoined the Doctor. "I fancy she does not love anybody--not even herself much--and cares for nothing in the world beyond her interests; but she is wise enough to know they will be best served by her fulfilment of her duty, and practical enough to act on the knowledge--not an invariable combination. ”

“ In the middle of the room stood a quaintly-carved old black-oak desk, ink-blotted and penknife-hacked, with some pages of manuscript and some slips of proof lying on it--for George, who had been educated in Germany, was in the habit of contributing essays on abstruse questions of German philosophy and metaphysics to a monthly review of very portentous weight--and in the corner was a cabinet piano, covered with loose leaves of music, scraps from oratorios, studenten-lieder, bits of Bach and Glück, glees of Purcell and Arne, and even ballads by Claribel. ”

“ Wainwright. You know perfectly well that I am alluding to the attentions which you are paying to my cousin, Miss Derinzy. And I should be glad to know, sir," continued Paul, vainly endeavouring to suppress the broad grin which was spreading over his face, "I should be glad to know, sir, how you reconcile your conduct with your notions of honour, knowing, as you perfectly well do, that that lady is my affianced bride."
"Don't be an ass, Paul," said George, smiling in his turn. "I dispute both your assertions, especially the last. The lady is nothing of the kind." ”

“ God knows, with as much strict search as I could bring to bear upon it, and I feel that, so far as Annette is concerned, I am irretrievably---- And I never thought I could love anyone at all in this kind of way. I am perfectly certain that I shall never love anyone else; and therein lies the utter hopelessness of the case. I buoy myself up with the belief that this darling child is, I may almost say, attached to me--that she feels for me what in another person would be affection and attachment. ”

“ It was surprising--or rather it would have been surprising to anyone who did not know how obstinate woman can be in declining to acknowledge a defeat--that her favourite delusion could have survived the brief but momentous and decisive conversation she had just had with her son; who had positively declared his intention of marrying Daisy, if by any persuasion she could be induced to accept him, and as distinctly his determination not to marry Annette, if she should prove as willing as her cousin was justly convinced she was unwilling to have him. ”

“ George Wainwright had a stronger feeling than mere liking for Paul; there was a touch of romance in the regard which the good-looking, bright, easy-going young man had aroused in his steady, sober, practical senior. George was too much a man of the world to thrill with horror because he had seen his friend in the company of a pretty girl, and come across what was evidently a lovers' meeting. ”