Florence Marryat

“ I conclude you and papa made love enough to each other when you were young, and yet you grudge me a choice in the matter. I’m only to dance, and talk, and be agreeable with such people as you select for me. It’s bitterly unfair.’
‘Oh, no, darling, don’t say that! Your dear father is only desirous of one thing, to promote your welfare. And Mr Walcheren is very wild, Jenny. He would not make you a good husband. Everybody says so.’
‘And so my happiness is to be sacrificed because “everybody” chooses to tell lies of the man I like, and papa and you choose to believe them. ”

“ The green downs stretched out invitingly before her; looking so much cooler and less glaring than the sandy beach sprinkled over with nursemaids and children, so she turned her steps in that direction. She carried a magazine in her hand, and she would go and sit on the cliffs she thought, till three o’clock had struck and Frederick had returned home again. A little chill feeling ran over Jenny, as she took her seat on the sward close to the edge of the cliffs whence she could see and hear the sparkling waves as they dashed over the shingly beach, and she moved further inland with a shudder. ”

“ In the summer weather, Henry Hindes spent almost all his spare time in his garden with his children, and was apparently quite happy with his own thoughts and them. Hannah Hindes was a woman who never grated on her husband’s finer sensibilities. She was loving, tender and conscientious; but she seldom obtruded herself or her opinions on him, and never in opposition to his own. She was always there when needed, calm and intelligent, ready to give advice but not eager to thrust it down one’s throat; a restful sort of woman for a man to come home to after a hard and perhaps harassing day’s work. ”

“ For years past, he had secretly cherished her image, suffering himself to indulge in beatific day-dreams of what his life might have been had Jenny been destined to spend it by his side—had permitted himself to enjoy her presence, to bask in her beauty, to be miserable when the thought crossed his mind that some day he would be assuredly called upon to relinquish her to another man, but never had he done less than love her. ”

“ The toilet table was covered with silver and cut glass, and on the mantelpiece stood a handsome clock and candelabras of Sevres china; but the fairest sight in all the room was Jenny Crampton herself, as she lay, flushed, dishevelled and palpitating on her bed, one of the most beautiful specimens of work that ever proceeded from the Creator’s hand. It was difficult to believe that the two plain women who stood gazing at her from the foot of the bed, could be her nearest blood relations. The questions of hereditary resemblances and non-resemblances are amongst the most anomalous in Nature. ”

“ Leave my husband, whom I have just married, leave the man whom I love above all the world, father and mother included, leave him all alone and go back to Hampstead to live a widowed life with my people! Why, papa must have been tipsy to propose such a thing. What had you [Pg 143] been giving the old gentleman to make him talk such nonsense? Surely you are dreaming and have fancied it all.’
‘Dreaming!’ echoed Hindes, indignantly; ‘is it dreaming to see your father’s agony, to hear of your mother’s tears? No, these things may be play to you, Jenny, but they are death to them. ”

“ You must be mistaken! Jenny would never be such a fool as to risk losing all her father’s money for the sake of the first young jackanapes who says he loves her!’
‘She may like the jackanapes better than the money, Henry. I don’t think women stick at much where their hearts are concerned. Besides, has not Mr Walcheren a fortune of his own?’
‘Perhaps—I don’t know—unless he has already made ducks and drakes of it,’ replied Henry Hindes, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. ‘But Jenny has never thought of him seriously, I am sure of it! ”

“ That might be all very well for a damsel of romance of a hundred years ago, but it is not the way the young women of the present day manage their affairs. They are too strong-minded, to cry and shake and faint over the deeds they have put their sign and seal to. Jenny had made an appeal to become the wife of Mr Walcheren in a fair way, and her request had been denied her, for what she considered a frivolous objection. She knew there was no chance of altering her father’s decision, and having always been given her own way since a child, she determined to take it now. ”

“ He was devotedly fond and proud of her, but he had an obstinate temper, and would not brook opposition to his wishes.
‘Now, now, that’s enough!’ he answered. ‘My word is law here, and I will stand no arguments about the matter. I don’t approve of the man—that is sufficient! Neither shall my daughter know him. As for condemning him unheard, that is all rubbish. Hindes knows his character as well as I do. He says—’
‘Oh! then it is to Mr Hindes I owe this unpleasant interview,’ cried Jenny. ‘What business has he to poke his nose into my affairs? He’s always meddling in some way or another. ”

“ Mr Frederick Walcheren has money and good looks, but there his claims to admiration end. The first you do not require for your daughter, and the second would have no weight with anyone but a woman. To place against these supposed advantages, Mr Walcheren is a young man of dissolute habits, and lavish expenditure. You should hear what his cousin, Philip Walcheren, says of him.’
‘I want no one’s opinion but my own,’ replied Mr Crampton vehemently. ‘Jenny will have all my money by-and-by, and she shall marry no man that will make ducks and drakes of it. ”

“ And in another moment the room was clear.
‘Here, Watson,’ called Frederick to his man, ‘bring me a whisky-and-soda. I declare,’ he continued to himself, ‘if their twaddle has not made me quite uncomfortable. What on earth did that old fool, my godfather, mean by not making his will decisive one way or the other? I a priest, indeed! No. I mean to live a rather jollier life than that comes to. And there is only one other decent alternative, to marry the girl I love, and rear a family for the benefit of the State. And how can I do that without money? ”

“ Hannah feared he was going to have a fit, and urged her husband to get him to the house before he attempted to tell them what was amiss. Even when he was placed in a library chair, it was some minutes before he could find breath to speak, and, meanwhile, the distress pictured on his features was unmistakable.
‘My dear friend,’ said Mr Hindes, with the greatest concern, ‘are you ill? Is anything wrong at home? For God’s sake, speak, and put us out of this terrible suspense!’
‘She’s gone, Hindes! she’s gone!’ gasped Mr Crampton at last.
‘Gone? Who? Not Jenny?’ cried Mrs Hindes. ”

“ The exercise of her temper had made her cheeks rosier, and lent an extra brightness to her eyes. She was glad of this—glad that she had not given way to the weakness of tears, and swelled up her eyelids and made her face look puffy. She might meet Frederick during her drive. He spent most of his spare time in wandering about Hampstead in the hopes of meeting her. But she seldom drove out until the afternoon. Still, there was just the chance of a rencontre with her lover, and for that chance Jenny would have taken more trouble than this. ”

“ There is nothing on earth Mr Crampton cares for so much as his only child! She is his heiress, as doubtless you know, but he will leave her nothing if she marries against his wishes. He is very obstinate when thwarted, and very unrelenting. And Miss Crampton would hardly be so foolish as to give up her fortune, as well as her parents, at one blow. Under these circumstances, I hope you will not take offence, my dear Walcheren, if I ask you, in his name, to relinquish your acquaintanceship with Miss Crampton, and to leave off visiting at the house. ”

“ Frederick especially, who had frittered away his time and his affections on more girls than he could remember the names of, could not understand how he could [Pg 124] have been such a fool as to waste his life in so frivolous a manner, when so much pleasure had been within his grasp. The day after his marriage, when he was ready to consider himself quite a Benedict of experience, he decided that there was but one source of happiness, worth calling by the name, in this world, and that was the whole and undivided love of a wife, whose heart you felt to be entirely your own. ”

“ I love you, Jenny, as no one of your admirers has ever loved you yet, love you with the fire and fervour of a disappointed man, of one who knows, and has known for years past, that his love is of no avail, that it lives without hope, but still lives, burning on—loving on—because it can never die even if it would, [Pg 147] because it would not die even if it could. ”

“ For when will men be ever sensible enough to separate the value of personal beauty and mental charm? Not while they have eyes to see. Once touch their senses, and, for the time their infatuation lasts, you cannot [Pg 44] convince them but that the mind and soul of their goddess equal her body in charm. Frederick Walcheren was infatuated with the beauty of this girl, and he believed her disposition to be all that was good and lovable as well. It appeared so to him, for, whenever they met, Jenny was in her best temper, and ready to be pleased with everything. ”

“ He contented himself with consoling his cousin to the best of his ability, always keeping before him the power and influence of the Blessed Mother of God, and her interest in the souls of young girls, like the poor dead child before them, until the miserable husband was almost supplicating the Virgin of his boyhood, then and there, to save his darling from the pit his misdeeds had drawn her into—he, who had not breathed a prayer for years past. ”

“ Had he even seen her, as she had been on the present occasion, rude and impertinent to her parents, cruelly sarcastic to her meek and unoffending aunt, and obstinately resolved upon having her own way, he would still have taken her part, declared her to be a suffering angel, and her father and mother most unjust and tyrannical towards her. Shakespeare never wrote a greater truism than when he made Rosalind declare that ‘Love is a madness,’ a madness that blinds our vision, distorts our judgment, and makes all things, not only apparently, but actually, different from what they are ”

“ Remember, he is no longer a young man, sixty-two on his last birthday, and you have robbed him of all he had in life.’
‘I don’t see that,’ replied Jenny, with her old pertness, ‘I must have married some day; I don’t suppose my father meant to keep me single all my life, and in such a matter, people are generally left to choose for themselves.’
‘Not when their choice is in direct opposition to their parents’ wishes! However, you have elected to fly in their faces, and what’s done can’t be undone. ”

“ At this juncture, Mrs Crampton took heart of grace to put in her oar.
‘Oh, thank you, dear Mr Hindes!’ she exclaimed. ‘I am sure you are right. That is, I feel certain that Jenny cares no more for Mr Walcheren than for anyone else. She is a trifle wilful and does not brook contradiction well—I acknowledge that—and perhaps papa and I have spoilt her a little; she is such a darling, you know, that it is very difficult not to spoil her—but she would never really oppose our wishes. ”

“ Marriage will interfere with this, therefore marriage is not for you!’
At this juncture Frederick’s temper got the better of his judgment.
‘Then I’m d—d if the church shall have the money,’ he exclaimed loudly; ‘all your advice, and precepts, and exhortations to a purer life count for nothing; they are only made so you may hear yourselves talk, and plume yourselves with the idea of how much better men you are than myself. ”

“ She must come and help me dress! My goodness me, Aunt Clem,’ she broke off suddenly, as she caught sight of that lady’s sympathetic features regarding her wistfully from the foot of the bed, [Pg 22] ‘don’t stand there goggling at me like a stork on one leg, or you’ll drive me out of my senses. Go and call Ellen, do! If I’m to see papa, someone must dress me. I don’t suppose he wants me to walk downstairs in my night-dress, though he is in such a hurry.’
‘No! no! love, of course not!’ returned her mother, hastily. ‘Clem! call Ellen, and tell her Jenny is going to get up. Now, darling! ”

“ If Jenny won’t give this Walcheren fellow over, I’ll lock her up on bread and water till she comes to her senses again.’
As neither of the ladies made any answer to this threat, Mr Hindes interfered again.
‘Surely,’ he said with an incredulous smile, ‘Miss Crampton will not dream of opposing your wishes in this particular, when so much depends upon her obedience. What can she see in this young man to attract her, above others of his kind; she who has a crowd of admirers wherever she goes, and is the acknowledged beauty of Hampstead? ”

“ Jenny Walcheren.’
[Pg 112]
‘That’s a nice letter for a man to receive, who has idolised his child for twenty years, isn’t it, Mrs Hindes?’ asked Mr Crampton sarcastically. ‘Remember she is my only child; indeed, I’m not likely to forget it, I can tell Miss Jenny that. And I’ll never see her again, not if I live another fifty years!’
‘Oh, don’t say that. You don’t know what may happen to alter your mind,’ said Hannah, as she took the old man’s hand in hers and pressed it warmly. ‘You love her dearly, and she loves you. Things will not look so black when you are more used to them. ”

“ Hindes, speaking for the first time. ‘How could he marry her without the written consent of her guardians?’
‘By a lie, of course. He must have sworn she was of age. It came natural to a Papist, no doubt. They’re made of lies, religion and all! It’s a proper beginning for a life of deception and ingratitude.’
‘But if the licence has been obtained under false pretences, Crampton,’ said Mr Hindes eagerly, ‘it may not yet be too late to set it aside. It may be possible to force him to return your daughter to you, at all events until she is of age. ”