Mrs. Henry Wood

“ His eyes looked straight into hers for the moment. "I have had my pain, too, Mildred."
"But this loan? you will take it. Lucy, speak up," added Miss Arkell, turning to her niece. "This money is willed to you, and will be yours sometime. Is it not at your wish that I come this evening, as well as at my own?"
"Oh, sir," sobbed Lucy to Mr. Arkell, "take it all. Let my aunt retain what will be sufficient for her life, but keep none for me; I am young and healthy, and can go out and work for my living, as she has done. Take all the rest, and save the credit of the family." ”

“ You dare to come courting me as a single man! You nearly drew me into a marriage! Where's your wife? Where's your wife, villain?"
This charge was a mistaken one, and Ben Carr somewhat rallied his scared senses. "It is false," he said. "I swear on my honour that I have no wife; I swear that I never have had one."
"You had your wife with you in Geneva," said Mrs. Dundyke.
"She was not my wife. Lizzie Fauntleroy, can't you believe me? I have never married yet. I never thought of marrying until I saw you."
"It's all the same now," said Lizzie, with equanimity. "I don't like tricks played me. ”

“ Travice looked very well now. His hair was long again; his face, delicate still—but it was in the nature of its features to be so—had resumed its hue of health. Lucy was radiant in smiles and blue ribbons, under the light of the chandelier.
"I begin to think that destinies are more equally apportioned than we are willing to imagine; that where there are fewer flowers there are fewer thorns," Mr. Arkell observed in a low tone. "There is a better life, Mildred, awaiting us hereafter." ”

“ Travice Arkell had been asking her to name the day. There ensued a loud laugh on Barbara's part, some skirmishing with her sister, and then a tacit acknowledgment that the surmise was correct, and that she had named it. Lucy sat perfectly still: her head apparently as intent upon her work as were her hands.
"Liz may as well name it for herself," retorted Barbara. "Ben Carr has wanted her to do it before now."
"There's no hurry," said Lizzie. "For me, at any rate. When one's going to marry a man so much older than oneself, one is apt not to be over ardent for it." ”

“ Mr. Wilberforce momentarily stopped chanting, and directed his angry spectacles towards the choristers, not understanding what caused the hubbub, and inwardly vowing to flog the whole five on the morrow. Mr. Smith, a strong man, came out of his stall, lifted the lifeless form in his arms, and carried it out to the side aisle, the head, like a dead weight, hanging down over his shoulder. All the eyes and all the glasses in the cathedral were bent on them; and the next to come out of his stall, by the prebendaries, and follow in the wake, was Mr. St. John, a flush of emotion on his pale face. ”

“ The fault was Mildred's. Not quite all at once could they understand it; not until later.
"I shall never marry; indeed I shall never marry," murmured Lucy, as she yielded for the moment to the passionate embrace in which Travice clasped her, and kissed away her tears of anguish. "My lot in life must be like my aunt's now, unloving and unloved."
"Oh, is there no escape for us!" exclaimed Travice, wildly, as all the painful embarrassment of his position rushed over his mind. "Can we not fly together, Lucy—fly to some remote desert place, and leave care and sorrow behind us? ”

“ Was it possible that he thought she spoke of Lucy? The idea occurred, to Mrs. Arkell.
"My dear, it is Barbara. She has asked to see you a great many times. She is downstairs now."
Travice raised his thin hand, and laid it for a moment over his face, over his closed eyes. Was he praying for help in his pain?—for strength to go through what must be gone through—his duty in the future; and to do it bravely?
"Travice, my dear, but for this illness she would now have been your wife. It is only natural that she should wish to come and see you." ”

“ Oh, Travice! it's best as it is! A little bit of smart to get over—and that's what I have been doing the past week or so—and we begin on a truer basis. I never was suited to you, and that's the truth. But we can be the best friends living. It won't spoil my appetite, Travice; I'm not of that flimsy temperament. Fancy me getting brain-fever through being crossed in love!"
She laughed out loud at the thought—a ringing, merry laugh. It put Travice at ease on the score of the "smart."
"And now I'm going into the manufactory to tell Mr. Arkell that you and I are two. ”

“ Arkell and the dean, quitted the room. Henry's mind was tranquil now.
"I will not forget your request," whispered the dean.
"Near to the college door, as we enter," was Henry's response.
"It shall be done as you wish, my dear."
"And, sir, you have promised to forgive them."
"For your sake. You are suffering much just now," added the dean, as he watched his countenance.
"It gets more intense with every hour. I cannot bear it much longer. Oh, I hope I shall not suffer beyond my strength!" he panted; "I hope I shall be able to bear the agony!"
"Do not fear it. You know where to look for help!" ”

“ She must go through life as I have done—and bear—and bear! Strange, that the younger brother's family, throughout two generations, should have cast their shadow for evil upon that of the elder! A blight must have fallen upon my father's race; but, perhaps in mercy, Lucy is the last of it. If I could have foreseen this, years ago, the same atmosphere in which lived Travice Arkell should not have been breathed by Lucy. The same fate! the same fate!"
Lucy was sobbing silently behind her hands. Travice stood, the image of despair. Mildred turned to him.
"Then you do not love Miss Fauntleroy?" ”

“ But—as he had prayed the dean, so he prayed his father, to forgive the culprit. Lewis junior, I am here on the part of Mr. Arkell to offer his forgiveness to you."
"I wish I could as easily accord mine," said the dean. "No punishment will be inflicted on you, Lewis junior: not because no punishment, that I or Mr. Wilberforce could command, is adequate to the crime, but that his dying request, for your pardon, shall be complied with. If you have any conscience at all, his fate will lie upon it for the remainder of your life, and you will bear its remembrance about with you." ”

“ Charlotte Arkell came in with Barbara Fauntleroy. Sophy had gone home with the other one for the rest of the day. An old aunt, bed-ridden three parts of her time, had lived with the young ladies since the death of their father. But they were not so very young; and they were naturally independent. Barbara was quite as old as Travice Arkell.
"How shall I bear to see them together?" thought Lucy, as Barbara Fauntleroy sat down opposite to her, in her rustling silk of many colours, and no end of gold trinkets jingling about her. "I wonder why I was born? ”

“ Fauntleroy refused longer to give; refused it coarsely and angrily; and Peter was tempted to remind him of the past. Never yet had he done so.
"Have you forgotten what I did for you?" he asked. "I saved you once from what was perhaps worse than debt."
"And what if you did?" returned the strong-minded lawyer—not to speak more plainly. "I paid you back again."
"Yes; but how? In driblets, which did me no good. And if you did repay me, does that blot out the obligation? If any one man should be lenient to another, you ought to be so to me, Fauntleroy." ”

“ Arkell condescended to pay a stately visit of ceremony to Mildred, who received her in the formerly almost-unused drawing-room. Lucy did not appear. Miss Arkell, her heart softened by grief, by much trial, was more cordial than perhaps she had ever been to Mrs. Arkell, before her marriage or after it.
"What a fine young man Travice is!" she observed, in a pause of their conversation.
"The finest in Westerbury," said Mrs. Arkell, with all the partiality of a mother. "I expect he will be thinking of getting married shortly."
"Of getting married! Travice! To whom? To Lucy?" ”

“ Men passed each other in the streets, with a congratulation that the winter weather had gone, and the college boys, penned up in their large schoolroom, gazed aloft through the high windows at the blue sky and the sunshine, and thought what a shame it was that they should be held prisoners on such a days instead of galloping over the country at "Hare and Hounds."
"Third Latin class walk up," cried Mr. Wilberforce.
The third Latin class walked up, and ranged itself in front of the master's desk. "Who's top of this class?" asked he.
"Me, sir," replied the gentleman who owned that distinction. ”

“ Arkell, in a state of bitter vexation at the turn things had taken, terribly self-repentant that she should have pursued a line of conduct so inimical to her own interests, sat down on a low chair, and fairly burst into tears.
"Why, what's the matter, Charlotte?"
"You are a rich woman now, and therefore you despise us. We are growing poor."
"How can you talk such nonsense!" exclaimed Mrs. Dundyke, screwing down the silver stopper of a scent-bottle. "If I became as rich and as grand as a duke, it could never cause me to make the slightest difference in my conduct to anybody, high or low." ”

“ Have you got your things ready? We will go where she can't find us out, and force me to her. Lucy! where are you? Lucy!"
And Mrs. Arkell! She was the most bitterly repentant. Many a sentence is spoken lightly, many an idle threat, many a reckless wish; but the vain folly is not often brought home to the heart, as it was to Mrs. Arkell.
"I would pray Heaven to let me follow you to your grave, Travice, rather than see you marry Lucy Arkell." He was past feeling or remembering the words; but they came home to her. ”

“ I thought your property had diminished until it was but small."
"Our property is diminishing daily," replied Mrs. Arkell. "Which makes it the more necessary that Travice should secure himself by his marriage."
Lucy did not answer; but her heart throbbed violently, and the faint colour on her cheek forsook it. Mrs. Arkell, without looking towards her, rose to poke the fire, and continued talking as she leaned over the grate, with her back to Lucy.
"It is intended that Travice shall marry Barbara Fauntleroy." ”

“ Travice Arkell's face changed to an expression of deep, grave meaning, of troubled meaning, and he dropped his voice to a low tone as he rose and stood near Lucy, looking down upon her.
"I wish I could be serious; I have wished it, Lucy, this long while past. Other men at my age are thinking of forming those social ties that man naturally expects to form; of gathering about him a home, and a wife, and children. ”

“ The doctors say so."
"O-o-o-o-o-o-h!" howled Lewis; "then I know you'll come back and haunt me with being your murderer: Prattleton junior says you will. He saw it done, so he knows about it. I shall never be able to sleep at night, for fear."
"Now, Lewis, don't be foolish. I shall be too happy where I am, to come back to earth. No one knows how it happened: you say Prattleton does, but he is your friend, and it is safe with him. Take comfort."
"Some of us have been so wicked and malicious to you!" blubbered Lewis. "I, and my brother, and Aultane, and a lot of them." ”

“ Palmer.
"I shall never marry," continued Lucy, in answer to Mr. Arkell's puzzled look. "I think I am better as I am."
"But, Lucy, you are going to marry. You are going to marry Tom Palmer."
Lucy laughed. She could not help it, she said, apologetically. She had laughed ever since he asked her, except just at the time, at the very idea of her marrying Tom Palmer, the little friend of her girlhood. Tom laughed at it himself now; and they were as good friends as before. "But how did you hear of it?" she exclaimed.
Travice came forward, his cheek pale, his lip quivering. ”