Pierce Egan

“ The little colony of children were better where they were than anywhere else; Mrs. Bantom, too, had her share of hard work cut out for her for the next day and required sleep, but she did not heed it. She thought only of the poor young creature who she believed to be rapidly quitting her brief earthly career for one that would have no limit.
By the feeble rays of the miserable rushlight burning, she watched the flushed face of Lotte, perceiving it become each minute more crimson and inflamed-She saw her bosom heave and fall, and she listened with a beating heart to her stertorous breathing. ”

“ The eyes of the whole party were turned at once upon Flora Wilton.
“Lovely, indeed!” ejaculated Lester Vane, for he, with Helen, Margaret, and Evangeline Grahame, were of the party.
Helen Grahame turned her large dark eyes upon Flora. It was impossible not to acknowledge the extreme loveliness of the fair young face upon which her gaze rested, but a pang of mortification and jealousy penetrated her bosom, for Vane’s words rang in her ears, and a glance told her that his eyes were riveted upon Flora’s face with an expression of passionate admiration. ”

“ Flora, upon hearing her name, started and slightly shuddered, as one rousing from a painful reverie: Lotte gave her no time to answer, for she said hastily—
“Oh, yes, sir; new friends, it is true; but not the less, disposed warmly to serve her in her present terrible affliction, so far as our humble means will permit.”
“And pray what are your means?” demanded Nathan.
Lotte for a moment hung her head, and a bright flush mounted to her cheek and forehead, then she flung up her face, and with her clear bright eyes looked steadfastly at the little old man with the golden visage. ”

“ Everything has perished—my long, long sustained hopefulness is swept from me, and henceforth there is nothing left but misery and despair!”
“Father, dear father, do not give way to such gloomy fears,” cried Flora, tenderly caressing him.
“A cloud has long hung over our house; it is at its darkest now, but it will disperse and pass away.”
“Never! never!” cried the old man, hoarsely. “In that dread fire, all our expectations—all the possibilities of restoring them, are consumed; we might have been wealthy in the time to come, now we must be beggars for ever.” ”

“ Passion sprang into life simultaneously with the glance he turned upon her—it intermingled with his admiration, and became love.
He was not conscious of the change wrought within him when he instinctively surmised that trouble and trial hovered over her, and that he should take an active part in endeavouring to avert it. He had not a notion of it even when seated with Mr. Harper, his uncle, discoursing on the position of the Wilton family, he employed himself devising how the all but orphaned child of their skilled workman might be rescued from destitution. ”

“ Colonel Mires was a soldier, a martinet, he had been able to look down his inferior officers and his men, by the hard fixedness of his gaze; but he could not compel Hal to wink an eyelash. The clear bright eye of the youth was not to be made to waver, and the Colonel found himself obliged to be the first to remove his gaze.
“Surely,” he thought, “he can never be the suitor for the hand of Wilton’s daughter. If he is, he shall never have her. By heaven! so lovely a creature shall never be thrown away upon such a churl as he. ”

“ What happiness to have her dwelling at his home, her eyes to greet him when he returned at night, and follow him when he departed in the morning, her sweet-toned voice to welcome him and to speed him on his way, her delicious presence to smoothe down the fatigues of his daily labour, and to wile away imperceptibly hours which otherwise might drag their slow length tediously along.
Harry Vivian, overflowing with Mr. Harper’s instructions and his own emotions of delight, one morning by arrangement entered the room in which Flora was seated alone, and advanced towards her shyly and slowly. ”

“ Helen looked up at the Duke with a quick action and a glittering eye. She said in a slightly petulant tone—
“Wax dolls have the ‘fairest, divinest faces,’ my lord Duke, yet we do not fall into raptures with them.”
“Not we, assuredly Miss Grahame,” observed Lester Vane, slowly, “but little children do. In their eyes dolls’ faces possess immense attractions, and they have a title to be ranked as the best judges of beauty in dolls, as”——
He paused, and looked into Helen’s eyes.
“As men lay claim to be of loveliness in woman,” she responded, with a scarcely perceptible sneer. ”

“ Grahame turned a fitful gaze in that direction, and quickly, but silently, turned the key in the lock.
Then he paced up and down the library, almost convulsed by a fierce, mental struggle. He pressed his burning palm upon his aching forehead, and muttered rapidly and wildly—
“It must be done now; there is no escape—no escape—none—retreat is utterly impossible, and the advance must be swift, or, in spite of crime, utter crushing ruin must be the result. No; there is no stopping now. That forgery is useless, worthless, while he lives to prove it what it is. ”

“ The visage of the little man shone like burnished gold. His eyes danced and sparkled, and he chuckled as if animated by the most pleasurable emotions.
“Aha! friend Chewkle,” he exclaimed, placing his cold, fishy hand upon Chewkle’s fevered wrist; “you are active this morning—full of business—away from home to a lawyer’s office—then hurrying back in a cab to your charmingly retired abode—away in a cab back to the solicitors, and now, ha! ha! eh? I’ll be sworn to Mr. Grahame’s, in the Regent’s Park, with a communication—I say a communication, he! he! Brisk fellow, sharp fellow, smart dog.” ”

“ He caught sight of her walking alone in the garden several times, and rushed to an upper window to waft a kiss viâ his fingers to her, or to lay his hand upon the left side of a rather narrow chest, or to render himself conspicuously ridiculous in other ways. His vagaries were uselessly performed and expended without result, for Lotte did not once perceive him, and left the roof of Flora Wilton, in the Regent’s Park, without knowing, or desiring to know, that any such vain heartless coxcomb as Malcolm Grahame was in existence. ”

“ Grahame felt that she had been premature. How Margaret began to hate Flora!
“Let me add,” continued Mr. Grahame, “that Mr. Wilton can claim an older and a nobler descent than either you, madam, or myself. In his veins runs the blood of the Stuarts, the Eglintons, the Grahames, and the Gordons. When, therefore, you apply the epithets of ‘man’ and ‘person’ to him, you injuriously insult a gentleman entitled to your highest consideration.” ”

“ Nutty, turned upon her with an aspect in which the expression was undecided—as he was not certain whether the swoon was a sham or a fact—memory returned, and her bereavement, with the future and all the horrors of its uncertainty—save that the direst poverty must attend it—burst upon her.
She wrung her hands in the fulness of her misery, and then she murmured through her blinding tears—
“Almighty Father! support me now!”
Lotte stole her arm about Flora’s waist, and whispered in her ear—
“Cheer up, Miss Wilton! you have friends who will not desert you.” ”

“ But she had a surmise. Women, quick at assumption, are rarely far wrong in their suppositions.
Flora, when she opened her eyes to find herself at a dizzy height above the uproar of the excited multitude assembled to witness the destruction of the dwelling by the remorseless fire, saw, too, that she was in the firm grasp of Harry Vivian. She remembered that now; and she was led to believe, therefore, that she had been conveyed by him to the house of his uncle, and that the kind and tender matron who had spoken to her such words of tenderness was his aunt. ”

“ To the Duke she was mixed up with the lights, the plate, and Malcolm Grahame, but the eye of Vane marked her down.
“I must fall in with her when she is alone,” he thought; “early in the morning or in byeways. She can be made, I am sure, to believe and to keep a secret, at any self-sacrifice.”
Once more his eye fell upon Helen, who was turning her dark, bright eyes upon the Duke, and electrifying him with her beauty, while she confused him by the smartness of her sallies.
“I will have her,” mused Lester Vane. ”

“ When Jukes perceived the exquisite countenance of Wilton’s daughter turned with an aspect of distressed inquiry towards him, he instinctively removed the hat of many showers from his dusty head, and made her a slight bow. His satellites also approached as near as they could to an imitation of his action, and stood still, instead of displaying, as they had intended, a vast amount of unnecessary activity.
This respect was an instinctive tribute to her innocent loveliness. Purity commands reverence even as beauty does admiration. ”

“ You are my heart’s idol, its worship—my adoration; and if I am captious, full of strange conceptions and dread misgivings, attribute it alone to my passion for you, my Helen, my beloved!”
It is rarely that a young girl who is possessed of genuine tenderness of feeling for a young and handsome man, remains an indifferent listener to his ardent expressions of passionate devotion. Helen Grahame was not less susceptible in this particular than the weakest of her sex. She bent over Hugh, parted with her soft white hand his rich glossy hair from his forehead, and pressed it with her ruby lips. ”

“ He quickly perceived it, and had some notion of the cause; so he said—
“I am so glad I have found you at last. I have made many efforts, since the night of the fire, to discover you, but in vain. Not alone to satisfy my own anxiety respecting you, but to allay the apprehensions of your friend. Miss Wilton, to whom you were so kind in her hour of bitter trial. Ah, Lotte! her misery is all past, her future life promises to be one of supreme happiness, if wealth and station can ensure it. Come to her now: she so wishes to see you again. It is not so far: a cab will quickly take us to her. ”

“ It was in this spirit they were all but toying with each other, when Malcolm, who had been reading the Times, uttered an exclamation, and, turning to his father, he said—
“You remember young Riversdale, sir?—you do, Helen, of course,” he cried, turning to his sister.
Had fame—life—depended upon an unchanged countenance, she must have lost both. She on the instant grew deathly pale; she could not reply—she merely bent her head.
“A son of Major Riversdale,” said Mrs. Grahame; “I think we met them in the north?”
“Yes,” returned Malcolm. ”

“ When they together reached the lodge, or gate, as it is called, of the Queen’s Prison, Hal and Flora gazed with surprise on the motley group waiting for the door to be unlocked, that they might enter to see those confined within.
A sallow faced, black-haired turnkey, who seemed all eyes, was what is called “on the lock,” and he “took stock” of every individual about to pass into the prison with a sharp scrutiny, and with a rapidity which told that this had been for years his daily practice.
Young and old, rich and poor, were standing there together, elbow to elbow. ”

“ This signature Wilton sternly and inflexibly refused to give; and when it was urged upon him to do so, for the sake of her who was wholly dependent upon him, he grew frenzied, and vowed that he would submit to death rather than comply. Mr. Harper, the goldsmith, finding that reasoning, expostulations, suggestions, and pleadings, were alike in vain, said there was no way to save him, and matters must take their course. Like a vulture pouncing upon its prey, Jukes seized upon the almost lifeless old man, and proceeded to drag him away. ”

“ Colonel Mires produced a card-case, and handed a card to Wilton, who held it close to his eyes.
“So far,” he muttered, and then exclaimed aloud—“I will be there, Colonel, punctually, and without fail.”
“It will not put you to any inconvenience, I hope?” said Colonel Mires, with a mystified air.
“No, no, oh no!” returned old Wilton, with a smile.
“To be sure not,” reflected Hal, “how should it? there is only two thousand pounds to prevent him leaving the prison, and what is that to a man who has not two crowns to jingle together?” ”

“ I further caused him to be informed that as soon as you were able to leave your chamber, you would go to him, and explain all that I was unable to communicate.”
“Oh, sir! let me go to him at once,” cried Flora eagerly.
“If you feel strong enough, certainly,” replied Mr. Harper.
“Oh, sir! I am quite strong enough, quite—indeed I am. I so long to see him; I have so much, so very much to say to him.”
“Be it so; Hal shall accompany you to protect you. You cannot go alone.” ”

“ You have been left in a position of great trust in the midst of a heavy calamity; much will be demanded of your energy and self reliance; remember ‘God helps those who help themselves’, therefore, while you are grateful for, place no reliance in, promises. Farewell!—we shall meet again. May it be when you will not need my assistance!”
With a wave of the hand, he hurried out of the room, closely followed by Mr. Graba, leaving Flora, no less than Lotte, in a state of bewildered astonishment. ”

“ He threw himself into an easy chair, and was quickly engaged in drawing deductions. Not for a second was the fair face of Flora absent from his vision. The rugged visage of Jukes, the grimy features of his satellites, the impassible countenance of Nathan Gomer, which seemed moulded out of fine gold, the bright, frank aspect of Lotte, by turns floated across his mental speculum, but never to displace that of Flora. ”