Pierce Egan

“ Oh! it has with you,” urged Lotte, vehemently; “a glimmering light there is to penetrate the foulest vault of sin and despair. Have but faith in me, and I will show you, though it be as a star shining afar, the beacon of hope burning steadily. Perhaps you have not yet tested the value of sincere friendship; perhaps you know not what peace may be won by pouring your sorrows in a tenderly attentive ear, or confiding your fears, your worst forebodings—even your sins—for alas! we are all more or less tainted—to a sympathising breast.”
The young lady squeezed Lotte’s hands spasmodically. ”

“ Truebody, in a curiously solemn tone.
A flush spread itself over the hitherto pale features of Helen, and then it passed away, leaving her whiter than ever.
“Never,” she murmured, in a low voice.
“And where is he who has brought you to this condition?” asked Mrs. Truebody, in a tone betraying indignation.
“Oh, do not speak, do not think harshly of him!” exclaimed Helen, with a quivering lip. “His anguish, his misery, and his despair, were greater than my own!” ”

“ Grahame, your and my daughter, Margaret Claverhouse, is now the eldest female representative of our name in your family, and from this moment it will be so understood. Margaret we will retire.”
She rose as she spoke, motioning to Margaret to follow her example.
As she did so, Evangeline flung herself wildly at her feet.
“Have mercy, madam!” she cried. “Helen is still your child. She is my sister—my dear sister. Oh, in mercy, do not discard her! She is our own flesh and blood. You are her mother. Oh, in the face of God, do not forget that though she may have erred—she is but human. ”

“ Old Wilton, upon the name of his son being announced, started and staggered as if he had been smitten a violent blow; then he drew himself up erect. His flushed face became pale, and his brow remained contracted as sternly as before.
Mark Wilton entered with a hasty step, and advanced rapidly to his father, with the intention of embracing him, but he paused upon observing the old man’s attitude and demeanour.
He stretched out his hands.
“Father!” he exclaimed, with emotion.
The old man remained rigid as a statue, and made no sign of taking the proffered hands. ”

“ Eva burst into tears.
“Do not be cross with me, Helen, darling, for I love you fondly and dearly!” she exclaimed. “If I too much intrude my love upon you, forgive me, for I cannot help it. Say to me only, ‘Good night, Eva,’ and kiss me, and I will leave you—oh, so happy, Helen.”
Helen could not bear this tenderness of her sister’s, and not respond to it; she strained her passionately to her bosom, and sobbed violently upon her neck. She then wiped her scalding tears from her burning eyes, and kissed Eva fervidly upon the forehead. ”

“ Then Helen fell upon her neck, and wept a long, long passion of tears; and, when the fount was exhausted, she, in broken tones and disjointed words, and with sobs and groans, revealed all to Lotte—more, far more, than ever she had breathed to mortal before.
Lotte listened with breathless attention, sometimes in astonishment, at others in fright, but when, half fainting, the worst part of the history was confessed by Helen, she pressed her to her bosom, and wept with her.
A woman’s error out of a woman’s love, oh! ”

“ Helen took it abruptly from her, kissed it passionately many times, and then placed it again in Lotte’s arms.
The latter, overwhelmed with surprise, exclaimed, in a tone of the greatest astonishment—
“Where are you going, Helen? In Heaven’s name, do not be guilty of any rash or unadvised step. Oh! I should break my heart if, out of any mistaken feeling of commiseration or tenderness for me, you should come to harm!”
“Do not fear for me, dear, dear Lotte,” returned Helen, earnestly. “The worst that could have fallen upon me has come to pass, and fate will not persecute me further. ”

“ When he retired through the doorway, he saw that her gaze was fastened upon the face of the young and handsome person introduced to him as Mr. Vivian.
His quick eye and his experience noted all these symptoms of the small way he had made in her favour.
“Yet,” said he to himself, “she will fall far more easily into my mesh than Helen Grahame. She is so pure, so guileless, so innocent of the world’s ways, that she is without suspicion—that best defence for woman against man’s art. My heart now aches to gain her. ”

“ The haughty girl cowered.
“I do,” she murmured.
“As with a bitter wail of sorrowing distraction, even such as now burst from your lips, I was about to leap out of life, I was seized by the wrist, as I now seize you, and by a friend. To shame me from my dreadful purpose, God had sent to me a friend, as—as he now sends me to you.”
She fell upon her knees, and clasped the hands of the young lady.
“Oh! believe that, though humble, I can and will do all within my power to serve you, to console you, to soothe the dreadful anguish which urges you to crime beyond redemption.” ”

“ I came down here to gaze my last upon the roof that sheltered you; to obtain, if possible, one last look upon your dear form; to breathe a prayer for your eternal happiness——”
“I cannot bear it!” cried Flora, springing to her feet. She burst into a passion of tears, and flung herself upon his neck. “You must not go, Hal!” she cried with intense excitement, “you must not, shall not leave me; I should break my heart! I should die if you were parted from me!” ”

“ Love and passion sprang up in her soul together, and she suffered them to proceed in their course impetuously, without an attempt to arrest or check their career.
Her mother and her instructors taking their cue from her father, had been more careful to instil into her mind the doctrines and practices of pride, than the precepts of religion or the practice of morality.
She loved Hugh with all the fierceness of an ungovernable passion, and she let it have its way. They had met in secret, and the notion of having a secret pleased her—she kept it as such. ”

“ I have declined that honour—I say it is singular that young Grahame should, by accident, introduce to me and to you the son of Lord Colborne, who, as you may surmise, is that young Vane to whom, in your infancy, I contracted you. Yet more singular, for these events generally turn out the reverse of what is intended or desired, Mr. Vane declares himself most strongly and passionately attached to you, and that it will be to him the proudest and happiest event that has happened or can happen in his life, when you bestow your hand upon him. ”

“ A moment more, and Helen Grahame realised her position.
She remembered her terrible conversation with Mrs. Truebody, her nurse, the latter’s charge, and her own fearful conviction of its truth. She remembered the sleepless horrors of that dreadful night; the simulated sleep at dawn, the absence of the nurse, the hasty dressing, the scribbled note, the slinking glide down the servants’ staircase, the swift dash into the garden, and the rapid exit—as it happened, unseen—by the private entrance. ”

“ Of all, Evangeline alone recognised her sister as her sister. Retiring by nature, she may have been, but she was bold in this. She rose from her seat, and passing with more display than she was in the habit of making behind those who sat between her and Helen, she heeded not her father’s stern look or her mother’s stony aspect, but she caught her sister’s hands, and pressed them. She bent over, and kissed her cold, cold forehead. ”

“ She had a struggle, at first, to wrest the empire from Evangeline, but she was so forcible in her reasoning, and so kind and gentle in her manner, that Eva yielded up the sway, on the understanding that she should spend the greater portion of her time at her sister’s bedside.
And now the house assumed an aspect of quiet. The Duke of St. Allborne had just begun to find favourable qualities in Margaret, not visible to the eyes of others, but bright in his, for her homage to him had been so direct that he could but notice and approve it. Direct flattery rarely disgusts the weak-minded ”

“ The physician declaring her out of immediate danger, retired, leaving Evangeline and Chayter to watch by her as she lay, wan and motionless—the faint heaving of her bosom only telling that she was not dead.
Helen’s intercourse with Hugh was known only to herself and to him—she had no confidante—and it was well that Mrs. Grahame was not present during the ravings uttered by her daughter. A secret is never so well kept as when it is never entrusted. ”

“ Maybee, I shall turn my attention to the forged deed executed, I suppose, by Grahame, and stolen, I suspect, by Chewkle. Ay! on that very morning I watched him to and from his lodgings, and the chambers of Grahame’s solicitors. It will come right at last!—all come right at last! Flora, from your bright abode in heaven, your gentle eyes may witness that I have striven truly and honestly to keep the solemn vow I have made; and though, on earth you regarded me with emotions of distaste, or sad compassionateness only, you may bend on me a smile of tenderness denied to me on earth. Alas! alas! ”

“ I wake to misery. You can never, never be mine; it would be only mad presumption to entertain longer a hope so blissful—oh, so very blissful! You will wed some one higher, nobler than myself, for you are of proud and high descent, and I but humbly born. If in this your happiness be secured, I love you far, far too well to seek or wish a change. I can only hope and pray that he who wins you may love you as truly, as fondly, as devotedly as I do. ”

“ Lester Vane, we meet here upon an equal footing—that is, as guests of Mr. Wilton. I have the honour of being received by him and Miss Wilton as a friend; let us therefore understand each other. While I am thus received by them, I claim to stand in the same position as any of their guests, and to be regarded by those guests as holding beneath this roof no meaner station. Here, sir, I am your equal, and I request you to distinctly understand that I will not calmly endure unprovoked insult from you or any individual breathing. ”

“ Good night, sir.”
“Good night—good night,” cried Mr. Grahame, hastily, and added: “Be careful how you descend the staircase, it is narrow, the night is dark, and an accident just now would be unfortunate.”
“To me; but what if I had old Wilton here,” suggested Chewkle, with a savage cackle.
“Hush! hush!” exclaimed Grahame, in a whisper, “not so loud. Mind how you go, do not let the servants discover you, whatever you do, and, above all, be sure to neglect no precaution which may tend to ensure the success of your enterprise.” ”

“ Evangeline threw her arms round her sister, and by force prevented her from springing from the bed on to the floor.
“Helen, darling,” she exclaimed, sobbing, as she felt the quivering, trembling frame of her sister shake in every limb, as though she was struck with an ague—“Helen, look upon me—I am Eva, sister Eva; you see only a horrible vision—a dreadful dream; you are at home in your own room—oh, Helen, Helen darling, speak to me one word, say that you know me, one word, Helen dearest.” ”

“ Bantom,” said Lotte, laying her hand gently upon his arm, and looking him sadly in the face, “your wife was right in her suggestion, and you, too, in following it. I know not who the person is who has thus singled me out for cruel insult; but it is right that you should know the nature of the errand upon which you have been sent to me. You have seen at night, in the street, a poor frail creature wearing a hollow smile upon her painted face, daunting in a gaudy dress, shunned by the respectable of her own sex, and frequently harshly repelled of treated as a shameless object by numbers of yours. ”

“ The hue of the still river, before so blue and sparkling in its ripples, now seemed to change—to become leaden and motionless. She remembered the dark night when, with cold, sinking heart, she hurried to leap from an arched height into a river’s chill and fatal embrace, that she might there end in a wakeless sleep, her sorrow and her despair.
She remembered the sudden grip of her wrist, the gentle voice in her ear, and the infinite mercy of the great and good God who had saved her in the very moment of committing a mortal sin. ”