William Howitt

“ And then the bees worshipping the bough where the queen-bee sat, for a few days, and only for a few, as Betty said. How completely that applied to Thorsby! His career of pulpit eloquence and repentant zeal had been as brief as it had been dazzling. It was like the taking fire of dry furze on a common. It was an all-consuming flame for a brief period, and was gone, leaving a bare and blackened waste. Letty had watched with a sad terror the decrease and disappearance of this impetuous blaze of the soul. ”

“ No, sir; as much corn, cattle, hay, potatoes, and the like substantials, for which we labour, and from which we must hope to live, as you please. The greatest possible return for the greatest possible amount of labour and skill expended;—that is my doctrine and my practice; and they are the only principles that will in the long run make this country what it ought to be.”
“But man cannot live by bread alone,” said Mr. Woodburn; “that is a principle established by an authority which I hope, Mr. Drury, you consider as of as much validity as your modern save-all doctrine.” ”

“ Degge, Sir Henry, George, Ann, and Letty, set out for this walk. A more delicious evening never shed its charms on such a company. A light breeze blew the odours of legions of flowers towards them as they slowly wandered down the valley. They had then to cross some fields, and pass through a farm-yard, before reaching the copse in question. These fields and this copse were on Sir Roger Rockville’s land; and as they approached the gate leading into the fields, they saw, to their surprise, a board erected, declaring that there was no road that way. ”

“ To this proposal Henry Clavering would not listen. “No,” said he, “my dearest Ann, I cannot change my heart and soul at pleasure. With you or with no one must I unite my life. I feel the greatness of your self-sacrifice, but it is not in your power to set me free. I am what I am, and must be. My love for you is rooted into the deepest [Pg 10] region of my heart—neither you nor I can tear it out at will. I will wait for you as long as you like—and you or I may change.”
Sir Emanuel Clavering had seconded the proposal of his son with the most zealous advocacy. ”

“ Some desperate cause, every one felt, must have produced such a catastrophe. Dr. Leroy was so noted for the calmness and equanimity of his disposition. At Fair Manor a profound sorrow reigned, and a deep and brooding silence lay over it. Sylvanus Crook opened the gates for the fly bringing the two young ladies from Castleborough, in silence. Sukey Priddo, when she came to the door, looked as if she had seen an apparition, and ran to tell Mrs. Heritage. Mrs. Heritage came hastily from her room. There were signs of much weeping on her fair, but solemn, and now pale face. ”

“ Heritage,” said Thorsby. “Don’t torture me with talk of my wife, my mother, or my child. I know all that as well as you do; but if a man is born to be damned, not all the preachers or preacheresses on earth can save him.”
Mrs. Heritage sat for a moment stupified by the defiant wickedness before her; but, recovering herself, said, “No, all the powers on earth cannot save thee; but these are not all the powers—God can save thee.” ”

“ Well, I am sorry for it—I am sorry indeed that such a sweet, good creature has such a father. As for poor Mrs. Drury, she does not seem to have a soul of her own. She is just like a scared automaton, if an automaton could be scared. She must have had a pretty life of it with such a man.”
If George were in, he would quietly get up and go out, and then Mrs. Woodburn, or Ann, if at home, would say, “Pray don’t make such remarks, dear father—or husband—don’t you see how painful they are to George; and as for Elizabeth Drury, she loves and honours you most sincerely. ”

“ Heritage,” said Sir Emanuel. “I wanted to say that your good wishes for me and labour with me, I trust, are not quite thrown away. I have thought much and deeply on all that you have said. Yes, truly this is a world in which gigantic difficulties present themselves to our reason. I cannot surmount those difficulties, but I have resolved to leave them. [Pg 74] How can I or any man fathom the depths of the Infinite? It is vain—it is foolish to expect it—we will leave the illimitable to clear itself up in the illimitable of existence.” ”

“ With what pride Letty on her next visit to the Grange showed the newest Woodburn to the grandfather,—mother and sister and George had already taken their view of the miniature youth in Castleborough. With what pride she told her father that she was charmed with the opportunity of giving the name of Leonard—Leonard Woodburn Thorsby—to a fresh claimant of the honours and virtues of the house! Thorsby was himself no less proud of the young aspirant to manhood. ”

“ Edmund smiled. “Ah! dear mother! do we live in such primitive times that we do not venture to pluck a flower because another person likes it too? Are these the days of such disinterested chivalry? Are these days of such self-denying ordinances? I think I could look round in our meeting, and find some very high precedents for such exercise of free will.”
Mrs. Barrington was silent, for the truth came very near home, and certain tender reminiscences rose up from long past days, and made her reasonings rather faint.
“But what shall I say to thy father? what—oh what! to our friends at Fair Manor?” ”

“ What a joy it is to George to have him back again, and you, Ann?”
“Oh! I am very glad indeed that he is [Pg 2] come back; poor Sir Emanuel must have been so lonely by himself up in that great house.”
“True,” said Mrs. Woodburn. “But you, Ann? Has he altered his opinions at all?”
Ann shook her head, the tears started to her eyes, and she said, “No, dear mother, he is just the same; it is very sad.”
“It is sad,” said Mrs. Woodburn; “but let us wait God’s time, my dear child; I will still hope that so excellent a young man, with such sense and such a heart, must come right at last.” ”

“ The ascent of such a brilliant meteor into the religious horizon of Methodism produced immediately numerous calls to visit other towns—Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, &c. &c.,—and everywhere the same enthusiasm was excited by Thorsby’s addresses. He might have gone from town to town on a triumphal round of religious service; much time he was, in a measure, obliged to devote to such engagements, and well was it for him that he had a man like Thomas Barnsdale to attend to his business affairs. For some months Thorsby continued to astonish and electrify the public by his impassioned discourses. ”

“ Knowest thou not that the hard ground must first be torn up and rent in pieces by the plough and harrows of the husbandman before it can receive the seed of a new harvest? May the hard ground of thy heart, Henry Thorsby, be thus ploughed up and harrowed in sunder, for so only do I believe that it can be reduced to that soft and plastic state in which the seed of divine grace can once more grow. ”

“ When the attention is drawn every day over such a multitude of objects and persons, where can it settle? how can the heart take root anywhere? No—the heart—the heart, my dear friend, in that lies the fountain of happiness, and a few deep, tender, and lasting attachments are worth more than a million of mere superficial [Pg 163] acquaintances. I say, with dear Ann Woodburn—take time: weigh well your decision, dear Millicent. Remember that it may be death, or worse than death, to a most estimable man, and of much sorrow to others. Wait—wait! Here you have the prospect of a happy and useful life ”

“ All called on Betty to explain how it took place, and Letty was greatly agitated.
“Oh!” said George, “I see how it is. Harry has taken off his hat to the Friends as they passed, and that scamp of a pony has shied. But he cannot have hurt the old man; falling from that little brute is only like falling from a chair.”
“What does a sober man like that ride such a skittish thing for?” asked Mr. Woodburn.
“Because,” said George, “I was going to say, he is an old fool; but the fact is people always do ride animals like themselves.”
“What! Do you think a man like a horse?” exclaimed Ann. ”

“ George and Mr. Degge were in the utmost alarm. Any attempt to pursue her only made the frantic animal dash on more madly. One thing appeared in Letty’s favour; there was a long, ascending, though not very steep hill, and her friends trusted that the mare would wind herself before she got to the top, and so allow herself to be pulled in. George, without daring to gallop after her at full speed, yet kept on at a smart pace, taking the grassy borders of the road, so as not to let the flying animal hear him more than he could help. ”

“ Heritage with painful astonishment. He did not rise to receive her, but with a scowling, savage sort of look begged to know to what he owed the honour of this visit.
“It is from a tender concern for thee, Henry Thorsby, and thy dear wife, that I have wished to come.”
“You can bestow your tender care on my wife, then,” said Thorsby: “she is in the house.”
“But, first,” said Mrs. Heritage, in her soft and gentle voice, “I would like to speak a word or two to thee. I would ask thee if thou knowest whither thou art going now? What must be the awful ultimatum of thy present unhappy course?” ”

“ In a few weeks Letty was about again. A pale, thin, serious, but energetic-looking woman. Could that be the once laughing, [Pg 246] blithe, singing Letty? It was the same bright, pure spirit, saddened but ennobled by the ordeal of trial and distress, and by a life’s aim the noblest and most sacred that ever lifted a womanly soul into the regions of a wisdom beyond her years. She soon returned her attention to business. Closely veiled, she walked silently through the quietest streets from her house to the warehouse ”

“ When Letty, that sunbeam which was ever darting here and there, yet always making bright the house, returns, it will be to Castleborough. Not far off, to be sure, but still not exactly at Woodburn. Meantime, Ann and George, too, have their friend, Miss Drury, to enliven them by her genial and ever lively society. There are frequent passings between the Grange and Bilts’ Farm, where Mr. Trant Drury is always busy, though there really, just now, seems little to do, but for the dews to fall, and the crops to grow in the sunshine. ”

“ Why, I tell you, we are all as sober as judges. It is not wine, it is only a little hilarity that we like at the club. When a man has been fagging all day in the counting-house, why, dear me, one must have a little talk and laughter to brighten one up. But never do you fear. I know what I am about. I am not going to make an ass of myself.”
Letty thought that he used to find her society refreshing and enlivening once. ”

“ The yet hale and cheerful woman of fifty, was much fonder of a house more resembling in size and furnishing her former humble habitation by the Castleborough meadows, than the large house of her son called Hillmartin Hall. She could not here work and get up linen, but she [Pg 22] could spin and look after a little garden. She must have some employment: and Simon Degge knew that his mother would feel much more happy in a house of her own than in a great house, even though her son and daughter-in-law showed her every honour and all affection. ”

“ Mr. Thorsby has wonderful [Pg 250] energies in his nature, strangely linked, it must be said, with sad weaknesses; but let him once be roused in some important cause, and the latent forces will be sure to come out. See what a wonderful eloquence he displayed, before unknown to everybody—unknown to himself. I am sure he will pursue this unblushing rogue to the very extremities of the earth. He has all the spirit of the hunter in him, and nothing in the world could be so beneficial to him as such an excitement and chase.”
“Pray God it may be so,” said Letty. ”

“ She saw that all hope of inducing him to face his old connections was hopeless.
“Put that down,” said Letty, sternly; “you terrify me. George will not come unasked; [Pg 242] and if you will not return to Castleborough, I will come and live in London.”
“You!” said Thorsby. “You, who love the country so, whose heart has so many ties there!”
“I can do it willingly,” said Letty. “I can be very happy with you and dear little Leonard anywhere. My greatest ties are here.”
“It cannot be,” said Thorsby, assuming an awful look. “Angels of light and devils cannot dwell together. ”

“ Such an outburst of weather at the death and funeral of Sir Emanuel Clavering was [Pg 82] certain to excite in the imagination of the country people round the most awful ideas of the mortal exit of a man who had acquired so mysterious a reputation. It is a favourite idea that tempests of a fearful character often attend the departure of men remarkable for their daring deeds in life—deeds not very scrupulous regarding the rights or lives of men. ”

“ Food for the support of the body, grace for the life of the soul, beauty for the imagination, love for the heart, and truth for the intellect. To feed only the body, and to devote all our labours and our lands only to this purpose, is, in my opinion, to make ourselves no better than the beasts that perish.”
Mr. Drury smiled contemptuously. “That is all very well for you, Mr. Woodburn, who [Pg 269] live at ease on your own land; but that sort of doctrine won’t do for tenant-farmers.”
Mr. Woodburn thought it as good for tenant-farmers as for anybody else ”

“ Thorsby’s declaration and your worthy parents’ consent given but yesterday.”
“Oh!” said Letty, blushing and looking very happy, “I was not thinking of myself, but of Millicent Heritage.”
“Of Millicent Heritage!” exclaimed her mother and sister; “why, what of her?”
“I am sure,” continued Ann, “Dr. Leroy is over head and ears in love with her. Never did I see a young man’s eyes always resting with such affectionate expression on any one as his do on Miss Heritage; and really she seems very fond of him; and a most accomplished and amiable man he is.” ”

“ Woodburn, “and have spoken more than once to Thorsby on the subject, and he has always promised to reform; but my opinion is that he is just as weak as a bulrush. He can’t help himself. It is a very serious affair.”
“Well,” said George, “there always was an excitable nature in Thorsby. He has very quick feelings for good, and if not for evil, at least for pleasure, and what he calls jollity. I had hoped that Letty would have been able to keep him more at home, but he always says he must have a little innocent larking, he should go daft without it.” ”

“ But what assumptions can pass muster with a genuine lover. There had been a great falling off both in the frequency, the volume, and the fervour of Millicent’s correspondence with Dr. Leroy. He had his friends in town, and from them he had heard of the great regard in which Millicent was held by the Barringtons, of their constant endeavours to amuse her, of the admiration in which she was held by the gay society into which she had been introduced, and of the assiduous attendance and attentions of Edmund Barrington. ”