Mellefont

“ MELLEFONT. Not so, Sir! This angel enjoined more than human nature is capable of! You cannot be my father. Behold, Sir (drawing the dagger from his bosom) , this is the dagger which Marwood drew upon me to-day. To my misfortune, I disarmed her. Had I fallen a guilty victim of her jealousy, Sara would still be living. You would have your daughter still, and have her without Mellefont. It is not for me to undo what is done--but to punish myself for it is still in my power! (he stabs himself and sinks down at Sara's side.)
SIR WILLIAM. Hold him, Waitwell! ”

“ MARWOOD. Its intention was not to offend you, but only to show you the unhappy Marwood in a light, in which you could most correctly judge her. To be brief--love gave Mellefont the rights of a husband; and Mellefont did not any longer consider it necessary to have them made valid by the law. How happy would Marwood be, if she, Mellefont, and Heaven alone knew of her shame! How happy if a pitiable daughter did not reveal to the whole world that which she would fain be able to hide from herself.
SARA. What do you say? ”

“ Shall I still have sufficient strength? (tears it.)
MELLEFONT. What are you doing, Sara!
SARA. Marwood will not escape her fate; but neither you nor my father shall be her accusers. I die, and forgive the hand through which God chastens me. Alas, my father, what gloomy grief has taken hold of you? I love you still, Mellefont, and if loving you is a crime, how guilty shall I enter yonder world! Would I might hope, dearest father, that you would receive a son in place of a daughter! And with him you will have a daughter too, if you will acknowledge Arabella as such. ”

“ Could not this unforeseen kindness of your father be a dissimulation? An artifice?
SARA. Assuredly not, Madam, assuredly not. Only read and you will admit it yourself. Dissimulation is always cold, it is not capable of such tender words. (Marwood reads.) Do not grow suspicious, Mellefont, I beg. I pledge myself that my father cannot condescend to an artifice. He says nothing which he does not think, falseness is a vice unknown to him.
MELLEFONT. Oh, of that I am thoroughly convinced, dearest Sara! You must pardon Lady Solmes for this suspicion, since she does not know the man whom it concerns. ”

“ SARA (whilst Mellefont reads to himself) . How cunningly man can disunite his nature, and make of his passions another being than himself, on whom he can lay the blame for that which in cold blood he disapproves.--The water, Betty! I fear another shock, and shall need it. Do you see what effect the unlucky note has on him? Mellefont! You lose your senses, Mellefont! God! he is stunned! Here, Betty. Hand him the water! He needs it more than I.
MELLEFONT (pushing Betty back) . Back, unhappy girl! Your medicines are poison!
SARA. What do you say? Recover yourself! You do not recognise her. ”

“ Scene IX. MARWOOD. What does the excitable girl mean? Would that she spake the truth, and that I approached her with murderous hand! I ought to have spared the dagger until now, fool that I was! What delight to be able to stab a rival at one's feet in her voluntary humiliation! What now? I am detected. Mellefont may be here this minute. Shall I fly from him? ”

“ Does one leave the people whom one loves? I cannot love you then, I suppose, for I should wish never to leave you. Never, and I never will leave you either.
MARWOOD. I will help you in your entreaties, my child! And you must help me too! Now, Mellefont, you see me too at your feet....
MELLEFONT (stopping her, as she throws herself at his feet) . Marwood, dangerous Marwood! And you, too, my dearest Bella (raising her up) , you too are the enemy of your Mellefont?
ARABELLA. I your enemy?
MARWOOD. What is your resolve?
MELLEFONT. What it ought not to be, Marwood; what it ought not to be. ”

“ They agreed to postpone their marriage until his relative, tired of the long delay, should be compelled to propose an arrangement. In the meantime Marwood could not well renounce the daily visits from Mellefont, which for a long time were nothing but the respectful visits of a suitor, who has been ordered back within the bounds of friendship. But how impossible is it for a passionate temper not to transgress these bounds. Mellefont possesses everything which can make a man dangerous to us. Nobody can be more convinced of this than you yourself, Miss Sampson.
SARA. Alas! ”

“ MARWOOD. True; you yourself are the seducer! I am silent. Shall I be presently allowed to pay my farewell visit to Miss Sampson?
MELLEFONT. Sara could not be offended, even if you left without seeing her again.
MARWOOD. Mellefont, I do not like playing my part by halves, and I have no wish to be taken, even under an assumed name, for a woman without breeding.
MELLEFONT. If you care for your own peace of mind you ought to avoid seeing a person again who must awaken certain thoughts in you which----
MARWOOD (smiling disdainfully) . You have a better opinion of yourself than of me. ”

“ How shamefully you are betrayed, Mellefont! Now I perceive, Madam, why he was so unwilling to leave you alone with me. He knows already, I daresay, how much one has to fear from your tongue. A poisoned tongue! I speak boldly--for your unseemly talk has continued long enough. How has Marwood been able to enlist such a mediator; a mediator who summons all her ingenuity to force upon me a dazzling romance about her; und employs every art to rouse my suspicion against the loyalty of a man, who is a man but not a monster? ”

“ Marwood mentioned a pledge of love; and the talkative Norton--forgive him, pray--told me a name--a name, Mellefont, which must rouse in you another tenderness than that which you feel for me.
MELLEFONT. Is it possible? Has the shameless woman confessed her own disgrace? Alas, Sara, have pity on my confusion! Since you already know all, why do you wish to hear it again from my lips? She shall never come into your sight,--the unhappy child, who has no other fault than that of having such a mother. ”

“ MELLEFONT. Do not importune me any longer! I am already what you wish to make me; a perjurer, a seducer, a robber, a murderer!
MARWOOD. You will be so in imagination for a few days, and after that you will see that I have prevented you from becoming so in reality. You will return with us, won't you?
ARABELLA (insinuatingly) . Oh yes, do!
MELLEFONT. Return with you! How can I?
MARWOOD. Nothing is easier, if you only wish it.
MELLEFONT. And my Sara----
MARWOOD. And your Sara may look to herself.
MELLEFONT. Ha! cruel Marwood, these words reveal the very bottom of your heart to me. ”

“ MARWOOD. In spite of her want of fortune she was sought by persons, who wished nothing more than to make her happy. Mellefont appeared amongst her rich and distinguished admirers. His offer was serious, and the abundance in which he promised to place Marwood was the least on which he relied. He knew, in their earliest intimacy, that he had not to deal with an egoist, but with a woman of refined feelings, who would have preferred to live in a hut with one she loved, than in a palace with one for whom she did not care.
SARA. Another trait which I grudge Miss Marwood. ”

“ The hero of the play, as they are pleased to call him (meaning Mellefont) , is a gull, and made a fool, and cheated. Is every man a gull and a fool that is deceived? At that rate I’m afraid the two classes of men will be reduced to one, and the knaves themselves be at a loss to justify their title. ”

“ LADY PLYANT. O Lord, ask me the question; I’ll swear I’ll refuse it, I swear I’ll deny it—therefore don’t ask me; nay, you shan’t ask me, I swear I’ll deny it. O Gemini, you have brought all the blood into my face; I warrant I am as red as a turkey-cock. O fie, cousin Mellefont!
MEL. Nay, madam, hear me; I mean—
LADY PLYANT. Hear you? No, no; I’ll deny you first and hear you afterwards. For one does not know how one’s mind may change upon hearing. Hearing is one of the senses, and all the senses are fallible. I won’t trust my honour, I assure you; my honour is infallible and uncomeatable. ”

“ Millthorpe in his seedy coat went tripping down the corridor.
'Plus heart, minus head,' muttered Pierre, his eyes fixed on the door. 'Now, by heaven! the god that made Millthorpe was both a better and a greater than the god that made Napoleon or Byron.—Plus head, minus heart—Pah! the brains grow maggoty without a heart; but the heart's the preserving salt itself, and can keep sweet without the head.—Delly!'
'Sir?'
'My cousin Miss Tartan is coming here to live with us, Delly. ”

“ Clare Vawdrey had a fund of anecdote on the whole question: he had known Lord Mellifont almost from the beginning. It was a peculiarity of this nobleman that there could be no conversation about him that didn't instantly take the form of anecdote, and a still further distinction that there could apparently be no anecdote that was not on the whole to his honor. If he had come into a room at any moment, people might have said frankly, "Of course we were telling stories about you!" As consciences go, in London, the general conscience would have been good. ”

“ Melville is a calm person, and does not like raptures. His family consists of five children. Christian—whose history we have already glanced at, summed up in her precious relics—is the eldest; then, there is the bridegroom, James, an excellent well-disposed young man, just about to form a connection after his father’s own heart; next in order comes the genius of the family, gay, talented, excitable, generous Halbert, over whose exuberance of heart his correct parent shakes his head ominously. ”

“ Could nothing induce Melliphant to desist from his infernal purpose? No! there is that in the human heart which, when unregulated, strengthens by opposition, and the greater the difficulties that accumulate, the greater is its ardour to overcome them.
Melliphant contrived to join Rosilia as if by accident, hastening round to a turning in one of the alleys just in time to present himself before her, well knowing that by such means she would be prevented from avoiding him. He held in his hand Werter—the leaves were open as if he had been newly reading it. ”

“ Prosper received the red robe and the sequins from her hands, and in time pieced the story together. It cut him to the soul.
"Take me to the place where the dogs got her," he said in a whisper. Belvisée and Mellifont led him there. Once more, then, he wasted his eyes on crushed herbage, black fern, and stained earth; again loathed himself very heartily for what he had not done; but in time understood what he had done. He turned deliberately to the sisters. "Belvisée and Mellifont, listen to what I shall tell you. There is no strength like a woman's, and no blindness like that of a man. ”

“ Now as to the mild sun, glass is no hindrance at all, but he transmits his light and life through the glass; even so through Pierre's panes did the tower face transmit its strange mystery.
Becoming more and more interested in this face, he had questioned Millthorpe concerning it. 'Bless your soul,' replied Millthorpe—'that is Plotinus Plinlimmon! our Grand Master, Plotinus Plinlimmon! By gad, you must know Plotinus thoroughly, as I have long done. ”

“ How different were the feelings which swayed her in the case of Melliphant. Never had he for one moment excited in her sentiments of higher interest, of softer tendency, of nearer association, than the mere tacit consent of her reason to his claims upon her esteem; an approbation of his merits, so modestly, yet conspicuously displayed, so extolled by those around, was all she could bestow. The distress of mind, the secret sorrow, he seemed labouring under, made visible by a pensiveness of manner, sudden emotion, and half suppressed sighs, awakened in Rosilia but a tender commiseration. ”

“ Again I tell thee, I will do anything—yes, anything that Pierre commands—for, though outer ill do lower upon us, still, deep within, thou wilt be careful, very careful with me, Pierre?'
'Thou art made of that fine, unshared stuff of which God makes his seraphim. But thy divine devotedness to me, is met by mine to thee. Well mayest thou trust me, Isabel; and whatever strangest thing I may yet propose to thee, thy confidence,—will it not bear me out? Surely thou wilt not hesitate to plunge, when I plunge first;—already have I plunged! ”

“ One day, in Pierre’s sight, nine silent figures emerged from the door of old Millthorpe; a coffin was put into a neighbor’s farm-wagon; and a procession, some thirty feet long, including the elongated pole and box of the wagon, wound along Saddle Meadows to a hill, where, at last, old Millthorpe was laid down in a bed, where the rising sun should affront him no more. Oh, softest and daintiest of Holland linen is the motherly earth! There, beneath the sublime tester of the infinite sky, like emperors and kings, sleep, in grand state, the beggars and paupers of earth! ”

“ T is New Year’s Eve. There is no twilight now in Mr. Melville’s cheery parlour, the light is glimmering in the polished furniture, leaping and dancing in the merry eyes that surround it, and even the grave features of the head of the house have relaxed into an unwonted smile. The young people have not forgotten the old Scottish celebration of “Hogmanay,” in all its observances, and Christian’s stores have been plundered, and James has fled blushing from their raillery,{23} pursued by the glad echo of their ringing laughter. ”