"My Novel" — Complete

“Sir,” said he, “I forgot to say, that on returning from Maida Hill, I took shelter from the rain under a covered passage, and there I met unexpectedly with your nephew, Frank Hazeldean.”

“Ah!” said Egerton, indifferently, “a fine young man; in the Guards. It is a pity that my brother has such antiquated political notions; he should put his son into parliament, and under my guidance; I could push him. Well, and what said Frank?”

“He invited me to call on him. I remember that you once rather cautioned me against too intimate an acquaintance with those who have not got their fortunes to make.”

“Because they are idle, and idleness is contagious. Right,—better not to be too intimate with a young Guardsman.”

“Then you would not have me call on him, sir? We were rather friends at Eton; and if I wholly reject his overtures, might he not think that you—”

“I!” interrupted Egerton. “Ah, true; my brother might think I bore him a grudge; absurd. Call then, and ask the young man here. Yet still, I do not advise intimacy.” Egerton turned into his dressing-room. “Sir,” said his valet, who was in waiting, “Mr. Levy is here,—he says by appointment; and Mr. Grinders is also just come from the country.”

“Tell Mr. Grinders to come in first,” said Egerton, seating himself. “You need not wait; I can dress without you. Tell Mr. Levy I will see him in five minutes.”

Mr. Grinders was steward to Audley Egerton.

Mr. Levy was a handsome man, who wore a camellia in his button-hole; drove, in his cabriolet, a high-stepping horse that had cost L200; was well known to young men of fashion, and considered by their fathers a very dangerous acquaintance.

CHAPTER XII

As the company assembled in the drawing-rooms, Mr. Egerton introduced Randal Leslie to his eminent friends in a way that greatly contrasted the distant and admonitory manner which he had exhibited to him in private. The presentation was made with that cordiality and that gracious respect, by which those who are in station command notice for those who have their station yet to win.

“My dear lord, let me introduce to you a kinsman of my late wife’s” (in a whisper),—“the heir to the elder branch of her family. Stanmore, this is Mr. Leslie, of whom I spoke to you. You, who were so distinguished at Oxford, will not like him the worse for the prizes he gained there. Duke, let me present to you Mr. Leslie. The duchess is angry with me for deserting her balls; I shall hope to make my peace, by providing myself with a younger and livelier substitute. Ah, Mr. Howard, here is a young gentleman just fresh from Oxford, who will tell us all about the new sect springing up there. He has not wasted his time on billiards and horses.”

Leslie was received with all that charming courtesy which is the To Kalon of an aristocracy.

After dinner, conversation settled on politics. Randal listened with attention, and in silence, till Egerton drew him gently out; just enough, and no more,—just enough to make his intelligence evident, and without subjecting him to the charge of laying down the law. Egerton knew how to draw out young men,—a difficult art. It was one reason why he was so peculiarly popular with the more rising members of his party.

The party broke up early.

“We are in time for Almack’s,” said Egerton, glancing at the clock, “and I have a voucher for you; come.”

Randal followed his patron into the carriage. By the way Egerton thus addressed him,

“I shall introduce you to the principal leaders of society; know them and study them: I do not advise you to attempt to do more,—that is, to attempt to become the fashion. It is a very expensive ambition: some men it helps, most men it ruins. On the whole, you have better cards in your hands. Dance or not as it pleases you; don’t flirt. If you flirt people will inquire into your fortune,—an inquiry that will do you little good; and flirting entangles a young man into marrying. That would never do. Here we are.”

In two minutes more they were in the great ballroom, and Randal’s eyes were dazzled with the lights, the diamonds, the blaze of beauty. Audley presented him in quick succession to some dozen ladies, and then disappeared amidst the crowd. Randal was not at a loss: he was without shyness; or if he had that disabling infirmity, he concealed it. He answered the languid questions put to him with a certain spirit that kept up talk, and left a favourable impression of his agreeable qualities. But the lady with whom he got on the best was one who had no daughters out, a handsome and witty woman of the world,—Lady Frederick Coniers.

“It is your first ball at Almack’s then, Mr. Leslie?”

“My first.”

“And you have not secured a partner? Shall I find you one? What do you think of that pretty girl in pink?”

“I see her—but I cannot think of her.”

“You are rather, perhaps, like a diplomatist in a new court, and your first object is to know who is who.”

“I confess that on beginning to study the history of my own day I should like to distinguish the portraits that illustrate the memoir.”

“Give me your arm, then, and we will come into the next room. We shall see the different notabilites enter one by one, and observe without being observed. This is the least I can do for a friend of Mr. Egerton’s.”

“Mr. Egerton, then,” said Randal,—as they threaded their way through the space without the rope that protected the dancers,—“Mr. Egerton has had the good fortune to win your esteem even for his friends, however obscure?”

“Why, to say truth, I think no one whom Mr. Egerton calls his friend need long remain obscure, if he has the ambition to be otherwise; for Mr. Egerton holds it a maxim never to forget a friend nor a service.”

“Ah, indeed!” said Randal, surprised.

“And therefore,” continued Lady Frederick, “as he passes through life, friends gather round him. He will rise even higher yet. Gratitude, Mr. Leslie, is a very good policy.”

“Hem,” muttered Mr. Leslie.

They had now gained the room where tea and bread and butter were the homely refreshments to the habitues of what at that day was the most exclusive assembly in London. They ensconced themselves in a corner by a window, and Lady Frederick performed her task of cicerone with lively ease, accompanying each notice of the various persons who passed panoramically before them with sketch and anecdote, sometimes good-natured, generally satirical, always graphic and amusing.

By and by Frank Hazeldean, having on his arm a young lady of haughty air and with high though delicate features, came to the tea-table.

“The last new Guardsman,” said Lady Frederick; “very handsome, and not yet quite spoiled. But he has got into a dangerous set.”

RANDAL.—“The young lady with him is handsome enough to be dangerous.”

LADY FREDERICK (laughing).—“No danger for him there,—as yet at least. Lady Mary (the Duke of Knaresborough’s daughter) is only in her second year. The first year, nothing under an earl; the second, nothing under a baron. It will be full four years before she comes down to a commoner. Mr. Hazeldean’s danger is of another kind. He lives much with men who are not exactly mauvais ton, but certainly not of the best taste. Yet he is very young; he may extricate himself,—leaving half his fortune behind him. What, he nods to you! You know him?”

“Very well; he is nephew to Mr. Egerton.”

“Indeed! I did not know that. Hazeldean is a new name in London. I heard his father was a plain country gentleman, of good fortune, but not that he was related to Mr. Egerton.”

“Half-brother.”

“Will Mr. Egerton pay the young gentleman’s debts? He has no sons himself.”

RANDAL.—“Mr. Egerton’s fortune comes from his wife, from my family,—from a Leslie, not from a Hazeldean.” Lady Frederick turned sharply, looked at Randal’s countenance with more attention than she had yet vouchsafed to it, and tried to talk of the Leslies. Randal was very short there.

An hour afterwards, Randal, who had not danced, was still in the refreshment-room, but Lady Frederick had long quitted him. He was talking with some old Etonians who had recognized him, when there entered a lady of very remarkable appearance, and a murmur passed through the room as she appeared.

She might be three or four and twenty. She was dressed in black velvet, which contrasted with the alabaster whiteness of her throat and the clear paleness of her complexion, while it set off the diamonds with which she was profusely covered. Her hair was of the deepest jet, and worn simply braided. Her eyes, too, were dark and brilliant, her features regular and striking; but their expression, when in repose, was not prepossessing to such as love modesty and softness in the looks of woman. But when she spoke and smiled, there was so much spirit and vivacity in the countenance, so much fascination in the smile, that all which might before have marred the effect of her beauty strangely and suddenly disappeared.

“Who is that very handsome woman?” asked Randal. “An Italian,—a Marchesa something,” said one of the Etonians.

“Di Negra,” suggested another, who had been abroad: “she is a widow; her husband was of the great Genoese family of Negra,—a younger branch of it.”

Several men now gathered thickly around the fair Italian. A few ladies of the highest rank spoke to her, but with a more distant courtesy than ladies of high rank usually show to foreigners of such quality as Madame di Negra. Ladies of rank less elevated seemed rather shy of her,—that might be from jealousy. As Randal gazed at the marchesa with more admiration than any woman, perhaps, had before excited in him, he heard a voice near him say,

“Oh, Madame di Negra is resolved to settle amongst us, and marry an Englishman.”

“If she can find one sufficiently courageous,” returned a female voice.

“Well, she’s trying hard for Egerton, and he has courage enough for anything.”

The female voice replied, with a laugh, “Mr Egerton knows the world too well, and has resisted too many temptations to be—”

“Hush! there he is.”

Egerton came into the room with his usual firm step and erect mien. Randal observed that a quick glance was exchanged between him and the marchesa; but the minister passed her by with a bow.

Still Randal watched, and, ten minutes afterwards, Egerton and the marchesa were seated apart in the very same convenient nook that Randal and Lady Frederick had occupied an hour or so before.

“Is this the reason why Mr. Egerton so insultingly warns me against counting on his fortune?” muttered Randal. “Does he mean to marry again?”

Unjust suspicion!—for, at that moment, these were the words that Audley Egerton was dropping forth from his lips of bronze,

“Nay, dear madam, do not ascribe to my frank admiration more gallantry than it merits. Your conversation charms me, your beauty delights me; your society is as a holiday that I look forward to in the fatigues of my life. But I have done with love, and I shall never marry again.”

“You almost pique me into trying to win, in order to reject you,” said the Italian, with a flash from her bright eyes.

“I defy even you,” answered Audley, with his cold hard smile. “But to return to the point. You have more influence, at least, over this subtle ambassador; and the secret we speak of I rely on you to obtain me. Ah, Madam, let us rest friends. You see I have conquered the unjust prejudices against you; you are received and feted everywhere, as becomes your birth and your attractions. Rely on me ever, as I on you. But I shall excite too much envy if I stay here longer, and am vain enough to think that I may injure you if I provoke the gossip of the ill-natured. As the avowed friend, I can serve you; as the supposed lover, No—” Audley rose as he said this, and, standing by the chair, added carelessly, “—propos, the sum you do me the honour to borrow will be paid to your bankers to-morrow.”

“A thousand thanks! my brother will hasten to repay you.”

Audley bowed. “Your brother, I hope, will repay me in person, not before. When does he come?”

“Oh, he has again postponed his visit to London; he is so much needed in Vienna. But while we are talking of him, allow me to ask if your friend, Lord L’Estrange, is indeed still so bitter against that poor brother of mine?”

“Still the same.”

“It is shameful!” cried the Italian, with warmth; “what has my brother ever done to him that he should actually intrigue against the count in his own court?”

“Intrigue! I think you wrong Lord L’Estrange; he but represented what he believed to be the truth, in defence of a ruined exile.”

“And you will not tell me where that exile is, or if his daughter still lives?”

“My dear marchesa, I have called you friend, therefore I will not aid L’Estrange to injure you or yours. But I call L’Estrange a friend also; and I cannot violate the trust that—” Audley stopped short, and bit his lip. “You understand me,” he resumed, with a more genial smile than usual; and he took his leave.

The Italian’s brows met as her eye followed him; then, as she too rose, that eye encountered Randal’s.

“That young man has the eye of an Italian,” said the marchesa to herself, as she passed by him into the ballroom.

CHAPTER XIII

Leonard and Helen settled themselves in two little chambers in a small lane. The neighbourhood was dull enough, the accommodation humble; but their landlady had a smile. That was the reason, perhaps, why Helen chose the lodgings: a smile is not always found on the face of a landlady when the lodger is poor. And out of their windows they caught sight of a green tree, an elm, that grew up fair and tall in a carpenter’s yard at the rear. That tree was like another smile to the place. They saw the birds come and go to its shelter; and they even heard, when a breeze arose, the pleasant murmur of its boughs.

Leonard went the same evening to Captain Digby’s old lodgings, but he could learn there no intelligence of friends or protectors for Helen. The people were rude and surly, and said that the captain still owed them L1 17s. The claim, however, seemed very disputable, and was stoutly denied by Helen. The next morning Leonard set out in search of Dr. Morgan. He thought his best plan was to inquire the address of the doctor at the nearest chemist’s, and the chemist civilly looked into the “Court Guide,” and referred him to a house in Bulstrode Street, Manchester Square. To this street Leonard contrived to find his way, much marvelling at the meanness of London: Screwstown seemed to him the handsomer town of the two.

A shabby man-servant opened the door, and Leonard remarked that the narrow passage was choked with boxes, trunks, and various articles of furniture. He was shown into a small room containing a very large round table, whereon were sundry works on homoeopathy, Parry’s “Cymbrian Plutarch,” Davies’s “Celtic Researches,” and a Sunday news paper. An engraved portrait of the illustrious Hahnemann occupied the place of honour over the chimneypiece. In a few minutes the door to an inner room opened, and Dr. Morgan appeared, and said politely, “Come in, sir.”

The doctor seated himself at a desk, looked hastily at Leonard, and then at a great chronometer lying on the table. “My time’s short, sir,—going abroad: and now that I am going, patients flock to me. Too late. London will repent its apathy. Let it!”

The doctor paused majestically, and not remarking on Leonard’s face the consternation he had anticipated, he repeated peevishly, “I am going abroad, sir, but I will make a synopsis of your case, and leave it to my successor. Hum!

“Hair chestnut; eyes—what colour? Look this way,—blue, dark blue. Hem! Constitution nervous. What are the symptoms?”

“Sir,” began Leonard, “a little girl—”

DR. MORGAN (impatiently).—“Little girl; never mind the history of your sufferings; stick to the symptoms,—stick to the symptoms.”

LEONARD.—“YOU mistake me, Doctor, I have nothing the matter with me. A little girl—”

DR. MORGAN.—“Girl again! I understand! it is she who is ill. Shall I go to her? She must describe her own symptoms,—I can’t judge from your talk. You’ll be telling me she has consumption, or dyspepsia, or some such disease that don’t exist: mere allopathic inventions,—symptoms, sir, symptoms.”

LEONARD (forcing his way).—“You attended her poor father, Captain Digby, when he was taken ill in the coach with you. He is dead, and his child is an orphan.”

DR. MORGAN (fumbling in his medical pocket-book).—“Orphan! nothing for orphans, especially if inconsolable, like aconite and chamomilla.”

[It may be necessary to observe that homoeopathy professes to deal with our moral affections as well as with our physical maladies, and has a globule for every sorrow.]

With some difficulty Leonard succeeded in bringing Helen to the recollection of the homoeopathist, stating how he came in charge of her, and why he sought Dr. Morgan.

The doctor was much moved.

“But, really,” said he, after a pause, “I don’t see how I can help the poor child. I know nothing of her relations. This Lord Les—whatever his name is—I know of no lords in London. I knew lords, and physicked them too, when I was a blundering allopathist. There was the Earl of Lansmere,—has had many a blue pill from me, sinner that I was. His son was wiser; never would take physic. Very clever boy was Lord L’Estrange—”

“Lord L’Estrange! that name begins with Les—”

“Stuff! He’s always abroad,—shows his sense. I’m going abroad too. No development for science in this horrid city,—full of prejudices, sir, and given up to the most barbarous allopathical and phlebotomical propensities. I am going to the land of Hahnemann, sir,—sold my good-will, lease, and furniture, and have bought in on the Rhine. Natural life there, sir,—homeeopathy needs nature: dine at one o’clock, get up at four, tea little known, and science appreciated. But I forget. Cott! what can I do for the orphan?”

“Well, sir,” said Leonard, rising, “Heaven will give me strength to support her.”

The doctor looked at the young man attentively. “And yet,” said he, in a gentler voice, “you, young man, are, by your account, a perfect stranger to her, or were so when you undertook to bring her to London. You have a good heart, always keep it. Very healthy thing, sir, a good heart,—that is, when not carried to excess. But you have friends of your own in town?”

LEONARD.—“Not yet, sir; I hope to make them.”

DOCTOR.—“Pless me, you do? How?—I can’t make any.”

Leonard coloured and hung his head. He longed to say, “Authors find friends in their readers,—I am going to be an author.” But he felt that the reply would savour of presumption, and held his tongue.

The doctor continued to examine him, and with friendly interest. “You say you walked up to London: was that from choice or economy?”

LEONARD.—“Both, sir.”

DOCTOR.—“Sit down again, and let us talk. I can give you a quarter of an hour, and I’ll see if I can help either of you, provided you tell me all the symptoms,—I mean all the particulars.”

Then, with that peculiar adroitness which belongs to experience in the medical profession, Dr. Morgan, who was really an acute and able man, proceeded to put his questions, and soon extracted from Leonard the boy’s history and hopes. But when the doctor, in admiration at a simplicity which contrasted so evident an intelligence, finally asked him his name and connections, and Leonard told them, the homoeopathist actually started. “Leonard Fairfield, grandson of my old friend, John Avenel of Lansmere! I must shake you by the hand. Brought up by Mrs. Fairfield!—

“Ah, now I look, strong family likeness,—very strong”

The tears stood in the doctor’s eyes. “Poor Nora!” said he.

“Nora! Did you know my aunt?”

“Your aunt! Ah! ah! yes, yes! Poor Nora! she died almost in these arms,—so young, so beautiful. I remember it as if yesterday.”

The doctor brushed his hand across his eyes, and swallowed a globule; and before the boy knew what he was about, had, in his benevolence, thrust another between Leonard’s quivering lips.

A knock was heard at the door.

“Ha! that ‘s my great patient,” cried the doctor, recovering his self-possession,—“must see him. A chronic case, excellent patient,—tic, sir, tic. Puzzling and interesting. If I could take that tic with me, I should ask nothing more from Heaven. Call again on Monday; I may have something to tell you then as to yourself. The little girl can’t stay with you,—wrong and nonsensical! I will see after her. Leave me your address,—write it here. I think I know a lady who will take charge of her. Good-by. Monday next, ten o’clock.” With this, the doctor thrust out Leonard, and ushered in his grand patient, whom he was very anxious to take with him to the banks of the Rhine.

Leonard had now only to discover the nobleman whose name had been so vaguely uttered by poor Captain Digby. He had again recourse to the “Court Guide;” and finding the address of two or three lords the first syllable of whose titles seemed similar to that repeated to him, and all living pretty near to each other, in the regions of Mayfair, he ascertained his way to that quarter, and, exercising his mother-wit, inquired at the neighbouring shops as to the personal appearance of these noblemen. Out of consideration for his rusticity, he got very civil and clear answers; but none of the lords in question corresponded with the description given by Helen. One was old, another was exceedingly corpulent, a third was bedridden,—none of them was known to keep a great dog. It is needless to say that the name of L’Estrange (no habitant of London) was not in the “Court Guide.” And Dr. Morgan’s assertion that that person was always abroad unluckily dismissed from Leonard’s mind the name the homoeopathist had so casually mentioned. But Helen was not disappointed when her young protector returned late in the day, and told her of his ill-success. Poor child! she was so pleased in her heart not to be separated from her new brother; and Leonard was touched to see how she had contrived, in his absence, to give a certain comfort and cheerful grace to the bare room devoted to himself. She had arranged his few books and papers so neatly, near the window, in sight of the one green elm. She had coaxed the smiling landlady out of one or two extra articles of furniture, especially a walnut-tree bureau, and some odds and ends of ribbon, with which last she had looped up the curtains. Even the old rush-bottom chairs had a strange air of elegance, from the mode in which they were placed. The fairies had given sweet Helen the art that adorns a home, and brings out a smile from the dingiest corner of hut and attic.

Leonard wondered and praised. He kissed his blushing ministrant gratefully, and they sat down in joy to their abstemious meal; when suddenly his face was overclouded,—there shot through him the remembrance of Dr. Morgan’s words, “The little girl can’t stay with you,—wrong and nonsensical. I think I know a lady who will take charge of her.”

“Ah,” cried Leonard, sorrowfully, “how could I forget?” And he told Helen what grieved him. Helen at first exclaimed that she would not go. Leonard, rejoiced, then began to talk as usual of his great prospects; and, hastily finishing his meal, as if there were no time to lose, sat down at once to his papers. Then Helen contemplated him sadly, as he bent over his delightful work. And when, lifting his radiant eyes from his manuscripts, he exclaimed, “No, no, you shall not go. This must succeed,—and we shall live together in some pretty cottage, where we can see more than one tree,”—then Helen sighed, and did not answer this time, “No, I will not go.”