One Of Them

The stranger came slowly forward, examining the trees and flowers as he passed along, and peering with his double eye-glass to read the names attached to whatever was rarest. Affecting to be gathering flowers for a bouquet, she stooped frequently, till the other came near, and then, as he removed his hat to salute her, she threw back her veil and stood, silent, before him.

“Madam! madam!” cried he, in a voice of such intense agony as showed that he was almost choked for utterance. “How is this, madam?” said he, in a tone of indignant demand. “How is this?”

“I have really no explanation to offer, sir,” said she, in a cold, low voice. “My astonishment is great as your own; this meeting is not of my seeking. I need scarcely say so much.”

“I do not know that! – by Heaven I do not!” cried he, in a passion.

“You are surely forgetting, sir, that we are no longer anything to each other, and thus forgetting the deference due to me as a stranger?”

“I neither forget nor forgive!” said he, sternly.

“Happily, sir, you will not be called upon to do either. I no longer bear your name – ”

“Oh that you had never borne it!” cried he, in agony.

“There is at least one sentiment we agree in, sir, – would that I never had!” said she; and a slight – very slight – tremor shook the words as she spoke them.

“Tell me at once, madam, what do you mean by this surprise? I know all your skill in accidents, – what does this one portend?”

“You are too flattering, sir, believe me,” said she, with an easy smile. “I have plotted nothing, – I have nothing to plot, – at least, in which you are concerned. The unhappy bond that once united us is loosed forever; but I do not see that even harsh memories are to suggest bad manners.”

“I am no stranger to your flippancy, madam. You have made me acquainted with all your merits.”

“You were going to say virtues, George, – confess you were?” said she, coquettishly.

“Gracious mercy, woman! can you dare – ”

“My dear Mr. Ogden,” broke she in, gently, “I can dare to be that which you have just told me was impossible for you, – forgetful and forgiving.”

“Oh, madam, this is, indeed, generous!” said be, with a bitter mockery.

“Well, sir, it were no bad thing if there were a little generosity between us. Don’t fancy that all the forgiveness should come from you; don’t imagine that I am not plaintiff as well as defendant.” Then, suddenly changing her tone to one of easy indifference, she said, “And so your impression is, sir, that the Cabinet will undergo no change?”

She looked hurriedly round as she spoke, and saw Sir William Heathcote coming rapidly towards them.

“Sir William, let me present to you Mr. Ogden, a name you must be familiar with in the debates,” said she, introducing them.

“I hope Lord Agincourt has not been correct in telling me that you are pressed for time, Mr. Ogden. I trust you will give us at least a day.”

“Not an hour, not a minute, sir. I mean,” added he, ashamed of his violence, “I have not an instant to spare.”

“You ‘ll scarcely profit by leaving us this morning,” resumed Sir William. “The torrents between this and Massa are all full, and perfectly impassable.”

“Pray accept Sir William’s wise counsels, sir,” said she, with the sweetest of all smiles.

A stern look, and a muttered something inaudible, was all his reply.

“What a dreary servitude must political life be, when one cannot bestow a passing hour upon society!” said she, plaintively.

“Mr. Ogden could tell us that the rewards are worthy of the sacrifices,” said Sir William, blandly.

“Are they better than the enjoyments of leisure, the delights of friendship, and the joys of home?” asked she, half earnestly.

“By Heaven, madam!” cried Ogden, and then stopped; when Sir William broke in, —

“Mrs. Morris is too severe upon public men. They are rarely called on to make such sacrifices as she speaks of.”

While thus talking, they had reached the terrace in front of the house, where Agincourt was standing between May and Clara, holding a hand of each.

“Are you ready?” asked Ogden, abruptly.

“Ready; but very sorry to go,” said the boy, bluntly.

“May we not offer you some luncheon, Mr. Ogden? You will surely take a glass of wine with us?”

“Nothing, sir, nothing. Nothing beneath the same roof with this woman,” muttered he, below his breath; but her quick ears caught the words, and she whispered, —

“An unkind speech, George, – most unkind!”

While Agincourt was taking his last affectionate farewells of the girls and Sir William, Mr. Ogden had entered the carriage, and thrown himself deeply back into a corner. Mrs. Morris, however, leaned over the door, and looked calmly, steadfastly at him.

“Won’t you say good-bye?” said she, softly.

A look of insulting contempt was all his answer.

“Not one kind word at parting? Well, I am better than you; here’s my hand.” And she held out her fair and taper fingers towards him.

“Fiend, – not woman!” was his muttered expression as he turned away.

“And a pleasant journey,” said she, as if finishing a speech; while turning, she gave her hand to Agincourt: “Yes, to be sure, you may take a boy’s privilege, and give me a kiss at parting,” said she; while the youth, blushing a deep crimson, availed himself of the permission.

“There they go,” said Sir William, as the horses rattled down the avenue; “and a finer boy and a grumpier companion it has rarely been my lot to meet with. A thousand pardons, my dear Mrs. Morris, if he is a friend of yours.”

“I knew him formerly,” said she, coldly. “I can’t say I ever liked him.”

“I remember his name,” said Sir William, in a sort of hesitating way; “there was some story or other about him, – either his wife ran away, or he eloped with somebody’s wife.”

“I ‘m sure it must have been the former,” said Mrs. Morris, laughing. “Poor gentleman, he does not give one the impression of a Lothario. But whom have we here? The O’Shea, I declare! Look to your heart, May dearest; take my word for it, he never turned out so smartly without dreams of conquest.” Mr. O’Shea cantered up at the same moment, followed by Joe in a most accurate “get up” as groom, and, dismounting, advanced, hat in hand, to salute the party.

There are blank days in this life of ours in which even a pleasant visitor is a bore, – times in which dulness and seclusion are the best company, and it is anything but a boon to be broken in upon. It was the O’Shea’s evil fortune to have fallen on one of these. It was in vain he recounted his club gossip about politics and party to Sir William; in vain he told Mrs. Morris the last touching episode of town scandal; in vain, even, did he present a fresh bouquet of lily-of-the-valley to May: each in turn passed him on to the other, till he found himself alone with Clara, who sat sorrowfully over the German lesson Layton was wont to help her with.

“What’s the matter with you all?” cried he, half angrily, as he walked the room from end to end. “Has there any misfortune happened?”

“Charley has left us, Agincourt is just gone, the pleasant house is broken up; is not that enough to make us sad?” said she, sorrowfully.

“If you ever read Tommy Moore, you ‘d know it was only another reason to make the most of the friends that were left behind,” said he, adjusting his cravat at the glass, and giving himself a leer of knowing recognition. “That’s the time of day, Clara!”

She looked at him, somewhat puzzled to know whether he had alluded to his sentiment, his whiskers, which he was now caressing, or the French clock on the mantelpiece.

“Is that one of Layton’s?” said he, carelessly turning over a water-colored sketch of a Lucchese landscape.

“Yes,” said she, replacing it carefully in a portfolio.

“He won’t do many more of them, I suspect.”

“How so? – why? – what do you mean?” cried she, grasping his arm, while a death-like paleness spread over her features.

“Just that he’s going as fast as he can. What’s the mischief! is it fainting she is?”

With a low, weak sigh, the girl had relaxed her hold, and, staggering backwards, sunk senseless on the floor. O’Shea tugged violently at the bell: the servant rushed in, and immediately after Mrs. Morris herself; but by this time Clara had regained consciousness, and was able to utter a few words.

“I was telling her of Layton’s being so ill,” began he, in a whisper, to Mrs. Morris.

“Of course you were,” said she, pettishly. “For an inconvenience or an indiscretion, what can equal an Irishman?”

The speech was uttered as she led her daughter away, leaving the luckless O’Shea alone to ruminate over the politeness.

“There it is!” cried he, indignantly. “From the ‘Times’ down to the Widow Morris, it’s the same story, – the Irish! the Irish! – and it’s no use fighting against it. Smash the Minister in Parliament, and you ‘ll be told it was a speech more adapted to an Irish House of Commons; break the Sikh squares with the bayonet, and the cry is ‘Tipperary tactics.’ Isn’t it a wonder how we bear it! I ask any man, did he ever hear of patience like ours?”

It was just as his indignation had reached this crisis that May Leslie hurriedly came into the room to search for a locket Clara had dropped when she fainted. While O’Shea assisted her in her search, he bethought whether the favorable moment had not arrived to venture on the great question of his own fate. It was true, he was still smarting under a national disparagement; but the sarcasm gave a sort of reckless energy to his purpose, and he mattered, “Now, or never, for it!”

“I suppose it was a keepsake,” said he, as he peered under the tables after the missing object.

“I believe so. At least, the poor child attaches great value to it.”

“Oh dear!” sighed O’Shea. “If it was an old bodkin that was given me by one I loved, I ‘d go through fire and water to get possession of it.”

“Indeed!” said she, smiling at the unwonted energy of the protestation.

“I would,” repeated he, more solemnly. “It’s not the value of the thing itself I ‘d ever think of. There’s the ring was wore by my great-grandmother Ram, of Ram’s Mountain; and though it’s a rose-amethyst, worth three hundred guineas, it’s only as a family token it has merit in my eyes.”

Now this speech, discursive though it seemed, was artfully intended by the Honorable Member, for while incidentally throwing out claims to blood and an ancestry, it cunningly insinuated what logicians call the à fortiori, – how the man who cared so much for his grandmother would necessarily adore his wife.

“We must give it up, I see,” said May. “She has evidently not lost it here.”

“And it was a heart, you say!” sighed the Member.

“Yes, a little golden heart with a ruby clasp.”

“Oh dear! And to think that I’ve lost my own in the self-same spot”

“Yours! Why, had you a locket too?”

“No, my angel!” cried he, passionately, as he clasped her hand, and fell on his knee before her, “but my heart, – a heart that lies under your feet this minute! There, don’t turn away, – don’t! May I never, if I know what’s come over me these two months back! Night or day, it is the one image is always before me, – one voice always in my ears.”

“How tiresome that must be!” said she, laughing merrily. “There, pray let go my hand; this is only folly, and not in very good taste, either.”

“Folly, you call it? Love is madness, if you like. Out of this spot I ‘ll never stir till I know my fate. Say the word, and I’m the happiest man or the most abject creature – You ‘re laughing again, – I wonder how you can be so cruel!”

“Really, sir, if I regard your conduct as only absurd, it is a favorable view of it,” said she, angrily.

“Do, darling of my soul! light of my eyes! loadstar of my whole destiny! – do take a favorable view of it,” said he, catching at her last words.

“I have certainly given you no pretence to make me ridiculous, sir,” said she, indignantly.

“Ridiculous! ridiculous!” cried he, in utter amazement. “Sure it’s my hand I ‘m offering you. What were you thinking of?”

“I believe I apprehend you aright, sir, and have only to say, that, however honored by your proposal, it is one I must decline.”

“Would n’t you tell me why, darling? Would n’t you say your reasons, my angel? Don’t shake your head, my adored creature, but turn this way, and say, ‘Gorman, your affection touches me: I see your love for me; but I ‘m afraid of you: you ‘re light and fickle and inconstant; you ‘re spoiled by flattery among the women, and deference and respect amongst the men. What can I hope from a nature so pampered?’”

“No, in good truth, Mr. O’Shea, not one of these objections have occurred to me; my answer was dictated by much narrower and more selfish considerations. At all events, sir, it is final; and I need only appeal to your sense of good-breeding never to resume a subject I have told you is distasteful to me.” And with a heightened color, and a glance which certainly betokened no softness, she turned away and left him.

“Distasteful! distasteful!” muttered he over her last words. “Women! women! women! there’s no knowing ye – the devil a bit! What you ‘d like, and what you would n’t is as great a secret as the philosopher’s stone! Heigho!” sighed he, as he opened his cravat, and drew in a long breath. “I did n’t take a canter like that, these five years, and it has sent all the blood to my head. I hope she ‘ll not mention it. I hope she won’t tell it to the widow,” muttered he, as he walked to the window for air. “She’s the one would take her own fun out of it. Upon my conscience, this is mighty like apoplexy,” said he, as, sitting down, he fanned himself with a book.

“Poor Mr. O’Shea!” said a soft voice; and, looking up, he saw Mrs. Morris, as, leaning over the back of his chair, she bent on him a look half quizzical and half compassionate. “Poor Mr. O’Shea!”

“Why so? How?” asked he, with an affected jocularity. “Well,” said she, with a faint sigh, “you ‘re not the first man has drawn a blank in the lottery.” “I suppose not,” muttered he, half sulkily. “Nor will it prevent you trying your luck another time,” said she, in the same tone.

“What did she say? How did she mention it?” whispered he, confidentially.

“She did n’t believe you were serious at first; she thought it a jest. Why did you fall on your knees? it’s never done now, except on the stage.”

“How did I know that?” cried he, peevishly. “One ought to be proposing every day of the week to keep up with the fashions.”

“If you had taken a chair at her side, a little behind hers, so as not to scrutinize her looks too closely, and stolen your hand gently forward, as if to touch the embroidery she was at work on, and then, at last, her hand, letting your voice grow lower and softer at each word, till the syllables would seem to drop, distilled from your heart – ”

“The devil a bit of that I could do at all,” cried he, impatiently. “If I can’t make the game off the balls,” said he, taking a metaphor from his billiard experiences, “I ‘m good for nothing. But will she come round? Do you think she’ll change?”

“No; I ‘m afraid not,” said she, shaking her head. “Faix! she might do worse,” said he, resolutely. “Do you know that she might do worse? If the mortgages was off, O’Shea-Ville is seventeen hundred a year; and, for family, we beat the county.”

“I ‘ve no doubt of it,” replied she, calmly. “There was ancestors of mine hanged by Henry the Second, and one was strangled in prison two reigns before,” said he, proudly. “The O’Sheas was shedding their blood for Ireland eight centuries ago! Did you ever hear of Mortagh Dhub O’Shea?”

“Never!” said she, mournfully.

“There it is,” sighed he, drearily; “mushrooms is bigger, nowadays, than oak-trees.” And with this dreary reflection he arose and took his hat.

“Won’t you dine here? I’m sure they expect you to stop for dinner,” said she; but whether a certain devilry in her laughing eye made the speech seem insincere, or that his own distrust prompted it, he said, —

“No, I ‘ll not stop; I could n’t eat a bit if I did.”

“Come, come, you mustn’t take it to heart in this way,” said she, coaxingly.

“Do you think you could do anything for me?” said he, taking her hand in his; “for, to tell truth, it’s my pride is hurt. As we say in the House of Commons, now that my name is on the Bill, I ‘d like to carry it through. You understand that feeling?”

“Perhaps I do,” said she, doubtfully, while, throwing herself into a chair, she leaned back, so as to display a little more than was absolutely and indispensably necessary of a beautifully rounded ankle and instep. Mr. O’Shea saw it, and marked it. There was no denying she was pretty, – pretty, too, in those feminine and delicate graces which have special attractions for men somewhat hackneyed in life, and a “little shoulder-sore with the collar” of the world. As the Member gazed at the silky curls of her rich auburn hair, the long fringes that shadowed her fair cheeks, and the graceful lines of her beautiful figure, he gave a sigh, – one of those a man inadvertently heaves when contemplating some rare object in a shop-window, which his means forbid him to purchase. It was only as he heaved a second and far deeper one, that she looked up, and with an arch drollery of expression all her own, said, as if answering him, “Yes, you are quite right; but you know you could n’t afford it.”

“What do you mean, – not afford what?” cried he, blushing deeply.

“Nor could I, either,” continued she, heedless of his interruption.

“Faith, then,” cried he, with energy, “it was just what I was thinking of.”

“But, after all,” said she, gravely, “it wouldn’t do; privateers must never sail in company. I believe there’s nothing truer than that.”

He continued to look at her, with a strange mixture of admiration and astonishment.

“And so,” said she, rising, “let us part good friends, who may hope each to serve the other one of these days. Is that a bargain?” And she held out her hand.

“I swear to it!” cried he, pressing his lips to her fingers. “And now that you know my sentiments – ”

“Hush!” cried she, with a gesture of warning, for she heard the voices of servants in the corridor. “Trust me; and good-bye!”

“One ought always to have an Irishman amongst one’s admirers,” said she, as, once more alone, she arranged her ringlets before the glass; “if there’s any fighting to be done, he’s sure not to fail you.”

CHAPTER XXIV. A DAY IN EARLY SPRING

That twilight of the year called spring, most delightful of all seasons, is scarcely known in Italy. Winter dies languidly away, and summer bursts forth at once, and in a few days the trees are clothed in full foliage, the tall grass is waving, and panting lizards sun themselves on the rocks over which so lately the mountain torrent was foaming. There are, however, a few days of transition, and these are inexpressibly delicious. The balmy air scented with the rose and the violet stirs gently through the olive-trees, shaking the golden limes amidst the dark leaves, and carrying away the sweet perfume on its breath; rivulets run bright and clear through rocky channels, mingling their murmurs with the early cicala. The acacia sheds its perfume on the breeze, – a breeze so faint, as though it loved to linger on its way; and so, above, the lazy clouds hang upon the mountains, or float in fragments out to sea, as day wears on. What vitality there is in it all! – the rustling leaves, the falling water, the chirping birds, the softly plashing tide, all redolent of that happy season, – the year’s bright youth.

On such a day as this Alfred Layton strolled languidly through the grounds of Marlia. Three months of severe illness had worn him to a shadow, and he walked with the debility of one who had just escaped from a sick-room. The place was now deserted. The Heathcotes had gone to Rome for the winter, and the Villa was shut up and untenanted. It had been a cherished wish of poor Layton to visit the spot as soon as he could venture abroad; and Quackinboss, the faithful friend who had nursed him through his whole illness, had that day yielded to his persuasion and brought him there.

Who could have recognized the young and handsome youth in the broken-down, feeble, careworn man who now leaned over the palings of a little flower-garden, and gazed mournfully at a rustic bench beneath a lime-tree? Ay, there it was, in that very spot, one chapter of his life was finished. It was there she had refused him! He had no right, it is true, to have presumed so highly; there was nothing in his position to warrant such daring; but had she not encouraged him? That was the question; he believed so, at least. She had seen his devotion to her, and had not repulsed it. Nay, more, she had suffered him to speak to her of feelings and emotions, of hopes and fears and ambitions, that only they are led to speak who talk to willing ears. Was this encouragement, or was it the compassionate pity of one, to him, so friendless and alone? May certainly knew that he loved her. She had even resented his little passing attentions to Mrs. Morris, and was actually jealous of the hours he bestowed on Clara; and yet, with all this, she had refused him, and told him not to hope that, even with time, her feeling towards him should change. “How could it be otherwise?” cried he to himself. “What was I, to have pretended so highly? Her husband should be able to offer a station superior to her own. So thought she, too, herself. How her words ring in my ears even yet: ‘I do love rank’! Yes, it was there, on that spot, she said it. I made confession of my love, and she, in turn, told me of hers; and it was the world, the great and gorgeous prize, for which men barter everything. And then her cold smile, as I said, ‘What is this same rank you prize so highly; can I not reach it – win it?’ ‘I will not waste youth in struggle and conflict,’ said she. ‘Ha!’ cried I, ‘these words are not yours. I heard them one short week ago. I know your teacher now. It was that false-hearted woman gave you these precious maxims. It was not thus you spoke or felt when first I knew you, May.’ ‘Is it not well,’ said she, ‘that we have each grown wiser?’ I heard no more. I have no memory for the passionate words I uttered, the bitter reproaches I dared to make her. We parted in anger, never to meet again; and then poor Clara, how I hear her faint, soft voice, as she found me sitting there alone, forsaken, as she asked me, ‘May I take these flowers?’ and oh! how bitterly she wept as I snatched them from her hand, and scattered them on the ground, saying, ‘They were not meant for you!’ ‘Let me have one, dear Alfred,’ said she, just then; and she took up a little jasmine flower from the walk. ‘Even that you despise to give is dear to me! And so I kissed her on the forehead, and said, ‘Good-bye.’ Two partings, – never to meet again!” He covered his face with his hands, and his chest heaved heavily.

“It’s main dreary in these diggin’s here,” cried Quackinboss, as he came up with long strides. “I ‘ve been a-lookin’ about on every side to find some one to open the house for us, but there ain’t a crittur to be found. What ‘s all this about? You haven’t been a-cryin’, have you?”

Alfred turned away his head without speaking.

“I’ll tell you what it is, Layton,” said he, earnestly, “there’s no manner of misfortune can befall in life that one need to fret over, but the death of friends, or sickness; and as these are God’s own doin’, it is not for us to say they ‘re wrong. Cheer up, man; you and I are a-goin’ to fight the world together.”

“You have been a true friend to me,” said Layton, grasping the other’s hand, while he held his head still averted.

“Well, I mean to, that’s a fact; but you must rouse yourself, lad. We’re a-goin’ ‘cross seas, and amongst fellows that, whatever they do with their spare time, give none of it to grief. Who ever saw John C. Colhoun cry? Did any one ever catch Dan Webster in tears?”

“I was n’t crying,” said Layton; “I was only saddened to see again a spot where I used to be so happy. I was thinking of bygones.”

“I take it bygones is very little use if they don’t teach us something more than to grieve over ‘em; and, what’s more, Layton, – it sounds harsh to say it, – but grief, when it’s long persisted in, is downright selfishness, and nothing else.”

Layton slipped his arm within the other’s to move away, but as he did so he turned one last look towards the little garden.