Books: Love and Life
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Charlotte M. Yonge >> Love and Life
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"I am come," he said gravely, holding out his stronger hand to his
little brother and sister, who sprang to him, "to bring my father-
and sister-in-law, Major and Miss Delavie."
"Ah! my good cousin, my excellent Mrs. Betty, excuse me that my
tyrant _friseur_ prevents my rising to welcome you. It is so good
and friendly in you to come in this informal way to cheer me under
this terrible anxiety. Let me present you to my kind friend, the
Countess of Aresfield, who has been so good as to come in to-day
to sustain my spirits. Colonel Mar you know already. Pray be
seated. Amyas--Archer--chairs. Let Syphax give you a cup of
chocolate."
"Madam," said the Major, disregarding all this and standing as if on
parade, "can I see you alone? My business is urgent."
"No evil news, I trust! I have undergone such frightful shocks of
late, my constitution is well nigh ruined."
"It is I that have to ask news of you madam."
She saw that, if she trifled with him, something would break out that
she would not wish to have said publicly. "My time is so little my
own," she said, "I am under command to be at the Palace by two o'clock,
but in a few minutes I shall be able to dismiss my tormentor, and then,
till my woman comes to dress me, I shall be at your service. Sit down,
I entreat, and take some chocolate. I know Mrs. Betty is an excellent
housekeeper, and I want her opinion. My dear Lady Aresfield, suffer
me to introduce my estimable cousin, Mrs. Betty Delavie."
The Countess looking in her feathers and powder like a beetroot in
white sauce, favoured Betty with a broad stare. Vulgarity was very
vulgar in those days, especially when it had purchased rank, and
thought manners might be dispensed with. Betty sat down, and Amoret
climbed on her lap, while a diversion was made by Archer's imperious
entreaty that his mamma would purchase a mandarin who not only nodded,
but waved his hands and protruded his tongue.
Then ensued what seemed, to the sickening suspense of the two Delavies,
a senseless Babel of tongues on all sides; but it ended in the _friseur_
putting up his implements, the trades-folk leaving the selected goods
unpaid for, and the poor poet bowing himself within reach of the monkey,
who made a clutch at his MS., chattered over it, and tore it into
fragments. There was a peal of mirth--loudest from Lady Aresfield--
but Sir Amyas sprang forward with gentlemanly regrets, apologies, and
excuses, finally opening the door and following the poor man out of
the room to administer the guinea from his own pocket, while Colonel
Mar exclaimed, "Here, Archer, boy, run after him with this. The poor
devil has won it by producing a smile from those divine lips--such as
his jungle might never have done---"
"Fie! fie! Mar," said the Lady, shaking her fan at him, "the child
will repeat it to him."
"The better sport if he do," said Colonel Mar, carelessly; "he may
term himself a very Orpheus charming the beasts, so that they snatch
his poems from him!"
Then, as Sir Amyas returned, Lady Belamour entreated her dear Countess
to allow him to conduct her to the withdrawing room, and there endeavour
to entertain her. The Colonel could not but follow, and the Major and
Betty found themselves at length alone with her Ladyship.
"I trust you have come to relieve my mind as to our poor runaway,"
she began.
"Would to Heaven I could!" said the Major.
"Good Heavens! Then she has never reached you!"
"Certainly not.
"Nor her sister? Oh, surely she is with her sister!"
"No, madam, her sisters knows nothing of her. Cousin, you have
children of your own! I entreat of you to tell me what you have
done with her."
"How should I have done anything with her? I who have been feeding
all this time on the assurance that she had returned to you."
"How could a child like her do so?"
"We know she had money," said Lady Belamour.
"And we know," said Betty, fixing her eyes on the lady, "that though
she escaped, on the first alarm, as far as Sedhurst, and was there
seen, she had decided on returning to Bowstead and giving herself
up to you Ladyship."
"Indeed? At what time was that?" exclaimed my Lady.
"Some time in the afternoon of Sunday!"
"Ah! then I must have left Bowstead. I was pledged to her Majesty's
card-table, and royal commands cannot be disregarded, so I had to go
away in grievous anxiety for my poor boy. She meant to return to
Bowstead, did she? Ah. Does not an idea strike you that old Amyas
Belamour may know more than he confesses! He has been playing a
double game throughout."
"He is as anxious to find the dear girl as we are madam."
"So he may seem to you and to my poor infatuated boy, but you see
those crazed persons are full of strange devices and secrets, as
indeed we have already experienced. I see what you would say; he
may appear sane and plausible enough to a stranger, but to those
who have known him ever since his misfortunes, the truth is but
too plain. He was harmless enough as long as he was content to
remain secluded in his dark chamber, but now that I hear he has
broken loose, Heaven knows what mischief he may do. My dear cousin
Delavie, you are the prop left to me in these troubles, with my
poor good man in the hands of those cruel pirates, who may be
making him work in chains for all I know," and the tears came
into her beautiful eyes.
"They will not do that," said Major Delavie, eager to reassure her;
"I have heard enough of their tricks to know that they keep such game
as he most carefully till they can get a ransom."
"Your are sure of that!"
"Perfectly. I met an Italian fellow at Vienna who told me how it was
all managed by the Genoese bankers."
"Ah! I was just thinking that you would be the only person who could
be of use--you who know foreign languages and all their ways. If you
could go abroad, and arrange it for me!"
"If my daughter were restored---" began the Major.
"I see what you would say, and I am convinced that the first step
towards the discovery would be to put Mr. Belamour under restraint,
and separate his black from him. Then one or other of them would
speak, and we might know how she has been played upon."
"What does your Ladyship suppose then?" asked the Major.
"This is what I imagine. The poor silly maid repents herself and
comes back in search of me. Would that she had found me, her best
friend! But instead of that, she falls in with old Belamour, and
he, having by this time perceived the danger of the perilous
masquerade in which he had involved my unlucky boy, a minor, has
mewed her up somewhere, till the cry should be over."
"That would be the part of a villain, but scarcely of a madman,"
said Betty dryly.
"My dear cousin Betty, there are lunatics endowed with a marvellous
shrewdness to commit senseless villanies, and to put on a specious
seeming. Depend upon it, my unfortunate brother-in-law's wanderings
at night were not solely spent in communings with the trees and
brooks. Who knows what might be discovered if he were under proper
restraint? And it is to you, the only relation I have, that I must
turn for assistance in my most unhappy circumstances," she added,
wit a glance so full of sweet helplessness that no man could withstand
it. "I am so glad you are here. You will be acting for me as well
as for yourself in endeavouring to find your poor lovely child, and
the first thing I would have done would be to separate Belamour and
his black, put them under restraint, and interrogate them separately.
You could easily get an order from a magistrate. But ah, here comes
my woman. No more now. You will come to me this evening, and we
can talk further on this matter. I shall have some company, and
it will not be a regular rout, only a few card-tables, and a little
dancing for the young people."
"Your ladyship must excuse me," said Betty, "I have no dress to appear
in, even if I had spirits for the company."
"Ah! my dear cousin, how do you think it is with my spirits? Yet I
think it my duty not to allow myself to be moped, but to exert myself
for the interest of my son. While as to dress, my woman can direct
you to the milliner who would equip you in the last mode. What,
still obstinate? Nay, then, Harry, I can take no excuse from you,
and I may have been able to collect some intelligence from the
servants."
Nothing remained but to take leave and walk home, the Major observing--
"Well, what think you of that, Betty?"
"Think, sir?--I think it is not for my lady to talk of villains."
"She is in absolute error respecting Belamour; but then she has not
seen him since his recovery. Women are prone to those fancies, and
in her unprotected state, poor thing, no wonder she takes alarms."
"I should have thought her rather over-protected."
"Now, Betty, you need not take a leaf out of Mrs. Duckworth's book,
and begin to be censorious. You saw how relieved she was to have me,
her own blood relation, to turn to, instead of that empty braggart
of a fellow. Besides, a man does not bring his step-mother when
there's anything amiss."
There was something in this argument, and Betty held her peace, knowing
that to censure my Lady only incited her father to defend her.
For her own part her consternation was great, and she walked on in
silence, only speaking again to acquiesce in her father's observation
that they must say nothing to Mr. Belamour of my Lady's plans for
his seclusion.
They found Mr. Belamour in the square parlour of the Royal York,
having sent Eugene out for a walk with Jumbo. The boy's return
in the most eager state of excitement at the shops, the horses,
sedans, and other wonders, did something, together with dinner,
to wile away the weary time till, about three hours after the
Major and his daughter had returned, they were joined by the
young baronet, who came running up the stairs with a good deal
more impetuosity than he would have permitted himself at home.
"At last I have escaped," he said. "I fear you have waited long
for me?"
"I have been hoping you had discovered some indications," said
the Major.
"Alas, no! I should imagine my Lady as ignorant as we are, save for
one thing."
"And that was---?"
"The pains that were taken to prevent my speaking with any of the
servants. I was forced to attend on that harridan, Lady Aresfield,
till my mother sent for me; and then she made Mar absolutely watch
me off the premises. Then I had to go and report myself at head-
quarters, and see the surgeon, so that there may be no colour of
irregularity for the Colonel to take advantage of."
"Right, right!" said the Major; "do not let him get a handle against
you, though I should not call you fit for duty yet, even for holiday-
work like yours."
"You still suspect that your mother knows where our Aurelia is?"
said Betty. "When I think of her demeanour, I can hardly believe
it! But did you hear nothing of your little sisters?"
"I did not ask. In truth I was confounded by a proposal that was
made to me. If I will immediately marry my mother's darling, Lady
Belle, I may have leave of absence from her and my regiment, both
at once, and go to meet Mr. Wayland if I like, or at any rate make
the grand tour, while they try to break in my charming bride for
me. Of course I said that, being a married man, nothing should
induce me to break the law, nor to put any lady in such a position;
and equally, of course, I was shown a lawyer's opinion that the
transaction was invalid."
"As I always believed," said his uncle. "The ceremony must be
repeated when we find her: though even if you were willing, the other
parties are very ill-advised to press for a marriage without judgment
first being delivered, how far the present is binding. So she wants
to send you off on your travels, does she?"
"She wishes me to go and arrange for her husband's ransom," said the
Major. "I would be ready enough were my child only found, but I
believe government would take it up, he being on his Majesty's service."
"It is a mere device for disposing of you--yes, and of my nephew too,"
said Mr. Belamour. "As for me, we know already her kind plans for
putting me out of reach of interference. I see, she communicated
them to you. Did she ask your cooperation, Major? Ah! certainly,
an ingenious plan for disuniting us. I am the more convinced that
she is well aware of where the poor child is, and that she wishes
to be speedy in her measures."
There is no need to describe the half-frantic vehemence of the young
lover, nor the way in which the father and sister tried to moderate
his transports, though no less wretched themselves.
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE ROUT.
Great troups of people travelled thitherward
Both day and night, of each degree and place.--SPENSER.
Much against their will, Major Delavie and his _soi-disant_ son-in-law
set forth for Lady Belamour's entertainment, thinking no opportunity
of collecting intelligence was to be despised; while she probably
wished to obviate all reports of a misunderstanding as well as to keep
them under her own eye.
The reception rooms were less adorned than the lady's private apartment.
There were pictures on the walls, and long ranks of chairs ranged round,
and card-tables were set out in order. The ladies sat in rows, and the
gentlemen stood in knots and talked, all in full dress, resplendent
figures in brilliant velvet, gold lace, and embroidery, with swords by
their sides, cocked hats, edged with gold or silver lace, under their
arms, and gemmed shoe buckles. The order of creation was not yet
reversed; the male creature was quite as gorgeous in colour and
ornament as the female, who sat in her brocade, powder and patches,
fan in hand, to receive the homage of his snuff-box.
Sir Amyas went the round, giving and returning greetings, which were
bestowed on him with an ardour sufficient to prove that he was a
general favourite. His mother, exquisitely dressed in a rich rose-
coloured velvet train, over a creamy satin petticoat, both exquisitely
embroidered, sailed up with a cordial greeting to her good cousin, and
wanted to set him down to loo or ombre; but the veteran knew too well
what the play in her house was, and saw, moreover, Lady Aresfield
sitting like a harpy before the green baize field of her spoils.
While he was refusing, Sir Amyas returned to him, saying, "Sir, here
is a gentleman whom I think you must have known in Flanders;" and the
Major found himself shaking hands with an old comrade. Save for his
heavy heart, he would been extremely happy in the ensuing conversation.
In the meantime Lady Belamour, turning towards a stout, clumsy, short
girl, her intensely red cheeks and huge black eyes staring out of her
powder, while the extreme costliness of her crimson satin dress, and
profusion of her rubies were ridiculous on the unformed person of a
creature scarcely fifteen. If she had been any one else she would
have been a hideous spectacle in the eyes of the exquisitely tasteful
Lady Belamour, who, detecting the expression in her son's eye,
whispered behind her fan, "We will soon set all that right;" then
aloud, "My son cannot recover from his surprise. He did not imagine
that we could steal you for an evening from Queen's Square to procure
him this delight." Then as Sir Amyas bowed, "The Yellow Room is
cleared for dancing. Lady Belle will favour you, Amyas."
"You must excuse me, madam," he said; "I have not yet the free use of
my arm, and could not acquit myself properly in a minuet."
"I hate minuets," returned Lady Belle; "the very notion gives me the
spleen."
"Ah, pretty heretic!" said my Lady, making a playful gesture with her
fan at the peony-coloured cheek. "I meant this wounded knight to have
converted you, but he must amuse you otherwise. What, my Lord I
thought you knew I never meant to dance again. Cannot you open the
dance without me? I, who have no spirits!"
The rest was lost as she sailed away on the arm of a gentleman in a
turquoise-coloured coat, and waistcoat embroidered with gillyflowers;
leaving the Lady Arabella on the hands of her son, who, neither as
host nor gentleman, could escape, until the young lady had found some
other companion. He stiffly and wearily addressed to her the inquiry
how she liked London.
"I should like it monstrously if I were not moped up in school," she
answered. "So you have come back. How did you hurt your arm?" she
said, in the most provincial of dialects.
"In the fire, madam."
"What? In snatching your innamorata from the flames?"
"Not precisely," he said.
"Come, now, tell me; did she set the room a-fire?" demanded the young
lady. "Oh, you need not think to deceive me. My brother Mar's
coachman told my mamma's woman all about it, and how she was locked
up and ran away; but they have her fast enough now, after all her
tricks!"
"Who have? For pity's sake tell me, Lady Belle!"
Loving to tease, she exclaimed: "There, now, what a work to make
about a white-faced little rustic!"
"Your ladyship has not seen her."
"Have I not, though? I don't admire your taste."
"Is she in Queen's Square?"
"Do not you wish me to tell you where you can find your old faded
doll, with a waist just like a wasp, and an old blue sacque--not a
bit of powder in her hair?"
"Lady Belle, if you would have me for ever beholden to you---"
"The cap fits," she cried, clapping her hands. "Not a word to say
for her! I would not have such a beau for the world."
"When I have found her it will be time to defend her beauty! If your
ladyship would only tell me where she is, you know not what gratitude
I should feel!"
"I dare say, but that's my secret. My mamma and yours would be ready
to kill me with rage if they knew I had let out even so much."
"They would forgive you. Come, Lady Belle, think of her brave old
father, and give some clue to finding her. Where is she?"
"Ah! where you will never get at her!"
"Is she at Queen's Square?"
"What would you do if you thought she was? Get a constable and come
and search? Oh, what a rage Madam would be in! Goodness me, what
sport!" and she fell back in a violent giggling fit; but the two
matrons were so delighted to see the young people talking to one
another, that there was no attempt to repress her. Sir Amyas made
another attempt to elicit whether Aurelia were really at the school
in Queen's Square, but Lady Arabella still refused to answer directly.
Then he tried the expedient of declaring that she was only trying to
tease him, and had not really seen the lady. He pretended not to
believe her, but when she insisted, "Hair just the colour of Lady
Belamour's," his incredulity vanished; but on his next entreaty, she
put on a sly look imitated from the evil world in which she lived,
and declared she should not encourage naughty doings. The youth, who
though four years older, was by far the more simple and innocent of
the two, replied with great gravity, "It is the Lady Belamour, my
own wife, that I am seeking."
"That's just the nonsense she talks!"
"For Heaven's sake, what did she say?"
But Belle was tired of her game, and threw herself boisterously on a
young lady who had the "sweetest enamel necklace in the world," and
whose ornaments she began to handle and admire in true spoilt-child
fashion.
Sir Amyas then betook himself to the Major, who saw at once by his eye
and step that something was gained. They took leave together, Lady
Belamour making a hurried lamentation that she had seen so little of
her dear cousin, but accepting her son's excuse that he must return
to his quarters; and they walked away together escorted by Palmer and
Grey, as well as by two link-boys, summer night though it was.
Sir Amyas repaired first to the hotel, where Mr. Belamour and Betty
were still sitting, for even the fashionable world kept comparatively
early hours, and it was not yet eleven o'clock. The parlor where
they sat was nearly dark, one candle out and the other shaded so as
to produce the dimness which Mr. Belamour still preferred, and they
were sitting on either side of the open window, Betty listening to
her companion's reminiscences of the evenings enlivened by poor
Aurelia, and of the many traits of her goodness, sweet temper, and
intelligence which he had stored up in his mind. He had, he said,
already learned through her to know Miss Delavie, and he declared
that the voices of the sisters were so much alike that he could have
believed himself at Bowstead with the gentle visitor who had brought
him new life.
The tidings of Lady Arabella's secret were eagerly listened to, and
the token of the mouse-coloured hair was accepted; Sir Amyas comparing,
to every one's satisfaction, a certain lock that he bore on a chain
next his heart, and a little knot, surrounded with diamonds, in a
ring, which he had been still wearing from force of habit, though he
declared he should never endure to do so again.
It was evident that Lady Belle had really seen Aurelia; and where
could that have been save at the famous boarding-school in Queen's
Square, where the daughters of "the great" were trained in the
accomplishments of the day? The Major, with rising hopes, declared
that he had always maintained that his cousin meant no ill by his
daughter, and though it had been cruel, not to say worse, in her,
to deny all knowledge of the fugitive, yet women would have their
strange ways.
"That is very hard on us women, sir," said Betty.
"Ah! my dear, poor Urania never had such a mother as you, and she has
lived in the great world besides, and that's a bad school. You will
not take our Aurelia much into it, my dear boy," he added, turning
wistfully to Sir Amyas.
"I would not let a breath blow on her that could touch the bloom of
her charming frank innocence," cried the lad. "But think you she can
be in health? Lady Belle spoke of her being pale!"
"Look at my young lady herself!" said the Major, which made them all
laugh. They were full of hope. The Major and his daughter would go
themselves the next day, and a father's claim could not be refused
even though not enforced according to Lady Arabella's desire.
Their coach--for so Sir Amyas insisted on their going--was at the door
at the earliest possible moment that a school for young ladies could be
supposed to be astir; long before Mr. Belamour was up, for he retained
his old habits so much that it was only on great occasions the he rose
before noon; and while Eugene, under the care of Jumbo and Grey, was
going off in great felicity to see the morning parade in St. James's
Park.
One of the expedients of well-born Huguenot refugees had been tuition,
and Madame d'Elmar had made here boarding-school so popular and
fashionable that a second generation still maintained its fame, and
damsels of the highest rank were sent there to learn French, to play
the spinnet, to embroider, to dance, and to get into a carriage with
grace. It was only countrified misses, bred by old-fashioned scholars,
who attempted to go any farther, such as that _lusus naturae_, Miss
Elizabeth Carter, who knew seven languages, or the Bishop of Oxford's
niece, Catherine Talbot, who even painted natural flowers and wrote
meditations! The education Aurelia Delavie had received over her
Homer and Racine would be smiled at as quite superfluous.
There was no difficulty about admission. The coach with its Belamour
trappings was a warrant of admittance. The father and daughter were
shown into a parlour with a print of Marshal Schomberg over the
mantelpiece, and wonderful performances in tapestry work and
embroidery on every available chair, as well as framed upon the
wainscoted walls.
A little lady, more French than English, moving like a perfectly wound
up piece of mechanism, all but her bright little eyes, appeared at their
request to see Madame. It had been agreed before-hand that the Major
should betray neither doubt nor difficulty, but simply say that he had
come up from the country and wished to see his daughter.
Madame, in perfectly good English, excused herself, but begged to hear
the name again.
There must be some error, no young lady of the name of Delavie was
there.
They looked at one another, then Betty asked, "Has not a young lady
been placed here by Lady Belamour?"
"No, madam, Lady Belamour once requested me to receive her twin
daughters, but they were mere infants; I receive none under twelve
year old."
"My good lady," cried the Major, "if you are denying my daughter to me,
pray consider what you are doing. I am her own father, and whatever
Lady Belamour may tell you, I can enforce my claim."
"I am not in the habit of having my word doubted, sir," and the little
lady drew herself up like a true Gascon baroness, as she was.
"Madam, forgive me, I am in terrible perplexity and distress. My poor
child, who was under Lady Belamour's charge, has been lost to us these
three weeks or more, and we have been told that she has been seen here."
"Thus," said Betty, seeing that the lady still needed to be appeased,
"we thought Lady Belamour might have deceived you as well as others."
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