«W* ./fWl ft r^Sr. m ra&. , t< w _, .srtBlE * b*p f\» *& ^ fc t%s m Sd^ .->■<■■ The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN AUG i o 1988 FEB 1 T*&. • '1 ¥ t.< A l 1993 Bfe^b -4 & r« Mr L161— O-1096 *£> ' /k£ /U i''?*"-^ qf /■'<-£ -Ad. Owen, in North Wales, whither his father had removed him, hoping that the pure fresh air and change of scene might revive him. LAURA GAY. 21 Laura and her father remained there but a short time after that melancholy event : and Mrs. Owen, seeing her brother's forlorn and drooping condition, returned with him into Yorkshire. All that two devoted and tender women could do, was done to prolong his days, but without avail. He applied himself to setting his house in order, and to giving Laura all those instructions and counsels she would so soon need. She was nineteen when he died. He had left her the whole of his property ; the land was settled upon her, and a large sum waiting for investment, lay at his bankers, at her absolute disposal, on her coming of age. He begged his sister to live with Laura so long as she remained unmarried, and feeling how deeply both would deplore his loss, he almost enjoined a twelve months tour on the continent after his decease. " I had," said he, " hoped that your po*r 22 LAURA GAY. brother and I would have accompanied you both unon such a tour, about this time. That may not be — we rejoin my wife. Yet I am sure, my darling child, that your father's life and devotion to you will never be for- gotten, and the wishes he has so devoutly formed for your happiness in the paths of reason and duty, will be your incentive to realize them. " Enjoy then, darling, and utilize the tour I have projected for you. Your aunt's kind- ness and strong sense of right will be a protection to you. The education I have given you will serve you, and should you marry, as I should like to think you would, I am sure, my child, you will not do so without heed or blindly. I am sure you will never give your father an unworthy successor here, or unite yourself to one on whom his blessing and that of Heaven could notdescend." Full well did Laura appreciate the extent of such an injunction ; for none so well as LAURA. GAY. 23 she could estimate the Christian strength and piety of her father's character, and his dying words were cherished in her heart as the criterion to guide her choice, should she ever desire to marry. Hitherto she had formed to herself no notion of the passion of love, confined, as she had been, to the society of her young brother, her aunt, and her father ; nor had the latter placed in her hands any of those charming pictures of it, which poets are wont to paint ; perhaps, because he feared to disturb the repose of her " maiden meditations fancy free ;" perhaps because he dreaded to renew in his own heart the tortures of separation and bereavement. In all the numerous arrangements which Mr. Gay's death occasioned, in the cares and consolations Mrs. Owen's depressed spirits and failing health required, and in preparations for the continental tour, Laura found very ample occupation. 24 LAURA GAY. The multitude of the duties imposed upon her by filial obedience, broke the cruel shock she had sustained, and seemed still to link her to the dear departed parent, who had always taught her to sacrifice every feeling of her own, upon the altar of duty. Mrs. Owen had long been the widow of the Rev. Watkyn Owen, who had come into the neighbourhood of her Yorkshire home as a poor curate, at the time that Mrs. Owen was a very pretty genteel-looking girl, of an amiable, submissive temper, well read in English biblical literature, fond of attending religious lectures, of visiting the poor, and teaching in the Sunday-schools. The Rev. Watkyn Owen, though born of an old Welch stock, and educated at Oxford, was much upon a par with his pretty coadju- tress as regards professional lore, knowledge of the world, and decision of character, but he had not her beauty and health. The consequence was, that he fell in love with LAURA GAY. 25 that, and sympathized so strongly with her religious fervour, that it became his duty to marry her. As for Mrs. Owen herself, she was deeply in love with him altogether, with his feeble health, his piety, and his superior station. Her parents consented to the match, because it would promote their daughter's hap- piness : and, as they had always been saving people, they were able to afford her a marriage portion, sufficient to furnish her with all the comforts she had hitherto enjoyed. The Rev. Watkvn Owen's friends con- sented to the connection, for the sake of Watkyn's health, and because they were sensible of his natural obscurity, and aware that his intended bride had a comfortable independence, and an only brother, a bache- lor of considerable wealth. The Rev. Watkyn and his pretty bride made their wedding tour — a visit of ten days to the paternal home ; and a time of severe trial it was to both of them ; for Lady Helen and Mr. 26 LAURA GAY. Gwynne Owen had made up their minds that Mrs. Watkyn must be shockingly vulgar : and Lady Helen had resolved upon making the visit of the new-married couple a continued lesson in good manners and good English. Neither their daughter-in-law's modesty, nor her great desire to please them, or her real superiority to what they had imagined, could eradicate their prejudice. When Lady Helen was not correcting poor Mrs. Wat- kyn, she was lecturing Watkyn on the necessity of forming his wife's manners, and preserving his own from contamination, until she had made both man and wife so nervous, that it was impossible they could profit by the ensamples of good breeding set before them at Llanbeddwr Hall. They were, therefore, very glad to return again to Mrs. Watkyn's happy home in Yorkshire, where they continued to reside, beloved by their neighbours, and caressed by their ex- cellent, though homely parents. LAURA GAY. 27 A year or two after this marriage, Mr. Gav bought Sexhurst, and was invited to Llanbeddwr by Lady Helen, who had an unmarried daughter, over thirty, whom she would willingly have consigned to the same family oblivion as her brother Watkyn. It was a rule with Mr. Gay never to refuse friendly overtures from those whom the cir- cumstances of life naturally threw in his way ; he, therefore, frankly accepted Lady Helen's invitation, notwithstanding all the timorous counsels, on points of behaviour, which his sister and brother-in-law thought fit to give him. He went armed with his natural good sense, a knowledge of men and things far greater than he found there, a frank good-tempered manner, and an independence never likely to have been com- promised by Miss Helen's now waning charms. Before his visit had come to an end, Mr. Wynne Owen regarded him as an oracle to be consulted in all matters of business ; 28 LAURA GAY. telling Lady Helen he was a deuced clever fellow, and very knowing in horse-flesh. Lady Helen, her daughter, and her guests, felt a certain relief at his departure ; for, the influence of his presence, and the respect he commanded, apparently without an effort, were highly distasteful to them, with their preconceived notions of the class from which he had sprung. Fortune is an inconsiderate jade; and chiefly does she prove so, when she has to deal with the calculations and motives of family selfishness. Here, she denies a son, when abun- dance and a title await him ; there, from the high-bred peer, she withholds that common sense, which, perchance, she freely bestows on his hovel-bred wife: and now and then she invests an idiot with wealth, rank, and worst of all, with a life whose thread the Parcce never tire of spinning. The Gwvnne Owens had an eldest son, of whom they never spoke ; and so long LAURA GAY. 29 had he been absent from them, that he was hardly ever in their thoughts. He lived bound, shaven, and confined — born to inherit what he might never enjoy. They had been more fortunate in their second son, a handsome spirited youth, with an average head, and an excellent heart. Both father and mother were naturally proud of him, and had purchased a pretty estate lying near the outskirts of the Park, for his accommoda- tion, should he marry early. It had belonged to a retired banker, and the house was something between a villa and a mansion. No expense had been spared, in fitting up the Dell. It was the most comfortable and complete abode of its kind imaginable, embowered in charming gardens and plea- sure grounds, which, favoured by aspect, shelter, and soil, might be seen far and wide, now, like some green oasis in the wild and wintry scene, now, like a huge nosegay, bedecking the side of the barren Welsh hill. 30 LAURA GAY. Here, in this lovely Paradise, with some high-bred Eve of his mother's choosing, young Williams Owen was patiently to have awaited his father's death — the fates per- mitting. They did not, however, so permit; for a year or two after Mr. Gav's visit to Llanbeddwr, voung Owen, returning home from his regiment sta- tioned at Plymouth, in the Bristol mail, was killed on the spot, by the upsetting of the coach. Great was the woe at Llanbeddwr ; and Mr. and Mrs. Owen were soon installed at the Dell, there to act during the short remainder of Mr. Gwvnne Owen's life, as companions and consoling angels ; even Lady Helen herself felt it a blessing to have children so good and so kind, thus near her, bound as she was to the country by her husband's declining health. During this time, Mr. Gay, his wife and infant daughter were sometimes to be seen LAURA GAY. 31 walking in the glades of Llanbeddwr Park, frequently in the gardens of the Dell. Thus did fortune turn her tables in favour of modest Mrs. Owen ; whose husband was now the remaining heir to the family property, and whose society was sought for its own sake, by both father and mother-in-law. A few years brought further changes. The father died. Mr. Watkyn Owen became virtually possessor of the estate ; but he pre- ferred to continue resident at the Dell; and his comparatively small expenditure there enabled him to buy land in the neighbour- hood, and to make considerable investments under his brother-in-law's guidance ; so that when he died, although Llanbeddwr passed into the hands of a distant relative, and a minor, he left his widow an elegant home, and a large fortune, to which he justly thought her well entitled. After her husband's death, Mrs. Owen was not frequently separated from her brother 32 LAURA GAY. and his children — sometimes she spent three or four months at once at Sexhurst, where she loved to renew the old acquaintances of her youth, amongst the rising manufacturers now grown rich, and the thrifty poor whose early piety and frugality she and her late husband had helped to foster. At other times, Mr. Gay and his children spent months at the Dell, enjoying the delightful air and romantic scenery, and what little society that part of the country afforded. Every honest face in the neighbourhood re- cognized them as friends and benefactors. Not that they were prone to alms-giving ; for that Mr. Gay scrupulously avoided as the sure source of poverty ; and when Mrs. Owen's tender heart beguiled her into it, she was wont to plead frailty as an excuse. But the whole family was ever ready to svmpathzie with, and advise, to watch over and instruct their poorer and less enlightened neighbours. In fact, it was only when business, or a care LAURA GAY. 33 for his children's accomplishments led Mr. Gay to spend a month or two in town, that the brother and sister were separated. So much had Mr. and Mrs. Owen leaned upon Mr. Gay's judgment in the management of their affairs, that his death was scarcely a less severe shock to her than her husband's ; and had it not been that Laura's mind and character so strongly resembled her father's, and that he had cultivated in her habits of business, poor Mrs. Owen must inevitably have sunk under the sole responsibility of managing her pro- perty. Upon Laura, then, devolved all the arrangements for a year's absence, both at the Dell and at Sexhurst ; and when these had been carefully completed, she undertook the necessary preparations for their tour, rank- ing first among these, such as might conduce to her aunt's health and comfort. Accordingly, she decided to take the old ac- customed man and maid-servant from the Dell. She selected from the libraries of VOL. I. D 34 LAURA GAY. both her homes the books that would assist her to derive the utmost benefit from the tour. Down came the dear old Virgil, laid aside at her brother's death, the graceful Horace, the humane Cicero, the pleasant Livy, and the deep-souled Dante, into whose mysteries she had longed to dive with tender awe. Then came Hand-books and works of devotion to suit her aunt's taste. Many friends said, " You cannot go with- out a courier ;" but Laura replied, " We cannot do with one. The little business of managing will be charming to me. It will, at any rate, open my eyes as to a class of persons with whose modes of business and habits of thought T am as yet unac- quainted." She was quite right; for they never felt the want of a courier, nor suffered the inconvenience of having one. LAURA GAY. 35 CHAPTER III. Mrs. Owen and Miss Gay had spent some time in Florence, where they had made a few acquaintances through an old friend of Mr. Gay's, Mr. Ballennie, who was travelling with his sister and niece, Mrs. and Miss Wyndham. Mr. Ballennie was a brilliant and popular writer, and though born in the middle class of life, the early development of extraordinary talents had raised him to a high position in the literary and fashionable world. Like all mortals, he had his bright and his shady side. He was industrious, sensible to a generous admira- tion of the heroic deeds of the past, constant d 2 36 LAURA GAY. in his family attachments, and persevering, as Scotchmen generally are, in the advancement of his relatives. He had known Laura's father before his marriage, and although they had never been on very intimate terms, yet they had sometimes dined together, when Mr. Gay came up to town. He was an extremely clever talker. Laura was usually an intelligent and interested listener, and he had already discovered that a pretty girl is the best of mirrors for the reflection and diffusion of conversational efforts. For years his sister, Mrs. Wyndham, and latterly his niece also, had served him as such. Mrs. Owen and Miss Gay were, moreover, convenient acquaintances abroad, because their party was so small, that it combined well to share the expenses of sight-seeing ; and, when Mrs. Owen did not feel equal to that ex- ertion, Laura was sometimes glad to offer seats in her carriage to Mr. Ballennie's party, for the advantage of their company. LAURA GAY. 37 There was but little sympathy among the four ladies. Mrs. Wyndham and her daughter thought poor Mrs. Owen a non- entity, and they dreaded the competition of Laura's talents and good looks. Mrs. Owen could not understand any of the party, for their topics of conversation were not hers, and their opinions of people and actions passed her comprehension, on account of their extreme worldliness. Laura was, at heart, equally indifferent to all the party, but Mr. Ballennie's conversation often threw an instructive light upon what she saw and read, and always diverted her. She perceived the selfishness and want of superiority in the minds of the ladies, but, as a study, their characters were sufficiently interesting to compensate for the uncomfortable aversion inspired by their selfishness. Mrs. Wyndham and her daughter were received into good society for Mr. Ballennie's sake. Mrs. Wyndham resembled him in 38 LAURA GAY. some respects. She was equally self-com- placent, her memory was capacious, and rather imaginative, her language exuberant and emphatic, but her conversation had a certain Sir Oracle-like style that wearied ; es- pecially as it covered a multitude of plagiar- isms, and inverted common-places, without re- vealing any original thought. So far, however, as her own concerns went, she was a good manager, keeping her brother in single bles- sedness, a willing dependant on her powers of flattery and affection. She had shared his position and his gains ; through his influence her husband had received appointments, the duties of which he was but moderately fitted to discharge, and a generous country awarded a pension to his widow, in consideration of his " brief" incapacity. Her daughter was a stylish, handsome girl, and what is gene- rally called, carefully brought up, that is to say, she had been educated by a first-class town governess, she had been instructed in LAURA GAY. 39 accomplishments by the best masters, and her dibut had been marked by all the eclat her mother and her uncle could obtain for it. She was tall and large, something in the style of Guido's Cleopatra. She would have been self- indulgent and indolent, had she not shared her mother's vanity and ambition. It was solely to increase her daughter's opportunity of marrying, that Mrs. Wyndham had per- suaded her brother to make the tour on the continent, at the end of his niece's second season. Through this party, Mrs. Owen and Miss Gay had become acquainted with Mr. and Lady Cecilia Mowbray. Mr. Mowbray was a scholar, a critic, and a statesman. Lady Cecilia was a clever, graceful woman of fashion, of whom, at the period of our story, it was almost premature to say, that she had been a beauty. Some might have fancied that vanity and the pride of rank were her chief characteristics ; but those 40 LAURA GAY. who observed her more deeply, discerned a fair judgment, and a good heart, beneath her brilliant exterior. Mrs. Owen admired her exceedingly. Laura thought she should like to have her as a friend ; Mr. Ballennie liked her, and flattered her ; Mrs. Wyndham disliked and courted her; and Miss Wynd- ham courted her, and was quite indifferent towards her. It occurred to Charles Thornton, the day after his arrival in Rome, to call betimes upon Mrs. Owen, to beg her not to in- convenience herself at all, because the rooms were engaged, and not to quit them ere she had found apartments that suited her thoroughly. Mrs. Owen was alone, perusing letters which had already been opened, and arranged on the table for her. Charles was surprised to see among them several very business-like documents. He apologized for intruding at so early an hour, saying, LAURA GAY. 41 " I am so ignorant of the use ladies make of their mornings, that I must plead not guilty of any intention to trespass upon the time devoted to absent friends, or to business ; I will, therefore, tell you my errand as briefly as I can." " It is no interruption," replied Mrs. Owen, removing her spectacles, and regard- ing him kindly. " My niece read me the chief part of the letters before she went out ; and as for the business papers, it is useless my attempting to read them, for I don't understand them. However, for- tunately, Laura does, so I leave them to her." Thornton bowed, although he doubted the fact; and had he expressed his opinion, he would probably have said, " Such documents must be dangerous reading, if you act upon Miss Gay's advice." Still, he felt sufficiently interested in that young lady, to seek, in all the trifling indications offered by the room, some 42 LAURA GAY. insight into the nature of her pursuits, while he ostensibly contented himself with explaining the object of his visit. Mrs. Owen thanked him for his good nature, declaring, at the same time, that Miss Gay would certainly succeed, ere she returned, in finding suitable apartments ; for, added she, " Laura has decided upon private apart- ments, and will soon discover the best to be had ; then she will strike a bargain, and take them at once, just as her poor dear father would have done. And if thev can be aired so soon, we shall be comfortably settled there, without any trouble, this evening. Still, we are much obliged to you." " Not in the least, I assure you. It would have given me great pleasure to have accommodated you." Mrs. Owen's kind and gentle manner encouraged him to stay ; and he secretly hoped that Miss Gay might return before the LAURA GAY. 43 reasonable limit of a call was exceeded. Not that the idea of aptitude for business had ever characterized the heroines of his day-dreams ; indeed, the railway reports, the collection of " Times' " newspapers, and certain strong-minded periodicals, sobered the vision of the evening before, and prepared him to entertain a less favourable opinion of Miss Gay's charms. Still his curiosity was much piqued, and he expected to find in the business talents of the young lady, so much vaunted by her aunt, a little of that juvenile affectation which occasion- ally prompts young girls to do masculine things. Just as the clock on the mantle-piece re- minded him that he had been sitting there a quarter of an hour, the door opened, and Miss Gay entered with so radiant a face, such a gladsome air, and such a large bouquet in her hand, that it was impossible to associate a thought of business with her presence. Mrs. Owen told Laura the purport of 44 LAURA GAY. Mr. Thornton's call ; and he thought she thanked him most charmingly, although she only said : " I assure you we cannot accept your kind- ness, because we wish to settle in our Roman home, to domicile our Penates, and to fall into a Roman w r ay of life as soon as may be. You will be quite delighted," turning to her aunt, " with the apartments I have chosen in the Piazza. They have an excellent aspect, and an open space, full of orange trees, behind them ; the rooms are not draughty, and I don't think the chimnies smoke." The old lady smiled affectionately, as she always did, when her niece tried to please her. Thornton took leave with a mingled feeling of curiosity, admiration and diversion ; for he had certainly met with an original specimen. There is something very attrac- tive in genuine originality. It implies moral freedom, and is so often accompanied by high LAURA GAY. 45 powers and generous courage, that, instead of inspiring aversion and suspicion, as eccentricity does, it charms us, and renders us willing agents in the hands of its possessors. It is like a touch of the divine in those whom we love. It gives them a peculiar distinction, and invests their memory with immortality ; because it cannot be confounded with the im- pressions of our every-day life. As Charles Thornton was crossing over the Piazza to Monaldini's, Redford joined him. " Well," said he, " what do you think of Miss Gay ?" " Miss Gay ?" replied Thornton, annoyed at the question. " Oh ! don't fear me," said he, with a laugh, " possess your discoveries in peace, for there are no barriers to surmount, there is no Cerberus of a father to appease, and not even, as in Miss Wyndham's case, a vigilant duenna to mollifv; but then the 46 LAURA GAY. citadel itself is a very Tarpeian Rock, full of business and of books, and armed men in case of need, no doubt. Query, therefore, if it's worth besieging. However, joking apart, Strutt tells me she's in her twentieth year, an orphan, nobody's daughter, with a fortune to the tune of four thousand a-vear, and great expectations from the old lady she so assiduously attends." " Who is Miss Wvndham ?" " Miss Wyndham ? you don't know Miss Wyndham ? why, what were you doing at Florence to have missed knowing her. To be sure, I recollect how conscientiously you devoted yourself to the legitimate objects of travel ; still, Miss Wyndham was to be seen everywhere ; she used to ride a fine grey horse in the Casino Gardens ; she was at all the ambassadorial soirees; she passed once a day through both the palaces — not that I had ever an opportunity of seeing her side by side with the Venus di Medici — no, LAURA GAY. 47 she scrupulously avoided that statue, pro- bably for fear of comparison. She is tall and handsome, something in the Lombardo- Venetian style, and Mrs. Wyndham is a wonderful woman ; no one could trot out a daughter better. I am surprised you were not at any of her parties, for you must have known Mr. Ballennie, and he was most hos- pitably inclined to all eligible bachelors." " I met him once or twice in company with Mr. Mowbray, and we exchanged bows, but I don't suppose he would remember me." " Of course you read his works ?" said Redford. " Certainly." " Well, then, I'll give you a receipt for gaining his fast friendship. Place yourself before him in a respectful, credulous atti- tude, and seek some occasion to set him talking upon a subject, where truth lies near the surface, and is capable of literary illus- 48 LAURA GAY. tation. I did so, and, I assure you, I found considerable amends for the bore in an inward running fire at his false positions, his trivial arguments, and his mistaken facts." " I should not feel justified in finding amusement at the expense of one whose society I sought." " Ah ! ah ! ah ! By the bye, what's your coat-of-arms ? Mine's quite heraldic. I didn't steal it — I bought it for the governor. When you get yours, I advise you to set up a solemn Cherub for the crest, an even Spindle for the blazon, and Simon Pure for the motto." Thornton laughed, in spite of himself, and of the pain he always felt, when he saw men of the class to which he belonged so given up to the pursuit of wealth, rank, pleasure, distinction, or power, as to be dead to the more generous feelings and the higher aims of life. He had long determined to LAURA GAY. 49 devote both the leisure and the energy of his manhood to combat, in the service of truth and virtue, the vices which accompany mate- rial greatness, and prepare the downfall of an industrious and prosperous people. He had not reckoned on the universal dominion of the foe, or its inherent character in the citizens of a state where the highest positions, and the greatest fortunes, are open to free competition. Thornton and Redford belonged, as we have said, to precisely the same class of society — children of similar outward circum- stances — yet how different ! Let us cease to measure each other by our circum- stances : yet, let no one suppose that we deem slight, the influence of parental cha- racter ; no, that is as powerful as the final clause of the second commandment assumes it to be. Our parents, and the friends who surround our childhood, have more than class, than accidental circumstance VOL. I. E 50 LAURA GAY. — yes, even than climate, to do with what we are. Robert Redford, Esq., of Newbury Hall, Berks, M.P. for Haslington, was the only son of Robert Redford, of Springfield Lodge, near Oldham, a wealthy cotton-spinner and printer in that neighbourhood. Mr. Redford, senior, had risen from the ranks, by indomitable toil, perseverance, and energy in the pursuit of wealth. He was a man of limited views, keen and shrewd in business, coarse in his habits and tastes, ill- tempered and resentful ; a hard-hearted master, a despotic husband and father — ■ one, in fact, who sinned more easily than he was sinned against. He had succeeded in the object of his life, for he had amassed an enormous fortune. Some of his neighbours admired his success, and vaunted him as a sample of the Lancashire manufacturer ; others, happily the greater number, said that he had been unusually lucky in his speculations, LAURA GAY. 51 and not at all scrupulous in his efforts to enrich himself. But old Redford, though ineloquent, had not neglected to provide a rejoinder to this plea against him ; for, at an early period of his career, he had begun to lay his expiatory offering upon the altar of good report, in the shape of an uncommon religious reverence for the clergy of the Established Church, and for the oligarchic parts of our constitution. This, combined with munificent donations to all orthodox charities, and large subscriptions in aid of the expenses of Tory elections, covered a multitude of sins; which, in a person less professedly good and respectable, would have provoked severe condemnation, even in the manufacturing districts. The son inherited many of his father's peculiarities : his temper was impatient and despotic ; his passions were uncontrolled, except by interest ; his will was their slave, and his reason their pander. Happily for E 2 2&«'«^ 52 LAURA GAY. society, the passions are, generally in such cases, balanced pretty equally, and the result is peccadilloes and feebleness, rather than great crimes. His mother had been a mere vulgar woman, whose health and energy were early consumed in the birth of many babes, and in nursing and losing them ; and it required then but a few joyless years of durance vile, and of consolatory gin, to terminate her hapless life, and to release her from the tyranny of a hard and faithless husband. Old Redford thought himself an excellent parent, because he was determined that his son should do him credit. He sent him, at a tender age, to a preparatory school. The boy's character and manners made him very unpopular there ; yet he preferred school to the sullen, fretful gloom of home. In the holidays, he was catechised by the hottest of Irish parsons, and brow-beaten or chas- tised, if he did not reply satisfactorily to LAURA GAY. 53 questions which should be solved, not by rote, or for human approbation, but in that quiet and solemn recess of the heart, where the Creator has placed His temple for Holy things. Is it surprising that, with an irritable temper and a lawless will, this course should have produced a deep-seated aversion to all re- ligion, whether real or merely professional, and should have utterly deadened that in- ternal sentiment for the unseen and holy, which, like a sixth sense, gives us the means of approaching the Divine ? His abilities were good ; and, as his father made his allowance depend on their exercise, he was successful in his studies, both at Harrow and at Cambridge. They were further stimulated by ambition and revenge ; for he looked forward eagerly to the time when he could use them to punish and humiliate those who had embittered his early years. He left school and college, without hav- ing formed a single friendship ; yet he 54 LAURA GAY. had feasted many acquaintances, and rioted with the fastest men of his vear. He felt that he was deemed an outlaw hv the steady men of his college : he knew that he had been called an upstart by the high-born and their parasites ; and he panted to punish his father, for what he was, and every one else, for what they thought him. His manners were sufficiently ill-condi- tioned and selfish to exclude him from the society of equals and superiors. Pride forbade a contented association with inferiors. The career he naturally espoused was that of the demagogue, who with ready tongue, and specious wit, can mislead the mob, by representing its passions, and by express- ing with heartfelt rancour, its hatred against all those who seem to possess the material gratifications it desires. Thus, too, he might settle old scores with the governor and the parsons, by irritating the former, and holding up the frailties of the latter to public scorn LAURA GAY. 55 and ridicule. Yet, clever as he supposed himself to be, in the knowledge of the worst impulses of the human heart, he had not justly estimated that of his worthy sire. Old Redford was, it is true, greatly aggra- vated against his flesh and blood, when first it broke into open rebellion. The Radical club, the Chartist meetings, the abominable, scurrilous, periodicals, the low political associates, were all so many thorns added to the goad of defiance. His son was of age, and nothing remained to the parent, by way of correction, save a with- drawal of the ways and means ; this corrective, promptly applied, and continued during two years, failed not to procure both father and son the gratification of their direst enmity. The one was supported in his righteous indignation by his patrons of the Church — the other supported himself by pungent writing in monthly periodicals, and the more indepen- dent pleasure of reviling his father. So the 56 LAURA GAY. feud might have continued, until the zealous had reaped the reward of their labours, if the talents and bitterness of the unscrupu- lous writer had not found an echo in the breasts and the interests of a section of the community, whose country extends no further than their own party, and their own friends. Not that they adopted him into the bosom of their clique ; they only ac- cepted him as a formidable ally. He visited at one or two houses of the great, and by bullying he attained a better position, than, with all his wheedling, old Redford had won. This was a moment for reconciliation. It turned the tables. The friends who had justified the old man in his wrath, were now forced by his will, however reluc- tantly, to come forward in a spirit more accordant with their profession, and to insist upon the sacredness of those ties which Heaven has knit. Father and son were friends ; the wealth of the one LAURA GAY. 57 again supported the fame and the talent of the other. Robert Redford the younger had made as good use as he could of his experience of high life. He was versed in its weaknesses. His own manners, too, were somewhat hu- manized ; a faint tint of the hue of polite- ness had fallen upon him, and he was prepared to accept such a truce with society, as would enable him to enjoy it. He be- came member for Haslington, under the auspices of the Progressistas. He intended to found a family, and to have a good position in town ; for this, and for no other reason, he considered marriage necessary; and, like Miss Wyndham's friends, proposed to combine the advantages and pleasures of a continental tour, with the pursuit of ma- trimony. His acquaintance with Thornton was one of very long standing, although they had seen but little of each other since the years 58 LAURA GAY. of their boyhood — in fact, one of those early friendships which spring from the genuine sympathies of the soul, was impos- sible between them, so dissimilar were their tastes and characters. LAURA GAY. 59 CHAPTER IV. Charles Thornton's father, like Red- ford's, had risen from the ranks, but he was the dutiful son of pious parents — themselves Dissenters, and studious of that great Book which is the basis and the charter of modern liberty and civilisation. He, too, desired to rise in the social scale, not to gratify the vain ostentation of high position, but in order to enlarge the sphere of his exertions, to enjoy greater leisure for self-culture, and the society of those whose education was superior to his own. In youth, he had been frugal, industrious and moral, and it was 60 LAURA GAY. not till past mid-life that he found time for courtship, or a competence which he could ask an educated woman to share with him. Blessed with a serene and amiable temper, his marriage had been a happy one, notwith- standing the disparity of years existing be- tween himself and his wife, and Charles Thornton was the sole fruit of this union. The Thorntons and the Redfords were neighbours, at a time when both families inhabited neat little detached villas, sur- rounded with square gardens, and separated by an iron railing. Little Charles was allowed, for health's sake, to play with Robert Redford, who was three years his senior, and they had spent one half year together at the same preparatory school. It was the pleasantest half that Robert ever knew, for then he had, at least, one kind little friend, fighting on whose behalf he might feel a throb of honest pleasure and pride. LAURA GAY. 61 As Charles Thornton was verging into manhood, his father died. The wear and tear of a life devoted to business, and, finally, an over-scrupulous attendance to his parlia- mentary duties, accelerated his end. Mrs. Thornton survived him only a few years, and at the time of our narrative, Charles had finally completed all those courses of instruction that his father and himself had marked out together. Foreign travel was the last act of preparation, ere he should enter that career of political life, so dear to the patriot, and so coveted by the unscru- pulous adventurer of every rank. Few, indeed, of the best who enter upon it, are more fitted to fulfil its duties honestly than Charles Thornton was. Possessed of a fortune amply sufficient to satisfy the re- quirements of his position, he was above the temptation of those pecuniary motives which a corrupt age classes among the mainsprings of political action; genial and guileless by 62 LAURA GAY. nature; energetic in thought and deed, allied by birth to the more numerous classes, possessed of keen poetic sympathies and deep religious feeling, he was . welcomed into the society of the good and the cultivated of all ranks. A thoughtful, honest and sensitive character such as his, was a Mentor to forbid youthful licence, while the geniality and activity of his mind promoted social intercourse with men of every shade of opinion, enabling him to discover in each some portion of that truth which Heaven has divided amongst the sons of men. He was a fair classic, but a far deeper English scholar. Bacon, Hooker, Taylor, Burke and Coleridge, and above all, Shake- speare, were his favourite authors. Milton was a divine poet, and Cromwell a national hero. And now asking the reader's pardon for this necessary digression, we return to the thread of our story. At first, Charles Thornton entered upon his spacious apartment with perfect satis- LAURA GAY. 63 faction. He seated himself where he had sat during his late call. He placed Mrs. Owen in the easy chair ; he replaced the bouquet that Laura had bought, and the papers and letters that bespoke her business-like habits. She entered the room whenever he glanced at the door ; and she stood in the bloom and fresh- ness of sweet youth, by the side of the table, thanking him so cheerfully. Yet soon he sought to picture a fonder and deeper mood. He longed to see how she would respond to the inmost feelings of his heart, to those principles of duty which roused an enthusiastic glow within his bosom. What were her tastes ? Was she alive to all beauty, to all human passion ? Was she free from all vanity and presump- tion ? Like a sound Platonist, he felt sure that all the virtues, and all the graces were enshrined in so much beauty ; and straightway, with his map of Rome spread out before him, for the purpose of tracing the spots consecrate to 64 LAURA GAY. legend and to story, he fell to fancying, Corinne-like, rhapsodies full of genius and fire. Moments fled rapidly in these pleasing fancies, and he was surprised to find that an hour's study of the map had given him no distinct notion of the plan to be followed in seeing ancient Rome, nor had it even sug- gested any mode for improving his acquain- tance with Miss Gay. " No doubt," thought he, " we shall fre- quently meet at some point of common interest;" and on dismissing her from his mind, he returned anew to his map with better success than before. Reflecting on his conversation with Redford, he determined to cultivate Mr. Mowbray's and Lady Cecilia's acquaintance, as well as that of Mr. Ballennie, in the hope of thus ridding himself of the too obtrusive image, which now threatened to thwart the objects of his tour. The day was fine, so he set out at once for LAURA GAY. 65 the Capitol, the Hill of Jove, and the Arx of Rome. There, singularly enough, as it seemed to him, he found the Mowbrays, Miss Gay and Mr. Ballennie. " How d'ye do ?" said Lady Cecilia, offering him two taper little fingers to shake. " I am so glad to see you just at this moment. I hope you are not very learned indeed. It will be quite a relief to have some one to interpret, in a simple way, what one sees, and to ask pertinent questions for one." " Oh !" said he, laughing, I shall be most happy to derive and to communicate as much information as possible for your ladyship's plea- sure ; but I hope you will take my inexperience and mv dulness into consideration, and allow me a little time to see what I am about." " Certainly," she replied, and lowering her voice, " we were just debating whether w 7 e should form a learned club of Roman sight- seers — to be very exclusive of course. If we do, I will propose you as a member, shall I ?" VOL. I. F 66 LAURA GAY. " I ought to reply that I am highly honour- ed and flattered, and that I cannot do better than place myself in your ladyship's hands, with a thousand thanks ; indeed, I am much obliged. But pray tell me the regula- tions of the set. How far may one enter it, and yet be at liberty to follow one's own plan of sight-seeing?" " We have not yet formed either the club or its rules ; you, therefore, will have a vote in our first comitium, if you assent to the notion of forming one." " The temptations are very great," he replied, bowing, and glancing towards Miss Gay. " Yes," said Laura, " and I, who have enjoyed some of the advantages it promises, recommend you not to refuse so excellent an offer." " You, then, are one of the learned, I presume ?" " Not at all ; I am one of the learners LAURA GAY. 67 Surely, you do not suppose a learned set could flourish without disciples ?" " No, no ; the current of thought, I know, must ever flow, if it is to last in pristine freshness and vigour; for thought, confined to a learned corporation, soon becomes a mystery, and — to continue my figure — a turgid, sleepy pool, full of tangled weed and noisome vapours, to be filled up and obliterated at last, pro bono publico." " Bravissimo !" cried Lady Cecilia, " that is philosophy adapted to the female mind. You must belong to our club." " But, I thought you told me, by way of inducement, that your little society was to be exclusive. Now, exclusiveness presupposes a test and a peculiar qualification for admis- sion. The name you propose, of ' learned,' would indicate the necessary qualification, of which I presume Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Ballennie are the models." F 2 68 LAURA GAY. " Oh, no, not exactly," said Lady Cecilia, a little puzzled ; " we are not so exclusive as all that; we wish, above all, to form an agreeable set." "And, therefore, we are to form it conventionally, instead of trusting to the chapter of accidents, and the instincts of nature." " Well," said Mr. Ballennie, who had been discussing some knotty point with Mr. Mow- bray, " have the ladies prepared a net large enough to take us all in ? My sister also will have her pro's and con's to state, and perhaps they may be rather exclusive, in the common acceptation of the term." Entre nous, gentle reader, he admired the display of his sister's talents in nothing more than in the facility with which she excluded and ignored the very people who had served as the steps to her present position. " Social exclusiveness," continued he, with a pompous air, " seems unaccountable in LAURA GAY. 69 women of her stamp. They are not like those who depend for distinction on the small elevated circle to which they belong, but stars themselves, and one would fancy they should rejoice to illuminate a wider sphere." " If, however, they happen to be planets, and not stars," rejoined Lady Cecilia, archly, " they had better dance attendance on the sun." Every one smiled at her sally, and Mr. Mowbray reminded them all, that they had come to ascend the tower, and to enjoy the panorama it w T ould afford them. "You dear old pedagogue," whispered her ladyship, as she fondly pressed her hus- band's offered arm, " how you drive us from play to study." " There is a time for everything, my love," he quietly rejoined. Miss Gay followed on Mr. Ballennie's arm, and Thornton brought up the rear. During their ascent to the top of the tower, 70 LAURA GAY. Laura reconsidered Thornton's conversa- tion, and decided, to her own satisfaction, that he was a man worth knowing. What a scene burst upon their admiring gaze ! To remember such a moment, en- joyed together, is a precious link in the chain of love. For some minutes, thev all contemplated the beautiful scene in silence, w T hich was first broken by Mr. Ballennie's exclaiming : "Verily, we now stand in the centre of the world. Behold those circling hills : thence came Pelliti Patres, and the refugees who fled before the avengers of blood ; here, without a doubt, Romulus or Romuli opened an asylum for the fugitives, and temples for the gods of Rome. Who can look at yonder Latin hills, and doubt that Rome's first lawgivers were Alban fathers ? See, how they rise, like our own Malverns, peculiar in form, and distinct from the chain of the Apennines, and from the rude mountain homes of Sabines and LAURA GAT. 71 Samnites, stretching themselves forward towards the Mediterranean, to receive the shipwrecked Greeks and Trojans of heroic times, who brought piety and the first germs of civilization to the aborigines." " This is sheer poetry, Ballennie, all very well in your mouth ; but," added Mr. Mowbray, glancing at Miss Gay, "for the sake of the young idea, I am bound to pro- test, and to warn you that there is not a tittle of historical evidence for the legends of ancient Rome. " Is there good evidence against them ?" asked Miss Gay, with an arch smile. " Ay, there we have him," cried Mr. Bal- lennie ; " we may give a modified credence to the legends we have received, when they are not opposed by authentic testimony, or by the canons of probability." "What!" said Redford, who had just reached the top of the tower, shaking hands with Mr. Ballennie, and bowing to the rest, 72 LAURA GAY. " are you here ? I have just been calling upon you, and, finding Mrs. Wyndham and her daughter were going to study the classical and the antique among cameos, I escorted them to the shop, and then came hither, little expecting to meet so august, so charming an assemblage of com- patriots." The Mowbrays and Redford regarded each other with mutual antipathy, although, for the sake of social position, Mr. Redford made some efforts to be admitted to their intimacy, to which he thought his wealth and his talents gave him a just claim. He considered Mr. Mowbray a dull, conscien- tious prig, without a spark of wit; and he disliked Lady Cecilia, notwithstanding her grace and her personal charms, be- cause he suspected that she disliked him. His flippancy, the tenour of his conversa- tion, his evident want of principle, and LAURA GAY. 73 his impudent manners, were so highly distasteful to the Mowhrays, that they avoided his society as much as pos- sible. " Have you settled the principal points of interest in the distance ?" pursued Mr. Redford : " or have vou come here to revoke Livy, to ridicule Florus, to dispute the autho- rity of Dionysius, and Cicero's constructions of history ; and to prove, to the satisfaction of the ladies, and the profit of the rising generation, that we, Gauls, Germans, Goths, or mere Britishers, are more competent judges of early Roman history, than the Romans themselves, who lived some eighteen centuries nearer the days of Regal and Republican Rome. Well, there is no doubt, but we are very wise, and possess powers of divination to a surprising extent, so that we really are competent to teach our grandmothers to suck eggs." 74 LAURA GAY. "But you don't believe Livy yourself?" interrupted Thornton. " Of course, I do," rejoined Mr. Red ford, with mock gravity, and something approaching to a smirk at Miss Gay. " You know that I believe everything ; and if Mr. Ballennie will only expatiate on the scene, below, behind, before, and all around, he will find me the most credulous and attentive of auditors." The intrusion, however, of so uncongenial a companion, had put general conversation to flight, and Mr. Thornton found himself point- ing out to Miss Gay, as well as he could, the ancient site of Alba Longa, and the spots, probably, once covered by cities of renown in early Roman history. But the distance did not Ions: engage their attention, which soon fell upon the ancient Forum, and the ruins surrounding it, and here they found they had many associa- tions, and many opinions and feelings in common. LAURA GAY. 75 Charles Thornton was, indeed, surprised to find in so young a woman, so deep an in- terest in the life of ancient Rome ; and he expressed his surprise. " I cannot,'' replied Miss Gay, " divest myself of interest in anything human, and there are really no abrupt transitions to se- parate us from ages that are past. Each epoch contains some of the elements of bygone as well as of future times. Even heathenism, itself, with % all its monstrous superstitions and immoralities, is a pledge of the truth of some religion, for it had its origin in a human instinct common to us all; and we know 7 that each one of our instincts, though we are prone to direct them ill, has some real cor- responding object." " And in Rome," chimed in Mr. Ballennie, anxious to re-unite his audience, " the beau ideal of a state religion was realized. How different the Roman conception of religion from that of the Greeks, which wholly gave 76 LAURA GAY. way to the excesses of intellectual ingenuity, and the allurements of a vivid and poetic ima- gination, until, ceasing to be a religion consecrating individual and public virtue, it became a mythology, whence sophists might draw forth curious and subtle speculations, and artists the ideas embodied in their fairest creations. Whereas, among the Romans, religion was practical and co-ordinate with every act of life, both civil and domestic." " Did Catiline conspire, and threaten the state with destruction ? the Senate assembled in the temple of Jupiter Stator, there to in- voke his aid, and to determine measures for saving the Republic. Had civic dissensions yielded before patriotic energy, or equally patriotic concession, the Senate passed con- firmatory decrees in the Temple of Concord in the Forum, thus allying the laws of the State to the eternal principles of morality, so far as they were then known. It was the practical form that religious opinion took among the LAURA GAY. 77 Romans which contributed more than any other of their national characteristics, to establish the sanctitv of law, and so to insure their dominion, and to perpetuate, even to our day, the best influences developed by their race. This it was, which gave to the Latin church its superiority over the Greek churches of Asia and Africa, and contributed to its stability ; and this self-same practical spirit in strict accordance, as it is, with the teachings of Christ, rendered the Protestant Reform- ation possible and permanent, preserving it in the main from new superstitions and old atheisms." " And the result of this practical religious spirit is this and that/ 1 sneered Redford, pointing with one hand to the remains of ancient Rome, and with the other, to the modern citv behind them. " No," rejoined Thornton, pointing to the ruins of the Forum, " there are the remains which tell of rapacity, plunder, infidelity, 78 LAURA GAY. and sensuality; and the modern city has a very similar story to tell, only it reached its power through fraud, rather than by force ; but the spirit of law and religion has gone forth into everlasting habitations in the ut- termost ends of the earth." " The prophesies, I think," replied Red- ford, with covert irony, " hardly permit us to suppose that we have already entered upon the millennium. What do you think, Miss Gav r He had not been introduced to her ; and she only looked at him coldly, and re- plied, " I don't understand you." He was repulsed for the moment ; but Mr. Redford was not the man whose assu- rance beauty could abash. Nothing further was said about the set which Lady Cecilia had proposed, partly in joke, and in part seriously, to form; but sympa- thies, and motives of various kinds, combined LAURA GAY. 79 with the accidents of sight-seeing, constantly brought the party together again, who were now descending from the Capitol. Thornton's acquaintance with Miss Gay and her aunt, soon ripened into mutual esteem and friendship, and seemed likely to do the same with the Mowbrays. Mr. Ballennie liked him too, upon the whole ; while Mrs. Wyndham and her daughter cultivated his society assiduously, as a foil to Redford, whom they had de- termined to entrap for his wealth ; and also as a dernier ressort, should their designs upon Redford fail. This proved a dangerous experiment in the case of the younger lady ; for Thornton's superiority of manners and appearance inspired her with a preference for him which she was hardly able to conceal, and quite unable to overcome. 80 LAURA GAY. CHAPTER V. Laura now sought to avoid Mrs. Wynd- ham and her daughter. She did not, as yet, regard the latter as a rival, or Mr. Thornton as a lover ; but she avoided the Wyndhams, because they were generally ac- companied by Mr. Redford, whose imperti- nence and self-assurance made his society so distasteful to her, that it seemed almost to mar her admiration for the beautiful, and to confound and dispel her enthusiasm for the (rood, but she was not always successful. LAURA GAY. 81 Some weeks after the meeting on the Capitol, Mr. Ballennie called upon Mrs. Owen, to ask her niece if she would like to go with him to see the statues in the Vatican. It so happened, that Mr. Redford had previously offered to escort Mrs. and Miss Wyndham thither, and Mr. Ballennie finding them gone, bethought himself that Miss Gay, the daughter of his old acquaintance, might like to visit the Vatican, and that Mrs. Owen's delicate health probably interfered to prevent her always acting as chaperon to her niece, where so much walking and standing were necessary. Laura accepted his offer with pleasure ; she had been silently regretting that she had not asked Lady Cecilia Mowbray to take her, and had even meditated the propriety of taking Mrs. Slater with her to the galleries of the Vatican, but had reluctantly abandoned the idea, when Mr. Ballennie's call relieved her. As they drove briskly across the Piazza di VOL. I. G 82 LAURA GAY. San Pietro, Mr. Ballennie leaned over the side of the carriage to look at a large party of pedestrians, chiefly of the female sex, and of a certain age. " Good heavens !" he exclaimed to his companion with a laugh, " there is Croombe, I declare, with a troop of unmistakeable blues and blacks. Poor fellow ! his brain is all on fire on the subject of Egyptian history. He has just returned from the Pyramids, and has found disciples amongst literary and scientific ladies, and their sisters of theological study. I have no doubt they are going to the Egyptian Museum. We can't do better than go there ourselves, I assure you, Miss Gay ; for you will find a few minutes of the lecture most diverting, and you need not stay, if you don't like it." Laura acceded to the proposal ; though, to speak the truth, she anticipated far more pleasure in beholding the Apollo Belvidere, than in detecting a humbug. LAURA GAY. 83 " How do, Miss Eliza," said Mr. Ballennie to one of two very mature sisters. " Is your Egyptian lore of long date ?" "Not very," replied both ladies at once, and in a tone meant for Dr. Croombe's ear, as well as Mr. B alien nie's. " You can't think how fortunate we are. Next to Cham- pollion, Dr. Croombe has the greatest genius for hieroglyphics. He is a wonderful man, and so scarce." " Have you read much about Egyptian antiquities ?" asked Miss Gay. " Oh, yes ! we have read everything we could, since he came to Rome ; but one can- not get all the books he recommends at Monaldini's." When they entered the Museum, the learned doctor placed himself opposite a red porphyry needle, covered with gilded hiero- glyphics, and his hearers pressed around him with an air of earnest attention. The lecture commenced by a statement of G 2 84 LAURA GAY. the true principles of interpretation, and the audience looking as though he had made this point quite clear to them, the lecturer proceeded to direct their attention to sun- dry circles, birds, and wavy lines, upon the significance of which he insisted. As it happened upon this occasion, all these had reference to the history and theology of Moses, and might have conveyed the edification of an old story related in a novel way, had not some of the party become perplexed in their chrono- logy. It is but fair to state, that the order of events was strangely inverted in the inscription ; and the zeal of the blues for historic truth, graven on stone, roused the jealous fears of the blacks, who had come to hear, see, and touch, a substantial testimony to the truth of Scripture. The discussion was warm, and soon became confused, one party asserting in LAURA' GAY. 85 accordance witri the inscription on the stone, that the daughter of the Pharaoh whom Moses plagued, had rescued him from a watery grave, while the other party main- tained the literal accuracy of the Scripture record. At this juncture, Mr. Ballennie perceived that his niece and Mr. Redford had joined the circle. "Had we sufficient faith, Madam," re- marked Redford, assuming an expression of serious conviction, and addressing himself to one of the most ardent defenders of the Mosaic record, " we might believe both ac- counts to be true." " You are quite right, sir," she replied, " faith reconciles everything." The whole party soon dispersed, and Miss Gay reminded Mr. Ballennie that she wished to see the Torso, and the Apollo Belvidere. When they reached the Tor de Venti, they found several persons studying the Torso, and amongst them Mr. Thornton ; and so 86 LAURA GAY. intent was his admiration, that he did not, at first, perceive that Miss Gay stood beside him. 11 Is not this grand — beautiful !" he ex- claimed with enthusiasm, as soon as he be- came aware of her presence. Laura had not realized the figure of the fragment, and her face was a blank as she replied : "At present, I see nothing in it but a shapeless mass." " Is it possible !" cried Thornton with surprise. " Can it be that your taste for sculpture is as uncultivated as that of the sex in general. I am disappointed." And so was Laura, and a little offended, too, especially when she observed a smile play on the gentle and intelligent features of an English clergyman opposite. 11 You are over-hasty in your expectations. Perhaps your own taste in admiring a mere Torso, without head or limbs, may be faulty ; LAURA GAY. 87 besides, I have not had time to discover the lines of the figure." " Oh ! but you must see their beauty. I will discover it to you." "I don't understand must applied to my perceptions. I must see as 1 can, and not as another will." The colour had mounted to Laura's cheeks, and her embarrassment was greatly increased by observing that Mr. Redford was chuckling at the effect of her reply upon Thornton, all of whose enthusiasm was fast evaporating into annoyance with himself, for his impetuous sally. She turned towards the entrance of the Cortile di Belvidere, where, to her relief, she was met by Lady Cecilia and Susan Mowbray. " We are waiting for Mr. Mowbray. He has just left us to arrange with a friend to inspect some manuscripts in the Vatican library to-morrow, but he will be here again directly, and promised to meet us in the cabinet of the Apollo." 88 LAURA GAY. Mr. Ballennie, Mr. Thornton, and the young English clergyman now came up. " Ah ! how do you do, Lord Huntley ? What an unexpected pleasure to see you here," exclaimed her ladyship. " Where have you come from, and how long do you stay ?" " Only a very few days. My mother is with my sister, Mrs. Owen, at Naples, and I am going there to take her home." " I hope they are both well ; let me intro- duce Lord Huntley to Miss Gay. I fancy you must be connections. Surely, I have heard your aunt speak of the late Lady Helen Owen." " I fear," answered his lordship, " if we are connections, it is of the most distant degree; but I thank you for making us acquaintances." Lord Huntley was attracted by Miss Gay's beauty, and the ingenuousness of her replies before the Torso. He had also heard of her wealth from his brother-in-law, the present owner of Llanbeddwr. Mr. Mowbray joined LAURA GAY. 89 the party, and they proceeded to the Apollo. There they stood in silent admiration, broken at last by Mr. Ballennie, who gave an interesting account of the opinions and criticisms of artists, respecting the statue. Susan Mowbray listened with great delight, and repeated with slow, but delicious emphasis, the well-known lines of Byron. " Go on," said Thornton, charmed with the brilliant, sensitive child, and encountering, at the same instant Laura's, sympathetic glance, which assured him of her pardon. " No !" said Susan, " the other lines are not quite like the Apollo." " How not !" almost everybody exclaimed. " No," interposed Laura. " In Plato's soul, the glorious Apollo was fitly shrined, nor will we call that speaking marble 'a dream of love, shaped by some solitary nymph,' but augur Apollo, Hellenic form of bright truth, such as he who said — 90 LAURA GAY. 1 The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill Deceit, that loves the night, and fears the day.' ' " Bravo !" cried Mr. Ballennie, and even Thornton was converted. During the remainder of the afternoon, Lord Huntley and Mr. Thornton walked by the side of Miss Gay ; and as all three were gifted with taste and intelligence, they enjoyed each other's conversation. Thornton's mind was impregnated with the spirit of genuine criticism, Laura's imagination was filled with reminiscences of Homer and Dante, and Lord Huntley's was chastened by Chris- tian sentiments, each of the three had, therefore, something to give and receive, and when they separated at the foot of the grand staircase, it was in the hope of meeting again. Lord Huntley enquired Mrs. Owen's address, with the intention of calling upon her the following morning, and he accepted Mr. Thornton's proposal to go and dine with LAURA GAY. 91 him there and then, as well as Lady Cecilia Mowbray's invitation to take tea with her afterwards — an invitation she had previously given to Miss Gay and Mrs. Owen, to Mr. Thornton, Mr. Ballennie, and his party, with the exception of Redford. Lord Huntley was disposed to like both his new acquaintances, especially the young lady, of whom he almost unconsciously thought, what a suitable match for himself her fortune and beauty would make her. When, therefore, he and Thornton entered Lady Cecilia's drawing-room, his countenance brightened on perceiving a vacant seat near Miss Gay and her aunt. Laura, too, was pleased to encourage him to talk of his sister and brother-in-law, and of such home topics as she knew would gratify and amuse Mrs. Owen. Miss Wyndham eagerly sought to engage Mr. Thornton's attention, sparing no pains to render her conversation agreeable to him. Becoming aware, however, that his 92 LAURA GAY. thoughts and his eyes frequently wandered towards Miss Gay, she fancied he was com- paring, unfavourably, the stereotyped com- ments on Rome, of which alone she was capable, with the flow of original remark which Miss Gay's mind was ever ready to pour forth ; she became irritated, and deter- mined to try the vein of conversation in which she most excelled. " How did you like a certain young lady's performance at the shrine of the Apollo. Your friend, Mr. Redford, thought it admirably done, and remarked that she might make a fortune on the stage." " It is utterly impossible that Mr. Redford should appreciate Miss Gay. Their charac- ters are entirely dissimilar." " Well ! for my part, I do think Miss Gay would consult the interest of her beauty more, were she to prune the luxuriance of her conversation. She is one of those restless beings to whose LAURA GAY. 93 happiness homage and admiration are indis- pensable." Thornton only observed : " Such a woman as Heaven has made her, she remains, to the happiness of those with whom she asso- ciates." " I beg you pardon ; I had no idea I was treading on such tender ground." " No, indeed," he replied, with a slight consciousness, " I think you will find my opinion of Miss Gay shared by all her friends." " You mean the Mowbrays and yourself, and, perhaps, Lord Huntley, who really seems to be enjoying her society; but, mamma, who is an excellent judge of con- versation, says Miss Gay's is all got up for show." " In that case, Miss Gay is a mistress of the art," said he, rising to join the party surrounding her. 94 LAURA GAY. CHAPTER VI. One lovely morning, when no tra montane blew, and the sun was shining as it never shines with us, Lady Cecilia Mowbray called upon Mrs. Owen and Miss Gay, to offer her services as chaperone to the latter, if she liked to go that evening to Torlonia's entertainment. The two ladies had just put on their bonnets for a drive, and Miss Gay accepted Lady Cecilia's offer with pleasure ; for their was a natural sympathy between them, enhanced to the former by the other's greater experience in society, and to the latter, by her young friend's naivete and intelligence. LAURA GAY. 95 " Are you going out merely to take the air, or have you some particular drive in view ?" " Nothing particular, I believe," replied Mrs. Owen. " Well then, Miss Gay, bring your aunt to the Palatine. It is so mild and pleasant this morning, that she will enjoy sitting in some sheltered nook of Villa Mills, where she may return in fancy to her dear old England, while we explore the ruins around." Mrs. Owen and her niece agreed to the pro- posal, and the Mowbray's carriage, containing their children, as well as themselves, was closely followed by Mrs. Owen's to the Palatine. A very pleasant seat was soon selected for Mrs. Owen, with which she was so well satisfied, that her friends left her there with- out reluctance. The charms of the scene, and the beauty of the day, filled her with quiet enjoyment, which found vent in charit- 96 LAURA GAY. able prayers that, ere long, it might please God to add to the blessings of such a climate, those of religious freedom, and the Anglo- Protestant faith. Mrs. Owen had not been long alone, when she was joined by Charles Thorn- ton, who seated himself beside her. In Laura's absence, they always found a topic of mutual interest, for Thornton was never tired of hearing, or Mrs. Owen of repeating her niece's praises ; and the freedom the good old lady felt in conversing with him on the subject, which, next to Heaven, occupied her thoughts, greatly added to the esteem and regard she was beginning to entertain for him ; while Laura herself, little guessing how much she contributed to her aunt's appre- ciation of Mr. Thornton, felt her own regard for him increased and confirmed by his invariably kind and respectful attention to her dear relative, whose only contribution LAURA GAY. 97 to the pleasures of society — a conscientious and amiable disposition — was one too little heeded by the young and the for- tunate. On the present occasion, though he longed to see Miss Gay, Charles Thornton con- tinued by Mrs. Owen's side — partly, in the hope that her niece would soon appear; partly from the fear of missing her, if he went in search for her; and, also, out of a good-natured desire to be agreeable to Mrs. Owen. He walked round the garden with her, stopping at various points to give her an easy and interesting account of some of that crowd of incidents which justly endows Rome with a wonderful fascination for the minds of educated men. As he described to his companion, with more than wonted feeling, the noble deeds, and the purity of some of the ancient Romans, Mrs. Owen shed tears, and hoped it was not wicked VOL. I. H 98 LAURA GAY. to believe that they might have escaped eternal damnation. " Oh, no I" exclaimed Thornton. " Hea- ven never forbade us to extend our sympathies with virtue, into the far past, when the practice of it was so difficult. Besides, our Saviour expressly says, that he has sheep of other folds, whom he must save ; and shall we doom those who would have rejoiced and been glad to see His day, had such been their happy fate ?" During their conversation, the gardener of the Villa was making up a tasteful bouquet of camelias, rosebuds, and laures- tinas which Mrs. Owen thought she would like to have for her niece's toilette that evening. The man, on the look out for a purchaser, observing her fancy for the bouquet, offered it to Mrs. Owen, with a complimentary speech, and received, in re- turn, a more ample gratuity than he expected. LAURA GAY. 99 At this moment, Mrs. Wyndham and her daughter made their appearance. They had come in search of a bouquet for Tor- Ionia's soiree, having been told that it could be procured at Villa Mills, cheaper than at the flower shops. " What a beautiful bouquet !" exclaimed Miss Wyndham, after saluting Mrs. Owen and her companion. Mrs. Wyndham, mean- while, proceeded to discuss the price of one for her daughter, with the gardener, who, having a way of his own in these transac- tions, did not quite like that of direct bargain and sale. "Where is Miss Gay?" asked Miss Wyndham. " She is exploring the hill, in the company of Lady Cecilia and Mr. Mowbray," re- plied Mrs. Owen. " And of Lord Huntley, Mr. Redford, and my uncle," continued the young lady. " They pressed me to go with them ; but I H 2 100 LAURA GAY. really could not find in my heart to leave poor mamma to wander about here by her- self; besides, I had no obliging remplarant to leave her with." " No," added Mrs. Wyndham, with a glance at Thornton. " Where women so attractive as Ladv Cecilia Mowbrav and Miss Gav lead, the men are sure to follow. Mr. Redford was coming with us, but you know how much he enjoys a good joke, and as soon as he caught sight of Miss Gay's party, he said he must go to hear her declaim on the Augustan age, and the atrocities of the later Caesars." "And away he went," continued Miss Wyndham, " repeating something about ' rara avis.' But I don't pretend to quote Latin proverbs like a man, and I dare say you know the one in question. But here they are, I declare." The appearance of Lady Cecilia's party relieved Mrs. Owen, and prevented Thornton LAURA GAY. 101 from replying to Miss Wyndham with more severity than politeness. " You here — ah, ha ! what Arcadian sim- plicity, worthy successor of Evander I" ex- claimed Redford, approaching Mr. Thorn- ton and Miss Wyndham, and address- ing them apart. "Well, so long as you distribute your favours so equally, and bestow rose-buds on young and old, you are in no very great danger — is he, Miss Wyndham ? But, upon my honour, those eyes of Miss Gay's, and that exquisite complexion of hers, are enough to reconcile one to anything but playing second fiddle to one's wife." They had now joined the rest of the party. Lord Huntley and Miss Gay were walking last, engaged in earnest conversation. " I hope you were not tired of waiting here, my dear aunt," said she, in a caressing tone. " No, my love, I have enjoyed myself extremely ; for Mr. Thornton has been 102 LAURA GAY. amusing me, so kindly ; and here is a bouquet for you this evening." Laura looked thanks at Mr. Thornton, as she admired the flowers ; and he was obliged, with regret, to disclaim the donor- ship. " Oh, never mind," said Laura, laughing. " The bouquet is extremely pretty, and I thank you, dear aunt ; and you, also, Mr. Thornton, for taking care of, and amusing my aunt. Lady Cecilia and Mr. Mow- bray wish to go with Lord Huntley as far as the Coliseum. What would you like to do, aunt ?" " I am obliged to see everything rather hurriedly," interrupted Lord Huntley, in an apologetic tone. " I leave for Naples to- morrow. I have, indeed, been most fortunate in meeting with such kind and intelligent friends during my short stay here." " And, therefore," said Lady Cecilia, " you are going to leave us immediately, lest you LAURA GAY. 103 should discover our imperfections. Will you drive as far as the Coliseum, Mrs. Owen ? We shall only just go inside to take a general view." Mrs. Owen acquiesced, Lord Huntley offering her his arm to the carriage, while Thornton took his accustomed place beside Miss Gay. " So, you have been exploring the ruins here ; have you been able to form any idea of their plan ?" " No, I think not," she answered ; " in fact, we were too large a party for that, and had recourse to imagination and history, rather than to patient examination." " Ah ! who, then, was the improvisa- tor ?" " We all did something in that way." " Pray, then, take pity on my absence, and give me an account of what was said." " It would be too long to repeat at pre- 104 LAURA GAY. sent, but, if we meet at Torlonia's this evening, I will try to gratify your curio- sity. We had two notes in our harmony that jarred, as you may guess," added she, slightly indicating, with the end of her parasol, Lord Huntley and Mr. Redford. " The one is always out of tune," replied Thornton. "What do you think, Mr. Thornton, we have missed ?" said Miss Wyndham, who was walking near them, with Mr. Redford, "A most animated description of Nero's golden house, the site of which, and its extent, were settled by Mr. Mowbray and Miss Gay. Miss Gay indeed added a very interesting account of the Emperor Nero's private sentiments." A slight expression of contempt passed over Laura's face, as she resumed the conversation with her companion. " I merely remarked that Nero was a striking example of the illimitable nature LAURA GAY. 105 and growth of human desires, which no gratification is sufficient to satisfy ; and that this characteristic gives to man, even in the midst of the vilest moral depravity and corruption, the impress of a fallen angel." " Whereupon/' pursued Mr. Redford, " the theme was taken up by a Reverend Lord, with ' My kingdom is not of this world ' — in Rome, of all places !" " Lord Huntley is unfairly reported ; how- ever," continued Laura, in a lower voice, to Thornton, " I will tell you all about the conversation, when we are more alone." Lord Huntlev and Mr. Thornton had both walked to the Palatine, and now Mrs. Owen begged them to take seats in her carriage as far as the Coliseum. It is hardly necessary to say that they accepted the accommodation with alacrity. " I think I never met with so repulsive a man as that Mr. Redford," remarked his lordship to Miss Gay. 106 LAURA GAY. " Non ragionam di lui, ma guarda e passa." She replied " only he won't let one do so. I cannot imagine how he comes to claim you as his friend," looking at Mr. Thornton. " We were neighbours and schoolfellows in early boyhood; but since then, we have scarcely seen each other, and I know no other motive for his present so-called friend- ship, than his own convenience." " There are few things more difficult than to extend one's charity to such a man," said Lord Huntley. "Yet you were just now telling us," observed Laura, " that nothing but that wonderful miracle of Christian charity and love, instituted by our Saviour, at a period when the cup of iniquity was full, and every man had become an object of suspicion and hatred to his neighbour, could have saved the human race from bodily and spiritual destruction." LAURA GAY. 107 " It is a good divine that follows his own instructions/' observed Thornton. Lord Huntley bowed, and having now reached the Coliseum, became absorbed in contemplation. The two young men alighted, and Miss Gay ordered Luigi to drive home, because she thought the air was becoming too chill for her aunt. This morning, spent on the Palatine, suggested a variety of reflections to those whom it had brought together. Lord Huntley began to experience the fascination of Miss Gay's beauty and conversation ; but his cautious temperament made him sus- picious of fascination, and he was, upon the whole, not sorry to escape the society of so bewitching a person, in a spot, too, so favour- able to sentiment. Lord Huntley's mind was independent in action only within a limited circle ; beyond the pale of the Church his speculations never ventured, although / J 08 LAURA GAY. his charity extended much further ; and he viewed, with instinctive dread, the freer excur- sions of thought in which Miss Gay indulged. He admitted, indeed, that these might be the consequence of exuberant powers, and of a position unrestrained by parental authority, or the friendly influence of superior minds. At home, in England, surrounded by duties, and not by scenes so exciting to the imagination, she might be a very different person ; there, he could renew an acquaintance which, at present, might prove dangerous to his mental serenity. That there was danger, he could not help confessing to himself, for he was haunted by several remarks she had made on the Palatine; one especially had made an impression on his mind, when, in speaking of religious truth and religious supersti- tion, she observed. " Truth can only be pure objectively, for even in the creeds where it predominates, being subjective, and parcelled out into LAURA GAY. ]09 portions, each of these necessarily receives a hue of idiosyncracy, that is, a taint of superstition, more or less strong ; while in such creeds as the Roman Catholic, igno- rance, interest, the bias of ancient idolatries, and the force of authority, have gradually accumulated on the pure truth, and trans- formed it, at last, into a mass of superstition for the majority of its votaries; and how few are there, alas ! whose zeal, courage, and intellectual energy, are equal to the analysis of this accumulation, and to the discovery of the pearl of great price which lies hidden beneath this heap of rubbish." The intellectual disposition to analyze is both dangerous and unpopular ; for it often leads to unsatisfactory results, and is always so laborious, that had it not been combined in Laura Gay with the charms of youth and beauty, and of an exquisite and generous sensibility, it would have sufficed to preserve Lord Huntley, and many other men whom 1 10 LAURA GAY. she met, from the risk of falling in love with her. Redford, whose sentiments were always out of tune, allured by her personal charms, and the brilliant social position to which she was evidently equal, would have preferred her to Miss Wyndham, had he not feared the labour of domesticating her to his own use, and the effect that her charms and talents might have in eclipsing his own. Yet his vanity forbade imagining her capable of repulsing his serious attentions. Miss Wyndham perceived with alarm that she was making no progress with Mr. Thornton, while Miss Gav was making an impression upon Mr. Redford's senses, notwithstanding his sneers at her superiority. She resolved, therefore, to abandon all open attacks on Thornton's preference for her rival, and by way of rendering herself more amiable in his eyes, she became civil to Mrs. Owen and Miss Gay, and missed no oppor- LAURA GAY. Ill tunity of prejudicing them against Mr. Redford. As for Charles Thornton, he pondered with ever increasing pleasure on Miss Gay's naive allusion, to the probability of their meeting at Torlonia's in the evening ; and his impatience to realize it drew him there among the earliest arrivals. Torlonia was obsequious, and the princess affable, as she always is to good-looking young Englishmen, reputed rich — but all in vain. Thornton's eyes were fixed on the stream of arrivals, until his vision was almost exhausted, and the rooms were more than half- filled. He knew that Lord Huntley was dining with the Mowbrays, and that Lady Cecilia was to chaperon Miss Gay ; and he thought with some vexation, how pleasantly they might be passing their time, whilst he was waiting there longing for the appearance of the party. This hour of expectation was one of con- 112 LAURA GAY. viction to Charles Thornton ; for the first time, he acknowledged to himself that he was in love with Laura Gay ; with this conviction, arose ideas of new rights, and a train of anxious hopes and fears respecting the nature of her feelings towards himself. So wholly absorbing were these new sensa- tions that, though Miss Gay passed in the surrounding crowd, and sought to catch his eye, he was quite unconscious of the fact. Not so Miss Wyndham, who entering the rooms with her mother about the same time, had contrived to steer their course near enough to enable her to address Mr. Thorn- ton. " How d'you do ? What can detain you in this crowded spot ?" He immediately advanced towards her, and offered his services to aid in penetrating into the further rooms. " Are you not very late ?" he remarked. " Not very," she replied, Lady Cecilia LAURA GAY. 113 Mowbray's party were but a moment in ad- vance of us." " Are they come !" he exclaimed. " Yes, indeed. Did you not see them ? Every one turned to look at Miss Gay ; and we came in for a portion of the admiration intended for her." " Perhaps you had a right to appropriate some of it, yourself," he replied, with a smile, perceiving, in fact, that her appearance attracted the favourable notice of many of the gdhtlemen about them. She blushed and looked down. At length, they reached the largest room of the suite, where a crowd was collected to see the tableaux vivants. There was a commo- tion amongst the men who lined the wall of the apartment, whose eye-glasses were simul- taneously turned towards a party just about to seat themselves near the Princess Doria, and exclamations of admiration were uttered in French, Italian, German, and English. The VOL. I. I 114 LAURA GAY. exertions of Torlonia's right-hand man, the officious Spada, to procure a seat for Miss Gay, marked her out to all admirers, as the belle of the evening. Redford, who had been talking with Spada, was determined, at once, by his vanity, to attach himself for the evening to Miss Gay, because of the sensation she created ; and, in spite of rebuffs, and the lady's manifest aversion, he stood in the passage beside her, paying compliments as graceless as his sneers, and expressing, in face and gesture, as much, and more, admira- tion than he was capable of feeling. Thornton looked and longed, but she was too completely surrounded ; and he remained standing dolefully behind Miss Wyndham's chair, listening and replying, almost mecha- nically, to her remarks. 11 Poor Lord Huntley !" said she, " he does not like Mr. Redford's talking to Miss Gay, and it is hard upon him, so much LAURA GAY. 115 smitten as he evidently is, to be balked of her conversation, the last evening of his stay. I wonder if, as he says, he is obliged to leave immediately ?" " It is the accidental circumstance of his being a friend of Lady Cecilia Mowbray's, which places him so near to Miss Gay at the present moment." " Oh, yes ! I dare say ; but you must con- fess that the accidental circumstance appears to be very agreeable to him, and not dis- agreeable to her, either ; only look, mamma, how Lord Huntley frowns upon at Mr. Red- ford, whose proximity even Miss Gay does not seem to relish. I dare say he placed him- self there on purpose to plague the whole party, for I believe he knows that the Mowbrays detest him." Mrs. Wyndham laughed slightly, for Mr. Thornton's benefit ; but she did not at all approve of Mr. Redford's attentions to Miss Gay. i 2 116 LAURA GAY. " Tis a pity," said she, " that Miss Gay has no parent to protect her from the atten- tions men pay her pour passer le temps ; but she rather likes to be the object of general attraction." "Wherever she goes, she must be that, whether she likes it or no," said Thornton, adding, with a smile, " that is an evil she must bear with patience, until age has worn away some portion of her beauty. One reason why Miss Gay excites so much atten- tion, is, that she is rarely seen in large assemblies, and has the reputation of being a great heiress." " Yes, poor thing !" said Miss Wyndham, with a sigh, " how sad to think that verv probably she will marry some fortune-hunter. I am so glad I am not an heiress ; if I were, I should suspect every man who came near me. What a capital match she would be for Lord Huntley ! and she would get a title for her money." LAURA GAY. 117 Thornton did not feel jealous, but he was discomposed by Miss Wyndham's sugges- tions, and began to reflect whether his own fortune and advantages entitled him to aspire to the hand of Miss Gay. Having no more than the usual share of vanity, and a very correct judgment, he could not disguise from himself that, whatever might be his aspira- tions after the great and the good, his early manhood was as yet undistinguished by any feats of knightly daring. He could not, therefore, urge his love with unhesitating fervour ; all must depend upon the encou- ragement vouchsafed to him. Ah ! with what gratitude he would receive it, and how amply he would repay it in devotion, and in efforts after higher worthiness. He little knew, that all this time Laura, far from enjoying herself as he fancied, was only wishing him in Redford's place. Lady Cecilia and the Princess Doria had so much to say to each other, that Miss Gay 118 LAURA GAY. was 'thrown entirely upon Lord Huntley for conversation, an arrangement much more agreeable to the gentleman than the lady, for his chair was just behind her own, and when he spoke, it was almost to whisper in her ear. She was hemmed in, on the other side, by Mr. Redford, and her aversion for this gentleman increased with propinquity. Disappointed of her promised conversation with Mr. Thornton, whose society she now knew she had really counted upon for the en- joyment of the evening, and irritated by the intrusive gallantry of Redford, who attributed her embarrassment to his own powers with the sex, she could hardly restrain the replies he provoked within the bounds of politeness, consequently she maintained an absolute silonce, except when addressed. During the song of some artiste, Redford remarked ■ " Your voice is so delicious, Miss Gay, that 1 am sure you sing divinely." LAURA GAY. 119 u I don't sing," she replied, in tones more curt than sweet. " But," whispered Lord Huntley, " you cannot deny that you discourse most excellent music." " I did not expect a compliment from you." His lordship drew back with a sigh ; he felt himself reproved for inconsistency. " But you did from me," said Redford, in a wheedling manner, meant to be per- suasive. " You have placed yourself here on pur- pose to be disagreeable," replied Miss Gay, with displeasure, " and you know that no- thing can be more distasteful than compli- ments from a stranger." For once in his life, the idea flitted across Redford's mind, that the disagree- able atmosphere which surrounded him, belonged to himself, and not to the world at large. 120 LAURA GAY. " Tell me, then," he said, with a momen- tary impulse of docility, " how I may learn to be agreeable ?" " By seeking an object of devotion, other than yourself, you may, perhaps, .learn to respect your species, and at last become worthy of its good-will," she replied. Piqued by this response, Redford quitted his post by Miss Gay's side, to her great relief. She knew where Thornton was standing, and turning her head, caught his eye, and gave him so sweet a smile of re- cognition, that he hastened to occupy the place Redford had left vacant ; while the latter took up his position near Miss Wyndham, where vanity and self-conti- dence speedily returned, and he chuckled to think, how cleverly, Miss Gay had insinuated that he could not do better than devote him- self to her. The evening was almost spent ere Miss Gay and Thornton met. Lady LAURA GAY. 121 Cecilia Mowbray, who had studiously turned her head away from Red ford, now welcomed his successor, and proposed to go to a smaller apartment, where some tableaux of the Dutch school were being exhibited. Lord Huntley conducted Lady Cecilia, and Thornton, Miss Gay. When they reached the room, it appeared to be quite full ; but Lady Cecilia, perceiving several acquain- tances there, determined to enter, notwith- standing the crowd. Thornton and Miss Gay, caring nothing for the tableaux, and everything for each other's society, were glad to return to a spacious and almost empty room, in one corner of which Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Ballennie were seated, discussing inscriptions and palimpsests with a learned Cardinal ; in another corner sat a married couple quarrelling with each other, because they knew nobody there ; and, lolling on a luxurious settee in the middle of the room, were three pretty 122 LAURA GAY. American girls, like the Graces on the slopes of Parnassus paying court to Apollo, in the shape of a lay Monsignore, with whom they were flirting, and whose bright black eyes had gained him the name of Monsignore Begli-occhi, and had hitherto prevented his becoming a consecrated priest. Charles Thornton and Laura deposited themselves on a sofa near the door, where they might be easily found when sought for, and then began a conversation, all the sweeter because it had been so long deferred, and must now be of such short duration. Perfect frankness, and the introduction of topics of personal interest, characterized it ; and from this moment, we may call their intimacy by the name of love. " Are you," said Thornton, " to be of the party to the Catacombs, arranged by the Mowbrays for Saturday next ?" " Yes," she replied, " and Padre Marchi is to accompany us." LAURA GAY. 123 " Will Mrs. Owen be there, too ?" " No ; my aunt would take great interest in such a scene, but I fear any sudden change of temperature for her ; she is far from being a strong person." " She is, indeed, deservedly precious to you; even I, who have known her for so short a time, cannot help loving her ; there is something of complete unselfishness about her, that reminds me of my ow 7 n dear mother. I wish you had known her." A tear of sensibility glistened in Laura's eyes, as her heart silently responded to his tender wish, the similar one : " How I wish you had known my father; how much he w T ould have liked you." A few more minutes of feeling words and pauses, and Lady Cecilia, having beckoned her husband from his remote corner, ap- peared to carry off Miss Gay. Thornton accompanied the party to the robing-room, and taking Laura's opera- 124 LAURA GAY. cloak from the woman in attendance, he dropped it so gently over the fair shoulders it was destined to cover, that the cloak must have blushed, had it known with what tenderness it was handled. Forgetful of great coat and hat, he escorted Miss Gay to the carriages : the night air was sharp and cold, and as soon as they felt it, Laura, perceiving his predicament, insisted on wishing him good night im- mediately. Thornton leisurely re-ascended the stairs, full of pleasant thoughts, and having procured what he wanted, was again descending them, when Redford took him by the arm. " Well," said he, " there is no doubt who was the belle of the evening. I have not heard a dissentient voice. What a radiant creature she is !" "Who? Miss Wyndham?" asked Thorn- ton, with unaffected surprise. LAURA GAY. 125 " Miss Wyndham ! pooh — she is not to be compared with Miss Gay." " I thought not, but still—" " Still ! why, my good fellow, do you think I was not sworn at Highgate ? But, entre nous" he continued, in a lower voice, pointing to the muffled figures of two ladies just before them, " there might be danger to one's amour propre in marrying such transcendant beauty, and how disagreeable to be only ' le mari? " Thornton laughed outright at his com- panion's ridiculous vanity and presumption, and passing the figures in front, he perceived them to be Mrs. Wyndham and her daughter. They had overheard the remarks of both gentlemen, and from that moment, a jea- lous and inextinguishable hatred of Miss Gay took possession of the younger lady. Mr. Thornton offered her his arm, and escorted her in silence to the carriage. Red- 126 LAURA GAY. ford did the same to Mrs. Wyndham, whose self-control and good policy far exceeded her daughter's, and led her to talk pleasantly, as though quite ignorant of what had just passed. Miss Wyndham bowed coldly when the gentlemen wished her good night. Redford laughed as they drove off, and remarked to Thornton : " Mum's the word with the young one ; she's mortally offended. It's the old story of ' Sprcetceque injuria forma.' " I am sorry we spoke so audibly," replied Thornton. 11 Not so, I ; they will never vent their spite on me. No ! did you not hear how civil the mother was ; yet, I have no doubt she heard what we said. No — no, trust them for that ; if the charms are less, the civility must be all the greater." LAURA GAY. 127 CHAPTER VII. The Mowbrays, or more properly, Lady Cecilia, who delighted in all the arrange- ments for a pleasure party, had made up a most promising one for the Catacombs, con- sisting of Padre Marchi, Mr. Ballennie, Mr. Thornton and Miss Gay, Mr. Mowbray, herself, and their son and daughter. She had also invited Mrs. and Miss Wyndham, but so coldly, that they had not promised to come, and she hoped their dignity would keep them away. It was proposed and carried, that those who liked should ride on 128 LAURA GAY. horseback, and that Mrs. Owen's and Lady Cecilia's carriages should be at the service of all the non-equestrians ; the riding party, comprised Mr. Mowbray, Lady Cecilia, Miss Gay, Mr. Thornton, and Eustace Mowbray — a promising boy of ten years old. Padre Marchi, according to ecclesiastical etiquette in Rome, could not drive in the same carriage with ladies, and, therefore, Mr. Ballennie, who feared to trust himself on horseback, accompanied him ; to the great, surprise of Lady Cecilia, Mrs. Wvndham likewise appeared at the appointed time with her daughter and Mr. Redford. Lady Cecilia's temper was generally sweet and equable, and she excused Mrs. and Miss Wyndham many sins against good breeding for Mr. Ballennie's sake, but she was provoked, as she said to her husband, that they should venture to let that savage brute, Mr. Redford, in upon civilized society without invitation. LAURA GAY. 129 Thornton and Laura shared her senti- ments; and Mr. Redford and MissWyndham were obliged to keep to themselves during the ride to the Catacombs. Redford was much irritated at such treatment, and quite in a mood to vent his spleen, in spoiling, as far as was possible, the enjoyment of the party, and by cherishing acrimonious feelings against the aristocracy, and all their off-sets. The entente cordial subsisting between Thornton and Miss Gay provoked him, and still more the growth of their friendship with the Mowbrays. He considered his right to a good social position as great as Miss Gay's, in virtue of his wealth, and far greater than Thornton's, in virtue both of his wealth and talents. He omitted to take into account that goodness, as well as knowledge, is power ; so much so, indeed, in this our happy age and country, that the works of authors like Dr. Arnold, without the magic of genius or great originality, find their way VOL. I. K 130 LAURA GAY. into the hearts and homes of men, side by side with the productions of more profound and brilliant thought. The weather was beautiful, and the lights of the Campagna glorious. " Is not this a scene to strike the imagi- nation as few do, even if Rome had never existed ?" exclaimed Thornton. " Scenes of equal beauty present them- selves all along the western water-shed of the Apennines," replied Mr. Mowbray, " and were doubtless a cause of the early popula- tion of Italy, and its perpetual invasion in subsequent ages. Still, it is impossible to separate one's associations of the great men who trod this soil — the men we have honoured and loved as heroes and pa- triots of giant mould — from the land they inhabited, and the city where they strove." " Something like Cicero's feelings," inter- posed Thornton, " for the soil of Athens, are LAURA GAY. 131 ours for that of Rome : " Quacunque enim ingredimur, in aliquam historiam vestigium ponimus.' n " And," continued Laura : " ' Ista studia si ad imitandos summos viros spectant ingeniosorum sunt ;' and you recollect the exhortation that follows." " Bravo ! Miss Gay, is that prophetic ?" asked Mr. Mowbray, regarding her with sur- prise. " I hope so." Lady Cecilia w T as both surprised and a little shocked, for her experience of society had taught her that female talents, and, above all, female learning, should never ap- pear unveiled, and she resolved to take the first opportunity of telling her young friend so. Laura having lived all her life in the most unreserved intimacy with a man of superior mind, whose chief solace and delight it had been to cultivate her intellectual faculties, K 2 132 LAURA GAY. had no conception that the nobler sex were capable of jealousy on this subject. And if, indeed, the wisest and noblest portion of that sex were in the majority, no such sentiment would exist ; but while Miss Wyndhams and Mr. Redfords abound, great sacrifices must be made to their existence. The riders had now dismounted at the Catacombs, and with Padre Marchi, torch in hand, at their head, and a ragged, pictu- resque little torch-bearer in the rear, they proceeded to explore the subterranean sanc- tuary of early Christianity, and the last resting-places of its blessed martyrs. No two hearts there beat more in unison with each other, and with the genius of the place, than Thornton's and Laura's. Mr. Mowbray, his wife and daughter, fol- lowed close on the steps of the Padre; Laura hung on Thornton's arm, while her disengaged hand was grasped by Eus- tace Mowbray, with whom she was a LAURA GAY. 133 great favourite. Mr. Redford and Miss Wyndham followed, and the rear was brought up by Mr. Ballennie, his sister, Miss Mowbray's governess, and the little torch-bearer. The passages, in general, were too narrow to favour Mr. Redford's charitable desire of disturbing the equanimity of the party, and when they did enter the larger spaces, once sacred to Christian worship, the learned Padre engaged the attention of the whole party by his descriptions, given in Italian, and more or less understood by all his hearers, Eustace Mowbray alone ex- cepted. " What is this room for ? what was done here ?" he asked. " This was a chapel, where they met to pray and preach ; and you see a figure painted on the top, representing our Saviour carrying a weary lamb," replied Miss Gay. 134 LAURA GAY. " Very like Augur Apollo," sneered Red- ford. " In those days," continued Laura, " when horrible cruelties made life wretched, men, women, and children found hope and peace here, in knowing that they all had one true, loving, undying Friend, to take their sorrows upon Himself, and release them from sin and death." Little Eustace pressed her hand, and re- plied : " I like this chapel better than St. Peter's." " So do I, as a place of devotion," she replied. " A fine taste, upon my honour. Only fancy these low, small rooms full of slaves, and the rude unwashed, and surrounded by dead bodies. What a place for devotion ! You may depend upon it," looking at Eustace, " no one of good family ever came here." LAURA GAY. 135 The boy was nettled, and rejoined ; " Good people came here, I know ; but I don't think any one like you ever did. What were these small holes for, Miss Gay ?" he inquired. " For silly little urchins like you, who were justly grilled or worried for their con- ceit," interposed Redford, before Miss Gay could reply. Miss Wyndham laughed, but every one else looked offended. " Mr. Redford," said Thornton, with great severity of manner, " you came here, without any invitation from those who made the party. We have, therefore, a just right, which your own good sense will surely acknowledge, to require that you will abstain from remarks which are disagreeable to us all." Mr. Redford was angry in the highest degree, but public opinion did not admit of a rejoinder, and he had no alternative but to 136 LAURA GAY. preserve silence, under this mortifying, but deserved rebuke. Miss Wyndham felt herself implicated in the reproach, and, had she been alone, would have shed tears of rage. When they had satisfied their curiosity, and almost consumed their torches, they returned to daylight, and remounted their horses. The mellow tints of sunset illumined the scene, and Thornton found but little difficulty in persuading Miss Gay to return home by a circuitous route, over the Campagna. Eus- tace Mowbray begged to accompany them, a request which Laura also urged so strongly, that Lady Cecilia permitted it with a smile, saying at the same time : " Remind me, Laura, the next time we meet tdte-a-tete, I have something very particular to tell vou." w Laura coloured and wondered what it could be, but Lady Cecilia only shook her LAURA GAY. 137 head and laughed at her young friend's em- barrassment. Laura related to her aunt that evening, much of what had passed, thus making amends by the interest she excited, for having left her during the afternoon. They discussed Lady Cecilia Mowbray's promised communication, and speculated whether it had any reference to Mr. Thornton. On this point, however, Laura's mind was soon relieved, for the next day, Lady Cecilia told them at church, that Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Thornton had arranged a week's tour to Palestrina and the cities of ancient Latium ; and that during their absence, she should be happy to escort Laura to any galleries or ruins she might wish to visit. The day following, as they drove through the Forum, Laura reminded her of her injunction at the Catacombs. " Oh yes ! " replied her ladyship, " we were a little shocked to hear you quote Latin — it is not comme il faut in general society ; besides, 138 LAURA GAY. the men dislike it ; it seems to trench on their peculiar privileges, and they always fancy if a woman has plenty of brain, she has no heart." " Surely that is a libel upon them," re- plied Laura, "and even if true, I do not see why I need care about pleasing the men in general society." " Sometime or other," rejoined Lady Cecilia, " you will feel the necessity of doing so." Laura gave no assent to the proposition, but she has never since been heard to quote Latin in society. Lady Cecilia and her young friend spent the greater part of the week together, arranging their drives, so as to leave Mrs. Owen as little alone as possible; but not- withstanding the interest they believed they took in Rome and its remains of ancient art, a large part of their conversation turned upon the absent excursionists, and their tour to the Latin Hills. LAURA GAY. 139 Amid scenes of such surpassing interest, but a few short weeks before, Laura Gay would have realized all her wishes for enjoy- ment. She failed to do so now, and in the gloom cast over her spirits by Thornton's absence, she learned the power of love. She was not, however, easily led captive by her feelings; for together with a warm and constant heart, she possessed a clear and active brain, and habits of self-control almost as old as herself. The wealth of which she was mistress, bequeathed by the best of parents, she would never make over to one, whom he could not have approved as his successor; nor would she subject her own free agency and moral responsibility to in- , fluences, how sweet soever they might be, which a calmer judgment might con- demn. With these excellent resolutions for a basis, all her thoughts, day and night, were occu- pied in the consideration of Thornton's 140 LAURA GAY. character. She was without a confidante, for, from her aunt, she expected no other opinion than one dictated by general cha- rity, and a particular liking for Thornton, grounded upon his amiable manners towards herself. Lady Cecilia was too recent an acquain- tance to be admitted to the innermost recesses of her heart, and all she sought to obtain from her, was the impression Mr. Thornton had created upon Mr. Mowbray and herself. So wary, and so free from apparent par- tiality were Laura's inquiries and remarks on the subject, that instead of exciting Lady Cecilia's suspicions, they rather induced her to believe that as yet, Laura's heart was free, and that it dutifully attended the motions of her mind; nor did she imagine, that in speaking so favourably in Mr. Mowbray's and her own name of Mr. Thornton's abilities, and the indications thev had both remarked of his upright and truthful character, LAURA GAY. 141 that she was adding fuel to unquenchable flames. Alas ! for the judgment of one in Laura Gay's condition ; its liberty is rather formal than real, and more apt to torture than to benefit. It is to the early education of the fancy and the heart that we must look for wisdom in the choice of love. We may venture then to say, that Laura's cogitations and inquiries resulted in a firm and reason- able conviction of her lover's merits. Out of regard for prudence she was observant of his every word and deed, but with how much keener and more tender an interest did she note and cherish every indication of his growing passion. When he returned from Palestrina, his first visit was to Mrs. Owen, and he could not help perceiving a marked change in Laura's manner. It was much less equa- ble than before; at one moment, she was conscious and shy, at another, full of kindness 142 LAURA GAY. and encouragement. Thornton, in the anxiety of a lover, was filled with fears of his own unworthiness, and with the increase of his admiration and love, the disparity of his own and Miss Gay's fortune assumed more formidable dimensions. This was torture enough, and could he, for a moment, have dared to reason upon the perfection of her character, he would have deemed him- self the most insensible and foolish of men. The consequence of these mutual senti- ments was great reserve in the presence of others, meetings less frequent, but more private, and long conversations mingled with embarrassment, and always verging on the confidential. He called again upon Mrs. Owen and Miss Gay, some few days after his return, and accompanied them to the Baths of Caracalla. Laura took her sketch-book, and Williams was laden with a shawl and LAURA GAY. 143 rugs for Mrs. Owen. From the summit of the ruined Baths, a very interesting and sketchable view was to be obtained of the Latin Hills, the Campagna, and one of the finest remains of the old aqueduct. Thither the lovers hied, after placing Mrs. Owen in a sunny and comfortable position, from whence she could watch their move- ments on the top of the ruins, or amuse herself by observing the eager scramble of some English and American visitors for bits of coloured marbles turned up by excavators at her feet. Thornton soon found a sward-covered seat, admirably adapted for sketching ; for it made a chair with a back and a footstool ; and close beside was a pleasant reclinium for attendant love. No sooner, however, was Laura seated to her task, than his hopes of conversing with her, face to face, were disap- pointed by the intrusion of her bonnet, which was turned on one side from him, 144 LAURA GAY. towards the distant hills intended to form the background of the picture. This would never do ; so Thornton determined on the bold manoeuvre of finding fault with her preparations for the drawing, and requested permission to be allowed to change places with her, and to attempt the sketch him- self. Laura was equally ignorant of his artistic powers, and equally persuaded of his artistic taste, and readily acceded to his proposal ; and ere long, the aqueduct was running along on paper, in disordered haste from Rome to Monte-Cavi. " These can hardly be called the Baths of Caracalla," remarked Laura, " for after the murder of Geta, we are told that Caracalla deserted Rome for the provinces." " Haunted," observed Thornton, " by the ghosts of his father and brother, as Macbeth by the ghost of Banquo." " I have but a very slight acquaintance LAURA GAY. 145 with Shakespeare," Laura replied, "for although my father always spoke of him as the greatest genius ever born, he never put his works into my hands, and I have not yet read them through." " I never separate from my copy of Shakespeare. At an early age my mother gave it me, and I always associate her dear memory with its beauties and wisdom. Up to the present time, it has accompanied all my wanderings ; and-now, I hope, that you will allow me to lend it to you, and sometime or other, when you have returned to England, that you will let me come and receive it again from your own hands — how much more precious will it then have become !" Thornton spoke in a tone of so much feeling, that Laura felt her features were on the point of confessing her love, and that her voice was, for the moment, unequal to a reply. At length, after a prolonged gaze at the Latin Hills, and a momentary and uncritical VOL. I. L 146 LAURA GAY. inspection of the extraordinary figure they presented in Thornton's sketch, she was able to thank him for the proffered loan of his Shakespeare, in the perusal of which she promised to take great pleasure, especially, added she, "as I am sure to divine exactly the passages you have most admired, and by which your course of life has been most influenced. Do you not find, when you read such authors as Plato, Dante, and Milton, that you have friends, who have already passed the boundaries of the grave, more dear to you than many of those by whom you are now surrounded ?" " Indeed, I do ; and I was strongly re- minded of this, when you quoted the charm- ing passage of Cicero, speaking of the emulation which a cultivated and sensitive mind imbibes from the recollections of the departed great. Separation, indeed, either of place or time, does not diminish love of a pure and moral kind." LAURA GAY. 147 " You have never yet told me," said Laura, " how you purpose to devote your life." "That is, indeed, a wide question, and embraces very serious considerations," he replied with a smile. " In the first place, my fortune is sufficient to secure me leisure, but by no means so ample as to add weight to my opinions : in the second place, my connections, though respectable, are not in- fluential, and my own talents are yet un- proved ; still I think the respect in which my father was held by the constituency he represented in Parliament, would, perhaps, secure my return at an early period, were such the career I chose." " And why not choose that ?" said Laura with eagerness. " What career can be more noble than that of the legislator, in a free and constitutional country ?" " In feeling I agree with you ; but still I fear my mind is of too balancing and scru- pulous a nature for success in the House of L 2 148 LAURA GAY. Commons. I do not think I should ever achieve a distinguished position there." " What does that signify," replied Laura, "if you do your best? We are not gifted for self-illustration, but for the good of our fellows, and the glory of God. We may not hide our light under a bushel, or bury our talent in the earth ; we are bound to work while it is day, keeping ourselves as pure and unspotted from the world as may be. Ours is no passive faith, it demands action — glorious action ; and there is One who stands ever nigh to cleanse our path in the daily struggle." Laura's cheeks glowed, and her eye lighted up with enthusiasm as she spoke, while Charles Thornton in his turn was em- barrassed by his emotion, as he inwardly vowed that her words should be prophetic, and prayed that she might be the helpmate of his course through life. " Can you," he exclaimed, " with such LAURA GAY. 149 exalted ambition, contentedly accept the lot of woman ?" " Ah I" she replied, " you cannot conceive what a happy one it is. It is our lot and our duty to love. Our path lies in groves and fields, in kindly homes, not unwitting either of the wise and good, but safe from the dust and strife of life." The sketch was finished, yet the two artists cared not to criticise their joint production ; but, closing the folio, rejoined Mrs. Owen, and having walked over the basement floor of the Baths, returned through the Forum to her apartments in the Piazza de Spagna. The incident of this afternoon had finally decided the fate of Charles Thornton and Laura Gay, and but for an unpropitious event, scarce another day could have passed without his becoming her acknowledged and accepted lover. As for Miss Wyndham, neither her in- 150 LAURA GAY. difference for Redford, nor her preference for Thornton, had much changed. Her mother, however, gave no encouragement to any one but Redford, whom she had determined to secure for her daughter with the least possible delay. Redford, on his part, in- tended to return to England as a married man, and having ceased to think of Miss Gay as an attainable, or even, perhaps, a desirable match, he did not require half the manceuvering and skill lavished upon him by his future mother-in-law, to decide him to propose to Miss Wyndham. Among the dodges employed, the following was pre-emi- nently successful. Mrs. Wyndham intimated that Mr. Ballennie and herself had decided to shorten their stay in Rome, and to go imme- diately to Paris, where they would meet many of their friends, before the Parisian season closed ; on this pretext, she issued invitation cards, to a select party, for a fare- well soiree. LAURA GAY. 151 Mrs Owen, Miss Gay, the Mowbrays, Thornton, and Redford, of course, were in- vited among the favoured few. Mrs. Owen and Laura arrived at the appointed hour, the latter hoping to meet Thornton there ; and as one after another the guests appeared and he was not among them, Laura's anxiety became intolerable ; for two days had passed since the evening of the day spent at the Baths of Caracalla, and she had not seen him ; and she knew that he had been invited and intended coming. She was at last relieved by hearing Mrs. Wyndham ask Mr. Redford whether he had seen Mr. Thornton before he left his hotel; and if he knew why he was not coming. Mrs. Wyndham, her daughter, and Mr. Redford were all standing close to the spot where Mrs. Owen and Miss Gay were seated ; and Redford replied : " Yes, poor fellow, I am really sorry for him. I saw him this afternoon ; and he is 152 LAURA GAY. in great trouble, as he well may be, for he has just heard from home of the failure of a joint-stock bank in which he is a considerable proprietor. What makes the matter worse is, that the shareholders will certainly be called upon for heavy contributions ; and, if he is compelled to realize at the present g moment, the bulk of his fortune is so invested, that his loss will be very serious, and may affect his position in life." Miss Wyndham turned pale ; no one except Mrs. Owen observed a similar change in Laura's complexion. However, as soon as she understood that nothing but Mr. Thornton's fortune had suffered, her self- com- posure returned in a greater degree than Miss Wyndham's; although she felt the deepest sympathy in Thornton's temporary distress, mingled with heartfelt thankfulness that she had the means of alleviating it. LAURA GAY. 153 CHAPTER VIII. The following day was fixed for an excursion to Veii. The party had been suggested and planned by Mr. Ballennie, before the visit to the Catacombs, and postponed until the return of Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Thornton from their Latin excur- sion. Notwithstanding the incident at the Catacombs, which had confirmed the an- tipathy of the Mowbrays for Mr. Redford, and led them more than ever to separate themselves from his society, they thought 154 LAURA GAY. it inadvisable, out of consideration for Mr. Ballennie's social position and literary stand- ing, and Mr. Mowbray's intimacy with him, to excuse themselves from joining the excur- sion, on the present occasion : Lady Cecilia hoped that the rebuke administered to Mr. Redford in the Catacombs would secure them, as well as Mrs. Owen, Miss Gay, and Mr. Thornton, from the repetition of any such rudeness. Mr. Ballennie and Mrs. Wyndham ac- companied Mrs. Owen in her carriage. Mr. Mowbray, Lady Cecilia, Mr. Redford and Miss Wyndham, Charles Thornton and Miss Gay, went on horseback. Since the afternoon spent at the Baths of Caracalla, and before the receipt of the letter from home, announcing the unwelcome intel- ligence of pecuniary loss, and possible future disaster, Charles Thornton had looked for- ward to this excursion, for the propitious moment when he might declare his love LAURA GAY. 155 to Laura, and secure, in her gracious recep- tion of it, as he fondly hoped, the happiness of his life. " But now," thought he, " how changed is my position ! with what grace can I make such a declaration, accompanying it, as I must do, with the announcement of an immediate and necessary depar- ture; or how can I offer myself — at a moment when my fortune is uncertain, and seriously compromised ? No, I can- not be happy at the expense of inde- pendence. I will not ungenerously seek to bind her by the avowal of a passion, which, perhaps, my circumstances do not justify. Yet, how can I take leave of her without some words of encouragement, that will leave me hope to cheer me in so far distant and so long an absence? No, no — the impulse is irresistible; my happiness — her's, perhaps, depends upon its gratifi- cation; if not hearts and vows, yet 156 LAURA GAY. memories we must exchange. Without some word or look of hers, confessing love, I cannot leave. The night was spent in a weary maze of thought, of plan, of air-built castles, of in- genious speeches addressed to Laura, and rejected by turns, because they said too much or too little; for what should he do, sup- posing her feelings towards him were as warm as he hoped they were ? How could he receive a tear, a sigh, or any such naive response as she might probably make, with- out being precipitated into the very result he had determined to avoid ? If, on the other hand, he veiled his senti- ments in language too circumspect, would she not doubt his sincerity? or, perhaps, with her keen sense of honour and quick penetration, might she not, ignorant of his circumstances, resent such an attempt to elicit her feelings, without declaring his own ? LAURA GAY. 157 The morning rose bright and clear as any lover or excursionist ever could have wished ; yet, notwithstanding its exhilarating powers, Charles Thornton felt dull, nervous, and stupified by his restless and thoughtful night ; and all the plan of action he could devise, was but to keep a strict and watch- ful control over his feelings, lest they should hurry him into a resolution beyond all powers of resistance, to inform Laura of his intended departure, and to observe her manner most narrowly when he did so. It was in this state of bodily and mental depression, that he joined the party. Laura, too, had passed a sleepless night ; but upon her the effect was different. Pre- pared by the intelligence Redford had com- municated, she had devised a plan, by which she was sure she could considerably lessen his pecuniary losses and anxieties ; one, it is true, that he could not have accepted, but 158 LAURA GAY. which she might force upon him without his complicity, and her love exulted in the prospect of thus secretly serving him, like some unseen attendant minister. She hardlv doubted his affection for her, so ardently did she aspire to it, and she longed to possess it irrevocably ; yet she felt that, in his present position, a man of his independent and honourable nature, would hesitate to offer it to her. She had resolved, therefore, to afford him such an assurance of her remembrance, and so much encouragement as might console and cheer him, without producing an offer, or a scene. Grief and tenderness she knew are infectious ; she would, therefore, banish all forebodings of the sorrow she should endure when he had gone ; she would animate her own mind with gratitude that she was able to afford him opportune assistance; her manner should be composed, and even cheerful, and her language plain and assuring. LAURA GAY. 159 Thornton was on horseback, and at the door of Mrs. Owen's apartment, as soon as her carriage and Laura's horse were to be seen there. Laura mounted immediately ; and, for the first time since her father's death, neglected to settle her aunt comfortably in the carriage before leaving her. " Call," said she to Luigi, the coachman, " for Mrs. Wyndham ; and tell the rest of the party that we are going slowly on to- wards Veii." Laura had taken the precaution early that morning to send for Luigi, and to intimate to him that if he secured from the livery stables a couple of the swiftest and surest saddle horses, one for herself, and the other to be sent according to Mr. Thorn- ton's order, she w T ould reward him hand- somely. Luigi was so accustomed to see the learned set together, that he looked upon them as a sort of family party of Inglesi ; and knowing 160 LAURA GAY. the innate predilection of that nation for hunt- ing and races, he thought that the young people were probably going to race, as well as to see the ruins of Veii. He had grown attached to his padrone, and was proud to boast among his compatriots of the whip, that he sat before the sweetest and prettiest English lady in Rome. Laura's horse soon got into a trot, and Thornton expostulated in vain on the danger of such a pace over the pavements of Rome. Laura laughed, and assured him that on so bright a morning horses were not liable to trip ; besides, she added, " the Roman air stimulates emulation both in horse and rider, and if you do not participate in such sensations, you had better not accompany me, for I intend to be the first at the siege of Veii to-day." 11 What an unlucky mood she is in," thought he. " How can I spoil her pleasure;" and his heart sank within him LAURA GAY. 16 i as he recollected in how short a time he should be at a distance from her, perhaps — oh, no ! it could not be — unregretted and unremembered. "There," she exclaimed, as they passed through the Piazza del Popolo, " there are Mr. Redford and Miss Wyndham; now, if they wish to join us, they shall have a race for it, for I take no pleasure in their society." Thornton found himself obliged to accele- rate his pace, to keep up with Miss Gay. Their flight, and the clouds of dust they kicked up on the Veii road, only seemed to augment the ardour of the pursuers, for both Redford and Miss Wyndham had come separately to the conclusion, that the most natural thing for a man in Thornton's position to do, if he had lost money, was to repair the loss by seeking the hand of Miss Gay, who would probably accept him. Miss Wyndham would have been glad to have VOL. I. M 162 LAURA GAY. prevented his doing so ; that being im- possible, she would make herself as dis- agreeable to the lovers as she could, to vent the spite she felt towards Miss Gay. Redford's feelings were very similar. He envied Thornton's facility, and favourable reception in society ; he detested the humbug, as he called it, of his virtue ; and he disliked Miss Gay, because her talents had several times come into disagreeable collision with his own. He stigmatized them, to himself, as a couple of prigs. " Bravissimo !" ejaculated Luigi, with Italian freedom and enthusiasm. " Non si pud dipassare la signorina mia ; non e cagion' alcuna di paura signora," said he to Mrs. Owen, whose fears for Laura's safety were evidently excited by the dust they raised, and the interest their flight occasioned. " La signorina e leggiera assai cd il cavallo buonissimo." LAURA GAY. 163 Luigi was quite right ; and at last Redford and his companion abandoned the attempt to gain upon them, and were soon greeted by Mr. Mowbray, and Lady Cecilia, who rode a little in advance of the carriage. " Miss Gay has given you a dust bath, I think," remarked Mr. Mowbray, laugh- ing. " You are too emulative, Miss Wvndham," said Lady Cecilia, rather maliciously. " Miss Gay rides light, and is I suspect, well mounted." " And so is Thornton, too," replied Redford, his face glowing with vexation and heat. " I should not have attempted to join them, had I known their determination to keep so far a head. No doubt, Thornton has the agreeable news of his losses to communicate ; for which he will ask Miss Gay to compensate him by bestowing her hand and fortune upon him," continued he, with a sneer. " I am much mistaken," rejoined Mr. M 2 164 LAURA GAY. Mowbray, " if Mr. Thornton is the man to adopt such a course." " And I," rejoined Lady Cecilia, " should be much surprised if such a course proved acceptable to Miss Gay. She is a sensible and spirited girl; and she seems to have a decided prejudice against everything mean and ungenerous." Here again Redford winced under an em- phasis that perhaps he only fancied. " Yes, spirited and clever enough to break her neck, and his too, it may be, in this wild-goose chase." Mr. Mowbray, and Lady Cecilia trotted forward, the one with a stare not meant to be sympathizing, and the other with a musical mischievous little laugh. When their pursuers were fairly distanced, Laura thought fit to slacken her speed for conversation. Thornton could hardly help smiling at the determination and success of her escapade. LAURA GAY. 165 " I thought I knew you very well, Miss Gay ; but I certainly was not prepared for so spirited a race. " Indeed," she replied, stooping over her horse's neck to pat him ; and, after a moment's silence, turning to Thornton, and looking him full in the face, she continued, " You do know me very well, almost as well as I know you — better, in fact, than any one but my own relatives have hitherto known me." " I am highly honoured," muttered he, with some trepidation of manner, " and I prize most inexpressibly such a — " he was going to say, confession — the word was too full of meaning, and he could find no better, so he left the sentence unfinished. Laura coloured deeply, and interrupted him by saying, with more tenderness of manner, " Shall I be very indiscreet, if I ask you, why you seem so grave and sad on so fine a day, and on a party of plea- sure ?" 166 LAURA GAY. " Because to-morrow I quit this sunny clime, for I am recalled to England by an unfortunate and urgent business. I must leave the enjoyment of such a sweet society as in my fondest visions of happiness I had never dreamt of." In spite of all his efforts at composure, his voice betrayed emotion, and he gazed with beating heart and fixed attention upon Laura, almost fearing, yet desiring to see, the effect of his words. Her colour came and went ; her eyes were fixedly bent on her horse's mane ; he thought he perceived her bosom heave ; the handle of her whip was applied to her lips, as though to press back the sigh that might have escaped them. At last, she spoke in a slightly tremulous voice, " We cannot always expect to be equally fortunate and happy, young as we are : both you and I ought to have learnt that already ; but in the performance of duty, no doubt, LAURA GAY. 167 you will best secure happiness and the society you so highly value." " Are your words indeed prophetic ? oh ! may they be so !" " No," said Laura, shaking off her emotion in a laugh, " I pretend to no prophetic power ; my words faithfully express my own feelings and emotions, and so far, you may rely upon them with perfect certainty." " I will most gladly rely upon them," said he, reassured ; " they seem already to have inspired me with a cheerful view of the difficulties 1 may have to en- counter." Opportunely, for the prudent resolutions of the lovers, Lady Cecilia and Mr. Mowbray at this moment came up. " How do you do ? It is impossible to approach you — you have covered your foes with dust and confusion, and yet you do not seem to fear the consequences, Miss Gay ?" 168 LAURA GAY. " It was not our fault. You know that they gave us chace." " Yet, I don't think," replied Lady Cecilia archly, " you intended to allow them to over- take you." " They had an open road before them, and we had no favour." " Is it your habit, generally, to turn a pleasure party into a steeple chase, when you are on horseback," almost shouted Miss Wyndham, as she joined them. " I never did so before," replied Laura, laughing, " and I am quite sorry to see how dusty we have made you ; still you must acknowledge that you provoked the trial of speed." By way of amende and humiliation, Charles Thornton proposed that he and Miss Gay should be ordered to bring up the rear. " Oh, no !" said Miss Gay, " I will not consent to such a penalty, unless Lady Cecilia and Mr. Mowbray, who may be con- LAURA GAY. 169 sidered the only impartial spectators of the contest, so decide." "I think," replied Lady Cecilia, with a knowing and mischievous glance at Mr. Mowbray, " we shall award a gentler punish- ment, and if you do not submit to that be- comingly, perhaps we may have recourse to the very severe one you propose. We sentence then, Miss Gay as the chief offender, to ride beside Miss Wyndham, whom she has so unmercifully bedusted, while her accomplice in that wicked and reckless act, shall take his place between Mr. Mowbray and myself, that we may endeavour to make him fully sensible of the enormity of his proceedings, and become ourselves res- ponsible for the preservation of the peace, until we reach the stronghold of Veii." " I accept my sentence with gratitude," said Miss Gay, gracefully bowing to Lady Cecilia and Miss Wyndham. " I cannot do less with mine, since it 170 LAURA GAY. places me at your ladyship's side," said Thornton. They had now reached the so-called Mausoleo Nerone, and here they stopped to await the carriage, which was to proceed by the Osteria del Fosso, beyond La Storta, while the equestrians were to follow the ancient and more interesting bridle road, branching; off to Veii from the Mau- soleo. The ladies in the carriage were hardly more composed than the rival riders. Mrs. Owen had been alarmed for Laura's safety ; not that she doubted her niece's horseman- ship, or courage ; but because Mr. Ballennie had impressed her with a superstitious dread of the craft and viciousness of the Roman horses ; she was, moreover, not a little annoyed at Mrs. Wyndham's animadversions on the race — all of which she felt were di- rected against Laura, but in such guise of sarcasm, as simple Mrs. Owen was unable LAURA GAY. 171 to meet, being mistress only of the more direct forms of speech. As the carriage drew up, each young lady rode to its side ; Miss Gay to comfort her aunt, and Miss Wyndham to receive reproaches which were aimed at Miss Gay. Had her own daughter been successful in the race, perhaps Mrs. Wynd- ham might have considered the whole thing as less unladylike. Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Ballennie decided, with Luigi's help, upon a sheltered spot below the Piazza d'Armi at Veii, where they were all to meet, and after partaking of the lunch they had brought, to explore, under classic and local guidance, the ruined walls of the old city. Luigi undertook to find grooms for the horses, and a local cicerone ; Mr. Mowbray and Mr. Ballennie volunteered to act as classical guides. As soon as this was arranged, the riders turned off into the Via Veiientana, where the nature 172 LAURA GAY. of the road obliged them to defile two and two. Mr. Mowbray and Lady Cecilia took the lead, Thornton and Miss Gay followed close upon their heels, while Rcdford and Miss Wyndham lingered at some distance behind. If time had allowed, and to a more at- tentive audience, Mr. Mowbray would not have contented himself with merely pointing out the supposed site of the Roman disaster on La Valca, where the Fabii perished — the victims of their patriotism, of the pre- datory instincts of their class, their age, and their country — or the place occupied at the siege by the Roman camp ; and he would probably have launched out into such a critical disquisition on the credibility of Livy, and the hypotheses of Niebuhr, as must have diminished the interest of the vestiges now before the tourists, and left nothing but doubt in its place. As it happened, however, neither Thornton LAURA GAY. 173 nor Miss Gay manifested their usual attention to his remarks, and Lady Cecilia, who had the happy knack of appreciating her hus- band's arguments, and yet retaining a de- lightful faith in the stories of ancient history, beheld the sites he pointed out, with a firm conviction that seeing was believing, and she stopped every commence- ment of criticism by looking back, as she said, on the silent hostages they were lead- ing from Rome to Veii. Silent indeed they were, for after w T hat had passed between them, how could they converse together on indifferent topics ? They w 7 ere entirely absorbed in their own reflec- tions, and so rarely did they address each other, that Redford was convinced that Thornton was a rejected lover, while Miss Wyndham supposed that the avowal of his losses had cooled Miss Gay's preference. The conclusions somewhat appeased the ire of the offended couple, and when the 174 LAURA GAY. party sat down to lunch at Veii, all asperi- ties vanished beneath the influence of the genius loci. Mr. Ballennie was eloquent, and Mr. Mowbray modestly learned. Seeing is believing, and his requirement of complete attestation was shaken for the hour into a milder mood, one more disposed to admit that the traditions of ancient history should not be tested with Baconian rigour. After lunch, they visited as much of the ancient walls and tumuli, as time and the ladies' strength permitted. Miss Wyndham, made several attempts to obtain Thornton for a companion during their perambulations ; and these, though lost upon Thornton and Miss Gay, were noticed with secret displeasure by Redford and Mrs. Wyndham. Thornton informed himself of Miss Gay's address in Yorkshire, and mentioned to her his intention of residing for the present in the Albany Chambers ; he likewise as- certained that Mrs. Owen and her niece LAURA GAY. 175 proposed returning to England about the end of June. * It was nearly dark when the party entered the Porto del Popolo ; and as they separated, all wished Thornton a cordial good-bye, and a prosperous journey homeward. None could see the melancholy shade that rested on his countenance, or the tears that filled Laura's eyes ; but, by participating in it, she divined his sorrow. He assisted her to dismount ; and pressing her hand with feeling, he said, in a voice only audible to herself. " God bless you ! and grant we may meet again, as soon as you return to England.'' Mrs. Owen greatly regretted his departure ; for no sooner had she become aware of her niece's preference for him, than she began to observe his many good qualities, and to regard him with affection. When he bade her adieu, she could not refrain from weeping, overcome by her natural tenderness, and the fatigue of a long day's excursion. 176 LAURA GAY. After a slight dinner, Laura opened her scheme for assisting Thornton in his present embarrassment; and she found her aunt even more acquiescent than she expected. She proposed that Mrs. Owen should advance to Thornton a sum of £10,000, which was lying at her bankers uninvested ; that her solicitor, Mr. Jenkins, should be desired to lodge this money in the hands of Mr. Thornton's bankers, receiving an ac- knowledgment, and an undertaking to pay a moderate rate of interest, and to repay the capital at his convenience, when his circum- stances permitted, transacting the whole business through the instrumentality of some respectable agent, selected by Mr. Jenkins, so that no clue might be afforded of the quarter from whence the money came. Mrs. Owen was surprised at the amount, and the somewhat extraordinary nature of the loan, and with her usual simplicity she said, LAURA GAY. 177 " If Mr. Thornton is in difficulties, and you wish to help him, would it not be better to marry him, dear, than to lend him so much money ?" " No," replied Laura, hardly restraining a smile at the downright suggestion, " he has not asked me to do so, nor, indeed, could he, with his notions of honour, at a moment when my fortune would be of so much impor- tance to him ; but we are aware of our mutual attachment, and we shall meet again when we return to England. This loan will consi- derably diminish the sacrifices he must make to preserve his property, and will set him so far at ease, that with sufficient encourage- ment on my part, when next we meet, he will no longer scruple to declare the affection which I know he feels. " " Well, shall I write to him, to tell him I will lend him the money." " Oh, no ! that will never do. He is not aware that we are acquainted with his losses. VOL. I. N 178 LAURA GAY. The loan must remain a profound secret, until it is repaid, or until we are actually engaged." " But I thought you said, you were engaged." " Yes, in our hearts, but not by words." " 1 do not understand you, my dear." " Well," replied Laura, " I think I have heard, that before my uncle Owen proposed to you, you were both conscious of your mutual love, and you both felt sure you could never love any one else — then I say, you were virtually engaged, although the circumstances of his parents' opposition at first prevented your making it a formal engagement." " You are quite right, dear Laura, yet I don't think any delicacy about money would have prevented your uncle's offering to me ; what he feared, was the sin of dis- obedience." " I know the cases are not exactly similar, LAURA GAY. 179 but if you could have greatly aided my uncle with such a loan, would you not have done it ?" " Certainly, I would have given him my all," said Mrs. Owen with warmth, " and you shall do as you wish, only I hope the money won't be lost. I fear your poor father would have thought it an imprudent risk." " No, indeed, my father, you know, fre- quently did generous things, which many would have called imprudent, but they never turned out to be so, and I am sure he would willingly have lent Mr. Thornton this sum, had he been as well acquainted with him as we are, for, in that case, he must have consi- dered him a man of the most scrupulous integrity. I am certain the money will not be lost, and if so impossible a chance should befal, 1 shall refund it soon after we reach England, when, as you know, I shall be of age, and in possession of my own fortune." " Do not imagine that I fear the loss for N 2 180 LAURA GAY. myself, dear Laura, only it would be £10,000 less for you, since all my fortune will be yours, sometime or otber. However, as I see you have set your heart upon it, I hope it will turn out for the best. You see, I never was a strong-minded business-like woman, so I always try to keep the beaten track, for fear of danger." " Thank you, dearest aunt. No doubt the beaten track is the safest, but how much good to the world would be lost, did we never quit it. Now shall I write to Mr. Jenkins in your name. " Yes, my dear," resumed the old lady, nervously, " I should like to take his advice about it first." " That is impossible: if the money is to be of any use to Mr. Thornton, he must have it upon his arrival in England. There is no time, therefore, for advice ; besides it must be kept a profound secret, which we must not mention to a single creature." LAURA GAY. 181 " Very well, very well, my dear, you know best." And thus the letter was written by Laura in Mrs. Owen's name, signed, and sent to England. We may here venture to tell our readers that when the letter reached its destination, Mr. Jenkins was amazed, and sighed fre- quently during that day at the folly of his late clients, Mr. Owen and Mr. Gay, in leaving so much property at the absolute disposal of two women. However, he was somewhat consoled to find in answer to numerous and anxious inquiries, that young Mr. Thornton was a man of considerable property, and that though the failure of the Joint Stock Bank — should it turn out more disastrous than was probable — might mate- rially cripple his means, yet that his note of hand for ten thousand pounds was perfectly secure under any circumstances. 182 LAURA GAY. CHAPTER IX. On the following day, Charles Thornton left Rome, considering himself almost an accepted lover. He had but to prove him- self worthy such happiness, and then he might step forward to claim it. It is true, he apprehended a considerable diminution of fortune ; but whatever by prudence and frugality could be done to preserve it, he would do as judiciously as possible ; and, if necessary, he would relinquish, for the present, the long cherished idea of representing his father's constituency in Parliament. On Laura's return to England, he would frankly explain his pecuniary position to her, and LAURA GAY. 183 unless she herself should prompt it, he would not sue for further promises on her part, until he had retrieved his fortune, and in some way or other, he hardly knew how, proved himself of some use in the world. During the whole of his rapid journey homewards, 't is not probable that his feelings and his prospects were always so cheery and as bright. The Eternal City now fading from Charles Thornton's sight, remained in his imagination enchanted ground; and as he journeyed along the desolate Campagna, he felt as though he had left behind, in that magic circle, all that charmed and sweetened existence. The two months of his life passed there, became a dream of deep import, bright and gladsome, and coloured by memories of art, and poetry, and love. At times, the bank failure presented itself in the gloomiest light ; he feared he could not realize its extent; he tortured 184 LAURA GAY. himself by fancying the friends and guardians of his fair one, representing him to her as an adventurous fortune-hunter : he conjured up a thousand chances of accident, illness, and death, which might intervene to blight the hopes on which life seemed to depend. These melancholy forebodings, again gave way to fairer fancies, when forgetful of his dimi- nished fortune, he figured in parliament to his heart's content ; he made a speech, never to be forgotten, on some subject of great impor- tance ; all men w 7 ere lauding him — Laura's hand was the guerdon of his efforts, and he proudly conferred upon her more in honour and position, than her fortune could procure ; yet he fondly assured her, that had he the voice of a thousand orators, or the heart of a thousand patriots, they had all been offered at her shrine. As he approached England, and still more as he approached London, in its February garb of cold, fog, and gloom, the poet and LAURA GAY. 185 lover, subsided into the embarrassed young capitalist, and ways and means on a scale not national, engrossed the chief part of his thoughts. He was, therefore, greatly rejoiced to find that the bank failure was not quite so serious an affair to him as it appeared at first. The liabilities were smaller, were running off more favourably, and the shareholders proved more generally substantial than might have been apprehended. The creditors gave time and their confidence to the new directors, who, though compelled to make a considerable call upon the shares, hoped to make good the deficit by this means, and to return, ulti- mately, a large proportion of what they now asked for. Thus far reassured, he proceeded to his club, and there, to his utter astonishment, he learned that he had been elected without opposition, member of parliament for the populous manufacturing borough of Hyde, so 186 LAURA GAY. long and faithfully represented by his father, whose memory, the electors had honoured in choosing his son. One of the late members, whose demise had long been expected, having accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, a new writ had been issued ; and, as Thornton, before he left England, had intimated to the leaders of the liberal party at Hyde, that he would come forward as a candidate, if they required him, they had proceeded to his election, and had written to Rome informing him of the result. A still further and much more enigmatical surprise awaited him, when he opened his letters, for amongst them, he found the folio win £ : *t> 4, City Chambers, Guildhall. Dear Sir, We are desired by one of our most valued clients to inform you, that a sum of £10,000 is placed to your credit at your LAURA GAY. 187 bankers, Messrs Jones, Lloyd & Co. ; and we are further instructed to add, that the above amount is placed at your dis- posal, as a loan, by our client, who imposes upon us, and upon yourself the most absolute secrecy, and forbids any enquiries, direct or indirect, as to the quarter from whence this temporary assistance is afforded you. Our client, we need hardly say, is one who takes a warm interest in your welfare and happiness, and is aware of the pecuniary em- barrassment in which you are at present involved, by the failure of a Joint- Stock Bank. We are instructed to place this amount at your disposal, to be secured by your note of hand for the amount, and bearing interest at four per cent., and to be repaid to us, for our client, at your own convenience ; and not until you have been able from your own 188 LAURA GAY. resources, and at a favourable opportunity, to liquidate any loss that may arise upon your bank shares. It is the strongly expressed wish, and in- deed injunction of our client, that you will accept this loan, as it is offered to you, and we are requested to express our sincere hope, that it may be the means of enabling you to preserve intact, the property and the position bequeathed to you by your late respected father. We remain, dear Sir, Your obedient servant's, Parker and Venables. To Charles Thornton Esq., M.P. Of course, Thornton could only accept this most opportune loan on the conditions enforced by the lender, but he insisted upon depositing in the hands of Messrs. Parker and Venables, securities to the amount of the LAURA GAY. 189 loan, before he consented to make use of the money. Much as he longed to dedicate gratitude where it was due, he obliged his curiosity to forbear all attempts at solving the mystery ; still, in spite of himself, he could not help guessing at the name of his benefactor. He ran over mentally each member of his family, and decided against them all ; this uncle was rich, but then he had a large family and a niggardly wife. It could not be his cousin, who was rich also, but who had never cared for him, and knew nothing of his affairs. Another relative was himself a severe loser in the bank, and so on through the whole list of his friends and relations. At last his surmises fastened upon Redford. It must be Redford, for he was super- abundantly rich, and had always appeared more friendly to him than to any one else ; he, too, had been the only witness of his agitation when the tidings of the bank's 190 LAURA GAY. failure reached him in Rome. In conver- sation, too, he recollected to have told Redford how the bulk of his property was invested, and had been strongly recom- mended by him, on no account to part with any of these securities at present, because they must rise in value considerably, and become permanently safe investments. Red- ford's irritable manners recurred to him, but so strong was the balance of evidence in favour of this act of friendship being no other's than Redford's, that Thornton began to consider his faults superficial and acquired, and his natural character generous and noble. Redford is aware, too, thought Thornton, of my intention to seek a political career; he knows, also, that my political opinions are not quite identical with those of his own party, and this doubly enhances the delicacy and honour- able mode in which he has offered the loan. From this moment, Charles Thornton, LAURA GAY. 191 bound by gratitude, became the fast friend of Redford, and would have made any sacrifice, short of honour, duty, or love, to serve him. 192 LAURA GAY. CHAPTER X. We must now return to our party in Rome, and in dealing with the proceedings of its various members, we propose, like a juvenile epicure, to keep our heroine, a bonne bouche, for the last mouthful. Mrs. Wyndham observed, with displeasure and surprise, the depression produced by Mr. Thornton's diminution of fortune and sudden departure on her daughter's spirits, and failed not to employ all her eloquence, persuasive and authoritative, in dispelling the illusion which threatened to stand betwixt her daughter and fortune. She argued that LAURA GAY. 193 Mr. Thornton had never manifested the least preference for her, that he had never sought unbidden, her society; and that from the first, he had been evidently struck with Miss Gay, whose charms his pecuniary misfortunes would indubitably enhance. " Oh ! but remember, mamma, the com- pliment he paid me, as we were entering Torlonia's, and how long he stood talking beside me." " Remember, also, what passed on the stairs, the same night, between him and Mr. Redford," replied her mother. " Too well, I do ! but even then, how much kinder and how much more feelingly he spoke than Mr. Redford," and she burst into tears. " No, I never can, I never will marry that odious man. I hate him, and I know he will never care half so much for me, as for himself.''* " Nonsense, you silly girl ; he does care VOL. T. O 194 LAURA GAY. for you, and you will be very happy with him, much more so than you possibly could be in poverty with Mr. Thornton. Mr. Redford, like other men, believes in the universality of evil, and whatever you do, you will never surprise or shock him. So long as you neither disgrace, or eclipse him in the eyes of the world, he will treat you with princely liberality, and oblige every one to show you the respect due to the fashionable and handsome wife of Robert Redford, Esq. If you persist in refusing him, depend upon it, my dear, you will condemn yourself to a life of celibacy, and then, how deeply will you regret it, when you see some future Mrs. Redford the admired of all admirers, blazing in diamonds, a leader of ton, and the mistress of every luxury. Besides, it is not as though you were choosing between two suitors ; you are doing no such thing ; you are refusing one who is really in earnest, for the mere chance of another, who could by LAURA GAY. 195 no possibility ever make you an offer. It is mere childishness : you might just as well cry for the man in the moon, as for Charles Thornton. And, indeed, I must say your prejudices against Mr. Redford are very childish ; your uncle, whose knowledge of men, and of the world, is so great, has the highest opinion of him. When married and settled in life, he declares that Mr. Redford's talents and ambition are sure to secure him a high position in the fashionable world ; indeed, his wealth alone is sufficient for that." " Well," said the young lady, " it will be enough if I don't absolutely discourage his attentions at present." " No, indeed, they are too pointed to be treated in that way ; the very fact of your having been so much in his company, has already given rise to reports it would be disgraceful for us to contradict. Lady Cecilia Mowbray, for instance, asked me only yester- o 2 196 LAURA GAY. day, where the trousseau was to be purchased, and whether it would not be very magnificent, and she gave me the names of some of the first tradespeople in Paris. She and every- one else, believe that you are to be married in the ambassador's chapel there." " Well, but, mamma," replied Miss Wyndham, on whose imagination the shops of Paris, and the pleasures of selecting a trousseau, and the ambassador's chapel, were beginning to operate, " can you afford me a suitable trousseau, after the expenses of our tour ?" "Now, you are like yourself — a dear, reasonable girl. Your uncle and I would do everything to secure your happiness, but I have a pleasant little secret to tell you, which must at once relieve you from all anxiety respecting Mr. Redford's affection for you. He was urging his suit more than ever, yesterday, and expressing the uneasiness your melancholy gave him. ' For LAURA GAY. 197 my own part, I had hoped/ he said, with a sigh, ' to have returned to England a married man/ " That would not be possible/' I replied. " You know even if my daughter were dis- posed to relinquish her freedom sooner, we could not conveniently purchase her trousseau before reaching London ; you know/ I added, ' we are not like you, rolling in wealth.' ' Is that all V he exclaimed, ' my dear Mrs. Wyndham, name any sum, there is surely one large enough to secure despatch, even among ladies' tradespeople, and you shall have it. Upon my honour, I would rather provide my bride's trousseau myself, than not. For heaven's sake, don't let such a trifle stand between me and immediate happiness. Tell your daughter she shall have a trousseau every year, if she likes, and the more splendid it is, the better pleased I shall be. Do, my dear Mrs. Wyndham, persuade her to be married in Paris." 198 LAURA GAY. " Of course," I said, " I could neither hurry on or influence your affections, and that all I could do for him, was to tell you of his generous offer." " Well," sighed Miss Wyndham, " perhaps you are right, perhaps after all, I shall be as happy with him, as with any one else, and certainly, no one can call it a foolish marriage." Mrs. Wyndham had succeeded thus far, and now she had an easier and pleasanter task, for no moral force was necessary on her part or Mr. Ballennie's, to induce Mr. Redford to make handsome settlements upon her daughter, and to bear all the expenses of the marriage itself. He only laughed in his sleeve at the diplomacy with which she con- sidered it necessary to conduct such an affair of mere bargain and sale. The arrangements for their departure from Rome were speedily made : Mr. Redford summoned his solicitor to prepare the settlements, and to meet him in Paris, and the whole affair was conducted LAURA GAY. 199 and concluded in the most prompt and business-like manner. A day or two after the Wyndhams had left Rome, Mr. Mowbray and Lady Cecilia called upon Mrs. Owen and her niece, to take leave, for they too, were summoned home, by an impending ministerial crisis, that might probably replace Mr. Mowbray's friends in power. " We have come to say good-bye, for the present," said her ladyship, " but I think not before you had deserted us. Where have you been for the last month ? I have not so much as seen your faithful Luigi." " The weather has become so gloomy," replied Laura, " and I think the Tramontane has been blowing." Both Mr. Mowbray and his wife very innocently thought, that the weather for the past week had been unusually fine and ' riant.' 200 LAURA GAY. " I suppose you know that Mr. Ballennie, the Wyndhams and Mr. Redford have left for Paris, where the marriage is to be cele- brated immediately. It seems the young lady had a heart of her own and mamma was afraid Mr. Thornton had carried it off with him, and this is why such haste was neces- sary." Mrs. Owen looked hard at Laura, whose cheeks were very explicit : however, the plain- est declarations are sometimes lost, and Laura replied with a sigh, that struggled with a smile. " Poor girl ! I am really very sorry for her ; I am not surprised at so great an inti- macy leading to a match, but I am surprised that Mr. Redford should find any woman capable of marrying him. ,, Mr. Mowbray laughed outright. " Oh ! it is an excellent match for her ; there is no love lost between them, and they will not interfere with each other ; she will LAURA GAY. 201 have her friends, and he will have his associ- ates. They will keep a good house, and Mrs. Wyndham and Ballennie can try their hands at civilization in the particular, as they pro- fess to do, in the general. Why Miss Gay, you, who quote Cicero, do not surely pretend to the simplicity of supposing that every happy couple have necessarily been in love. No, depend upon it, even in England, state, fortune, and accident determine more mar- riages than love." " Indeed, I am so simple, and a marriage without love, is so contrary to nature, that it appears to me almost criminal." " Ah, ah, ah ! Pardon me, but your theory is worse than that of Malthus ; you have not got beyond the nursery saying that ' mar- riages are made in Heaven.' " " My dear Harcourt," interrupted her ladyship, " you shock Miss Gay, one would really imagine you were inculcating merce- nary motives." 202 LAURA GAY. " Nothing of the sort, I approve, and admire the highest motives, where they are possible, my dear, but my philosophy is not en- terprising enough to expect our race to love and live by those alone — I hope we shall meet again in town Miss Gay, and then Lady Cecilia will initiate you into the real world, where you will see that the web of life is of mingled yarn, good and ill-together, both in motives and results." Lady Cecilia pressed Mrs. Owen and Miss Gay to take a house in town, and offered with sincere cordiality to introduce Laura both at Court, and into London society. The proposal was highly agreeable to Laura, because it would give her the earliest and best opportunity of meeting Thornton, and both she and her aunt readily acquiesced in it. " And how soon are we to expect you in England." " Early in May," replied Laura " perhaps even before ; everything will depend upon my LAURA GAY. 203 aunt's health. We shall remain here, proba- bly, through the present month, for there is much that / ought to see before I leave Rome, perhaps never to revisit it ; yet we shall find it very dull and lonely, when you are all gone, and the temptation to return home before May will be very strong." " Well," said Lady Cecilia rising to go, " we appreciate the dutiful air, with which you speak of staying a month longer to enjoy the beauties of Rome ; still we shall be very glad, if the attractions of home bring you to London sooner than you talk of." The leave-taking was very friendly, and Mrs. Owen and Laura were oppressed by the sadness of being left the last of a pleasant party, who had spent so much time in each other's society. In the plan of continental tour, slightly sketched by Mr. Gay, a year or two before his death, Naples and Paestum were marked as the furthest limits ; and his daughter had been strongly recommended by Mr. Ballennie 204 LAURA GAY. and Mr. Mowbray, to visit scenes hardly less fraught with historic and philosophic interest than Rome itself, but this portion of the pro- jected tour was abandoned. Neither the Phlegrean fields, the Cumsen grotto, the ruins of Puteoli, nor the delights of Baise, could tempt the travellers. Their steps were turned towards home, away from the anomalous rule of the most Catholic of Bourbons, the land of Magna Grsecia, adorned by the glorious deserts, and still more glorious temples of Posidonia. The sweet recollections of the loved ones who had passed away — the bliss of age — were enshrined in their English homes ; the fond anticipations of communion with one who was chosen and loved — the hope of youth — were more potent far, as they always should be, in woman's heart, than the allurements of story or song. As for Laura Gay, she was undergoing the secret transformation of love. Scarce a ruin, or statue could she now see with eyes entirely LAURA GAY. 205 her own ; the sentiment of her absent lover mingled with her own, and each object that excited her admiration, excited also in a greater degree her desire for his society. She did, in fact, look upon herself as his affianced bride, and at times she was almost tempted to blame herself for not having overcome the scru- ples of her own modesty, and her lover's chival- rous silence, and told him frankly before he left Rome, that she had heard of his losses, and was willing to share them. But how deli- cate is the constitution of nascent love ? Who dare take, who knows, all the precautions necessary for its preservation ? How often are we forced to confide the precious bantling to his fate, no less blind than himself, and thus to see perish, the happiness of two fond and generous hearts, in the accidental contact with scandal and worldliness. But love, though anxious, is not naturally foreboding ; and Laura Gay's brief experience of life had taught her to fear, but one foe as unconquer- 206 LAURA GAY. able by will or affection, and that foe was death. She had, however, a real and present cause of anxiety in her aunt's health, which even the pre-occupation of her imagination and heart could not conceal from her. Mrs. Owen did not complain of pain ; no marked symptoms of disease were apparent, but her strength and appetite were failing, and she felt most sensitively changes of cold and heat. Though more than ever angelic in temper and manner, her countenance and conversation expressed an anxious care not habitual to her. She longed for home, and seemed to desire that her niece's marriage should take place as early as possible. Sometimes Laura would ask her where she felt ill, and why she so earnestly desired to see her married. " Well my dear," the good lady would reply, " I don't know how it is, but I feel as though I could not be comfortable till I see LAURA GAY. 207 you settled. I do believe, I shall recover my strength and spirits when you are married. I think I miss Mr. Thornton myself : it is very lonely, to be sure, for two women to live without father, brother, or husband, and still sadder for one." " But, my dearest aunt, you must not talk in that way. You would not leave me, would you ? even if I were married." " No my darling, only you know we cannot tell what might happen, — life is so very un- certain, and I should like to feel that I could die in peace, at any moment, and leave you secure in the comfort and protection of a kind and just husband." " Dearest aunt, don't let us die of melan- choly without a cause. We shall soon be in England again, and there, I know, you will be cheerful, and I shall be married, all in due time, and we shall be ever grateful to you for that loan — so very grate- ful !" 208 LAURA GAY. An English doctor was called in, and he saw no symptom in Mrs. Owen's case which a return home would not certainly cure. The malady was mere home-sick- ness. Laura, as may be imagined, soon com- pleted all the necessary arrangements for leaving the Eternal City, and a brilliant morning at the end of March smiled upon the travellers, as they once more passed through the Porta del Popolo. Laura could not leave Rome behind, without shedding tears of mixed emotion. It was the cradle of her love, and the only place on earth associated with Charles Thornton's image; in quitting it, she seemed to lose some testimony to the reality of those happy moments, which had made her his; and, since they did not correspond, and the newspapers gave her but the bare record of his votes in parliament, she turned with redoubled atfec- LAURA GAY. 209 tion to his Shakespeare, where she always found fresh nourishment to develop a robust and wholesome passion. What words he gave to thought, and what thoughts to words ! With such a master, her love waxed deeper and stronger every day, and she was no less impatient than her aunt to reach England. They posted on the higher road from Rome to Florence, resting at Perugia and Arezzo, to suit Mrs. Owen, and to glance at the most striking objects of each of these two cities. They spent only one night at Florence, and taking the rail to Leghorn, they embarked in the steamer for Mar- seilles. Mrs. Owen did not like the idea of the sea-voyage, but the weather was so calm, and it so much lessened the length and fatigue of their journey, that she was induced by her niece to try it. It did not, however, succeed ; for, though calm, they had two damp nights VOL. I. p 210 LAURA GAY. on board, which, to Laura's dismay, gave her aunt a cold and cough. This detained them at Marseilles for a week, for nothing would induce Laura to proceed till the cough had disappeared. The journey to Paris renewed it again, with more violence than before, and Laura and Mrs. Slater had no difficulty in persuading Mrs. Owen to take up her abode at the Hotel du Rhin, until medical skill had removed the evil. There, they remained for a fortnight effecting a cure, by the French doctor's advice, with cataplasms, synapisms, and tisanes, to the utter astonishment of the poor patient. They occupied the apartment only quitted by Mr. and Mrs. Redford the day previous to their arrival, and Miss Gay was pestered by the solieitations of the male and female commis, who haunt the hotels of Paris, to tempt foreign gold out of the pockets of indulgent men and elegant women. No sooner did they discover that Miss Gay LAURA GAY. 211 knew something of Mrs. Redford, than they sought to recommend their wares by praising the taste and magnificence of the nouvelle marie'e. " Quelle belle dame !" said one of them, " et quel mari ! Dieu ! comme il est beau, avec ses grands yeux noirs, et son beau front ! quel sourire char- mante ! ce n'est pas etonnant que Madame l'aime tant ! Si riche et si bon qu'il est !" And so she continued to chatter, to Laura's great surprise. " Surely, the woman must be mistaken about the Redfords," she remarked to Slater, with a smile ; u she gives a description of Mr. Redford, which would almost suit Mr. Thornton. " "Oh! didn't I tell you, Ma'am, that Mr. Thornton was Mr. Redford's grooms- man, and spent Easter here ? I dare say it was him she saw." p 2 212 LAURA GAY. " Voyez done, Mademoiselle, une broderie superbe, comme e'est ouvragee. C'est la pareille de la robe, que Monsieur a choisie pour Madame." Laura ascertained that Mr. Thornton, and not Mr. Redford, was the Monsieur in question, and bought the dress. She was surprised, and not altogether pleased to think that her lover's intimacy with the Redfords continued, and was sufficiently close to bring him over to Paris for the wedding. Mrs. Owen, always charitable, and disposed to .see all that Charles Thorn- ton did in the most favourable light, con- sidered his coming to the wedding of so un- popular and ill-conditioned a man as Mr. Redford, a proof of his self-denying and amiable temper. But Laura, for the first time since their separation, was forced to chew the cud of bitter fancies. Charles Thornton knew her dislike to Mr. Redford, and shared it; yet he had LAURA GAY. 213 come to his marriage as groomsman ; was not this the proof of a too facile character ? However, to blame, in such cases, is so painful, and to blame without knowledge so unjust, and love is so prone to pardon and exculpate, that after a few reflections — the children of her wish — she came to regard Thornton's visit to Paris almost in the same light as Mrs. Owen, and turned all the dis- pleasure it gave her, upon her own want of charity, and the rigour of her judg- ment. i One day, when Mrs. Owen's health was sufficiently re-established to permit them to think of travelling, Laura found Mrs. Slater busy packing in her bed-room. She had just come up from dinner. " Well, Miss," said she, " I'm sure, I hope you'll never make such a marriage as Mrs. Redford has done. There's a maid here, Ma'am, that was here when she was, 214 LAURA GAY. and she says that Mrs. Wyndham's maid, who is now Mrs. Redford's, told her, that before her mistress was married, she was head-over-ears in love with Mr. Thornton ; and even now, if it was not for the fine clothes and jewels she gets, she'd hate her own husband. Did you ever hear of such a thing ? and they say it was quite shocking, how sweet she was with Mr. Thornton, and how she cried when he went away. She said she wasn't well, but her maid knew all about it." Laura was moved to immediate indigna- tion. " This is, indeed, a shocking world, when a woman of your age, Slater, who has always lived among good and charitable people, gives ear to the naughty gossip of ignorant and unprincipled women, and then helps to increase wickedness, by repeating scandalous reports, which make it appear to be universal. Mr. Thornton is one of Mr. Redford's earliest LAURA GAY. 215 acquaintances, and he could probably find no other person who could do him so much credit as groomsman. No doubt he pressed Mr. Thornton very much, and Mrs. Redford could not fail to be grateful to any- one who conferred respectability upon her hasty and ill-fated marriage. I am no bad judge of character, and I would stake my life on the purity and honour of Mr. Thornton." " Really, my dear young lady, I didn't mean to vex you, and I said nothing about Mr. Thornton's being sweet upon her, nor did the maid. I was only talking about Mrs. Redford." " Had she been, as you say, sweet upon Mr. Thornton, I am sure he would not, and could not, innocently, have remained here a single day," replied Laura, somewhat ap- peased. She strove to banish this scandal from her heart, and mentally deprecated the state of 216 LAURA GAY. ignorance among servants, and their dis- position to gossip and to believe calumnious and false reports. But, however false we know such calumnies to be, they are apt to stick like burrs, and when pressed upon our memory by passing events and accidents, they will sometimes trick us into believing them to be real. Laura was most thankful when her aunt's health became sufficiently restored to complete the remainder of their journey, and she hailed with delight their arrival in London. They had relinquished all idea of taking a house in town for the season, and only spent one whole day there, on their way to the Dell : but as there were some matters of business to arrange, they proposed coming up again in a few weeks, for that purpose, should Mrs. Owen's health by that time have derived sufficient strength from the air and associations of home. They stayed at a private hotel in Albemarle Street, kept by LAURA GAY. 217 the widow of an old servant of Mr. Gay's, and Laura called upon Lady Cecilia Mowbray, to inform her of their arrival, and their change of plan. She was cordially welcomed by Lady Cecilia, who expressed much concern to hear of Mrs. Owen's continued increasing delicacy of health. No doubt existed in Laura's mind that Mr. Mowbray and Lady Cecilia constantly saw Mr. Thornton, but she hardly knew how to approach a subject of such paramount and delicate interest to herself. At last, after a short pause, she remarked that Mr. Thorn- ton must have been surprised to find himself on his arrival in England, retuVned to par- liament. " Probably," replied Lady Cecilia, " but I really see so little of him, that I cannot tell you what his sentiments on the subject may be. Mr. Mowbray thinks him a promising member, and assiduous in his attendance on committees. However, a young man is 218 LAURA GAY. beset with temptations, and it will be well if Mr. Thornton can avoid bad company and intrigues — the facility of his temper exposes him to that sort of thing." There was something depreciatory in Lady Cecilia's tone that pained Laura extremely. She was convinced, however, that her lady- ship was quite mistaken, and that Charles Thornton's taste and morals would never permit him to keep bad company, a term which she understood to mean men of low political principles, and she also gave, in her own mind, a political meaning to the expres- sion " intrigues." " If," said she, " you had seen as much of Mr. Thornton as I did in Rome, you would know that the very temptations you mention, are those by which he is least assailable." "Well," said her ladyship, observing the warmth of Laura's manner, " we will hope you are right ; but I think you will allow LAURA GAY. 219 that his intimacy with the Redfords is not very promising." Here was another hit on a sore place, and Laura with difficulty concealed her distress ; but courage and confidence in the virtue of her lover rose with the attack upon it. " I hope to meet him, when I come up to town again. He lent me a book in Rome, which I promised to return to him myself." " His address," said Lady Cecilia, care- lessly, " is in the Albany Chambers." After Miss Gay had left, Mr. Mowbray came in, and his wife related the conversa- tion. They agreed that she had shown a decided penchant for Mr. Thornton, and that in Rome he had appeared to feel the same for her. " I dare say they would be very happy together," remarked Mr. Mowbray, " and Thornton once settled, would make a good 220 LAURA. GAY. husband ; but there is no reason why a girl of her fortune and appearance should throw herself away on a man who has his own position to make in the world, and whose love for her is of so transient a nature. She is a very remarkable girl, and would com- mand the constant devotion of many a man of equal promise, and more assured for- tune." " I suppose he continues as intimate as ever with the Redfords ?" said the lady. " Yes ; and there is all that absent and self- absorbed manner about him which, in youth, betokens a lover ; for, though Mr. Thornton is of a frank and somewhat impulsive nature, there is evidently some subject engrossing his mind, on which he never converses. This, I consider a most unfavourable symptom. Miss Gay is just the girl to be exaliee, on the subject of a lover's perfections, and equally likely to be disgusted on finding that he had human frailties." LAURA GAY. 221 " I think," replied her ladyship, " we will ask Mr. Thornton to dinner when she comes to town, and then she can see for herself what his real feelings are." " Very well," and the subject was dis- missed. It was not, however, so speedily dismissed from Laura Gay's heart, and her journey northwards to the Dell was saddened by the fears and imaginings occasioned by Lady Cecilia's remarks and manner. Mrs. Owen, whose health improved ra- pidly, encouraged her niece in her highest estimate of Charles Thornton's character; and they both spoke with certainty and pleasure of the meeting that must soon take place during the approaching sojourn in town. There was one drawback, however, to the anticipations of this visit, namely, that Mrs. Owen was so strongly recommended by the doctor to remain at the Dell through the 222 LAURA GAY. summer, that Laura, at a great sacrifice to her own happiness and comfort, insisted on undertaking the journey without her aunt. She could not bear the idea of incurring any further risks to the health of one so pre- cious to her. Nor would she consent to taking Slater away. " Jane, her niece," she said, " will do equally well ; she is a modest, sensible young woman, and Stratton's Hotel is so perfectly managed, that we shall be well taken care of there, and very comfortable. Besides, I am not bound to stay longer than I like." Laura had business in town sufficient to occupy her for a day or two, but her chief object, no doubt, was to meet Charles Thornton again, and to invite him, in her aunt's name, to the Dell. She hardly knew herself, how slight was the pretext of being introduced under the auspices of Lady Cecilia Mowbray. However, she wrote to her LAURA GAY. 223 ladyship three or four days beforehand to let her know she was coming, and under what circumstances. Just as she was sealing her letter, she saw two gentlemen riding up the drive. One was Mr. Owen of Llanbeddwr Hall, and in the other she recognized Lord Huntley. " This is an unexpected pleasure," said Mrs. Owen to his lordship. " It is a very great one to me" he replied, as he shook hands with Miss Gay. " I have come over to Llanbeddwr to help my sister to alter and improve her garden, and at the Rectory I learnt, from Mr. Gardiner, not only that you had returned home — which was inducement enough for my call — but that no one must consider himself a master in the art of landscape gardening, before he had seen the grounds of the Dell." " Oh !" said Laura, laughing, " Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner have but one prejudice, and that is in our favour." 224 LAURA GAY. " I should not have ventured to attribute anything in the way of prejudice to your friends," he gallantly replied, and Mrs. Owen invited both the gentlemen to stay lunch — an invitation they readily accepted. Mr. Owen had been recommended by his man of business to buy a few acres of moor- land, contiguous to his own estate, from Mrs. Owen ; and when the ladies after lunch, pro- posed to do the honours of the garden, Mr. Owen offered his arm to his elderly con- nection, in the hope of making a bargain during the walk. Laura pointed out with the skill of a connoisseur, all the most excellent points of the pleasure-grounds. They had been chiefly laid out by her father, and she was always eloquent in praise of his works. The conversation at last reverted to Rome ; and Lord Huntley made inquiries respecting the mutual friends he had left there, he was a little surprised to hear of Mr. Redford's LAURA GAY. 225 marriage, but he scarcely recollected Miss Wyndham. " What an extraordinary contrast !" he exclaimed " between Mr. Thornton and Mr. Redford ; one can hardly recognize that, by birth, they belong to the same class. The one seems imbued with honour, generosity, and truth, whilst the other is selfish, cross- grained, and unusually crooked." " There is more in family traditions than in blood, and more in individual education, perhaps, than in either," replied Laura : " I have heard Mr. Thornton say that Mr. Redford passed his youth under very un- favourable circumstances, and I know that Mr. Thornton was brought up by excellent and sensible parents." Lord Huntley smiled and said : "You have forgotten to account for the immense difference of phisi que in the two." Laura acknowledged this remark with so conscious a smile, that Lord Huntley's VOL. i. Q 226 LAURA GAY. suspicions of her preference for Thornton were excited, and for a moment he was thoughtful and silent. His companion became a little embarrassed, and wishing to relieve herself, she determined to give the conversation a speculative turn. " Do you not think," she asked, " that there is too much of fatality in attaching great importance to birth, merely as birth, and that such a notion is inconsistent with the great efforts we desire to see made for moral and religious education. If we believe that such efforts can be successful, we must believe that there exist in man powers beyond and above the accident of birth, powers, in fact, greater than material fate; else too, how could you preach that spiritual regenera- tion which is to make us the children of the Most High ?" " But if you consider the question of birth in its most extended form, that of race, it is impossible to deny its importance." LAURA GAY. 227 "True," replied Laura, "but then you introduce the fresh elements of climate, geographical position, civilization in remote or more recent times, of circumstances un- favourable to vigour of body for many generations, of the prejudices of conquerors and conquered ; none of which apply in any great degree to birth among the free citizens of the same country. Among them there exists a free moral regenerative power, so superior to the accident of mere birth, that it seems almost too trifling for consideration, when we seek to account for differences of character. We have in all ranks of men, the just and the unjust, the moral and the immoral, the selfish and the generous ; and I believe that, precisely in proportion as you extend the benefits of a practical Christian education, among the lower orders, you increase the number of those who are, in truth, compeers with the noblest among men. It may even turn out that education and labour are more productive Q 2 228 LAURA GAY. of true nobility than education and leisure." " Take care, Miss Gay, you are approaching socialism." " Quite the reverse ; I am advocating the duty, the honour, and the advantages of labour, but not the soi-disant right of the lowest and unworthiest of men to share the fruits of honest toil. I much more pity, and desire much more to relieve, the moral wants of the pauper, than to alleviate his physical sufferings. These are only interest- ing as channels, through which charity may flow to touch his heart with sympathy for a higher state, and to prompt him to the self- denial and the efforts which alone lead to it." " Did you ever read Canning's ' Knife Grinder V " " Oh, yes ! and I thought it excellent, but I see no analogy between my sentiments, and those of his philosopher. I don't wish to make any discontented with their lot. I / LAURA GAY. 229 would rather teach them to improve it them- selves, than to attribute it to others, and I am sure you cannot imagine, I could punish any one for not agreeing with me." " I cannot imagine you are always quite in earnest in what you say, especially when I recollect what I have heard of your friendliness to the dependents of your own household, and the poor of this neighbourhood." " We are not talking of our friends, either rich or poor, but of paupers, who would willingly prey on the substance of others." " Well," said Lord Huntley, " I am going up to town myself, in a day or two, where I dare say we shall meet, and there we may renew our discussions, in the hope of hitting upon some point of complete agreement :" and, after a moment's pause, he added, looking earnestly at Laura : " Can vou tell me Mr. Thornton's address? I should much like to call upon him." Laura could do so, but not without sufficient 230 LAURA GAY. confusion to convince Lord Huntley, that Mr. Thornton was either an accepted or a rejected lover. Upon her arrival in London, a few days after this conversation, Laura found a very cordial note from Lady Cecilia Mowhray, awaiting her at Stratton's, to tell her that there was to be a Flower Show in the Regent's Park, the day following, and that her ladyship would call to take her there at two o'clock. LAURA GAY. 231 CHAPTER XL The next morning, all the beau monde were flocking to the Flower Show in Regent's Park, in greater numbers even than they used to do to Chiswick ; — among them were Lady Cecilia Mowbray with Laura — Mr. and Mrs. Redford, Mr. Thornton, and Lord Huntley. All had the same ostensible love of flowers to draw them thither, yet each had a different motive. Lady Cecilia's restless sprightliness took her wherever those most did congregate, who had known her charming youth, S 232 LAURA GAY. and who might wonder at the gentle treatment she experienced from Old Time. Laura accompanied her for the sake of the flowers, memorandum book in hand, and in the hope that, among the crowd there assembled, she might chance to see Mr. Thornton. Perhaps, this may explain the reason why she was the most elegantly dressed girl in all that goodly company. Lord Huntley was a florist ; gardening being a gentle and inexpensive pleasure, to which, lacking means for others, he had betaken himself; yet the flowers were not his only inducement for being there. Laura Gay was half his attraction. Mr. Redford, like a respectable husband, went to show his handsome and stylish wife. He supposed he had an air distingue, and by a singular illusion, he flattered himself that all eyes regarded him as he passed, as the millionaire and the promising politician ; yet, in truth, few besides himself knew any- LAURA GAY. 233 thing about him, and the eyes he met, at first rested with admiration on his wife, and then with surprise on his own insignificant and unprepossessing appearance. Redford, always irritable, and having little affection for his wife, considered her an object of public show and private utility. Her societv was a bore to him, and at this early period of their marriage, he had ceased to place any control upon his temper, when a tete-a-tete was unavoidable between them. In public, therefore, whither he accompanied her, out of respect for the world, he was glad to secure her the attention of any ac- quaintance who would relieve him from the irksome task of escorting her. As for the lady herself, her husband's manners were so displeasing to her, that she was only too glad to be confided to the care of a more agreeable companion. Thus it frequently happened, that each separately addressed Thornton with the same object; 234 LAURA GAY. and he was the more readily led to acquiesce in their wishes, from a sense of deep obligation towards Redford, and a certain pleasure which he felt in the society of a young and handsome woman, whose acquaintance he had made in Rome — a place for ever sacred to his dearest affections. These inducements — the fresher air of Regent's Park — the variety of a morning spent out of clubs, committee rooms, or solitary lodgings, were quite sufficient to account for Thornton's presence at the Flower Show. He did not know that Laura Gay was in town ; and, although scarcely an hour passed, but that she was in his memory, or his dreams, he avoided as much as possible any inquiry into her whereabouts, lest he should unsettle himself by fruitless anxieties. His faith in her truthful nature and constancy was so great, that he assured himself that nothing, save faults on his part, could shake it, and he had determined to pursue the LAURA GAY. 235 course of duty with persevering zeal, until he could offer her not only the devotion of his heart, but the first fruits also, of his labours, as a proof of worth which none could estimate more truly than Laura herself, and as an honest title, in the eyes of the world, to the hand of the lovely heiress. These had been for some time his habitual feelings, and as they were of a kind that shrink from disclosure, they imparted to his friendliness a slight shade of reserve, rendering his society only so much the more courted, by those among whom his parliamentary life cast him. He had the reputation of being a very pro- mising new member, one, in fact, who was maturing his judgment by observation, and laying a sound foundation for a sure, and perhaps a brilliant career. It is true, that his intimacy with the Redford's occasioned surprise to those who did not know Mrs. 236 LAURA GAY. Redford, but with those who did, it onlv drew forth that sort of smile, which seems to sav, " Let the degree of facilities for temptation be given, and the result may be exactly ascertained, whatever may be the moral calibre of the Joseph in question." Yet the native weight and purity of Charles Thornton's character, were so sensible, that no one had ventured to joke him on this subject. Among those who most regretted it was Mr. Mowbray, for both he and Lady Cecilia liked Thornton. As for Redford, he had good reasons for valuing the society of so popular a person as Thornton ; he did not overrate his wife's charms, and if he were inclined to do so, it was her business, and not his to keep the law. He preferred punishing offenders, to preventing offences, and he would not sacririce present ease, for the sake of security in so trifling a matter. Moreover, he had hopes of soon be- coming a parent. Mrs. Redford's placidity, LAURA GAY. 237 therefore, so far as it affected her health, was a matter of some importance to him, and he knew that in his own company, that was sure to be ruffled. He had, also, a greater faith than he ac- knowledged to himself, in the chivalrous honour of Charles Thornton's nature; and he judged too highly of his discretion to think it probable he would barter an unsullied repu- tation, for a gratification that might be easily purchased at a much more moderate price. Mrs. Redford had always liked Thornton, and though incapable of any strong passion, so many little feelings of ennui, vanity and jealousy occupied the place of one, that she thought nothing better deserving her exertions, than her acquaintance with him. At first she had attributed to herself, his inti- macy with her husband, but, to her great mortification, she had, at last, discovered Thornton's erroneous reason for it. Still she did not entirely abandon the first suggestions 238 LAURA GAY. of her vanitv, nor cease her insidious efforts to undermine his preference for Laura, who, absent and unoffending, became daily, more and more, the object of her jealous dislike ; for Thornton sometimes mentioned her, who was nearest his heart, casually, as it were, and in conjunction with some passing trifle, yet never had he entertained the remotest idea of disclosing the real state of his affections to Mrs. Redford, and she did not appear to sus- pect it. " Do you recollect, Lord Huntley/' said Thornton, as they entered a large tent full of choice plants, " he is a great florist, I met him at dinner yesterday ; he had just returned from a visit to North Wales, and he was quoting the most beautiful garden he had ever seen. To whose taste and care do you think he attributed its beautv ?" " Oh !" replied Mrs. Redford at once hazard- ing a mischievous guess. " I don't guess, for I know all about it. He was staying LAURA GAY. 239 with Mrs. Owen, and I don't think he de- serves the reputation of a florist for admiring the taste of his lady love. However, if he be one, so much the better, since Miss Gay has relinquished Philosophy and History for Flori- culture and Botany, and adopted those quiet country pursuits, which befit the wife of a rustic and reverend lord. ,, Without believing a word of it, Thornton winced at the very idea of such a report, and he made a sorry attempt to treat it laughingly. As ill luck would have it, his tormentor perceived, at this moment, Lady Cecilia Mow- bray and Miss Gay on the opposite side of the tent, eagerly admiring and noting down the names of some roses. Close behind, in the crowd, stood Lord Huntlev, his face beam- ing with satisfaction. Laura too seemed happy. Her bright eyes, flushed cheeks and excited manner betrayed to Mrs. Redford, what those around her did not know, that she had observed Mr. Thornton. 240 LAURA GAY. Mrs. Redford rapidly planned her attack upon Thornton's composure, and Laura's agi- tation offered her an excellent opportunity. In noting down the names of the roses, she broke the point of her pencil. Lady Cecilia laughingly accused her of eagerness, and re- quested her to hand the note-book to Lord Huntley. Just as he was bending over her to receive the book, and her face was turned towards him, with all its fluttered expression of happi- ness, Mrs. Redford exclaimed to her husband : " Look, there are three of our Roman friends together." Thornton's eye fell immediately upon the group opposite, and so great was the shock he sustained, that a deadly pallor overspread his face, and he shuddered from head to foot. His torture did not escape Mrs. Redford's e\ nor did she hesitate to augment it, by re- marking to him, how beautiful Miss Gay looked, how exquisitely she was dressed, and LAURA GAY. 241 how eagerly she was entering into Lord Huntley's pleasures. With the strange inconsistency of love, Charles Thornton now deplored the beauty he had before rejoiced to find united with those qualities of intellect and heart which he be- lieved had captivated him ; and with the logic of jealousy, he attributed the tasteful dress and colours, which he had not yet seen her wear, to Lord Huntley's presence, and not to the fact of her having put off mourning, and her hope of meeting him- self. As for Laura, florist and classic though she might be, she fell to spelling and pronouncing the names of the flowers so incorrectly, that Lord Huntley was obliged to look over her shoulder, in order to perform his task satis- factory. Brief and bitter to Thornton were the moments that passed, ere his eyes met those of Laura; and then, excess of feeling vol. I. R 242 LAURA GAY. imparted a cold stiffness to the bow of each, and each unconscious of his own appearance, was pained by that of the other. Laura soon observed him quit his place, and she hoped he was going to make his way to her. She, therefore, employed every art to remain as stationary as possible, but all in vain ; for, Thornton had rushed into the open air to calm his excitement, and to recover a reasonable control over the jarring passions within. He endeavoured to account for Laura's manner, on some other supposition than that of inconstancy to the affection he was sure she had entertained for him. Mrs. Redford might only have repeated a groundless report, such as are perpetually afloat respecting a beauty and an heiress. Lord Huntley had certainly spoken with enthusiasm of Laura's taste for gardening. He might, it is true, be her devoted admirer ; LAURA GAY. 243 as yet undeclared and unencouraged ; but then, how came he to be staying at her aunt's house, in the sole intimacy of those two ladies? Why was he found, in town, close by her side, writing, evidently at her request, in her private memorandum-book? Whence arose her peculiar and excited ex- pression ? What could the cold bow, with which she had saluted himself, be meant to convey ? Her dress, to be sure, was suited to the occasion ; but her love of flowers — was that a taste unknown to him ? or was she like one of those unstable and brilliant apparitions of womanhood, the versatility of whose talents and sentiments makes them dangerous and Circe-like, and condemns to torture those whom their spells have bound ? Bewildered in heart and mind, and unable to recognize the object of his dearest affec- tion in the incomprehensible girl he had just seen, he resolved to accost her, and to observe her deliberately, notwithstanding the r 2 244 LAURA GAY. tortures of disappointment, and the dread of being scrutinized by one, who, perhaps a successful rival, might have received a confession of all that had passed at Rome, and an abjuration of his slighted love. With palpitating heart and agonizing fears, Thornton re-entered the tent, just in time, as it seemed to him, to behold the con- firmation of his worst suspicions ; for Laura, the coy Laura, turned round, and sliding her arm through Lord Huntley's, appeared to whisper a word or two into his ear, after which they quitted the tent together as quickly as possible. A sterner shade crossed his brow as he approached Lady Cecilia, to whose side Mr. Mowbray had just come. " I will know," said Thornton to himself, " the whole truth of the matter, and if beneath the broken idol of my love, there lies a lesson, I will dig it out, LAURA GAY. 245 how bitter soever it may be, and learn from it some cure for my wound." How strange, how blind is human na- ture ! With all this feverish zeal for truth, he had never before assumed so false a manner. Within, he wept and trembled ; without, he stood erect, proud and self-possessed, like one whom fortune serves. " How do you do, Lady Cecilia ? It is too long since I have had the pleasure of seeing you. As for Mr. Mowbray, I see him—" "Too often, I suppose," for the sake of antithesis, she replied, with a smile and a bow. "Not at all. Was not Miss Gay with you a moment ago ? I could hardly recognize her at first — she is so changed ; but Mrs. Redford pointed her out to me." The colour suffused Lady Cecilia's cheeks, as she replied, with much hauteur : 246 LAURA GAY. " I do not think Miss Gay at all changed, either in appearance or cha- racter ; but she is more experienced than she was, and her impressions of others are based on a wider observa- tion." " That is to say," replied Thornton, with a bitterness, which overcame his politeness, " I suppose she has worn out, as perchance we all do, sooner or later, the fresh feelings of youth, and has invested herself in a garb more authorized by the world." "You are altogether mistaken, both as regards my young friend, and, in my opinion, as regards your general supposi- tion." "Will you dine with us to-morrow, Thornton ?" said Mr. Mowbray, who had not been attending to the conversation. "With pleasure," he replied, at once bowing off. LAURA GAY. 247 His spirit groaned the sad downfal of its bliss, as he wandered objectless and solitary through the crowd, and confirmed by Lady Cecilia Mowbray's manner in all his worst apprehensions. " How do you do ?" said a cheerful voice beside him, as he entered the refreshment tent, in search of water to quench his fever. The voice was Lord Huntley's, and near the door sat Laura, her face crimson with blushes, apparently shrinking from Thornton's gaze. But he was in no humour to spare any one's feelings, least of all, his own or her's. " Good morning ! I am delighted to see Miss Gay looking so well. Absence often deadens the remembrance of one's friends, but after the years of childhood, it rarely enhances their presence." Poor Laura was staggered by the manner and the words. Never before had Charles Thornton addressed her with an air of indifference, or 248 LAURA GAY. alluded to her personal appearance ; the crimson of her cheeks faded to ashy pale- ness, she trembled on her chair, and knew not what to say, or what to think, so she essayed a smile, which escaped coldly from her lips. Thornton took an empty chair beside her, and twirling his cane between his knees, said in a low tone, with an air of affected con- cern: " I do not wish to discompose you, Miss Gray, by any indiscreet allusions to the past ; still I must remind you that you have in your possession, a volume, now of no value to you, yet endowed in my eyes, as I believe I once had the honour to tell you, with the most sacred associations of my life. You will oblige me by returning it. When lent, I think it was with the hope you would return it to me, on some occasion of our meeting. However, under present circum- stances, I am willing to receive it whenever you think proper." LAURA GAY. 249 " Whither shall I address your book ?" said Laura, in a severe and offended tone, for the attempt to wound her, had roused her to consciousness and the power of self-de- fence. " I am going to dine with Mr. Mowbray to-morrow. If we do not meet there, per- haps you will have the goodness to send it for me." " I have neither father nor brother to pro- tect me from insult. It is, therefore, very unlikely we shall ever meet again," said she, bowing haughtily, and rising to rejoin Lord Huntley, who had considerately moved to some distance. He, indeed, had interpreted Laura's agita- tion more correctly than her friends the Mowbrays. He had observed her more keenly than they, both in Rome, and since her return, and now he felt sure that, whatever might be Thornton's feelings to- wards her, there was no doubt that she had 250 LAURA GAY. entertained more than a mere preference for him, and that it had been rudely shocked by what Lady Cecilia said, of his reported liaison with Mrs. Redford, and still more acutely, by the short conversation that had just passed. Lord Huntley was kind-hearted, and very considerate. He felt Laura trembling on his arm, and he marked the deep-drawn sighs in which alone her grief could vent itself. He did not require her to speak, but quietly and soothingly proposed to take her to the place of exit, to find a cab in which she could return home, and to leave a message with Lady Cecilia Mowbray's footman, to say that fatigue and faintness had compelled her depar- ture. She acquiesced, and a cab was soon procured. Just as she was about to step into it, both ' she and Lord Huntley per- ceived Mrs. Redford coming up on Thorn- LAURA GAY. 251 ton's arm to find her carriage. She looked cross, while Mr. Redford, quite out of temper, was bustling about to find his servants and carriage. Thornton's eyes caught Laura's, as she sank back into the cab, apparently to avoid them, and Lord Huntley, knowing that she was fainting, jumped in after her, and ordered the cabman to drive to the first druggist's shop. Laura soon recovered, without the aid of drugs, and no longer mindful of Lord Huntley's presence, burst into a flood of tears. " Do not weep, my dear Miss Gay ; you will make yourself ill. I have a vague notion of the cause of your sorrow, but I do not think any one else has ; and you may depend upon my never revealing to-day's impressions. Consolation I cannot offer you, since I am unacquainted with the cir- cumstances you deplore, and I will not in- 252 LAURA GAY. trude my sympathy upon you, lest at some time you should regret having accepted it." " Oh ! thank you," sobbed Laura, trying to compose herself, before reaching the private hotel in Albemarle Street, where she had so frequently lodged with her father and aunt. " Thank you, again," said she, with a grateful shake of the hand, as they stopped at the door. " Let me recall to your memory," he whispered, earnestly, " a depot of strength and consolation under affliction, which, until we are hard pressed by the trials of life, we are too apt to forget." He conducted her to her room, ordered some tea, told the head-waiter that Miss Gay was upset by the heat of the crowd and the smell of the flowers — and the landlady, that he had been commissioned by Lady Cecilia Mowbray to take care of her, that she had fainted, and he had there- LAURA GAY. 253 fore brought her away from the Flower Show. " Poor, dear young lady !" she replied, " she always does too much. I am sure I have heard Mrs. Slater say, times out of mind, that she was killing herself with study. I'll do all in my power, Sir, to make her well and comfortable. I recollect, as well as yesterday, when first she came here, poor little thing ! with the late lamented Mr. Gay, such a pretty child — and what a little oddity, to be sure ! What point-blank questions she would ask ! Depend upon it, Sir, she shall want no care I can give. So away she went to find Miss Gay's maid, worthy Mrs. Slater's niece, whom she succeeded in frightening into the belief that her mistress had come home in a fit. The girl thought she had been brought home by the doctor, and began to cry so piteously herself, that she was 254 LAURA GAY. blind to her mistress's grief, and could only reply to the numerous kind inquiries and consolations addressed to her by waiters and valets : " Oh, dear-a me ! my young lady's very ill, I'm afraid, and I don't know what in the world to do, as she won't put her feet in warm water, and go to bed." The head-waiter offered Miss Slater the use of his homoeopathic medicine-chest for herself and mistress, and showed her the minute case, which contained the elements of nervous restoration. When Laura had given full vent to her wounded feelings, she recovered a calmer sadness, by the aid of tea and quiet, and a recurrence to that sacred depot, to which Lord Huntley had referred her. It was, indeed, the alpha and omega of counsel with her. Thither she always addressed her- self to divine the advice her departed parent would have given her, and thereby she LAURA GAY. 255 tested that advice, as he would have had her do. Now, then, allaying, as far as possible, the tumultuous passions of love, grief, and anger that assailed her, she tried calmly to review the occurrences of the dav, and to shape a course in accordance with a sense of duty. Foremost, the distressing fact presented itself, that she had been cruelly robbed of the object of her first, her devoted love. With what perfections had she not en- dowed him? Could she ever again admire the wisdom of the wise, the courage of the brave, or the virtue of the good, without feeling the sickening doubt produced by her disappointment ? His cruel faithlessness had destroyed the sweetest memories of her continental tour, fraught, as they were, with his presence, and the sympathies she had cherished for him. 256 LAURA GAY. Had he ever loved her ? or was it, on his part, some platonic feeling of sympathy in intellectual pursuits and moral sentiments, which had given way before a real and guilty passion ; while, on her part, she had incorpo- rated all he: memories of him into a livelong affection. Certain it seemed to be, that the brightest moments of her existence were clean dead and gone; nothing but dig- nity remained to be cared for — nothing but usefulness to pursue ; and this, alas ! how difficult, unaccompanied by happiness and love. The fatal book, which her fancy had almost gifted with personality, was folded carefully in paper, and addressed without a word of civility or kindness to the chambers in the Albany, of him whose name she had hoped to bear. She wrote a short note to Ladv Cecilia Mowbray, excusing herself, on the plea of not being well enough to dine out on the LAURA GAY. 257 following day. How eagerly she desired to leave London, yet how much she feared the questions her aunt would ask, if she reached home sooner than was expected. She could not hear the idea of disclosing to any one Charles Thornton's cruel hehaviour; nor did she wish for sympathy at the risk of her aunt's happiness, for she full well knew how that beloved relative would lament and blame herself for the w 7 ant of sagacity, and the credulity which had made her a party to her niece's unfortunate attachment. Laura rose, the next morning, so unrefreshed, nervous and sad, that it required all her power of self-control to conclude the busi- ness she had come to transact for her aunt and herself. Among other things, she had to see and arrange with their joint lawyer, Mr. Jenkins, for the investment of half the amount lent upon Charles Thornton's shares, and now repaid by him. Common-place and ignoble though such things appear, to those VOL. I. S 258 LAURA GAY. who " go in for " cultivation, taste, and gen- tility, our heroine had watched the rising value of these shares with a peculiar interest, as deep, we opine, as that with which " first principles," or philosophic truth couldi n- spire her : and she mourned over this dying interest as fondly as any other romantic damsel might have wept over a faded rose, once dearly cherished as the token of her love and constancy, now scattered to the winds as the fitter emblem of a lover's faithlessness. So bewildered was the poor girl by con- flicting feelings, and divers surmises respect- ing w 7 hat had happened, and so unaccountable was it to her, that she gave up, at last, all attempt to unravel its web, determining to seek, in present business, thoughts and feelings external to self; and awaiting a less agitated condition of body and mind, ere she passed judgment upon the strange conduct of Thorn- ton. No one, it is true, could have doubted LAURA GAY. 259 that she was suffering from bodily or mental anguish ; yet every commission with which she had been entrusted by her aunt, or even by old John, the gardener, was carefully fulfilled. She called, too, upon Miss Owen, who still lived in the same house, in Brook Street, that her mother had occupied after Mr. Gwynne Owen's death. Miss Owen had become a gloomy evan- gelical; she foreboded coming wrath near at hand, to avenge the sins, against grace, of a faithless and perverse generation. Habit still kept her in the heartless coterie, of which she had never been either a popular or a distinguished member ; although she was not blind to its envy, hatred, malice, and all un- charitableness. She deplored its wickedness, prayed for it, and ventured occasionally, in a slang it did not understand, to reprove its vices. She considered her sister-in-law, a babe fed with the milk of the Word, who could never be made to enter upon a study s 2 260 LAURA GAY. of the Prophesies and Revelations, according to low church divines. Laura had well measured her character and abilities, and would not have chosen to associate with her, but for her aunt's sake, and in obedience to her father's maxim, that a Christian should first care for those of his own household. Miss Owen could not make out Laura's chance of salvation — in fact, her youth, beauty, and obliging manners gave so much pleasure, that the zeal of proselytism and persecution failed, and she did not condemn her young friend to non-election or everlast- ing damnation. However, as the title to salvation was not clear, she avoided discuss- ing religious topics with her, and contented herself with scandal, dress, weather, and those incidents and accidents which form the ' spectacle ' of our lives. On the present occasion, she was gratified to see, that notwithstanding her elegant attire, LAURA. GAY. 261 Laura's countenance and manners wore a solemn, sad appearance of disappoint- ment, which augured well, as she thought, for the health of her soul. Having completed her business satis- factorily, Laura saw no further reason for remaining in town, but previously to returning into Wales, she called upon Lady Cecilia Mowbray, the day after her party; and was ushered into her boudoir. " How do you do, dear child ? I hope you are quite recovered," said her ladyship. " Thank you, I came to tell you, that I leave town to day." " I hope not, I am so much disappointed. Do you know, I begin to suspect," she continued, taking Laura's hand affectionately, " that there is some real and tender cause for your indisposition. Now let me use the privilege of an elder, and a very sincere friend. I will not trouble you with advice, since I can only guess at the extent of your 262 LAURA GAY. sufferings ; but I will relate some of my own experience, and then, if ever you feel inclined to consult me, or if vou wish for a con- fidante, you will know how far I can be of any comfort to you in that capacity." "Thank you," replied Laura, with con- siderable embarrassment, "you are very kind." She knew not what else to say, for she had no inclination to discover the depth of her wound, or to make a conjoint examination into its causes ; and although she felt little hope of profiting by another's experience, so unique did her own appear, still she sat a resigned listener to Lady Cecilia. " J was, at your age, dear, as enthusiastic and imaginative as yourself;" (indeed, I am not imaginative, thought Laura,) " like you, I was fatherless, but I had a dear and excellent mother, who, like most good mothers, de- sired to see her daughter settled happily and brilliantly in life. In the society to which I was introduced, I met a handsome LAURA GAY. 263 lively young man, the heir to a marquisate. We seemed to sympathize in all our tastes and sentiments. We thought we loved, and we became engaged ; shortly after this, I discovered that he was addicted to play, and that he was also a most intimate visitor at the house of a married woman of fashion, but of doubtful reputation. / expostulated in the gentlest terms, but without avail, and he took offence. I concluded that he loved me less than his own vicious pleasures, and virtue less than myself. Our engagement was broken off, and I thought my heart was broken too. For weeks, the contrast between my hopes, and my disappointments, wholly absorbed me. I thought every prospect of future happiness destroyed. Shame, and mortification mingled with my trouble. My kind mother participated in my distress, and we left England to travel for some months on the continent. Time and change of scene allayed my irritation and grief; at Ems, 264 LAURA GAY. we met our distant relations, the Evershams and their son. At that time, I knew him very slightly, but we were constantly thrown together, and his gentleness, his delicacy, his devotion to his parents, all conspired to gain my confidence and esteem, and I assure you, dear Laura, that the more intimate our acquaintance became, the more clearly 1 perceived that I had been myself the author of my former disappointment, by lending imaginary virtues to the object of a juvenile fancy. Nothing of that attachment re- mained, save the annoyance of ever having felt it, and that passed away, when I be- came the wife of Mr. Eversbam. Our happiness was perfect : a more excellent and devoted husband could not exist than mine; but alas! his career was very brief; no doubt you have heard of the sad accident which made me a widow at twentv-seven." Here Lady Cecilia, and Laura both burst into tears, and pressed each other's hands. LAURA GAY. 265 " Well, dear girl, my poor mother was also no more, and my loneliness was intolerable. Again, a second time, I deemed myself the most wretched of human beings — isolated from those around me, all the more, because I had learnt the sweets of thorough sympathy and love, and less than the enjoyment of all, I could not endure. Moreover, I found the management of my fortune so trying and irri- tating, that at one time I felt almost inclined to bestow it away, and to make vows of poverty, labour and sorrow ; but just about this time, a kind Providence threw me in the way of Mr. Mowbray, himself a widower. We used to converse together on the nature of our bereavement, and on our dear departed ones, and from comparing our hopes and our sor- rows, we grew to sharing them. We became necessary to each other, and so we married, and, as you know, we enjoy a happiness that most might envy. The dear ones we have lost are ever cherished in our memories and 266 LAURA GAY. affections, and our children bear their names. Do not then, dear Laura, suppose that your sorrow is irreparable — believe me, nothing is more transitory than sorrow, for Heaven did not create us to be miserable — depend upon it, you will some time or other look back on the present period of your life with gratitude." A short pause ensued, and then Lady Ceci- lia continued. " Both Mr Mowbray and I conceived the highest opinion of Mr. Thornton in Rome, but recent observation has compelled us to modify it unfavourably ; his political morality stands, no doubt, very high, but he is ambi- tious, and he certainly seems — pardon me, if I renew your grief — incapable of that respect for the female character, and of those domestic attachments which are absolutely essential to the union and happiness of mar- ried life. You know he dined here yesterday ; his manners were hard and jocular. He was evidently quite at peace with himself. I LAURA GAY. 267 tried to soun'd his feelings, by alluding to your indisposition at the Flower Show." " Oh ! why did you mention me ? " " He did not feel it, dear," he only replied ; ' Miss Gay looked charmingly, and, to a casual observer, in excellent health and spirits.' When he left us, he went down to the House, and delivered a speech that took it by surprise — it was so lucid, calm, and raisonne. Depend upon it, he is capable of sensual passion, and of a sort of intelligent approval, but of that delightful affection, which we call love, he is quite incapable, and you, who are all enthusiasm and affection, could never be happy with such a man. You would always be longing for that, which he could not give you, and he would be bored by your fondness and solicitude." Little did Lady Cecilia suspect the in- credulity and torture of her hearer, and when Laura rose to depart, she fancied she had scattered the seeds of consolation in her bosom. 26& LAURA GAY. CHAPTER XII. Charles Thornton's state of mind was not more cheerful than Laura's. After the Flower Show, he returned to his chambers in the Albany, worn and depressed by the turmoil of his passions ; there he shut him- self up the whole evening, endeavouring first, calmly to consider the possibility of having mistaken Laura's sentiments for Lord Huntley. The evidence was too strong. How could he have been mistaken? Lord Huntley's praises of Miss Gay's garden — were they not in the manner of love, praising its object indirectly ? With what perfect LAURA GAY. 269 ease his lordship had named her, while he himself, alas ! had heen cherishing in silence, and in fond devotion, an affection for her which hardly permitted him to mention her name. Was not Mrs. Redford's report fully corroborated by Miss Gay's whole appearance and demeanour ; by her too visible happiness and excitement; by her embarrassment at seeing him ; by her sudden exit alone with Lord Huntley ; by the'harshness of her own reproof to himself, when his heart was almost bursting ; and by her departure .alone with his rival in the cab ? Had she ever accorded him so marked a preference ? He thought of the ride to Veii, how short the tete-a-tete, and yet how precious a memory it seemed to him. He had dwelt on it with perfect security. Now, alas ! he accounted for its brevity, not by Laura's self-control and delicacy, but by supposing it an artifice of accomplished coquetry. With how little feeling had she returned his book — not a word of thanks, 270 LAURA GAY. and the direction steadily and clearly written in her own hand. It was the only scrap of her writing that he possessed. " Probably," thought he, " Lord Huntley is the depositary, not only of her memorandum book, but of journals of travels, and of letters innumerable, whilst I have never passed a day since our separation in Rome without thinking of her, and longing to write, and to hear from her. What has deterred me from doing so ? A foolish scruple, fatal in its results. I thought I ought to be satisfied with the assurance she gave me at Veii, until I could offer her a position worthy of her, and a fortune intact. Were all those happy days at Rome, then, on which I had based the fairest fabric of earthly bliss, a mere illusion of mv youthful fancy ? Was Laura Gay no better than any other?" Her lovely form, the ingenuous expression of her countenance — the thousand indications of her sympathy in his feelings and sentiments LAURA GAY. 271 rushed into his mind, and Charles Thorn- ton buried his face in his hands, and wept. " No, then she was pure and true, then the odious flattery, and example of the world, and the foolish ambition of rank had not corrupted her nature. Poor thing ! how young, and inexperienced she was ; whom had she to counsel and to guide her? Lord Huntley has been assiduous, while I have been silent." Oh ! how he wrung his hands in self- reproach ; how his soul cursed this ever busy, unpropitious world, that leaves no room for calm and patient virtue. Yet, when he recalled all the qualities he had loved, and fondly considered those of his own dearest Laura, were they not real? Had she not really loved him ? Was she not really a woman of strong will, and vigorous intellect ? If so, then she must be cruel, heartless, and guilty. She had deliberately sacrificed him, and sacrificed her 272 LAURA GAY. own real attachment, to a sham — a title that could not add one iota to the happiness of life. He felt as though all his virtuous energies were benumbed — a strange wild desire to break loose from self-restraint, and the narrow path of virtue came over him. Yet — although his fondest hopes had proved false — he could not be untrue, he would not abjure himself. He would pursue with redoubled ardour the political course he had chalked out, setting aside, and exposing with ruthless hand, the dreams and coun- terfeits which obstruct the current of human welfare. In this mind towards his fellow- creatures, he conducted himself at Lady Cecilia's party : and, afterwards judging it by his own feelings, he delivered a most rigo- rous and searching speech in the House. The House listened with profound atten- tion, not even suspecting the proud ill- LAURA GAY. 273 will which lurked beneath the words of the young orator. The speech was not at all partizan; and to the wary leaders of party, it seemed like a bid for power, and set them to calculate the pro- bable worth and price of such an adherent. He knew he had been successful. The flush of newly discovered powers, and the congratulations of friends chased melancholy away for a time ; and he hugged the allure- ments of ambition, saying to himself " though rejected by one unworthy my constant affec- tion, my country still remains; at her feet I will lay the first fruits of my man- hood." A ray of exultation passed through his mind, as he thought that Laura perchan ce might read that speech, and feel that he could have conferred upon her, a distinction as great as the one she had chosen. This vein of triumph was, however, very transient. A few days of dry committee work, of Albany VOL. I. T 274 LAURA GAY, chambers, and Blue Books, of advances from selfish and unprincipled politicians, without the hope-inspiring vision, till lately so habitual to him, and a conscience of duty ever baulking the schemes proposed by ambition — all these weighed heavily upon him, keeping him alone in that dreary apprenticeship to patience, virtue, and charity, through which each of us whose life ends happily, must needs one day or other pass, however gifted soever he may be with genius and true nobility. Solitude, less tolerable than before, seemed to claim him now as her own. Society had become quite uncongenial ; and although it treated him with greater distinction than ever, he per- ceived its hollowness and vice with a more penetrating eye. Redford alone maintained his place in Thornton's regard. " How deceptive are appearances," he would say to himself. " Here is a man so moulded by the unto- ward circumstances of early education, that LAURA GAY. 275 it is impossible to like him ; yet his heart is true as gold, and delicate to a fault in its generosity. Where else do I meet with one who, valuing wealth, and the pleasure it commands, will advance a large sum of money without usury to a friend, to secure his fortune, and to place him in a position so independent as mine, and who yet will refrain from publishing his generosity, and exacting in gratitude some return for the obligation." Nevertheless, Thornton's visits to Mr. and Mrs. Redford became much more rare ; for the re- collections of Laura and of Rome, now painfully associated with Mrs. Redford, kept him at a distance from her ; and she began almost to regret having acted on the spur of the mo- ment at the Flower Show, so little had it benefitted her. It is hard to live without an object. Our passions or our necessities frequently suggest the object we shall pursue. Neither of these came in aid to Charles Thornton, unless, in- T 2 276 LAURA GAY. deed, we class, as some philosophers do, the love of duty among the passions. Would to heaven they were right, when they tell us, that as the breed grows older, this will become the paramount passion of the human race. With duty, then, for his watch-word, Thornton applied himself to seek out the legitimate object of his labours ; and, as to the true Red Cross Knight, the hugest dragon, so, vice in the general first presented itself to his imagination. But, alas ! who has arms enough and heads enough to attack that ? So he was fain to satisfy himself with a minor combat — that against the ignorance, and depraved moral condition, of those masses into whose hands sovereign power must shortly descend ; and all his leisure was spent in meditating and arranging the plan of his campaign. Have patience with us, fair and gentle reader ! if we tell you the substance of his meditations, and consider if you had a lover, LAURA GAY. 277 who thought it a duty to forget you, how you would have him do so. Surely you would not have him cast both your me- mory and himself over London Bridge, or rush into dissipation, or weep and wander through life to no good purpose, like the walking trophy of your cruel victory. No, you would have him strug- gle with sadness like a man, and out of adversity draw forth blessing for mankind, for himself, and for you, too, perchance. Then, indeed, if your amour propre sought to boast, it might say, "That man once loved me ;" or, better still, " I once loved that man." Foremost among the evils external to themselves, that depress the labouring poor, especially in commercial communities, is the periodical over-speculation of their employers, and this, more than anything else, occasions their ill-will towards their masters. Do they not feel themselves exploites, seemingly by the 278 LAURA GAY. caprices of others, when they are suddenly reduced from the enjoyment of an ample subsistence, laboriously earned, it is true, to a bare one, or to the pitiful and degrading one afforded by public charity. " Let them lay by for the evil day, in times of prosperity." What ! is it easier for them, than for their masters, to exercise fore- thought ; and if they do lay by in good times, merely to consume in the days of low wages and want of work, where is the future of hope, without which, who can maintain a steadfast virtue ? What are the causes of over-speculation ; what the results ; and what the remedies ? The primary causes are not, as our English economists are wont to phrase it, a super- abundance of capital seeking employment; that would be quiet enough in the bankers' cofTers, subject to its own inertia. No, the causes are the intangible movements of the human heart — the passionate indulgence of LAURA GAY. 279 some human desire, legitimate in principle, unhallowed and destructive in excess. What manner of men are these over- speculators ? Go ask yonder hishop, who lost £10,000 in railways, in forty-seven. Go ask those very respectable bankers who illegitimately pledged the fortunes com- mitted to their care. Go ask those greedy men of law, who concocted that worthless railway to palm it upon an unwitting public. Go ask those partizans of the narrow or the broad guage, who each tried to take all England prisoner in their web of railway. Stop not there — look at yonder pious Quaker, the very model of domestic and philanthropic virtue, and of unostentatious wealth. He alone sent away cloth and fustian enough to Australia last year, to supply it for a dozen years to come. Or turn to that easy, open-handed, jovial marquis, and observe the avidity with which he grasps all he can get from the railway com- 280 LAURA GAY. pany, that will treble the value of his estate ; mark the childish excitement with which he besets his broker's office, in the hope of hitting the precise turn of the market, when his allotment of shares will fetch the highest price. In all these men, the causes of over- trading may be detected — conjoined with other feelings, and perhaps superior virtue and intelligence. With some of these, love of display — love of luxury, or is the motive emulation. With others, a longing after that elevation which w 7 ealth promises to bestow by raising us like the Tower of Babel, above the accidents of nature and of society ; seeming thus to make us independent of God and man. Respectable people salve over such motives by the comfortable hypocrisy of the good their wealth will enable them to do, and the obligation which every man owes to those of his own household. But if they sought honor of God and not of man, their LAURA GAY. 281 gains would be more legitimate and more moderate, and their notions of the laws of trade more pure and true. There is a still lower class of over-traders ; men with little, or no capital, and very little education, whose whole life and soul is but an expression of material cupidity, and these like the inferior and hindermost ranks of the ancient Phalanx, add the weight of their brute force to the headlong pursuit of wealth. Willing creditors are not wanting to equip them for the wars — they fail — then rise again, leaving some honest dupe the poorer, each time they do so. Their competition is reckless, they undertake ruinous contracts, they make fraudulent bankruptcies; yet, the mass of ignorant and greedy buyers applaud this excessive spirit and abuse of competition which produces such general immorality and w T oe ; and, what is still worse, these reckless traders are treated and dealt with, by influential public bodies and com- 282 LAURA GAY. mercial corporations, exactly on the same terms as their more prudent and honourable rivals. Can the legislator attack this great evil with the weapon of law ? If he attempt it, does he not become utopist, communist ? Is it the province of legislation to cen- tralize experience and thought, and to form a board of trade for the discussion and deter- mination of commercial economy and organ- ization ? " This unbridled competition," thought Thornton, " appears to offer sufficient substance to the statesman's grasp and control, yet it eludes all his attempts to seize it." He, there- fore, for the present, contented himself with the determination to oppose and condemn it whenever it should be caught tripping. In the House, in the committee room, on the hustings, and in the press, in society, and in business, his devotion was the more energetic, because it was not boastful. LAURA GAY. 283 Such was the monastery into which Charles Thornton retired from his dis- appointed love; but, even there, he could not escape the pangs of nature's longings, or the fair vision his heart had wedded. Ever and anon, when thought was weary and exertion vain, it reappeared pleading ' not guilty/ with increasing force each time, until at last, he felt that he was the culprit — that he had used unmanly and cruel words in the heat of his passion, and deserved the weary solitude in which he lived. The conjectures of his leisure moments constantly turned towards Laura. He had seldom any opportunity of hearing of her; but he never omitted to go carefully through the list of marriages, lest possibly her name might appear there. 284 LAURA GAY. CHAPTER XIII. Towards the end of the Session, Mr. and Mrs Redford went down to their country seat in Berkshire. Redford, who always found his wife's sole company intolerable, pressed Thornton so much to come for a day or two, that it was impossible to refuse the invitation. The summer weather in the country was charming, and Thornton, like most denizens of the town, was exhilirated by change of air and scene. He had left study, dirt, noise, and civilized monotony behind him, LAURA GAY. 285 to recreate in the freshness and liberty of the country. Mrs. Redford was delighted to see him so cheerful and so genial, and the contrast between her husband and his friend, was never more apparent to her. She flattered herself that Laura was beginning to be forgotten. She spared no exertion to please, and so succes- ful was she, that even Redford himself became more amiable owing to her efforts. Thornton and Redford strolled out together after dinner, the former resolving to take that opportunity of repeating his hitherto fruitless attempt to acknowledge Redford's friendly loan. Redford was smoking, and the conver- sation proceeded only at intervals. " Do you know, " said Thornton, " that the Bank has not turned out so ruinous a failure as was at first anticipated." "Humph," puffed Redford, with an appearance of inattention. 286 LAURA GAY. "No, the Directors have returned an instalment of the last call, and intimate that in all probability, when all the debts have been liquidated, there will be a surplus left to divide and return to the shareholders." " Rascally concern, that Joint Stock Bank — conceited scoundrel that Dobson, with his currency crotchets. How came your father to invest in any concern with that fellow for a managing director ?" " Don't you recollect," remarked Thornton, " how highly he was esteemed for his acute- ness in all banking calculations, and for the breadth of his views as a political economist ?" " I'm sick of that term — the whole batch of those political economists are a selfish lot of ignoramuses, who, because they know two and two, make four, suppose they can govern mankind." " I am surprised to hear you, who pro- LAURA GAY. 287 fess to belong to their party, use terms in speaking of them, which I should consider far too severe." "You don't know them intimately, or you'd loathe the whole lot as I do." In truth, Redford did most heartily loathe them, for, being of his own class, he felt their illiterate manners and speech a stigma on himself, and a still deeper cause for his disgust lay in the fact, that they had it in their power to unseat him ; and they had, moreover, whipped him in offensively, once or twice, for party votes. " You know that I am intimately ac- quainted with two or three of them ; they were among my father's oldest friends, and although I believe they overrate the value of political economy, I have the highest esteem for their honour and liberality. I am confident that they, at least, do not de- serve to be included in the batch you dislike." " They have no spirit then, to remain as 288 LAURA GAY. they do, under such a vile despotism. I wish to God the liberals would get up a compact, respectable, practicable party." " There is not much to be said of the practicableness, or compactness of any party, just now," replied Thornton. "The selfishness of human nature," growled Redford. " I don't know that. I rather augur ^ood from the dislocation of party ties — strict and permanent party union represents too much of class and personal interests, to which a certain amount of individual principle and conviction, that might benefit good govern- ment, is necessarily sacrificed." " For my part, I don't see how any govern- ment could be worse than ours is, just at present." " Oh ! " said Thornton with surprise, " what, not the Papal government, or the Neapolitan ?" " I don't call those governments at all. LAURA GAY. 289 The former is the outer darkness of a bar- baric theocracy, and the latter, a mere hotch- potch of rottenness." Thornton concluded that Redford was vexed at his approaching the subject of the loan ; abandoning, therefore, the idea of again introducing it, he admired by twi- light, the beauties of the old Park, and the situation of the house. " Yes, it is a fine place, but if Mrs. Redford does not soon present me with a son and heir, I have thoughts of selling it. It is hardly large enough, or seignorial enough for a man in my position, and I cannot quite afford to keep up two such places, as well as a mansion in Belgravia. However, if Master Robert should be born here, I suppose it will be necessary to content myself with adding to the house, enlarging the Park, and restoring the mouldering old church and parsonage yonder, or some such humbug. The neigh- bourhood is detestable, you must know ; here VOL. I. U 290 LAURA GAY. and there a stupid old squire, or squireen, a gim-cracky retired London shopkeeper ; and women in the two extremes of solemn dowdiness and drowsiness, or of flippant finery ; with parsons and parishioners, that are all things to all men." " I cannot account, my dear Redford," said Thornton musingly, " for your cynicism, so favoured as you have certainly been by fortune." " Can't you," he replied, with a short laugh, " then you are no better than your fellow students of Holy Writ, who interpret the Bible backwards. Now, for my part, there is one principle of that old book, which I firmly believe, namely, c the devil and all his works, and the pomps and vanities of this wicked world.' ' " Oh !" said Thornton in his turn, " you are alluding to the Church Catechism." " Not at all. I am alluding to the Books of Moses, to the Psalms, and to Job." LAURA GAY. 291 " Then our reading of them certainly does differ, for mine lead me to believe that God made man upright, and is willing to keep him so, throughout all ages." " A pretty kind of uprightness both within and without. However, we won't discuss the Powers above." They returned to the drawing-room ; Mrs. Redford sang, Thornton turning over the leaves of her music-book, while Redford dozed in an easy chair. " What a pity,"" thought Thornton, " that happiness should not abide amidst all this wealth !" When they had seated themselves at the breakfast-table, the following morning, the letters and newspapers were brought in. Redford appropriated the main sheet of the "Times" to himself, turning over the supplement to his wife. She was pouring out coffee, and requested Thorn- ton to look among the births, marriages, u 2 292 LAURA GAY. and deaths, and to read aloud, if he came across the names of any acquaintance. The following announcement immediately attracted Thornton's notice. " On the 2nd inst., at St. John's, Chester, by the Rev. Henry Gore, rector of St. Ed- mund's, assisted by the Rev. Julius Griffiths, brother to the bride; the Rev. Cecil Lord Huntley, to Ethelfreda Iphigenia, youngest daughter of the late Dr. Griffiths, Bishop of St. Helen's, and great-niece of the late Rev. Elton Harcourt, Vicar of Winmick in the county of Lancaster." His eyes swam, as he read, and he could hardly believe them. He w 7 as almost suffo- cated by his surprise and emotion ; luckily for his dignity and composure, he upset the cup of hot coffee Mrs. Redford was handing to him, on her wrist, an opportune accident which furnished him with a topic of con- versation in a thousand apologies, and hopes that she was not scalded. LAURA GAY. 293 " They are ridiculous coffee-cups. They are always up-setting," said Redford, with ill - temper. " Have we no others ?" Mrs. Redford looked discomposed ; and her husband added, in a softer tone : " 1 hope you are not startled." Then turning to Thornton, he continued, " We are expecting a large party down for lunch, to stay over Sunday — Mrs. Wyndham, some decimal degree Scotch cousins, the M'Nabs of Nab (by- the- way, if you have a Scotch cousin, you are more or less nearly related to all the oldest British nobility extant, the Black Douglas into the bargain), Fairford, whom you know, of course, and Ballennie will be of the party." " Fairford ! why he belongs to the men you were eulogising last night," said Thorn- ton, with a laugh. " Yes ! to be sure he does. He is a decent fellow, though, and a particular friend of 294 LAURA GAY. Madame's ; so I, le mari, tolerate him, as in duty bound." Mrs. Redford coloured deeply, and Thorn- ton felt how much such an insinuation must wound a young and handsome wife, but he rejoined : " You will have a large and agreeable party here." " Yes," replied Redford, " there is no one like my mother-in-law for making things agreeable, or the reverse. I have the pro- foundest respect for her abilities in that line. We are excellent friends," he added, rubbing his hands, " and understand each other, de fond en comble. Is it not so, chere amie ? He little suspected the way in which mother and daughter abused him in their confidential moments. "Well, Mr. Thornton, did you not find any name we know ?" " Yes, indeed," he replied, resuming the LAURA GAY. 295 supplement, " and you will be much sur- prised to hear it." Mrs. Redford's colour changed again ; both the gentlemen observed it. " No deaths, I hope," growled Red- ford. " No — a marriage." "Miss Gay?" exclaimed Mrs. Redford, without raising her eyes from her plate. " No, indeed, Lord Huntley, the Rev. Cecil Lord Huntley to — " Thornton had some difficulty to avoid laughing, until he had gone through the whole advertisement, and they all laughed heartily. " Why the late Right Rev. Father must have become a deuced Byzantine, perforce his ecclesiastical studies. Saxon, Greek, and Celt. Ha ! ha ! ha ! I should have liked the acquaintance of Dr. Griffiths," said Redford. Thornton took up the "Times" and ap- peared to study one column of it for several 296 LAURA GAY. minutes : then retiring to his room, he spent the whole morning in concocting a letter to Laura. He wrote and cancelled, and wrote again, rinding it impossible to address his mis- tress in language that satisfied his feelings, or suited the delicate and most embarrassing circumstances under which they had parted. Oh ! how bitterly he reproached himself for his rude, cruel, and ungenerous outburst of jealousy and passion at the Flower Show. With an acute sense of self-reproach and humiliation, and urged on by the strength of his affection, at last he finished and sealed the following letter : " Dear Miss Gay, " For believe me, never since we parted at the Flower Show, have you been other than most dear to me, unworthy though you may justly consider me, to make such a declaration : this morning has opened LAURA GAY. 297 my eyes to the most grevious self-delu- sion, I ever practised. I have just read in this morning's 'Times' the announce- ment of Lord Huntley's marriage. I need say no more to explain my unmanly conduct and words to you when last we met ; yet, indeed, you shall know, that ever since that unhappy day, I have been dragging a miserable and contrite existence; thousands of times I have blamed my foolish jealousy, while yet I did not know how utterly groundless it w r as. " If you cannot restore to me the esteem I have forfeited, do, at least, assure me, that you will sometime forgive me, and cancel the cruel sentence, in which you con- demned all future hope of meeting. " More, at present, I dare not say. But do believe me, when I assure you, that I am most penitently, and if you will permit it, ever most devotedly yours, " Charles Thornton." 298 LAURA GAY. He placed the letter in the breast of his coat, and meeting Mrs. Redford, on the stairs, asked her where the post-rack stood. She replied, " in the Hall ;" and heard him ask the servant at what time the post left. " In about five minutes, Sir," was the answer. She saw Thornton drop the letter into the post-box, and then descend the steps into the garden. Was that letter indeed to Laura Gay ? — all Mrs. Redford's old feelings of rivalry and jealousy rose up in full force, and a fatal impulse prompted her to abstract the letter. At first, she did not meditate arrest- ing its departure ; she only felt she must assure herself of its destination. Unfortunately for Mrs. Redford, the servant came for the letter, just as she was reading the address, and endeavouring to make out one or two words, apparent under the envelope. LAURA GAY. 299 " Is that letter for the post, ma'am," he enquired. " No !" she replied, taken by surprise. " Can he have caught a glimpse of the handwriting," thought she, " and what if he should say in the Hall, that he had seen me keep back the letter of a guest ?" Her confusion and fear of exposure became so great, that at the moment no alternative presented itself, but the immediate destruction of the letter. That seemed the safest course; for suppose Thornton, get- ting no answer, wrote again to ask if his letter had been received, would he not be sure to conclude that it had miscarried through the post, and why should any sus- picion rest upon herself. Five minutes only had elapsed between Thornton's placing the letter in the box, and the postman's departure. She looked again at the address : it was to Miss Gay's home in Yorkshire, and Mrs. 300 LAURA GAY. Redford believed that she usually resided with her aunt in Wales — a circumstance which might assist in diverting all suspicions ; besides, the letter was, in all probability, one of penitence and explanation, produced by the announcement of Lord Huntley's marriage : what more natural for Thornton to conclude, than, that Laura was too much offended to reply ? At this moment, Mrs. Redford fancied she heard carriage wheels coming along the drive ; undecided, she ran flurried with these thoughts to her dressing-room, and seeing no other means of escaping detection, with trembling haste, she lighted a taper and burnt the letter. Then she bathed her face in cold water, took sal- volatile and camphor, and rang for her maid.' "Dear me, ma'am, how ill you look." " I do feel very sick and faint, those horrid mushrooms at breakfast have quite upset me, but I must try to keep up, for LAURA GAY. 301 the company have come, have they not ?" " Suppose you lie down, ma'am, a bit, and let me tell Mr. Redford that you don't feel quite well, and that you'll come down by-and-bye." " Oh, no," her mistress replied, " I must receive them, besides I have a tiresome letter to write afterwards, which ought to go by to-day's post. I had written it once, but I felt so ill and bilious, that I knew it could not be to the purpose, so I destroyed it. Perhaps a little lunch and a glass of wine may revive me — give me my smelling salts." " Shall I bring you up a glass of sherry now, ma'am ?" " Oh ! yes do, and make haste." The maid brought up the sherry, and then went down to the Hall, to express her fears that an accident would befal her mistress, if she continued to eat mushrooms, and such 302 LAURA GAY. like indigestible things for breakfast. She also intimated that the cook, whom she hated, had done one or two fungus's by mistake, speculating on the character and importance of the letter her mistress had written and destroyed, she agreed with most of her fellow servants, that the " tiresome letter " was one, to enquire after a housekeeper to replace Mrs. Skinner. Meanwhile the company had arrived. Mrs. Redford hurried down stairs, and re- ceived the ladies with so many expressions of cordiality, and so many apologies for the inconvenient state of her health, that they were charmed with her amiability. It is true, she seemed rather flushed and excited during lunch, but every body naturally attributed that to the heat of the day, and to her interesting con- dition. " Dearest mamma," said she, in Thorn- LAURA GAY. 303 ton's hearing, " you cannot imagine how the short journey down here by the rail- way has upset me." " Of course, you have been reclining ever since," replied Mrs. "Wyndham. "No, indeed. I was quite obliged this morning, to do so, and don't make yourself uneasy, for 1 kept the sofa in my dres- sing-room, a couple of hours, before you came, and I had almost made up my mind to deny myself the pleasure of lunching with you all." " Why did you not do so ; you know I could have entertained your friends very well, my dear, until you felt better." •• Perhaps it is better after all, to exert oneself. We will send out the gentlemen on horseback, and the young ladies in the barouche to explore the neighbourhood. You'' turning to Thornton and Mr. Red- ford, " must make yourselves exceedingly agreeable ; and then, if you like, mamma, we 304 LAURA GAY. can have a little tete-a-tete on topics most interesting to ourselves, and perhaps a little turn in the garden, by-and-bye, when there is some shade to be found. " Mrs. Wyndham and her daughter had a long tete-a-tete, embracing a great variety of subjects, such as old Bedford's vulgarity, the amount of his property, the superb diamonds he had given his daughter-in-law ; the pre- sents of game, and grapes, and Cheshire cheeses, and Westmorland hams, which he constantly sent to her relatives ; the layette, for the expected little stranger, Redford's ill- temper and absurdities ; Miss M'Nab's chance of matrimony, her faults of manner, dress, and appearance ; the troubles of housekeeping ; Mrs. Skinner's inefficiency ; a propos of which, Mrs. Wyndham wrote to a lady friend in town, whose importance in the world, con- sisted in obliging distinguished acquaintances, describing to her the sort of person required by her daughter as housekeeper. This LAURA GAY. 305 letter Mrs. Redford herself directed, and sent off by special messenger to the post-office in the village, thereby fully justifying her maid's conjectures. On the ensuing Monday, Charles Thorn- ton returned to town, half hoping, against all postal probabilities, that he might find a reply to his letter. Day after day passed, and the much longed for letter from Laura never ar- rived. His despondency almost amounted to despair. He could not endure the thought that she utterly condemned him, as she must do, thus to withhold all acknowledgment of his appeal, and all hope of reconciliation. No doubt, she resented his unjust sus- picions of her constancy, and his heartless rough words at the Flower Show, perhaps, she now regarded him as a monster of violent wayward passion. Probably, she had confided her griefs to Lady Cecilia Mowbray, whose advice, he apprehended, vol. i. x 306 LAURA GAY. would be against any renewal of the acquain- tance. Her esteem, her affections once quite alienated, it was vain to hope for their return — perhaps, even she regarded him as the imper- tinent suitor of her fortune. With what anguish he now recalled all the incidents of the Flower Show — how differently he now in- terpreted them. Yes, indeed, Laura's radiant beauty then was his, her emotion and joy had been caused by meeting him, and he had wantonly and brutally spurned them. Well might Lady Cecilia resent his con- duct, and counsel her young friend to avoid him. Well might Laura pass that cruel sentence of separation upon him. He had blindly and determinedly provoked his doom — nothing was left him for consolation, but the monotonous course of time, if indeed that had any power to alleviate the pangs of des- pised love. LAURA GAY 307 " Give me penance ; give me fatigue ; harness me to the heaviest load of thought ; let me traverse the severest paths of study, and the rudest trials of patience — all will be welcome and precious, if they can only obliterate the woe I have brought upon myself." London and his Chambers had become in- tolerable to Charles Thornton — invitations to shoot in the Highlands, to pay visits to well-filled country-houses, to join pedestrian parties to Switzerland, to yacht in the Me- diterranean, covered his table, but he put them all on one side, and the close of an unusually late Session found him resolved to leave town, and yet not decided whither to go. Had not Mr. Mowbray come most unexpectedly to his aid, perhaps he might have made a snail's progress through the British Isles. Mr. Mowbray took a real interest in x 2 308 LAURA GAY. Thornton, and his career ; he perceived and appreciated the sincerity and justness of his sentiments, the ingenuousness and usefulness of his political course. Mr. Mowbray himself was not a man of genius — the relations of principles to each other, and their logical consequences never struck him by inspiration ; but through laborious study . of facts, manipulated in a true Baconian spirit of research and experiment, he arrived, with tolerable cer- tainty, at a respectable number of valuable truths. He now proposed a tour of two months in France, Prussia, and Belgium. He was already well read in the laws and customs, past and present, of these countries ; he was intimately acquainted with many of their literary men and persons of eminence: partly consi- dering that Charles Thornton might derive great advantage from such a tour, partly LAURA GAY. 309 that he would contribute his share towards the information to be gained, by the in- telligent and active interest which he took in the moral condition of the people, Mr. Mowbray, paid him the compliment of seeking him as a companion. The invitation was accepted with alacrity, for under any circumstances it would have been more tempting than any of those he he had refused. As it was, it not onlv offered him the pleasure of a congenial companion, and an opportunity of pro- secuting his favourite study, but it seemed to afford him, through her friends, the Mowbrays, some chance of hearing and talking of Laura, perhaps even of seeing her again. The tour was as successful as the two travellers could desire — they enjoyed much intelligent and agreeable society — they collected statistics to Mr. Mowbray's 310 LAURA GAY. heart's content, and Charles Thornton i pecially, 'derived many valuable ideas, and much benefit in every way, from constant intercourse with the conscientious and expe- rienced student — his compagnon de voyage. Once or twice he ventured to name Miss Gay, but his friend gave him no information respecting her; seeming to take but little interest in the topic. It was Mr. Mowbray's usual habit to leave all social matters entirely to the discretion of Lady Cecilia, and not to trouble his head about their numerous acquaintance. He had, indeed, an indistinct impression that Lady Cecilia had given him an injunction, certainly unnecessary, not to encourage con- versation on that subject. Charles Thornton readily imagined some such injunction, to be the reason of Mr. Mowbray's reserve, and he mournfully attributed it to Laura's own wishes. if LAURA GAY. 311 On his part, Mr. Mowbray, notwith- standing his usual indifference to the on- dits of society, felt so much interest in Charles Thornton's character and welfare, that he could not forbear occasionally adverting, with great delicacy, to his connection and intimacy with the Red- fords. Thornton did not encourage him to do so ; still he showed no symptoms of undue consciousness at the mention of Mrs. Redford's name. He allowed that Redford's manners were extremely disagreeable, and that he did not treat his wife with as much consideration as so young, and so charming a person was entitled to expect from her husband; ye^ he maintained that he, at least, had good reason to know that Redford was possessed of some excellent qualities of a high moral order. Mr. Mowbray was puzzled, and in reply 312 LAURA GAY. to his wife's frequent inquiries, after their return, he insisted that Thornton appeared not in the least aware of the danger and impropriety of his intimacy with Mrs. Red- ford, and that he was evidently under a singular delusion, as to the character of Redford himself. END OF VOL. I. LONDON: Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. %^ if. m. /SiQ. ^v^ m&< vj> ft dfc. #• ^: II* jqr ->. ■*-£* # A >♦: ?*• Al ■ff A > *;. >*r r 5w * ■t^^H^H 'ft*? - ffl •AJr\ » - Ift.*^ ■/ //Am -£I* Fk'> . iV w& 2. m ■ 3 0112 049086611 > ST* < - 'i «Tj^^^^HIb *f^ • V £i / • >*i '^*ijr t% y ' U UT •