-TI B RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 823 
 
 Sh2S2 
 v.l
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/shatteredidols01comb
 
 7J>-' 
 
 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 : What, Dagon up again ! I thought we had hurled him 
 Down on the threshold, never more to rise. 
 Ering wedge and axe, and neighbours, lend your hands, 
 And rive the idol into winter fagots." 
 
 Athehtane. 
 
 IN THEEE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HUEST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHEES, 
 
 SUCCESSOES TO HENEY COLBUEN, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 1865. 
 
 The right of Translation is reserved.
 
 85/2> 
 
 V 
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " When I consider life, 'tis all a cheat : 
 Yet, fooled with hope, men favour the deceit, 
 Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay — 
 To-morrow's falser than the former da}' ; 
 Lies worse ; and while it says we should be blest 
 With some new joys, cuts off what we possest." 
 
 Deydex. 
 
 Flying clouds had chased each other since 
 morning over the sky, blown by currents 
 which occasionally swept downwards along 
 the ground in gusts damp and chill. The 
 south-west wind rushed into every crevice, 
 and blustered round every corner, beating 
 a watery torrent in all directions, and 
 arousing the dormant atmosphere from the 
 previous baleful stagnation of a November 
 calm. 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 Z SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 The evening darkened prematurely into 
 twilight, for the sun had not once penetrated 
 the leaden clouds all day, nor sent the usual 
 golden rays to earth with which it bids the 
 world good night in climates such as that 
 where my story is to be enacted. 
 
 It was in the south that the night which I 
 am describing lowered over the inhabitants 
 of a small village near Avignon: down 
 the hill on which it was built tore the 
 stream that in ordinary times crept lin- 
 geringly along the road's mid-channel, now 
 swollen to treble its usual breadth, and 
 reflecting the wretched lights hung in 
 lanterns across the street. They creaked, 
 and jingled, and oscillated, so that the rays 
 which they shed seemed to dance in the 
 pools of water beneath them. 
 
 All other noises were silenced in this 
 quiet little place by the approach of night; 
 the poor small houses bordering the 
 street had been long closed, for their in- 
 mates were now enjoying the calm sleep
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 3 
 
 purchased by hard labour with the wear 
 of life. 
 
 One building, of some pretension, rose 
 above the rest; it was, like others in the 
 village, dilapidated, and from the external 
 appearance you would conclude that it had 
 been for years uninhabited. This gloomy 
 night, however, one occupant sat there in 
 a room upon the ground floor, where 
 he had spent most days of the past month. 
 
 After an absence of two years in Italy, 
 Castelle, a student of some repute at Padua, 
 returned to the late home of his deceased 
 parents, on a day as dreary as this just de- 
 scribed; and he took possession of a 
 miserable abode, uncheerecl by any kind 
 greeting. 
 
 Xo affectionate welcome hailed him, no 
 kind ministering of friendship alleviated his 
 fatigue, no inquiring glance of love sought 
 the improvement we look for after absence 
 in the young; a dark, cold, lonely dwelling 
 diffused a chill around the heart far more 
 
 b 2
 
 4 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 unendurable than mere personal inconve- 
 nience. 
 
 After his arrival at Lieufort, our student 
 remained for some days absorbed in 
 the reflections suggested by a return to the 
 home of early years. His stay there had 
 been prolonged by various circumstances, 
 which unexpectedly detained him till the 
 time when he is introduced to my readers. 
 
 It was after a day spent in study that, 
 seated in the half-furnished room of his 
 cheerless dwelling, Castelle anticipated the 
 coming future with the glow of hope 
 which seems already to realize happiness 
 for the young. An open volume lay before 
 him on the table, beside a small lamp 
 feebly illuminating the gloomy room. 
 Relieved by the shadows of the dark back- 
 ground, his fine countenance seemed to give 
 brilliancy to the light which it reflected. 
 Expression harmonized features that were 
 in themselves of the highest order of beauty : 
 large dark lustrous eyes, of which the
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 5 
 
 searching glance might have been other- 
 wise too harsh, were softened by long black 
 lashes that seemed to shade you from their 
 penetrating scrutiny. A mouth such as 
 a sculptor would imitate, might have been 
 too hard, too resolute, did not a peculiar 
 smile often modulate its lines into less 
 determined curves. His forehead, wide and 
 elevated, promised great intellectual facul- 
 ties, the force and persistence of which 
 were .guaranteed by the well-proportioned 
 head, massive behind with a counterpoise to 
 its frontal development. 
 
 Xo sound disturbed the quiet neighbour- 
 hood, chiefly inhabited by the poor and 
 laborious, who had long since retired to 
 enjoy their only luxury — sleep, till the 
 village clock broke the prolonged silence, 
 striking eleven. Castelle had been anxiouslv 
 expecting this hour, and for the last few 
 minutes walked restlessly up and down his 
 room, as if watching for some looked-for 
 summons. At last a gentle knock on the
 
 6 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 door was followed by the appearance of an 
 old woman there, who, with a sign of cau- 
 tion, said tremulously, " Are you ready, 
 sir?" 
 
 "Is all quiet in the street?" whispered 
 Castelle. 
 
 "Not a being stirring, sir; but make 
 haste, for heaven's sake, or Ave may be too 
 late." 
 
 Motioning assent, Castelle took the lamp 
 from the table, and depositing it in the 
 passage, quickly issued out into the dark 
 court, where the old woman impatiently 
 awaited his appearance. From this they 
 entered a narrow street, in which the few 
 lamps spared by the increasing rain gleamed 
 with dull uncertainty through its mist, and 
 Castelle mechanically drew the collar of his 
 student's dress closer as he encountered 
 the cold blast, and quickly followed his 
 cautious guide with a light and noiseless 
 step. 
 
 Emerging from the street, they entered
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 7 
 
 a path bounded on one side by some unin- 
 habited cottages, and on the other by a 
 dilapidated wall. Again turning, and en- 
 tering a narrow lane, the old woman as- 
 sumed more precaution, walked slower, 
 and peered around in all directions; 
 then drawing a key from a very deep 
 pocket, she applied it to the door of a 
 miserable hovel and admitted them both 
 into its interior. 
 
 On his entrance Castelle looked in- 
 quiringly around him. 
 
 " It is not here, sir," said the old woman, 
 her teeth chattering with cold and terror. 
 " Oh, what will become of me if we are 
 found out?" 
 
 " Silence," muttered Castelle ; " where is 
 the body?" 
 
 She pointed to a corner of the inner 
 room, and Castelle started back as, on 
 moving a table that stood beside it, the 
 heavy arm of a corpse fell upon the floor 
 at his feet. Recovering his composure im-
 
 8 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 mediately, lie wrapped the sheet which 
 partly covered the body tightly round it, 
 and using all his strength in the effort, 
 drew it into the room without. He then 
 bound it with a cord, and urging the old 
 woman to assist him, they bore their life- 
 less burden through a back gate, thus 
 avoiding the vicinity of some opposite 
 dwellings. With much greater caution than 
 before, the same road was retraced, Castelle 
 bearing the chief part of their load, and 
 urging his companion by threats and pro- 
 mises to exert all her strength for his help. 
 The rain continued unabated; and when its 
 covering shrank round the very meagre out- 
 lines of the corpse, the old woman remitted 
 the assistance she had hitherto afforded Cas- 
 telle, inducing him, when near his home, 
 to dismiss her with injunctions of inviolable 
 secrecy as to the events of the night. 
 
 Lifting the corpse with difficulty, Castelle 
 now passed through the court, and finding 
 his lamp still burning in the passage, he
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. V 
 
 deposited the emaciated body in a closet 
 within his apartment. Locking the door, 
 and placing the light beside him, he 
 gently uncovered the lace, contemplating 
 anxiously the young man's countenance. 
 The pallid cheek of Castelle faded to even a 
 lighter tint, and his bright eyes glazed over 
 with the mist of abstraction, as he knelt 
 beside the spoil of death, on which youth 
 and beauty had left some faded traces, 
 spared by disease. 
 
 Did compassion or regret suggest the 
 thoughts which passed through his mind 
 as he calmly inspected the lifeless form 
 before him? Did remorse chill his heart? 
 did apprehension quicken his pulse ? These 
 arr questions which will be answered as 
 the story proceeds. 
 
 When Castelle arose from his bending 
 position, he opened a pocket-book which 
 the old nurse, Annette, as she left him, had 
 placed in his hand, and commenced reading 
 by the light of his little lamp a letter that
 
 10 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 it contained. It had been written by a 
 man of business " to Frederick Spencer 
 Vivian, Esq.." whose remains lay before 
 him. The poor pedestrian, crawling fevered 
 and helpless into the town, plundered of 
 his travelling equipment, was, then, it ap- 
 peared, the rich heir to a lately deceased 
 uncle, and had undertaken alone, in a 
 spirit of romantic adventure, the walking 
 tour which terminated so fatally. A Jesuit 
 confessor, of whom you will learn more 
 hereafter, had forwarded this letter to 
 Castelle. 
 
 While the student read, his countenance 
 assumed a new expression, which lasted for 
 some minutes, as he meditated on this un- 
 expected information. He had committed an 
 error, now unfortunately irretrievable. Was 
 science, which should make his fortune, 
 now marring it ? Why had he not received 
 this letter a few days earlier? Why, with 
 the recklessness of scientific ambition, did 
 he hazard processes that were unluckily
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 11 
 
 but too successful? Questions like these 
 only aggravated his distress at having 
 selected such a victim for experiments, to 
 which a less prosperous man might have 
 been better sacrificed. 
 
 Exhausted by the incidents and emo- 
 tions of the day, Castelle returned to his 
 room, and threw himself, still dressed, upon 
 his little bed, after closing the door that 
 led into the closet where the body lay. 
 For some time recollections of the recent 
 occurrence engrossed him; by degrees they 
 yielded to the influence of fatigue, which 
 now subdued his faculties into a restless 
 and unrefreshing sleep. 
 
 Fearful forms and horrid sounds seemed 
 to surround him : he was then hurried into 
 the midst of an immense mass of human 
 beings, undulating with the restlessness of 
 life, when suddenly a cry of " Murder — 
 murder!" is prolonged by the echo of a 
 thousand voices penetrating every pore, as 
 if the sense of hearing resided in each.
 
 12 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Horror and pain give him a supernatural 
 energy; he rushes through the crowd, reach- 
 ing its verge with the rapidity of thought. 
 His pursuers follow, while his throbbing 
 heart threatens every instant to burst the 
 barriers against which it beats with aofoniz- 
 ing force. Still they advance, every 
 step lessening the distance between them, 
 when an iron grasp, sending a thrill of 
 horror through every nerve, fixes him to 
 the spot. 
 
 Violent efforts to escape now awoke 
 Castelle, and gradually recovering from the 
 effect of this dream, he sat up in his bed to 
 enjoy the certainty of its cessation. Cast- 
 ing his eyes on the opposite wall, an object 
 there presented itself which seemed to be 
 but a waking recurrence of the late hor- 
 rible vision. At a window between his 
 own and the adjoining closet, which it 
 lighted, he beheld the face of the corpse, its 
 eyes open, and gleaming full upon him. The 
 lamp, still burning, shone upon the ghastly
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 13 
 
 features, which seemed to express inquiry 
 and astonishment. Castelle at first doubted 
 the reality of this appearance, and waited 
 for some moments in the expectation of its 
 fading from his steadfast scrutiny. He was 
 accustomed to death in all its varied forms, 
 and now the figure that stood before him 
 excited no other feeling than that of sur- 
 prise, for he knew that a living hand must, 
 for some purpose, have raised it there. 
 
 Yet the door of his apartment was locked 
 inside and its windows fastened, the key 
 remaining under his pillow, where on 
 lvins: down he had placed it. Another, 
 however, might have been procured, 
 thought Castelle, when starting from his bed 
 he hurried towards the next room to dis- 
 cover the intruder. Then a sudden appre- 
 hension checked him and he hesitated for 
 a moment, when the consequence of detec- 
 tion occurred to him. and terror suspended 
 the hand hastily laid upon the latch of the 
 closet door. With sudden decision, however,
 
 14 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 lie pressed it down, and found, to Iris sur- 
 prise, the lock still fast. The key admitted 
 him immediately. On trying the windows 
 of the adjoining room and ascertaining that 
 they also were unopened, he returned to 
 that part of the closet where the window 
 was situated, and just reached it when 
 with a heavy noise the corpse fell at his feet. 
 
 More convinced than ever that some 
 neighbour who witnessed the scene of the 
 preceding hours had resorted to this means 
 of terrifying and detecting him, he now 
 commenced a fresh search for the unwel- 
 come visitor. Vainly the rooms beyond 
 were examined — all remained as it was 
 two hours before ; while, the outside doors 
 and shutters being closely fastened, an 
 entrance from the street was impossible. 
 
 More and more perplexed, it suddenly oc- 
 curred to Castelle that in the body itself 
 might be found the cause of this strange 
 apparition ; and on touching it he found, as 
 he expected, a gentle warmth diffused around
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 15 
 
 its chest, while on further examination he 
 felt the heart beat feebly, struggling inef- 
 fectually to resume its natural pulsation. 
 
 I 'astelle removed the young man into his 
 room, laid him on the bed, and proceeded 
 to administer efficient restoratives. He 
 threw some fresh wood on the smouldering 
 fire, and with warm applications endea- 
 voured to recall heat and animation ; 
 but his efforts for two hours were not re- 
 warded with further success than a slight 
 increase of the circulation, and a more 
 healthy tinge upon the features of his 
 patient. 
 
 Judging that determination of blood to 
 the head prolonged this stupor, the young 
 physician determined on means for its 
 relief, which he must procure elsewhere; he 
 should pass the house of Annette, the old 
 woman who had lately left him, on his way 
 to the druggist's, and he resolved on sendiiro- 
 her immediately to take charge of this un- 
 expected patient.
 
 16 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " Like one that on a lonesome road 
 Doth walk in fear and dread, 
 And having once turned round, walks on, 
 And turns no more his head ; 
 Because he knows a frightful fiend 
 Doth close behind him tread." — Lamb. 
 
 There is nothing which we are more un- 
 willing to acknowledge than a dread of 
 supernatural agents; and yet the very 
 wisest amongst us must occasionally have 
 experienced apprehensions of their appear- 
 ance at times, when darkness, and the ab- 
 sence of external impressions, leave the 
 mind to the suggestions of a busy imagina- 
 tion. Old Annette's became very trouble- 
 some while she proceeded alone through 
 the dismal streets towards her own abode. 
 We are perhaps inclined to be as civil to 
 unsubstantial as to material opponents
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 17 
 
 when terrified, and Annette, with true 
 Gallic, urbanity, curtsied to sundry posts 
 and other unconscious representatives of 
 the spiritual world, near which she passed 
 on her way home. As these imaginary 
 beings displayed no symptoms of hostility 
 31* pursuit she rejoiced in the success of 
 such respectful attention. 
 
 How she wished to return to Castelle ! 
 The body, while he protected her, did not 
 possess half the terror that darkness and 
 solitude now induced; but she knew Cas- 
 telle well, and dared not risk an intrusion 
 upon him — indeed, her rapid progress to- 
 wards home rendered a retreat there more 
 desirable than the renewed encounter of the 
 phantoms which she had just noticed. An- 
 nette's bed was now the goal of her fervent 
 aspirations, and insinuating herself therein 
 she remained motionless till the cold grey 
 light of a November day dawned upon her 
 as she peeped from under the coverlet, and 
 assured herself that she might prepare for 
 
 vol. i. c 
 
 4*
 
 18 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 a return to the student's, where the office 
 of bonne, or dry-nurse, to the establishment, 
 was her daily duty. 
 
 As she passed along the streets to his 
 house, relief from the distresses of the night 
 promoted the most gracious of humours, so 
 she smiled at the begrimed and noisy 
 children who abounded in the poor vil- 
 lage, such possessions being mostly pre- 
 sented by kind fortune as substitutes for 
 worldly goods. Chubby specimens, with 
 vigorous constitutions and promising ap- 
 petites, large mouths and compendious 
 stomachs, looked out like domestic hydras 
 from every door. 
 
 Annette at last reached the student's 
 house, where she found him, as usual, 
 seated near the fire with his back to the 
 door, and wrapped in a dressing-gown; 
 while a lace cap with blue ribbons, which 
 she had left the preceding day upon the 
 table, adorned his head, to the great aston- 
 ishment of the owner. She supposed him
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 19 
 
 to have assumed it in a fit of abstrac- 
 tion. 
 
 "Monsieur is not indisposed, I hope?" 
 murmured the polite woman, in her blandest 
 accent, making a curtsy for her own satis- 
 faction at the door. Monsieur did not pay 
 the least attention to the kind query. This 
 silence was not unusual, but Annette dared 
 not proceed to her usual avocations at the 
 grate without first announcing the dis- 
 turbance. A small cough and another 
 civil speech were equally disregarded, and 
 now that Annette looked round she per- 
 ceived very strange changes in the room. 
 Everything seemed diverted from its proper 
 use by some unaccountable caprice. The 
 mattress lay across the table, while a broken 
 chair, scattered papers, and torn books 
 produced a confusion as inextricable as that 
 which bewildered Annette's mind. 
 
 " Monsieur must be mad," she muttered, 
 " or else the ghost of that poor creature last 
 night, after performing these feats, may 
 
 c2
 
 20 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 perhaps have entranced him in the seat where 
 he now sits as stiff and silent as death." 
 Daylight being an effectual promoter of cou- 
 rage, Annette advanced with the conscious 
 pride of valour to the place where her 
 master preserved his unaccountable silence. 
 " Monsieur, monsieur!" screamed in her 
 loudest tone, was just uttered when she 
 reached the chair, and then, as if shot 
 through the heart, the old woman fell to 
 the ground, convulsed with terror, for the 
 face that turned towards her was that ot 
 the corpse. Starting from his chair with a 
 maniacal shout, the young man contem- 
 plated his affrighted visitor as she lay on 
 the ground, gathered together like a spider, 
 offering the smallest possible surface to 
 danger, and, with closed eyes, awaiting her 
 doom. 
 
 A wicked lunatic was not nearly so ob- 
 jectionable as a ghost in Annette's opinion; 
 but the demented gentleman's proceedings 
 did not leave her much time to confer a
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 21 
 
 preference on either, for applying a phial of 
 salvolatile (procured from Castelle's medicine 
 chest) to her mouth, he appeared determined 
 to discharge its contents into the stomach 
 of the pretended swooner, whose single old 
 green tooth afforded but a poor defence to 
 the cavity. 
 
 At this juncture steps were heard in the 
 passage; the young man j)aused, Annette 
 felt that her life was reserved for its natural 
 term, and Castelle appeared at the door, 
 transfixed with surprise at the scene before 
 him. There was the youth, whoin he had 
 left insensible a quarter of an hour pre- 
 viously, attired in his clothes, with a lace 
 cap on his head, and seeming to enjoy an 
 intimacy with Annette which their recent 
 acquaintance could not warrant. Sundry 
 winks and nods were attempted by the old 
 lady to explain her situation to Castelle, 
 varied by wreathed smiles when the lunatic 
 turned his eves from the student to her. 
 These gestures, and, above all, the invalid's
 
 22 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 restless eyes and abrupt movements, ex- 
 plained the mystery to Castelle, who now, 
 with a fixed and determined gaze and 
 authoritative tone, ordered the young man 
 to be still, and not to disturb him further. 
 
 Throughout an entire week the stranger 
 required the unremitting vigilance of his 
 careful attendants to control repeated 
 paroxysms of violent delirium. 
 
 "When, after this period, consciousness re- 
 turned, he several times expressed some sur- 
 prise at his new location, while thanking 
 both kind attendants for their unwearied 
 assiduity. They as often discouraged any 
 further effort at conversation, on the plea 
 of expediency, and the invalid's silence was 
 therefore only broken by these bursts of 
 gratitude, from the utterance of which he 
 could not be dissuaded. 
 
 Annette seemed particularly averse to 
 answer any questions as to the means of 
 his removal to Castelle's ; but vivid recol- 
 lections of the event itself, of its cause and
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 23 
 
 its object, failed not to suggest reflections 
 of an unpleasant nature as she sat through 
 the long dark winter nights beside the bed 
 of her charge. 
 
 On the day that he first walked round 
 the room and looked out of the window 
 with an exclamation of surprise, he asked 
 how and when they had removed him from 
 the hospital ; he remembered its position 
 in the street, although retaining no recol- 
 lection of his room there. Annette, evi- 
 dently confused by the question, turned to 
 Castelle, and with looks and signs intimated 
 its importance. Castelle readily told the 
 young man that, having found him in a 
 miserable situation at the infirmary, he 
 had brought him to his own house with the 
 view of trying some new treatment, which 
 had proved efficacious in other cases, but 
 was yet neglected by the medical officers 
 of the hospital. 
 
 Annette looked very wise during this 
 explanation, and seemed relieved from much
 
 24 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 uneasiness when it was implicitly credited, 
 although a certain confusion of her coim- 
 tenance indicated either astonishment at 
 the student's inventive powers or mistrust 
 of her own memory, which, supplied as it 
 was as much by dreams as reality, without 
 the power of discriminating between them, 
 furnished but a very uncertain chronicle 
 of past events. 
 
 Castelle again resumed his scientific 
 studies, and when towards evening he 
 joined Vivian, and sat over a small fire in 
 the large o-loomv room, their conversation 
 usually referred to some subjects connected 
 with the mornings investigation, which the 
 latter was quite capable of estimating. 
 
 When Vivian was nearly convalescent, 
 and questioned Castelle as to the expe- 
 diency of removal for change of air, 
 the young doctor gave him permission 
 to travel in a few days, and then 
 informed him that Paris was to be his 
 own destination, and agreed that they
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 25 
 
 should proceed there together. The 
 young man's joy at this prospect evinced 
 itself with an earnestness which guaranteed 
 its sincerity ; seizing CastehVs hand, he 
 expressed his gratitude in the warmest 
 terms. ''' To you I owe my life, Castelle ; 
 whatever happiness I may yet enjoy you 
 must share, for will it not be vour gift? 
 have you not restored me to life and 
 health? Let me now love vou as a brother, 
 let me revere you as a father, and obey you 
 as a master-spirit on whose sustaining power 
 I can always rely for support and guidance." 
 These protestations were not required by 
 Castelle to prove how much Vivian's roman- 
 tic disposition, gratified by the strangeness of 
 their meeting, enhanced the gratitude which 
 he felt for Castelle's kindness. The student 
 had long before fathomed that ardent, 
 sensitive nature which would surrender 
 itself entirely to those who won it by 
 afFection, or who excited its enthusiasm by 
 intellectual or moral pre-eminence.
 
 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " Morn, in the white wake of the morning star, 
 Came furrowing all the Orient into gold." 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 A bright frosty morning ushered in the 
 day on which Castelle and Vivian were to de- 
 part from Lieufort. Upon reaching the hotel 
 from which a conveyance was to start, they 
 took possession of its two best places. To 
 those of our readers who have travelled in 
 France the name of Coucou will recall the 
 strange appearance of an indescribable 
 machine, drawn by one unfortunate horse, 
 which once abounded upon its roads, 
 but resembled so little any other kind of 
 carriage intended for human transport that 
 describing it would be vain to such as are 
 only familiar with the convenient vehicles 
 of our present travelling epoch.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 27 
 
 A vehicle of this nature now received 
 Castelle and his companion, who, after 
 much clambering and stumbling, reached 
 its third row, where they were to enjoy the 
 privilege of sitting, not leaning, against the 
 back, as upright and hard as a new brick 
 wall. The seat, eight inches wide, and the 
 whole interior were covered with a deceptive 
 moroon velvet, looking exceedingly dirty 
 and soft, and feeling like a flesh -brush, while 
 small apertures that should have been glazed 
 admitted a current of air from one to the 
 other, which played through their ears 
 with the murmur of an JEolian lyre. Two 
 enormous women now deposited themselves 
 on the second row, bestowing half their 
 volume and weight upon our travellers, 
 and being wedged in their turn by a smoky 
 soldier and a greasy fat man. The diligence 
 had been engaged by an English family, 
 and our travellers could not get places in it 
 till they arrived at the next town. On 
 reaching it, they seated themselves, amidst
 
 28 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 the French confusion of a departure, in 
 numbers one and two, the best corners 
 of the ponderous structure. The night was 
 so dark as to prevent them from discri- 
 minating the person of number three, 
 although recognising him to be English by 
 his accent, as he occupied the appointed 
 corner opposite Vivian. 
 
 When all were seated the immense 
 machine shook and clattered and rumbled, 
 and then, with a jerk that jostled the in- 
 mates unexpectedly together, started amidst 
 the din of valedictory vociferations, the bark - 
 mg of doofs, the nei^hins: of horses, the slash- 
 ing of whips, and the professional gibberish 
 of the postillions, who, with many other 
 officials, encouraged this uproar, considering 
 it no doubt a demonstration quite suitable 
 to the occasion. 
 
 This vehicle, like a travelling menagerie, 
 contained passengers with very troublesome 
 habits. A fat man was perpetually thrusting 
 half his person out of the window, leaving
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 29 
 
 the other part within as a substitute for the 
 view which he alone was enjoying; then 
 between our travellers sat his wife, with an 
 ugly big-mouthed baby which was always 
 making gurgling noises and hideous faces, 
 no doubt the consequences of an unprac- 
 tised digestion. 
 
 Number three shrank into his corner, at 
 first stiff and reserved, like any other Eng- 
 lishman, and only unbending when, perceiv- 
 ing Mr. Spencer Vivian's name upon a 
 portmanteau, he addressed that gentleman 
 for the purpose of ascertaining if he was any 
 relation to an old schoolfellow of his own, 
 lately deceased. On learning that his vis-a- 
 vis was the only nephew and consequently 
 the heir to this friend, he introduced 
 himself as Sir Harry Ash worth. The 
 two gentlemen then became very 
 sociable, and Castelle, who spoke 
 English perfectly, joined in their con- 
 versation. 
 
 They travelled together lor four days,
 
 30 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 and on arriving in Paris, Vivian took leave 
 of his new acquaintance with regret. Sir 
 Harry was proceeding hurriedly to London, 
 and could not remain an hour in Paris, 
 although his sister and niece resided there. 
 He entrusted a note for the former, a 
 Madame D'Albremont, to Vivian, pro- 
 mising him a pleasant acquaintance and a 
 kind reception if he called next day to give 
 her a report of the health and welfare of 
 her brother. 
 
 Vivian had never alluded to his large for- 
 tune and high position in his conversations 
 with Castelle. Already too well aware of the 
 eifect of both on his usual associates, the 
 young Englishman was proud of having 
 won the esteem of a stranger who valued 
 him for his intrinsic qualities alone. Little 
 did he suspect how much this new friend 
 prized him for more palpable recommenda- 
 tions; and how already, fully aware of 
 Vivian's estimate of disinterested friendship, 
 to propitiate him, he had rejected the offer
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 31 
 
 of hospitality which was made only when 
 Sir Harry's allusion to a fine house in 
 Paris thus revealed a secret which its 
 owner had endeavoured hitherto to 
 conceal. 
 
 The friends parted; Castelle persistent in 
 his determination to occupy a small lodg- 
 ing, engaged for him near the Luxembourg, 
 Vivian disconsolately accusing him of un- 
 kindness, and proceeding himself to the fine 
 hotel of the Faubourg St. Honore. He 
 bade Castelle adieu with tearful eyes ; and 
 weak from the effects of fever, his hand 
 trembled with emotion as he pressed that 
 of the student. 
 
 " I feel as if we ought never to part, dear 
 friend," said he, " but the separation must 
 not be long, for although time and seclusion 
 are requisite for the completion of these 
 new experiments in prospect, still give 
 me as much of your company as possible, 
 and inform me from time to time how they 
 succeed."
 
 32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " What profits us that we from Heaven derive 
 A soul immortal, and with looks erect 
 Survey the stars, if, like the brutal kind, 
 We follow where our passions lead." — Dkydex. 
 
 Sir Henry Ashworth was one of those 
 fortunate men who enjoy all the advantages 
 of wealth without the anxiety by which 
 it is often so dearly purchased. Exempt 
 from the cares of property, he lived on his 
 acquaintance; and with the moderate 
 income of live hundred pounds per annum 
 contrived to dine, sup, ride, and drive in a 
 more luxurious manner than many spend- 
 ing annuallv ten times that sum. The 
 occasional splendid dinners of others be- 
 came his daily fare, through their constant 
 recurrence; and by persuading the said 
 friends that he honoured them exceedingly
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 33 
 
 by accepting their invitations, riding 
 their horses, flirting with their wives, and 
 sitting in their opera-boxes, they soon con- 
 sidered him as essential to their parties as 
 the eternal turbot which in his time it was 
 usual to dispense, with the assistance oi a 
 friendly guest. 
 
 His father had been a celebrated silver- 
 smith, who during a long life so improved 
 the troy weight of his importance as. success- 
 fully to make a gentleman of his only 
 son, Harry. He sent him to school, and 
 furnished the means of bribing his su- 
 periors into friendship by gingerbread at 
 Eton and claret at Oxford. 
 
 The considerate parent retired to the 
 other world just when Harry " came out" in 
 this, and willed him wealth sufficient to 
 secure a seat anywhere — either in Parlia- 
 ment or at any fashionable dinner party. 
 During ten years Harry Ashworth pro- 
 gressed rapidly in society, and became a 
 passably fashionable man about town. He 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 purchased a borough, he bought a Lady Jane 
 Willingham, and many celebrated racers, 
 with so much more expensive notoriety, 
 that his prodigality, together with the failure 
 of a grand speculation, entangled him in 
 difficulties from which most obliging and 
 gentleman-like creditors extricated him at 
 the cost of his entire fortune, affording him 
 from its ruin the yearly stipend of five 
 hundred pounds. 
 
 The Lady Jane died suddenly, and her 
 husband did not consider the loss irre- 
 parable, for she departed in time to warrant 
 a retrenchment, which he preferred ascrib- 
 ing to the duties of widowhood rather than 
 to the reduced state of his finances. Bor- 
 rowing seven hundred pounds from a 
 newly-discovered relation in the City to 
 purchase the dignity, Mr. Ashworth, with 
 the help of his great connexions, got him- 
 self made a baronet, considering the loan 
 fully cancelled by the honour he conferred 
 on his cousins when occasionally conde-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 35 
 
 scending to carve their vension with his 
 
 newly acquired scarlet hand. 
 
 To Bareges our baronet proceeded one 
 summer after the fatigues of a London 
 season, and there, amongst the English 
 visitors assembled, he met a lady who 
 realized the visions of his widowed dreams. 
 An heiress and a beauty. Miss Somerton 
 immediately captivated Sir Harry, as well 
 as his travelling companion and old friend, 
 a Mr. Annesley ; and at the expiration of one 
 month since their first introduction to her 
 the two gentlemen secretly determined on 
 placing their affections, with their less pro- 
 fuse worldly possessions, at the disposal of 
 the bewitchino; Acmes. 
 
 Sir Harry and his rival of course both 
 imagined that the fair lady was inspired 
 with a reciprocal attachment; and un- 
 known to each other, their hop:-, fears, and 
 supplications were transmitted to her in 
 two neat letters the day preceding her de- 
 parture from Bareges. Each tender missive
 
 36 SHATTEEED IDOLS. 
 
 received an immediate reply, so unsatis- 
 factory that the gentlemen started for Italy, 
 still totally ignorant of each others disap- 
 pointment. Miss Somerton returned to 
 England, and thither Annesley followed, 
 excusing a longer companionship with Sir 
 Harry, on the plea that urgent business 
 required his presence in London. 
 
 Six months had elapsed since their 
 separation, when the baronet, in a packet 
 of newspapers received from England, per- 
 ceived amongst "fashionable arrangements, 
 matrimonial and festive," the announcement 
 that " a marriage in high life is about to be 
 concluded between the Honourable Edward 
 Annesley, youngest son to the Earl of 
 Courtville, and the beautiful and accom- 
 plished heiress, Miss Somerton, who in- 
 herits, under the will of her late uncle, a 
 portion exceeding one hundred thousand 
 pounds." On reading this paragraph Ash- 
 worth formed a sudden decision, which 
 he as readily executed, by posting from
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 37 
 
 Florence to Lyons, where a letter announc- 
 ing the postponement of this marriage in- 
 duced him to proceed in a more economical 
 manner to Paris. 
 
 Sir Harry and Edward Annesley were 
 college companions; both pursuing the same 
 career, their early acquaintance ripened 
 subsequently into an intercourse which 
 they called friendship. Edward furnished 
 the fashion and Ashworth the finances for 
 their social partnership ; and the latter had 
 most kindly selected his titled spouse, the 
 late Lady Jane, from amongst the portion- 
 less progeny of his friend's cousin, the Earl 
 of Arnford, proprietor of as extensive a 
 stock of daughters as Danaus, without the 
 same prospect of securing husbands for 
 them. Annesley, in fact, acted the part of 
 godfather to Ashworth ; and on presenting 
 him to the fashionable world answered for his 
 sins of premature fashion, and promised in 
 his name the fulfilment of all duties en- 
 forced by the Code Civile of high life. In
 
 38 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 return. Harry Ash worth, while still rich, 
 fulfilled not only these but the other 
 promises to pay, for which Annesley gave 
 his honourable signature to many of the 
 unbelieving children of Israel, who soon 
 received solid proofs of the sincerity of this 
 Siamese friendship. Xever had its cordi- 
 ality relaxed, for the interests of both parties 
 were ever combined until the period we 
 have now reached in their history. 
 
 It was with indignant surprise that Sir 
 Harry read the newspaper notice of 
 Annesley's engagement to his quondam 
 favourite, to whose good graces he still 
 aspired, when the expiration of a few 
 months would justify a claim to her 
 gratitude, if such constancy did not insure 
 a warmer requital. To have his plans 
 frustrated by a man whom he considered his 
 inferior in address, intellect, and appear- 
 ance — hitherto the tool of his will and the 
 puppet of his caprice — one bound to him, 
 too, with the tie of many obligations, was
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 39 
 
 indeed galling. Like other ingrates, Sir 
 Harry forgot the equivalent return which 
 he had tacitly agreed to receive in barter 
 for his expended thousands. Such a defeat 
 was most obnoxious to Ash worth, and he 
 resolved on proceeding immediately to the 
 scene of his discomfiture, when a circum- 
 stance occurred which afforded him some 
 hope of postponing, if not preventing, this 
 obnoxious match. 
 
 Some time previous to the friends" arrival 
 at Bareges, Annesley accomplished a feat of 
 gentlemanly villany with which he wished 
 to grace the calendar of his anticipated 
 bonnes fortunes. 
 
 During a short separation of the other- 
 wise inseparables, Annesley, with the assist- 
 ance of a friend of Sir Harry's, effected the 
 exploit which was now to become the in- 
 surmountable barrier to his projected 
 marriage. During a tour abroad, in which 
 he was accompanied by this gentleman, a 
 Captain Benson, they were detained through
 
 40 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 illness for a month at a small town in the 
 south of France. Wandering idly in the en- 
 virons, Annesley one evening met a young 
 girl who was the guest of her aunt, the 
 Abbess of a neighbouring convent, from 
 the garden of which she sometimes escaped, 
 released by a purloined key, to enjoy the 
 pleasures of a stolen ramble on the sea- 
 shore. Fascinated with her remarkable 
 beauty, which seemed enhanced by the ro- 
 mantic scene where they met, he soon be- 
 came deeply enamoured, and after several 
 clandestine meetings, in which the usuaL 
 protestations of eternal fidelity and un- 
 paralleled attachment captivated the poor 
 child, he persuaded her to elope; and at the 
 altar of a ruined chapel in the neighbour- 
 hood the marriage ceremony was per- 
 formed, as Annesley believed, by a pre- 
 tended clergyman. 
 
 Most fortunately for them both, some 
 misunderstanding delayed a carriage that 
 was to convey the new-married couple from
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 41 
 
 the chapel to a distant place of concealment, 
 and this accident obliged the bridegroom 
 to reconduct his victim back to the convent, 
 where she was to remain until he conveyed 
 her away the next night, Her escape, 
 however, had already been discovered, and 
 the clay subsequent to it she was trans- 
 ferred to a religious house in Italy, after 
 being sworn to secrecy by her confessor, 
 who threatened immediate exposure and 
 public excommunication did she resist the 
 authority of the Church. He told her 
 how the ceremony had been performed 
 by a pretended clergyman, and that, 
 a victim to the profligacy of some 
 worthless English adventurer, it was her 
 interest, as well as her duty, to conceal 
 the deplorable occurrence with religious 
 secrecy. 
 
 All Annesley's efforts to discover her re- 
 treat were ineffectual, and after an interval 
 of some months he at last reconciled himself 
 to the failure of an adventure the excite-
 
 42 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 ment of which soon subsided into very 
 bitter repentance. 
 
 Sir Harry Ashworth's servant, who had 
 assisted Annesley in this exploit, on hearing 
 of the new engagement, informed his late 
 master that he believed Captain Benson had 
 employed an ordained clergyman to perform 
 the ceremony ; and from this conscientious 
 friend of Annesley's the truth could now 
 readily be ascertained. Transported by 
 such welcome intelligence, Sir Harry en- 
 deavoured to authenticate it by an imme- 
 diate application to Captain Benson; but 
 this officer had sailed six months before 
 with his regiment for India, and Sir 
 Harry was reluctantly obliged to be 
 satisfied with the information afforded by 
 his late valet. This was, how r ever, so very 
 cleverly substantiated that he felt assured, 
 with good management and Fabelli's help, it 
 would prevent the approaching marriage, 
 by convincing Annesley that he was already 
 a married man.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 43 
 
 Sir Harry even be^an to flatter himself 
 that he might yet supplant his Mend in 
 Miss Somerton's affection ; and the prospect 
 of a quiet home, an independent fortune, 
 and her agreeable companionship, quickened 
 his ingenuity and reconciled him to the 
 licence of its manoeuvres. 
 
 31iss Somerton had retired, soon after 
 her return in England, to the residence of 
 an old relative at Sandon, near London, 
 and there Annesley resumed his suit, and 
 was ultimately received as her accepted 
 lover. With clever foresight he encouraged 
 her to remain in her actual privacy till after 
 their union, when he would accompany her 
 in a tour through German}' and France. 
 For three months he had been an assiduous 
 visitor at the quiet villa, where no amuse- 
 ments supplied its inmates with any other 
 variety than his company, and no competi- 
 tor interfered with the progress of his suit. 
 The devoted adorer arrived daily from town 
 in a neat cab at three o'clock, and after
 
 44 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 partaking of a luncheon, which was to him a 
 late breakfast, he sauntered with Agnes in 
 the gardens behind her house, or drove the 
 ladies in their open carriage through the 
 adjoining country, accompanying them 
 home a^ain to remain with his betrothed 
 during the hours intervening between that 
 time and his return to London. This 
 daily routine lasted for weeks. Annesley 
 was witty and good-tempered ; his flights of 
 fancy amused Agnes, and enlivened the 
 dulness of her quiet life. To these quali- 
 ties were added a good person, and such 
 apparent devotion to his lady love that, 
 like Charity's mantle, such idolatry covered 
 the multitude of foibles which Agnes was 
 too acute not to detect in his character. 
 
 Retirement and constant intercourse pro- 
 moted Annesley's views; her novel po- 
 sition effected what would never have 
 been accomplished under other circum- 
 stances. Philosophers assure us that 
 by daily substitution of new materials the
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 45 
 
 whole body is changed in the space of seven 
 years ; while experience of the mutability 
 of our feelings and opinions teaches us that 
 the mind* is equally unstable, and that at 
 the present moment we are very different 
 characters from the predecessors who repre- 
 sented us ten years ago. 
 
 A^nes abroad, courted bv society and 
 busied with amusements, seemed another 
 being to the quiet Miss Somerton of San- 
 don, whose monotonous existence was only 
 varied by Annesley's humour, his talents, 
 and his anecdotes. She yielded to this soli- 
 tary influence, and accepted for a husband 
 the man whom she had rejected but a few 
 months before.
 
 46 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Marriage is a feast where the grace is sometimes better 
 than the dinner."- — Coltox. 
 
 On the morning preceding that fixed for 
 Miss Somerton's marriage the good people 
 of Sandon had ascertained, after sundry 
 inquiries, that a real wedding would ac- 
 tually enliven their parish next day. 
 Hymen in his saffron robe had long 
 abandoned the spot; the experienced were 
 beginning to despair of his reappearance, 
 and their juniors, harassed by alternate 
 hopes and fears, summed up after a sigh 
 the endless list of unmarrying ones who had 
 long wasted their sweetness on the sun and 
 air of Sandon. Mothers sat like Xiobe, 
 lamenting the possession of as many daugh- 
 ters, though not, alas, made of stone or any
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 47 
 
 such economical material, as the trades- 
 men's bills hebdomadally testified. " Mar- 
 riages are made in heaven," they thought, 
 " and we must v/ait till our sweet girls go 
 there; for Sandon is certainly the worst 
 spot on the habitable globe for disposing of 
 home produce like ours." 
 
 Every place is accused of the same 
 peculiarity by mothers and daughters of 
 marrying activity; and those of Sandon 
 could not muster means to remove beyond 
 the spell of the condemned parish. Girls 
 going out and no money coming in were 
 the prevailing epidemics of the place; 
 which did not possess any other staple 
 trade than that, which mostly ended there 
 in bankruptcy. 
 
 Mrs. Jones, the old aunt with whom 
 Agnes resided, from her age and infirmities 
 was unwilling to form new acquaintances, 
 and her name and habits were all the neigh- 
 bours knew of the good old lady at Lilly 
 Hill Cottage. They were, to be sure, as
 
 48 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 fully versed in the course of her proceedings 
 as Mrs. Jones herself; they understood the 
 deficiencies of her green chariot better than 
 the maker, together with the faults and 
 misfortunes of her old greys, whose faculties 
 they ascertained to be as much impaired as 
 those of their ancient proprietress. 
 
 It may be imagined that Annesley's cab 
 had attracted particular attention at San- 
 don ; and when the two faces under a hood, 
 of the dandy and his groom, appeared to 
 fly through the street, winged with the 
 rapid paces of a lively chestnut, many pairs 
 of beaming eyes shot destructive glances 
 over the low green blinds along the street. 
 Nor had Miss Somerton been less an object 
 of interest than Annesley, to those who could 
 observe her kind and unassuming manner. 
 
 It was, however, but recently softened to 
 its present gentle tone ; for she had been long 
 the spoilt child of doting parents, whose great 
 devotion, at first a weakness, became con- 
 firmed as a tribute when increasing intelli-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 49 
 
 gence made her an oracle in the family. 
 Expert at detecting a motive, ready at sug- 
 gesting an expedient, quick in effecting a 
 purpose, the young heiress soon excited the 
 wonder of friends and dependents, and she 
 was not lono- before their admiration srew 
 
 a o 
 
 apparent and agreeable to her natural vanity. 
 Engrossed completely by selfish triumphs, 
 she despised the humble merits of her 
 parents; their love was unreturned, their 
 endearments disregarded, while they, good, 
 unpretending people, attributed Agnes's 
 coldness to the preoccupation of her 
 thoughts, to the superiority of her mind, 
 to any cause rather than to one which would 
 disparage their darling child. 
 
 The ambition to excel in every accom- 
 plishment, to surpass all competitors, to 
 reign alone in her circle, stimulated Agnes's 
 natural activity to ceaseless exertions. 
 
 The approval which she claimed through 
 her talents was not retained by the attrac- 
 tion of humbler though more valuable 
 
 VOL. i. e
 
 50 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 
 
 recommendations, for she was arrogant and 
 inconsiderate in early girlhood. But sorrow, 
 that antidote to petulance and pride, soon 
 subdued her with its chastening influence, 
 when her father was attacked with a fatal 
 and lingering malady, and when she awoke 
 at that blow from her dream of pleasure 
 and vanity to the realities of life, which 
 then appeared stern and ruthless to her 
 bewildered consciousness. 
 
 Then she felt for the first time her heart 
 responding to a fathers love; her affec- 
 tions expanding with an energy propor- 
 tioned to their former repression. If her 
 father's life were but spared, on the con- 
 dition of passing it with him in a desert, 
 she would joyfully have relinquished all 
 her pursuits and triumphs. 
 
 Now it was that her natural strength of 
 mind became available for a good purpose, 
 and how well it enabled her to practise all 
 the little duties of love just learnt ! 
 
 Those who have languished on the bed
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 51 
 
 of suffering know that within the sick-room 
 as well as during the more stirring scenes 
 of life, intelligence and handiness are in- 
 estimable qualities in the female com- 
 panion. Intense affection may prompt the 
 wish to be useful; but the suggestive mind 
 and read)' hand must execute it, for pre- 
 sence of mind, method, perseverance, and 
 dexterity, are all qualities essential to a 
 good nurse, and the weak, the timid, or the 
 awkward, too often aggravate the evil which 
 they wish to mitigate. 
 
 Released at last from her melancholy 
 duties by Mr. Somerton's death, Agnes felt 
 *as if existence would be to her hence- 
 forward but a wearying journey along the 
 rough path of life which she was to travel 
 inexperienced and alone. Depressed by 
 fatigue and anxiety, her courage aban- 
 doned her, and she shrank in dread from 
 a task which seemed to her interminable. 
 
 At this juncture, a friend and relative of 
 her father's, a clergyman, and a very pious 
 
 e 2
 
 52 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 man, supported and guided her till the 
 consolations of religion effected all that he 
 could desire, and supplied her with the 
 courage to pursue cheerfully her allotted 
 path through life. 
 
 To him she honestly avowed past errors, 
 and her awakened conscience would have 
 provoked self-reproach too bitter to bear did 
 not her friend by judicious encouragement 
 lead her to hope for pardon of the past 
 through unremitting efforts in the future 
 to deserve it. 
 
 Alas, alas! she had now no mother to 
 chill with her indifference, no father to 
 disobey and neglect. History records great 
 crimes, the law avenges detected delin- 
 quencies ; but the domestic sins of children 
 are buried in their parents' hearts. Many 
 a grave is filled with the victim of filial 
 heartlessness on whom the blow took fatal 
 aim, while no sound of complaint, no sigh 
 of pain, betrayed the hand that inflicted it, 
 and the last faint words of the dying 
 victim may have blessed his cruel child.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 53 
 
 Agnes suffered intensely from sorrow 
 and self-reproach, till, her health beginning 
 to give way. a southern climate was ordered 
 for her residence. 
 
 Then it was that she became acquainted 
 with Sir Henry Ashworth, and his com- 
 panion, Mr. Annesley, for the family with 
 whom she resided saw much company, 
 and Agnes met in their house the cream of 
 Roman and English society, varied by the 
 occasional appearance of travellers from all 
 parts of Europe. The two English gentle- 
 men, as we have already seen, tendered 
 their affections and destinies to Miss Somer- 
 ton, and were immediately rejected; but 
 Annesley would not be so readily dis- 
 couraged, and he effected his purpose later 
 with time and opportunity. Those great 
 matchmakers, who overcome all difficulties, 
 charm us with dulness, enamour us of 
 ugliness, equalize all ages, and reconcile 
 all tempers, accomplished their usual ex- 
 ploit at San don. 
 
 The cake arrived, the bridal bonnet
 
 54 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 emerged from its wicker cage, chaperoned 
 by a fashionable milliner from town, and 
 these decisive symptoms of matrimony had 
 suspended the household business of Agnes's 
 neighbours on the eve of her wedding-day. 
 At six o'clock that expected and eventful 
 morning, the young Misses Smith, the 
 matured Misses Johnstone, and the double- 
 refined Misses Thomson, arose with the 
 sun, to watch the proceedings that would 
 usher in the important day at Lilly Hill 
 Cottage, just opposite their respective dwell- 
 ings. Alas, alas! their intention of pro- 
 ceeding; to church to avail themselves of 
 its prescriptive hospitality for the pur- 
 pose of witnessing the ceremony was de- 
 feated. The rain descended slowly and surely 
 in a drizzling mist, and the fog of London 
 seemed to have come into the country for 
 change of air, and the clouds descended so 
 near the earth as to obscure air and light, 
 and the view of all else beside.
 
 55 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " When souls that should agree to will the same, 
 To have one common object for their wishes, 
 Look different ways regardless of each other, 
 Think what a train of wretchedness ensues." 
 
 Agnes arose betimes, and was still occupied 
 in superintending arrangements for her 
 journey, when a comfortable plain cab 
 drove round the small lawn that separated 
 her abode from the street. Xo guests were 
 invited to the wedding, which we can easily 
 understand Annesley wished to be strictly 
 private ; and when the visitor in the brown 
 cab inquired for Mrs. Jones he was ushered 
 into the drawing-room, where the old lady 
 reclined in an easy-chair, dozing for want 
 of thought, never being much troubled with 
 a variety of that kind, and now expecting
 
 56 • SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 no other visitor than the bridegroom and 
 his young cousin, Mr. Martyn. 
 
 " Mr. Hudson" was however announced, 
 and a short, elderly, fat, discoloured gentle- 
 man bowed at the door to the hostess. Not 
 having attended to Agnes's preparation, Mrs, 
 Jones now imagined that he might be a re- 
 lation or friend of Mr. Annesley's, recently 
 invited for the occasion. 
 
 Hudson, good reader, was indeed a 
 friend of the bridegroom, to the amount of 
 two thousand pounds, which he had in 
 various sums yielded to the persuasive en- 
 treaties of his fashionable customer, who un- 
 gratefully neglected to assure Hudson of his 
 recent good fortune; and having fruitlessly 
 sought an interview in town, the cautious 
 creditor determined on proceeding to San- 
 don to secure a draft for some part of the 
 sum before the bridegroom's projected tour 
 abroad. Old Hudson was as deaf as a post, 
 and Mrs. Jones deafer; her infirmity pro- 
 ceeding as much from the confusion of
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 57 
 
 age as an}' organic imperfection, while 
 Hudson had periodical respites, and there- 
 fore invariably attributed his oft-recurring 
 deficiency to recent cold. 
 
 " I have the honour of addressing 
 Mrs. Jones?" premised Mr. Hudson, for 
 he had ascertained all the family con- 
 nexions. 
 
 A smile and a bow from Mrs. Jones 
 answered Hudson's query affirmatively, the 
 lady perhaps guessing its import. She 
 begged him to be seated. Xow, Mr. Hudson 
 spoke very low, like all patients of his de- 
 scription, and Mrs. Jones, from the same 
 cause and the absence of her front teeth, 
 could not be understood by the best 
 ears at six feet distance from her person. 
 She had heard of Annesley's aristocratic re- 
 latives; of his uncles, both peers, and his 
 honourable cousins, and his father, the Earl 
 of Courtville ; and in her own mind, five 
 minutes after Hudson's immersion in the 
 arm-chair opposite, she elevated him to
 
 •58 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Lord Courtville's rank in the House of 
 Peers. 
 
 Mrs. Jones, being rather unaccustomed 
 to the peerage, her perspicuity of language 
 and mental activity were not improved by 
 the supposed vicinity of so much dignity : 
 she wished that Annesley would arrive, or 
 that Agnes might relieve her from this 
 awful tete-a-tete. 
 
 " I have some very particular business 
 to transact with Mr. Annesley, ma'am," said 
 Hudson, " and shall feel much obliged by 
 being allowed to remain here till he arrives." 
 
 o 
 " Your lordship is extremely kind; it is 
 
 a connexion most flattering to Agnes and 
 
 her family," mumbled Mrs. Jones. 
 
 Of course Hudson heard not a syllable of 
 this compliment, but supposing that she 
 had assented to his request, proceeded with 
 a bow — " It's a very unfavourable day for 
 the event, ma'am." 
 
 " Just three-and-twenty next Michaelmas, 
 mv lord."
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 59 
 
 Does Mr. Aimesley intend making a long 
 visit to the Continent, Mrs. Jones?" eon- 
 tinned Hudson. 
 
 u A most charming young man," smiled 
 Mrs. Jones. 
 
 u Confound the old woman," thought the 
 tailor; " one cannot understand a word she 
 says, and this is not one of my deaf 
 days." 
 
 " Lord Court ville is not as agreeable as 
 his son," was Mrs. Jones's mental conclusion. 
 
 Annesley's cab now bounding to the 
 door, Mrs. J. pleaded this excuse for quit- 
 ting her aristocratic acquaintance, and, 
 curtseying out of the room, she met the 
 bridegroom in the hall — Hudson's vehicle 
 had been sent to the inn, and Aimesley was 
 therefore totally unaware of his arrival. 
 
 "Oh dear! Mr. Annesley," exclaimed 
 Mrs. Jones, " why did you not tell me that 
 you invited Lord Courtville? He has been 
 sitting with me this half-hour, and a vastly 
 polite nobleman he is, only a little deaf, I
 
 60 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 think; do go in and speak to him, while I 
 seek Agnes." 
 
 " What the deuce has brought my father 
 here?" thought Annesley: "no good, I am 
 sure;" and he hurried to meet this unex- 
 pected guest. 
 
 "Hudson! you here — good gracious! 
 what does this mean ? Where is my 
 father ? have you seen him ?" 
 
 "I have seen no one but Mrs. Jones," 
 replied Hudson, comprehending Annesley's 
 questions, uttered near his ear in a voice 
 suited to its deficiency. "Mr. Annesley. 
 I have come here for you to sign a little 
 paper that " 
 
 " Good, good, anything you like, 1113" 
 good fellow; you said nothing of our con- 
 cerns to Mrs. Jones, eh?" 
 
 " Nothing, nothing, upon my honour, 
 Mr. Annesley." The truth then flashed 
 upon Annesley ; he guessed how Mrs. Jones 
 had taken Mr. Hudson for his father, and 
 ere this Agnes, he imagined, would have
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 61 
 
 shared her mistake. The dilemma required 
 a moment's consideration, and this was pre- 
 vented by Mrs. Jones opening the door and 
 presenting Agnes to her future relative, 
 who, to do him justice, seemed rather sur- 
 prised when she reached him her hand with 
 smilinof cordialitv. 
 
 u Confound that old deaf devil." thought 
 Annesley, "I must let her have her way;"' 
 and then he endeavoured to divert Ag-nes's 
 
 o 
 
 attention from Hudson. 
 
 Seeing no prospect of releasing himself 
 from it, Annesley was obliged to submit to 
 his misfortune; and observing Agnes lead 
 his supposed father into the breakfast-room, 
 he gave an unwilling support to Mrs. Jones, 
 who, with his friend Hudson, he wished 
 most cordially at the bottom of the sea. 
 She was some time following the others, 
 and her cavalier had time to reflect on his 
 predicament. 
 
 "It is really most flattering," thought he, 
 u to have tailor Hudson doing the honours
 
 62 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 of my wedding, escorting my bride. What 
 the deuce would my friends say were they 
 informed of the company that graces my 
 4 marriage in high life ' — my tailor, and this 
 old deaf fool whom I am dragging after me 
 to our honoured banquet V" 
 
 Hudson, with much complacency, received 
 his cup of coffee from the bride's fair hand. 
 "They are uncommon civil," thought he, 
 " but this attention shan't make me forget 
 Annesley's signature, for all that." 
 
 " Do you like sugar, or shall I give you 
 some sugar-candy?" inquired Edward, by 
 way of interrupting Agnes's attentions. 
 
 "I always take the moist," said Hudson, 
 putting his wet spoon into the sugar-candy, 
 and then stirring the mixture with unneces- 
 sary action and energy. He next poured 
 his coffee into the saucer, imbibing it with 
 sonorous effect; and, on his cramming an 
 Esquimaux mouthful of toast into his left 
 cheek, Mrs. Jones came to the conclusion 
 that the nobility were not so elegant as she
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 63 
 
 expected, and that the late Mr. Jones had 
 a much neater method of nourishing' him- 
 self than Lord Courtville. 
 
 " By-the-bye, have you heard anything 
 lately of Sir Harry Ash-worth, Mr. Annes- 
 ley?" said Hudson; "he had the impudence 
 to write from abroad some nonsense about 
 a new suit that he requires at once. He 
 must know that I will have nothing to do 
 with his suits now." 
 
 " My father paid the expenses of some 
 Chancery suits for Ashworth a short time 
 since, Agnes," said Annesley, in a gentle 
 voice, to the bride elect. 
 
 " And Madame DAlbremont, his sister, 
 do you know where she is?" continued 
 Annesley, in hopes of changing the subject. 
 
 " Oh, she is in foreign parts ; a very nice 
 woman, very — but always very ill dressed — 
 had shocking bad habits, very shabby, very." 
 
 " Yes, she was penurious," added An- 
 nesley, always addressing himself to Agnes. 
 
 "Why, miss," said Hudson, "hers used
 
 64 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 to be threadbare ; I spoke to her brother 
 about it — and such a waist, at the same 
 
 " Yes, she was penurious, and yet lavish 
 in some things ; it was quite a mania," said 
 Annesley. 
 
 " She was the first lady who ever wore 
 one of my waistcoats, Miss Somerton." 
 
 "His waistcoats, Edward?" said Agnes, 
 amazed. 
 
 "Yes, indeed; my father has invented a 
 strait-waistcoat that is now much approved 
 of by the faculty," answered Annesley. 
 
 U I wish you would try one of my waist- 
 coats, Miss Somerton," said Hudson, 
 smilingly. 
 
 Annesley now spilt the cream on the 
 tailor's nether garments, and whilst he was 
 spooning it again into the ewer, the former 
 asked Agnes if she had received a packet of 
 books sent from London the day before. 
 
 Hudson, very much elated at being re- 
 ceived like a gentleman, growing every
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. G5 
 
 moment more loquacious and familiar, not- 
 withstanding the damage done to his wear- 
 ables, interrupted the answer by exclaim- 
 ing— 
 
 " Books — books ! you ladies and gentle- 
 men are very lucky to have time for other 
 people's books ; my own entirely occupy me 
 — though I keep plenty of clerks, too. I 
 suppose that I write four hours every day, 
 myself." 
 
 "Does your father write, Edward?" 
 
 " Yes, he wrote " 
 
 " My books," proceeded the incorrigible 
 Hudson, " are quite a peerage ; I serve all 
 the first families in town, Miss Somerton; 
 and a fashionable tailor has not an easy life 
 of it." 
 
 Agnes stared. Annesley was electrified, 
 and putting his hand to his head he whis- 
 pered to Agnes — 
 
 " My dear girl, it is impossible to conceal 
 the melancholy fact any longer; my poor 
 father is rather unsettled in his mind — this 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 
 
 is his delusion, lie thinks that he is Hudson, 
 the famous tailor, and, as a paroxysm is 
 now commencing, I advise you to retire 
 while I persuade the poor sufferer to go 
 home to my afflicted mother." 
 
 Agnes complied with this proposal and 
 left the room, casting a glance of pity on 
 })oor Lord Courtville's libeller, and trusting 
 in her heart that no hereditary taint of 
 insanity affected the family to which she 
 would shortly belong. 
 
 " It is better to let things take this turn 
 than inform Hudson of their mistake," 
 thought Annesley; "he would overact his 
 part, and make a fine story of the 
 adventure to amuse my friends in 
 town." 
 
 " Mr. Hudson, I can now sign any paper 
 yon please; we are just starting for church 
 — here are the carriages, you will find your 
 cab at the gate." 
 
 The paper was signed, and Hudson, ap- 
 proaching Mrs. Jones, not however within
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 67 
 
 earshot, proffered his service in the clothing 
 department for her establishment. 
 
 " What does his lordship say, Mr. Amies- 
 ley?" 
 
 " He regrets that particular business in 
 town obliges him to return there immedi- 
 ately without waiting for the ceremony; 
 but he rejoices that this visit has afforded 
 him an opportunity of becoming acquainted 
 with you and Agnes.'' 
 
 "Oh dear, what a pity that he cannot 
 remain a little longer," said Mrs. Jones, 
 smiling complacently under her spectacles 
 at Hudson. 
 
 Edward now got Hudson out of the room, 
 and in a minute more the bewildered tailor 
 drove from the door in his cab. Ao-nes 
 entered soon after with her white satin 
 pelisse, bridal bonnet, and the usual equip- 
 ment of wedding finery. 
 
 " So your father is gone, Edward ; he left 
 this parcel for me," said she. 
 
 Now, Agnesfirmly believed that a small flat 
 
 f 2
 
 68 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 packet neatly tied, which she was in the act 
 of opening, contained some costly wedding- 
 present from her future father — it might be 
 a necklace or a diamond bracelet : the paper 
 fell off and disclosed to the disappointed 
 expectant — patterns of cloth and cards of 
 address ! 
 
 " Poor man," said she, after a short 
 pause, "how inveterate is his delusion! 
 Indeed it seems so engrossing that he for- 
 gets the manners and bearing of his class, 
 and certainly assumes the air and tone of a 
 tradesman."
 
 69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " Of all the actions of a man's life, his marriage does least 
 concern other people ; yet of all actions of our life it is 
 most meddled with by other people." — Seldex. 
 
 Agnes's wedding was not to be celebrated 
 with much pomp or display, even in the 
 columns of the Morning Post, in which 
 happy ceremonies appear to so much more 
 advantage than they do anywhere else ; its 
 incidents could not be well amplified into 
 the poetic details of bridal festivity and 
 the universal suffrage to beauty that gene- 
 rally enhance such incentives to matrimony. 
 Agnes floated not in gauze and high spirits 
 down the hall towards the awaiting equi- 
 page, admired and envied by dependents 
 and equals ; neither did she tremble with a 
 crown of orange flowers responding to the
 
 70 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 vibration, while the blush of hope evapo- 
 rated the tears of affection as they escaped 
 from her downcast eyes. No — our bride 
 descended her aunt's high steps with un- 
 promising composure, hurrying to escape 
 the rain, and further protected from its 
 injuries by a brown cotton umbrella, which 
 Mr. O'Rourk, the Irish butler, carefully 
 held over her white satin bonnet. 
 
 Mrs. Jones and Miss Williams, Agnes's 
 companion, had already seated themselves 
 in the ancient vehicle, and Annesley 
 following in another carriage with a re- 
 lation who just arrived as he entered it, 
 they all proceeded to the parish church, 
 situated where the village street merges 
 into the road leading towards the metro- 
 polis. 
 
 "For the happiest day of my life," 
 thought Annesley, " this has begun rather 
 unpropitiously; arrested and released at 
 seven o'clock, bored and terrified for an 
 hour with the intrusion, of that confounded
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 71 
 
 fellow Hudson, I have not yet recovered 
 my composure, nor shall I feel perfectly at 
 ease till we are a few miles on our road to 
 France. The happiest day of our lives by 
 right divine, this certainly should be con- 
 sidered ; we begin a new score with fate and 
 our tailor, we assume the duties of life and 
 the dinner-table ; if we are ever to be en- 
 trusted with sublunary bliss this is the 
 moment to expect it. All uncertainty of 
 the future and our wives' temper, Time 
 shrouds within the shadow of his own 
 wings, and Hope, with her handmaid 
 Novelty, leads us onward and banishes all 
 the doubts and difficulties, the suspicion 
 and suspense, that vulgar Keason will on 
 other occasions obtrude on the most exu- 
 berant imagination in the shape of ex- 
 pensive tastes and straitened means, dis- 
 tant prospects and proximate difficulties, 
 large families and small incomes." 
 
 To do Annesley justice he was exceedingly 
 susceptible of the tender passion; and
 
 72 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 although Agnes's fortune had been the 
 original motive for his proposal, still her 
 many estimable moral qualities and superior 
 mental recommendations received from him 
 their just tribute of admiration, which soon 
 warmed to a tenderer feeling. 
 
 Agnes's character was peculiar, you will 
 say ; what she believed to be love was but 
 a newly- awakened taste for the reciprocity 
 of approval and the emulation of industry ; 
 she mistook one species of enthusiasm for 
 another, and the excitement of her mind 
 she exalted into a sentiment of the heart. 
 Besides, Agnes sometimes questioned the 
 prudence of her own selection, and doubt 
 or calculation are no symptoms of true love ; 
 even on her wedding-day some unpleasant 
 thoughts arose that questioned the course 
 she had selected now that it was irre- 
 trievable. Still, however, after some un- 
 satisfactory conclusions, she remembered 
 the popular axiom of curing and enduring, 
 when the carriage door opened and Amies-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 73 
 
 ley stood beside it to hand his affianced to 
 the hymeneal altar. They passed through 
 the neat churchyard undulated with its 
 groups of grassy mounds and recent graves, 
 and on entering the building perceived a 
 few spectators in the most prominent pews, 
 who seemed awaiting the object for which 
 they had assembled with eager impatience. 
 
 There was no vestry at the church 
 of Sandon large enough to accommodate 
 the bridal party ; they therefore advanced 
 towards the altar and stood without its 
 railing, anxiously expecting the clergyman. 
 
 Annesley, whose anxiety was in his 
 position very natural, heard with no good 
 grace that the Reverend Mr. Ball had not 
 yet arrived ; the clerk expected him imme- 
 diately, and Edward and Agnes with their 
 friends were forced to seat themselves in an 
 adjoining pew rather than parade their 
 impatience before the wondering assembly 
 by standing in a less resigned attitude. 
 
 The church was dark and gloomy, and
 
 74 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 the rain beat against the large window, 
 while the wind moaned wildly through its 
 crevices. Mr. Martyn, the bridegroom's best 
 man, vainly attempted to whisper some com- 
 mon-places to the others ; but what can be 
 said at a moment like this? and Mrs. Jones 
 just then claimed his exclusive attention to 
 read for her some Latin verses carved on a 
 new white monumental entablature just 
 above their pew, on which the sculptor had 
 displayed much taste and skill, to secure no 
 doubt the custom of the congregation. It 
 furnished Annesley with a pretext for re- 
 minding Agnes of a monument at Pere la 
 Chaise, where the demise of Pierre le 
 Doyen is duly lamented by his distracted 
 spouse, who adds a postscript to the record, 
 announcing that " sa veuve inconsolable tient 
 magasin de modes, No. 3, Rue Vivienne." 
 Annesley's cousin, Mr. Martyn, added to this 
 
 his story of Madame B , who visited 
 
 the same cemetery annually during the 
 fruit season, to eat cherries from a tree
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. (& 
 
 that grew right through the heart of her 
 dear defunct baby " le petit Eugene" Agnes 
 was too much pre-occupied to smile, and 
 Mrs. Jones beo-°'ed the anecdotes might be 
 explained to her more clearly, a request 
 which implied that the whole was to be 
 repeated till perseverance conquered the 
 obtuseness of her faculties. 
 
 They sat for ten minutes longer, still 
 anxiously looking to the door, and occa- 
 sionally mistaking the fitful gusts that 
 shook it for a summons to admit Mr. Ball. 
 At length a very audible application of no 
 gentle hand claimed the clerk's attendance, 
 and after some whispering with a person in 
 the street, he walked towards Annesley 
 with a pompous step, presenting a note 
 that was so wet it might have swum to its 
 destination. Edward perused it, turned 
 pale, and handing the dropping missive to 
 the bride, she read as follows — " Mrs. Ball 
 presents her compliments to Mr. Annesley, 
 and regrets much to inform him that Mr.
 
 76 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Ball was this morning thrown from his 
 horse and much injured by a very bad fall. 
 It will not, therefore, be possible for him 
 to obey Mr. Annesley's summons, but Mrs. 
 Ball feels assured that at his recovery 
 Mr. B. will have much pleasure in offi- 
 ciating at Mr. Annesley's wedding should 
 he consider it expedient to postpone it 
 till then." 
 
 " Pish ! what an idiot !" said Annesley, 
 as he read the last sentence. 
 
 Agnes looked distressed, and Mrs. Jones 
 could not be made to understand the nature 
 of this disappointment; she was, however, 
 coaxed to the door, but, alas ! no carriage 
 stood there to relieve the bridal party from 
 their dilemma. The servants, thinking that 
 the external moisture should be balanced by 
 some internal humidity, had driven them- 
 selves and the carriages to a neighbouring 
 public-house for the purpose of celebrating 
 the happy day in their oavii fashion, and 
 awaiting the termination of the ceremony
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 77 
 
 at their ease. Agnes, Annesley, and their 
 train consequently were doomed to return 
 to the place from whence they came, under 
 the lamented Mr. Jubb's monument; and 
 Mrs. Jones, much to her perplexity, was 
 persuaded to seat herself again in her 
 former place. 
 
 The partitions of the pews were remarkably 
 high, no doubt from a principle of exclusive- 
 ness ; and as the party sat all in a row, their 
 heads just emerging from the white wooden 
 box, they furnished subject for much titter- 
 ing to all the misses spectators of the scene. 
 They smiled and laughed with much enjoy- 
 ment, for Mrs. Jones had declined their 
 proffered acquaintance on her arrival at 
 Sandon, so that her flieumatism they mis- 
 took for the stiffness of pride, and her deaf- 
 ness they considered an affectation to repel 
 their unacceptable advances, deeming the 
 poor woman's three warnings specially in- 
 tended for themselves: so effectually will 
 vanity afflict its victims with the same
 
 7S SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 obtuseness that nature reserves for the old 
 and the dull. 
 
 The carriages at length returned, and the 
 bridal procession moved to the door, ob- 
 serving the order of advance in their 
 retreat. A wet day, an incipient cold 
 crawling over you, and your marriage 
 ceremony postponed sine die, are not 
 materials for much enjoyment; and al- 
 though the spectators tittered, none of our 
 friends smiled as they stepped into the car- 
 riages, which, in the servants' haste to their 
 rendezvous, were left with open windows 
 till it was no longer of any use to close them. 
 A vapour bath and a damaged dress there- 
 fore awaited Agnes on her way home, where 
 the expectant servant curtsied and bowed 
 their superfluous congratulations as they 
 received her in the hall. 
 
 Annesley's cousin, Mr. Martyn, had not 
 breakfasted, and as eating is a grand 
 resource and solace when people have 
 nothing else to do, Agnes ordered luncheon, 
 and the party sat down to consume both
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 79 
 
 time and the good things before them. 
 Annesley, drinking hastily some wine and 
 water, in which the former ingredient was by 
 far the better half, suggested the expediency 
 of engaging a clergyman at once for the next 
 morning. A friend in London would, he 
 was sure, cheerfully perform the cere- 
 mony, and Edward therefore, hastily taking 
 leave, proceeded to town in order to 
 secure an interview with the reverend 
 gentleman before he left his home for the 
 day. 
 
 Mr. Martyn being an amateur did not 
 abandon his breakfast, but declaring that 
 he would remain with his new cousin to 
 improve their acquaintance, saw Edward 
 Annesley depart, and then composed him- 
 self to enjoy a good meal. 
 
 • What an excellent ham this is, Mrs. 
 Jones," said he, " I never ate better." 
 
 " I hope you like the ham," said Mrs. 
 Jones, seeing him point towards it. " Lord 
 Courtville seemed to think it very good 
 this morning. "
 
 80 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 "Lord Courtville!" exclaimed Martyn; 
 " was he here to-day?" 
 
 " Oh dear, yes," said Miss Somerton, " he 
 breakfasted with us at nine o'clock." 
 
 " Very strange," said Martyn ; " my uncle 
 Avrote to beg I would dine with him to- 
 night in Portman Square, as he is to arrive 
 there at six o'clock. At nine o'clock you 
 say he was here ? I never knew him up 
 before till near eleven." 
 
 " Vastly agreeable man, Lord Courtville," 
 said Mrs. Jones; "it is a great pity he should 
 be so distressingly deaf." 
 
 " Deaf ! my dear madam, my uncle is 
 not deaf ; perhaps an accidental cold has 
 affected his hearing." 
 
 " Yes, he said so," added Miss Somerton, 
 "but, you know, in his present state one 
 does not attach much importance to what 
 he thinks." 
 
 " In what state?" said Martyn, suspend- 
 ing midway the piece of chicken he was 
 carrying to its destination, and looking 
 eagerly at Agnes.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 81 
 
 " In the deranged state of his intellect," 
 added Miss Williams. " I really feel 
 very much for Lady Courtville and his 
 daughters.'' 
 
 u Bless me!" exclaimed Marty n, " surely 
 you must labour under some strange 
 mistake ; my uncle is perfectly acute and 
 collected, and I should say one of the best 
 heads in the House of Peers." 
 
 " Then, Mr. Martyn," said Agnes, with a 
 sympathizing voice and tearful eye, " I per- 
 ceive you are not aware of the sad affliction 
 that has fallen upon your uncle's family : he 
 labours under a very unhappy delusion 
 which you may not have noticed in a cur- 
 sory interview, and the secrecy preserved 
 by his family while he continues inoffensive 
 naturally confines a knowledge of the fact 
 to his own immediate associates." 
 
 "This is very strange," said Martyn; "I 
 have not seen my uncle for some months. 
 You perceived his aberration, Miss 
 Williams " 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 " Oli yes," interrupted Miss Williams; 
 "he sat for an hour with Agnes and Mrs. 
 Jones, and at length was induced through 
 Mr. Annesley's persuasions to return to 
 town, lest he might have conducted himself 
 irreverently at the church." 
 
 " Very extraordinary, very extraordi- 
 nary indeed," said Martyn; "and was 
 Edward aware of my uncle's infirmity before 
 this morning?" 
 
 "Oh dear, yes," replied Miss Williams; 
 "he endeavoured to screen it as long as 
 possible, and to divert our attention to 
 other subjects, but at last it was impossible 
 to conceal the fact any longer, when Lord 
 Courtville said he was a tailor, requesting 
 Mrs. Jones's custom, and giving Agnes some 
 patterns of cloths for habits." 
 
 "A tailor!" exclaimed Martyn, "what a 
 preposterous fancy ! Lord Courtville might 
 imagine himself an autocrat or a demi-god, 
 but a tailor ! a tailor !'' 
 
 "Mr. Martyn," said Agnes, solemnly, "as 
 a relative it is proper that you should be
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 83 
 
 I 
 
 aware of this calamity, although it seems 
 evident that the family carefully ' avoid its 
 disclosure. I cannot, therefore, regret the 
 freedom with which we have discussed the 
 subject in your presence, and I feel con- 
 vinced that you will not defeat the secrecy 
 which Annesley seems to consider so ex- 
 pedient, even with his nearest relatives." 
 
 '" You do me but common justice," re- 
 plied Martyn ; " be assured that I shall not 
 betray your confidence. To-day I dine 
 with Lord Courtville, and may then have 
 an opportunity of witnessing what you 
 describe. If he has but this one delusion 
 they do not dread immediate exposure, par- 
 ticularly as Lord Courtville is a remark- 
 ably silent man. Still, it is most strange 
 that they all take it so quietly." 
 
 Shortly after this conversation Martyn 
 departed, and the fair inhabitants of Lilly 
 Hill Cottage were left to ruminate upon the 
 events of the day until Annesley's return to 
 dinner. 
 
 a 2
 
 84 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " Mischief that may be helped is hard to know, 
 And danger going en still multiplies : 
 When harm hath many wings, care comes too late." 
 
 Lord Brooke. 
 
 Mk. Martyx, burdened with an important 
 secret, walked thoughtfully to the place 
 where he could find a coach to convey him to 
 the metropolis. Having reached town, he 
 proceeded at once to the bachelor residence 
 of Lord Courtville's eldest son in Curzon 
 Street. Lord Ames was at Richmond, and 
 not expected home till six o'clock to dress 
 for dinner. Martyn left a message importing 
 his intention of calling again precisely at 
 that hour, in order to proceed with his 
 cousin to Lord Courtville's at the appointed 
 time for dinner. 
 
 Martyn, one of those embryo lawyers
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 85 
 
 whose causes and effects are equally unpro- 
 ductive, and whose superfluous energies 
 were seldom exhausted by a legitimate em- 
 ployment, now proceeded to visit one of his 
 few clients, and afterwards at six o'clock 
 • repaired to Curzon Street, and heard that 
 Lord Ames had just returned. 
 
 " I must see your master immediately," 
 said Martyn to his cousin's servant; " tell 
 him to despatch his toilette and come down 
 at once, for I wish to communicate some- 
 thing very important before we leave this 
 house." 
 
 u My good fellow," said Lord Ames, on 
 entering the room soon after, " what on 
 earth have you to say so very urgent as to 
 fright me thus from my proprieties and in- 
 terrupt the preparation I was making to 
 appear like a respectful son before his law- 
 ful governor and legislator? Is Edward 
 or his marriage arrested? or is he prema- 
 turely divorced a mensd et thoro V 
 
 "His espousals are alone arrested, '' re-
 
 86 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 plied Martyn, " and but for one day. No, 
 Ames, I have something more important to 
 communicate than any of his variegated 
 adventures; we Avill shut the door." 
 
 " What can have happened ?" said Ames; 
 « i s my " 
 
 "First answer me the question I am. 
 about to propose," said Martyn, interrupting 
 his cousin. "When have you seen your 
 father?" 
 
 "Not for some weeks; he returns, you 
 know, to-night to attend the House; but 
 what of him?" 
 
 " I thought that you were not aware of 
 his situation, and that it would be my duty 
 to impart to you this distressing intelli- 
 gence — it is best that you should hear it at 
 once. Your poor father, I am truly sorry 
 to say, is mad." 
 
 "Mad!" cried Ames. "Good heaven! 
 what do you mean ?" 
 
 " Mad as a March hare," continued Mar- 
 tyn, "and, as I suppose, escaped from Lady
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 87 
 
 Courtville's vigilance, for I find that he 
 spent this morning at Sanclon with Amies- 
 ley's intended, Miss Somerton, where he 
 attempted to personate a tailor and wished 
 to make a suit of clothes for an old deaf 
 woman, the bride's aunt — he frightened the 
 whole party into fits." 
 
 Martyn then proceeded to repeat Agnes's 
 account of Hudson's conduct, finishing his 
 detail by suggesting the expediency of pre- 
 venting Lord Courtville's attendance at the 
 House that night. 
 
 " We must certainly not allow him to 
 appear there," said Ames. " This is a most 
 distressing calamity," he continued, "and will 
 decidedly militate against my father's politi- 
 cal advancement.'' 
 
 u But," said Martyn, "the attack must be 
 recent, and may perhaps be abridged by 
 timely treatment, in which case the utmost 
 secrecy is necessary, to confine a knowledge 
 of his situation to our own family. You 
 know, of course, Ames, that our mutual
 
 88 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 grandmother died in an asylum, Aunt Jane 
 was also remarkably eccentric, and I really 
 have often fancied that Edward Annesley's 
 inconsistency and thoughtlessness savoured 
 
 of the hereditary taint." 
 
 j 
 
 " I am sure," said Ames, " nothing can 
 be more irrational than his indifference to 
 my poor father's situation; he never once 
 mentioned it to me, although I saw him to- 
 day on my return from Brighton. The 
 trying task of restraining him then devolves 
 upon us till we devise some plan and 
 excuse for his temporary seclusion, and 
 with his despotic character 1 do not think 
 the undertaking an easy one." 
 
 " You are quite mistaken, Ames," said 
 Martyn ; " Miss Somerton assured me that 
 Lord Courtville's conciliatory manner and 
 affectionate cordiality enhances materially 
 her affliction at his unfortunate situation." 
 
 " Is it possible?" said Ames. " Then in- 
 sanity works miracles, for my father cer- 
 tainly does not distribute endearments even
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 89 
 
 amongst his own daughters ; and you well 
 know, Martyn, that he merely tolerates 
 Edward's mesalliance with Miss Somerton 
 for the sake of her fortune, which is to 
 ransom that inconsiderate gentleman from 
 his delicate pecuniary engagements." 
 
 The two young men now proceeded to 
 Portman Square in Lord Ames's cab, and on 
 the way it was determined to prevent Lord 
 Courtville's attendance at the House of 
 Lords at all hazards. After the rejection 
 of many other suggested expedients, Martyn 
 proposed asking his uncle to convey them 
 a little way beyond Westminster Bridge, 
 previous to the fulfilment of his own 
 engagement ; and as his lordship frequently 
 drove into the country for an hour previous 
 to the assumption of official duties, this 
 su££estion met with Lord Ames's concur- 
 
 oo 
 
 rence. The cousins on their arrival in 
 Portman Square found Lord Courtville 
 pacing up and down his library, apparently 
 in no very placid mood.
 
 90 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 
 
 He merely touched the hands of his 
 guests, and after making some careless 
 inquiries for their health, sat down before 
 a table covered with parliamentary docu- 
 ments and various other papers. 
 
 " You see he is tolerably quiet," said 
 Martyn to Lord Ames, in a whisper; " it is 
 satisfactory to remark that his intellect is 
 unimpaired except on the one particular 
 subject — just what Miss Somerton told me." 
 
 Lord Courtville had a few minutes before 
 the young men's arrival paid five hundred 
 at Annesley's urgent request to the person 
 who arrested him in the early part of the 
 day. Annesley promised to refund the sum 
 the following week, and declared that his 
 prospects in life must be ruined did Lord 
 Courtville refuse to rescue him from his 
 present difficulty. With a faint reliance 
 on Edward's word, and in no very pleasant 
 humour at this new proof of imprudence, 
 his father examined for the third time an 
 account enumerating the long list of super-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 91 
 
 numerary habiliments with which a 
 fashionable tailor, Hudson's rival, had 
 furnished the elegant wardrobe of his 
 dandy son. He read murmuringly, U A 
 flowered velvet waistcoat, 21. 10s. ; ditto 
 rose ponceau a la Brummel, 3/. 10s. ; ditto 
 black turque embroidered, lilies and roses, 
 51 10,9." 
 
 Lord Ames made a sign to Martyn, who 
 shook his head sympathizingly. Lord 
 Courtville, still looking at the bill, ex- 
 claimed — 
 
 "Martyn, who is your tailor? Is it 
 Werner?" 
 
 " No ; I employ Stultz," replied Martyn ; 
 whispering to LordAmes,'" He is now going 
 to ask for my custom, I suppose." 
 
 Lord Courtville, however, added nothing 
 more, and the trio were soon after sum- 
 moned to the dinner-table. Martyn and 
 Ames kept their attention fixed on the 
 noble host, and whenever his eyes acci- 
 dentally met theirs, the watchful sentinels
 
 92 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 were immediately withdrawn, and the 
 viands before them seemed to absorb their 
 undivided notice. Lord Courtville, although 
 evidently surprised by their manner, ap- 
 peared to enjoy the repast. " I had a miser- 
 able breakfast this morning,' he said, " at 
 Barnet, where my carriage broke down, 
 and there I was detained, much against my 
 will, since yesterday at four o'clock until 
 twelve to-day." 
 
 Martyn again nodded to Ames. " I," 
 said he, " partook of an ample luncheon 
 at Sandon with our future relative, Miss 
 Somerton." 
 
 " Oh !" said Lord Courtville, " does she 
 live there? What do you think of her, 
 Martyn? has she really the fortune which 
 Edward so soon intends appropriating?" 
 
 " I believe so," said Ames; and again he 
 whispered Martyn as they rose from the 
 table. " It is too true. I fear that we 
 must not allow him to attend the House 
 this evening on any account."
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 93 
 
 Lord Courtville ordered his carriage at 
 
 eight o'clock, and as they had agreed, the 
 young men begged he would convey them a 
 short distance out of town, premising some 
 motive for the request, which he graci- 
 ously admitted. They soon engaged him 
 
 J JOG 
 
 in a political discussion by asserting an 
 untenable paradox to provoke his oppo- 
 sition, and by a lively conversation between 
 themselves, in which Lord Courtville oc- 
 casionally joined, they beguiled the drive to 
 Sandon, and reached Lilly Hill Cottage 
 before he had remarked its duration. 
 
 Marty n and Lord Ames entered the door, 
 which was opened by Mr. O'Rourk, promis- 
 ing Lord Courtville to detain him but for 
 five minutes, at the expiration of which 
 Ames returned to the carriage requesting 
 his father to hasten to Martyn's assistance, 
 who was, he said, just seized with some 
 alarming illness. Lord Ames's real agita- 
 tion seemed so confirmatory of his assertion 
 that Lord Courtville, who, though cold in
 
 94 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 manner, was still a kind-hearted man, 
 followed readily through the hall to the 
 dining-room, where Ames, begging him to 
 enter first, shut the door behind him and 
 instantly locked it on the outside, carefully 
 retaining the key in his own possession. 
 
 Martyn in the meantime entering the 
 drawing-room where Edward and Agnes 
 sat conversing with Miss Williams, ex- 
 claimed, with a tremulous voice, " Edward, 
 I have secured him effectually — I have 
 secured him." 
 
 " Who ?" said Annesley, struck with 
 Martyn's agitation and earnestness. 
 
 " Your father — he is here, in the op- 
 posite room. Ames and I inveigled him 
 from home, and by the most fortunate 
 promptitude he is rescued from the ex- 
 posure that must have followed his ap- 
 pearance at the House to-night." 
 
 " Are you mad?" said Annesley. "Where 
 is my father ? — what does all this mean ?" 
 
 " Dear Edward," exclaimed Agnes, " I did
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 95 
 
 not wish to sadden the evening of an un- 
 pleasant day by reverting to the occurrences 
 of this morning, but now that you are 
 about to quit England on my account, 
 surely it was a duty I owed you and Lord 
 Courtville to mention his situation to Mr. 
 Martyn, and thus to insure proper care and 
 kindness for your unhappy father. It is in- 
 deed fortunate that an unpleasant scene in 
 the House to-night should be avoided by my 
 interference, and I " 
 
 " You are all demented," exclaimed 
 Annesley, savagely; "you are stark mad 
 altogether." 
 
 A peal from the dining-room bell here 
 rang through the house. Annesley stood 
 for a few moments uncertain how to act, 
 but starting suddenly from his suspense, he 
 cried, " Let him out, Martyn, for heaven's 
 sake ; open the door, I entreat you ! 
 Where is the key? — give it to me at 
 once." 
 
 " Xo, Edward," said Lord Ames, enter-
 
 96 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 ing from the passage without, " no ! Your 
 imprudence has nearly involved us all in a 
 very disagreeable predicament. I have the 
 key, and until proper medical advice can 
 be procured I must and I will retain it. 
 Go, my dear fellow, take the carriage and 
 return to town for Sir Henry Halford ; Miss 
 Somerton will, I am sure, afford my father 
 every " 
 
 " Ames — Ames !" interrupted Anneslev. 
 " you will drive me mad — this is all a mis- 
 take; just let me say a few words to you 
 in the next room — come in here for one 
 moment ; and, Martyn, you must be of our 
 council." 
 
 Annesley then, in a subdued voice, ex- 
 plained the deception he had practised on 
 Miss Somerton, the accident that provoked 
 it, and the necessity that still existed for 
 withholding his stratagem from her know- 
 ledge. " We must prevent Agnes from 
 seeing my father," he added, — " Hear — 
 hear how he tears at the bell! 2^0, run —
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 97 
 
 open the door for God's sake, Ames ! Take 
 him home — get him out of this house, and 
 I shall be eternally obliged to you. I must 
 try and keep Agnes in the drawing-room, 
 by begging that she will not agitate my 
 father during this dangerous paroxysm. I 
 can say that you think it expedient to take 
 him home for — I will invent some " 
 
 " This is all very well for you, Edward,'' 
 said Lord Ames, " but how are we to ex- 
 plain ourselves when your father accuses 
 us of kidnapping him, and then imprison- 
 ing him here in a strange house? Why 
 should Ave suffer from the consequences 
 of your absurd manoeuvre ?" 
 
 M The gentleman in the dining-room de- 
 clares he will break open the door, sir, if 
 you do not unlock it immediately," said Mr. 
 O'Rourk, the butler, entering the room 
 with a flushed and bewildered countenance; 
 "and Miss Somerton, sir, is fainting; and 
 Mrs. Jones, sir, is " 
 
 "Go, Ames, go, for heaven's sake!" said 
 
 VOL. I. II
 
 98 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Annesley, " and do as you like, and (whis- 
 pering) only get my father away from 
 here immediately, or I am a ruined 
 man." 
 
 Lord Courtville's loud voice now re- 
 sounded through the house. "Before I leave 
 this place, gentlemen," said he, " I must 
 know what induced you to expose me to 
 insult and ridicule by bringing me here; 
 Mr. Martyn, I appeal to you — what is the 
 object of all this? Whose house am I in, 
 sir? Why did Ames pretend that you were 
 ill?" 
 
 Receiving no immediate answer from his 
 nephew, and perceiving Mr. O'Rourk, Lord 
 Courtville addressed him, repeating the 
 former query, in a more imperious tone, 
 "Whose house is this, sir? I insist on 
 knowing where I am." 
 
 " This is Mrs. Jones's house, sir," replied 
 O'Rourk, very much bewildered by the turn 
 things were taking. 
 
 " Where is Mrs. Jones ? I insist on seeing
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 99 
 
 Mrs. Jones! Where is Mrs. Jones, I re- 
 peat?" 
 
 Mrs. Jones, hearing some disturbance in 
 the hall, for Lord Courtville's voice reached 
 even her sensorium, left Agnes and Miss 
 Williams, unperceived by Annesley, and 
 coming just then amongst her unexpected 
 visitors, collected from Mr. O'Rourk's de- 
 scriptive gestures that the person who so 
 audibly invoked her was a lunatic. When, 
 therefore, Lord Courtville addressed her 
 Avith emphatic earnestness and stentorian 
 voice, terror transfixed her to the spot, and 
 wringing her hands and screaming, she 
 cried — " Save me ! save me from him, for 
 God's sake ! Oh, hold him, hold him, 
 O'Rourk! Why do you let him remain? 
 Take him away, for mercy's sake !" 
 
 "Madam," said Lord Courtville, "Mrs. 
 Jones " 
 
 " Xo, no, sir, I am not Mrs. Jones, indeed 
 I am not, I am Miss Somerton, sir. This 
 house is not mine, indeed I cannot allow 
 
 ii 2
 
 100 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 you to remain here ; I should be very happy 
 to see you at any other time, but — when 
 you are well, sir, I shall be happy to see 
 you — but I am very busy now, very busy 
 indeed. I hope you are not offended," she 
 added, curtseying to Lord Courtville, who, 
 urged by Martyn, while Lord Ames whis- 
 pered to him that the woman was silly, 
 proceeded to the door, unmindful of the 
 lady's distress. 
 
 They persuaded him to enter the carriage, 
 and ordered the coachman to drive as fast 
 as possible to the House of Lords, that Lord 
 Courtville might not appear neglectful of 
 his summons there. Lord Ames and Mar- 
 tyn were too much in awe of Lord Court- 
 ville to explain accurately the real motive 
 for their recent proceedings, but Ames de- 
 clared that a sudden giddiness of Martyn 
 had alarmed him, and that he had found 
 the supposed dying man quite recovered on 
 re-entering the house. 
 
 " Why did you lock me into that room ?" 
 persisted Lord Courtville.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 101 
 
 " Quite an accident," said Martyn ; " the 
 key was taken out by mistake/' 
 
 Although Lord Courtville now began to 
 think that he was made the instrument of 
 some mystification connected with Annes- 
 ley, pride prevented him from allowing 
 his companions to perceive how much 
 it annoyed him, and he dropped the 
 subject. 
 
 Martyn alighted from the carriage at 
 Westminster, and after his departure Lord 
 Courtville said to Lord Ames, "Edward 
 has certainly made a very strange selection, 
 and one that I think will be no great credit 
 to our family. This Miss Somerton may 
 once have been handsome, but she is now 
 old enough to be his grandmother, and ap- 
 pears to me a little crazed. What did 
 she mean by desiring me to quit her 
 house ?" 
 
 " It is too true," replied Lord Ames, only 
 replying to the latter part of his father's 
 address, " I never was more surprised in 
 my life than when she mentioned her name,
 
 102 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 for Edward always assured me that his 
 intended was both young and lovely." 
 
 At ten o'clock the morning after their 
 first attempt at matrimony, our bridal party 
 again assembled in the parish church of 
 Sandon. Annesley's clerical friend had 
 already arrived, and, with Mr. Martyn as 
 supporter to the bridegroom, and Mrs. Jones 
 to matronize Miss Somerton, Agnes and 
 Annesley knelt to receive the nuptial bene- 
 diction, and to pledge themselves to love 
 and cherish, honour and obey, till Death 
 dissolve the compact or circumstances fore- 
 stall his interference. 
 
 Edward trembled as he placed the golden 
 fetter on his bride's left hand ; he recalled, 
 perhaps, a ceremony long ago that had 
 mimicked this sacred rite, and the youthful 
 victim who then exchanged for that vain 
 symbol of his truth her peace, her hopes, 
 and the sunshine of her young life. 
 
 Agnes retained sufficient self-possession 
 to observe Edward's agitation, but she of
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 103 
 
 course referred it to the novelty of his situa- 
 tion. A few young ladies had assembled 
 to criticize the ceremony, their curiosity so 
 much enhanced by the previous day's failure 
 as to counterbalance all inconveniences of 
 rain, and wind, and cold. Agnes did not 
 suspect their envy, nor could she imagine 
 the pride with which each one of these fair 
 damsels would have ranked herself amongst 
 "the chosen few" promoted to matrimony, 
 for Agnes was exempt from the vulgar 
 prejudice that considers it a social triumph 
 which the overlooked must either pine for 
 in sullen sorrow, or resent with acrid 
 misanthropy. 
 
 Hastily passing all the fair aspirants to 
 hymeneal honours, and stepping into the 
 bridegroom's chariot, Agnes returned to 
 Lilly Hill Cottage, there to exchange her 
 white attire for one more suited to a long 
 journey. A pink silk bonnet, a grey silk 
 dress, a beautiful white Cashmere shawl, 
 and grey gloves, completed the travelling
 
 104 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 toilet with which she entered her carriage, 
 followed by Annesley, whose distinguished 
 air and fine features were as remarkable as 
 the expressive beauty of his bride. A 
 few minutes and they were on the high 
 road to France, flying through the country 
 at a rapid pace, despite the rain and storm 
 that only seemed to add another impetus to 
 their course.
 
 105 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " One time I think; and then I am in pain 
 To think how to nnthink that thought again." 
 
 Annesley and Agnes accomplished the 
 second stage of their journe} 7 with satis- 
 factory speed, and had just halted at a 
 small rural inn, where the postillions, with 
 ostentatious activity, were urging others 
 to replace them, when a post-chaise, after 
 descending with fearful precipitancy a 
 declivity before the house, swept up close 
 beside the chariot of our heroine and her 
 spouse. 
 
 The rain had obscured the carriage 
 glasses, and Annesley let one down to 
 scrutinize the ne^dy-arrived equipage. A 
 gentleman, its late occupant, hastened 
 towards him, and in an instant more
 
 106 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Annesley recognised his old friend and ac- 
 complice, Sir Harry Ashworth. 
 
 "Edward," said lie, with an embarrassed 
 manner, " I am just arrived from France, 
 and on my way to Sandon for the purpose 
 of seeing you. We must have a few words' 
 conversation immediately. Accompany me 
 into the hotel; you shall return in ten 
 minutes to Miss Somertou." 
 
 Ashworth here bowed to Agnes, and 
 opening the carriage door himself, he over- 
 came the objections which Annesley mut- 
 tered to this interruption, and ushered him 
 into an adjoining tavern. Ashworth seemed 
 extremely agitated, while Annesley appeared 
 subdued with the dread of some impending 
 disaster. So thought Agnes as her eyes fol- 
 lowed them into the house, and then she 
 sank back in the carriage to surmise what 
 could be the cause of this untimely inter- 
 ruption. 
 
 Annesley's family were all in England, 
 and Sir Harry had but just arrived from
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 107 
 
 the Continent; therefore, his communica- 
 tion could not relate to any of them. After 
 imagining all possible casualties, Agnes de- 
 cided that Sir Henry had involved himself 
 in some pecuniary dilemma from which 
 he intended Edward to extricate him, and 
 then Agues thought how very provoking it 
 was that his difficulties should just occur 
 so as to interrupt their bridal tour and 
 detain her on a disagreeable road, with 
 the rain battering against the very imperial 
 which contained her wedding paraphernalia. 
 All she could do was just to hope that it 
 was waterproof, and occupy herself by look- 
 ing through the half-dim windows till the 
 vexatious interview had terminated. 
 
 Her view was not extensive; a shop 
 occupying the lower part of a solitary 
 house that kept the tavern company stood 
 opposite, while trees bordered both sides of 
 the road before her as it wound round the 
 eminence which Sir Harry Ashworth had 
 descended with such perilous rapidity. A
 
 108 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 dirty, shaggy dog sat with senile gravity 
 at the door of the little mart for every kind 
 of requirement, where a woman near its 
 window was endeavouring to improve the 
 aspect of her petty merchandise. She 
 polished her apples, arranged her oranges, 
 presenting their most perfect sides to notice, 
 and then sat down upon a stool behind the 
 counter, composing herself to work upon 
 some coarse material. 
 
 How strange it is for us gay idlers to 
 watch the homely pursuits of those far 
 below us in the scale of social life, to see 
 the care and thought which they devote to 
 objects that seem so poor and worthless, 
 and yet are to them the objects or the 
 means of existence. 
 
 " How different is my destiny from hers !" 
 thought Agnes, as she watched the poor 
 woman's careful industry. " The centre of a 
 circle, I claim from many what they seem 
 bound to yield of deference and esteem ; each 
 year, each month, dilates the sphere, and
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 109 
 
 adds some others to the crowd already aware 
 of my existence, while, pent within that little 
 shop, slic will live and die, accomplishing 
 the daily wearying circuit of the petty 
 tasks by which she exists." A great deal 
 more upon this subject thought Agnes, 
 still waiting in the rain; the do£ soon 
 retired from its encroachment, and our 
 poor woman, the cause of this digression, 
 still stooped over her work. 
 
 Annesley did not return, and, nearly 
 tired with watching and surmising, again 
 the bride reclined upon the well-stuffed 
 cushions heaped in piles behind her. The 
 chariot door now opened, but instead of 
 Annesley, or a promise of departure, Sir 
 Harry pressed Miss Somerton to enter the 
 inn, "just for a moment," that they might 
 all consult together upon a matter of great 
 importance to each. Agues tried to excuse 
 herself — it was so wet — the hour too far 
 advanced — why could they not all meet 
 next day at Dover?
 
 110 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 "No, no!" Sir Harry answered; "my 
 dear Miss Somerton, as a friend I ask you 
 to accompany me, and in a few short 
 minutes you will yourself approve of my 
 importunity." 
 
 Agnes found it vain to object further; 
 so, leaning on Sir Harry's arm, she sprang 
 from the carriage, and hastily ascended a 
 flight of stairs, to which he led her. Ash- 
 worth had followed, and just across the 
 narrow landing-place, he preceded her into 
 a small sitting-room, where, however, she 
 did not see her husband. 
 
 " Annesley will join us presently," said 
 Sir Harry, in answer to her question of 
 where he was, " and I will not enter on the 
 subject of this interview until he comes. 
 Pray sit down, Miss Somerton. I must amuse 
 you with some account of our foreign 
 friends while Edward is examining the 
 carriage, which according to his servant's 
 report wants some small repair." 
 
 A sues sat down; there was something
 
 shattered' idols. Ill 
 
 strange in Ashworth's manner that she 
 could not understand ; he spoke in a sub- 
 dued tone which seemed as ill-suited to 
 present circumstances as unlike his usual 
 petulance. She turned towards the door, 
 impatiently watching for Annesley, and 
 nearly quite unconscious of Sir Henry's 
 efforts to amuse her. He tried to intro- 
 duce some foreign topic, he spoke of Agnes's 
 former friends and associates at Rome, but 
 all in vain; expecting some catastrophe, the 
 bride remained unmoved by his words, 
 and scarcely replied to his often repeated 
 questions. 
 
 After some minutes passed in this em- 
 barrassing ttte-a-tite. Ashworth said that he 
 would now seek Annesley and bring him 
 to the long-suspended conference. Agnes 
 remained alone. 
 
 She walked towards a window that looked 
 upon a kitchen garden behind the house. 
 A carriage now drove from the front 
 door; she heard its rapid movement, and
 
 112 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 was just concluding that it must be the 
 stage, when Ashworth's reappearance in the 
 room without her husband enhanced the 
 fears which she had till now vainly tried to 
 conquer. Sir Harry led her to a seat, and 
 cautiously, and by degrees, disclosed his 
 fatal secret. He produced some papers 
 just before inspected by Annesley, and at 
 the expiration of their conference fully con- 
 vinced poor Agnes that Annesley was the 
 husband of another woman ! Xo exclama- 
 tion of distress betrayed the agony of a dis- 
 tracted mind, no tears fell to relieve it, 
 although the tremor of her hand disabled 
 her from holding a glass of water to her 
 lips which Ashworth offered. "With ap- 
 parent calmness she learnt that Annesley 
 was gone, that he had departed in the car- 
 riage which rolled past when she was ex- 
 pecting his return. 
 
 Sir Harry failed not to hint that Annes- 
 ley' s ignorance of the facts which he had 
 just communicated was pretended. He
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 113 
 
 expatiated indignantly on the infamous 
 particulars just detailed, promising that 
 they should be fully substantiated by his 
 late servant, now disabled by illness from 
 personally attesting his evidence. 
 
 wi I hear," said Sir Harry, "that the 
 family of this foreigner mean to prosecute 
 Annesley, and I have strenuously advised 
 him immediately to employ a professional 
 man of eminence. I myself am quite con- 
 vinced that the foreign marriage is valid, 
 and must be acknowledged ; and although 
 it may seem harsh to state this to you, 
 Miss Somerton, still I am induced to 
 trust to your fortitude rather than leave 
 you ignorant of facts so closely interfering 
 with your future welfare.'" 
 
 Sir Henry now volunteered an immediate 
 jour ne)' to Sandon, in order to apprise Mrs. 
 Jones of Agnes's situation ; he suggested the 
 propriety of Miss Williams's immediate com- 
 panionship, and the advantages of a visit to 
 Paris, there to wait the results of pending 
 
 VOL. i. I
 
 114 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 events. Poor Agnes had not yet rallied 
 from the stupor of sudden misfortune ; she 
 quietly assented to every plan Sir Harry 
 urged, and tacitly concurred in his project 
 for her continental excursion. 
 
 He offered to escort her abroad, then to 
 surrender her to the care of his sister, la 
 Comtesse D'Albremont, who resided with 
 her daughter in Paris. But to this pro- 
 posal Agnes would not consent; Miss 
 Williams and two servants she deemed 
 sufficient protection on the road, at the 
 same time acknowledging Sir Harry's gal- 
 lantry, and accepting gratefully a letter of 
 introduction to his sister, which he enjoined 
 her to present immediately after her arrival 
 in Paris. 
 
 Sir Harry now summoned Agnes's maid 
 to her mistress, he bespoke the hostess's ac- 
 tive ministry to her wants, and borrowing 
 the carriage to convey him to Sandon, 
 Annesley having appropriated his post- 
 chaise, he bade her a hurried farewell.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 115 
 
 Ashworth promised to consult able lawyers 
 and to communicate their advice, as well 
 as Anneslev's proceedings, in weekly letters 
 to Agnes, who returned with grateful 
 cordiality the pressure of his hand before 
 he quitted the room to proceed on his 
 mission of friendship to Sandon. 
 
 Left alone to her own reflections, 
 they were certainly not cheering. She 
 arraigned her prudence, recapitulating the 
 circumstances that should have awakened 
 it to oreater vigilance. Then again she 
 recalled Annesley's recommendations, his 
 persevering assiduity, that partly justified 
 her late injudicious preference, and also 
 mitigated the resentment which his conduct 
 had provoked. During this process pride, 
 anger, and disappointment in turn overcame 
 her; she was humbled by Inning succumbed 
 to an unworthy artifice, and incensed at its 
 success. Her mind vibrating between self- 
 accusation and resentment, she sat regardless 
 of time, till from excitement she relapsed 
 
 i2
 
 116 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 into its inevitable consequences, fatigue and 
 vacuity. 
 
 At four o'clock the hostess brought 
 candles, and informed Miss Somerton that 
 a dinner ordered by the gentleman who 
 had left her some time before was now pre- 
 paring, to be ready at six o'clock. 
 
 Agnes still sat where Ashworthhad placed 
 her, beside the window, till a chill which 
 she had not before perceived brought her 
 to the fire, and there again she remained 
 another hour, her eyes fixed on the blazing 
 hearth, quite unmindful of the preparations 
 for dining made by the host beside her. 
 The meal was soon despatched, a few 
 morsels and a glass of wine completing it. 
 Then she was again in solitude, hoping that 
 Ashworth might expedite Miss Williams to 
 join her even before the following day, the 
 preparations for a journey being dispensed 
 with for the sake of haste. Till ten o'clock, 
 however, she waited fruitlessly at her bed- 
 room window, which looked upon the street.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 117 
 
 The lone woman again sat in her little 
 shop, and Agnes thought how her own 
 fate was changed since she had first seen 
 this poor creature working at that same 
 coarse garment over which she yet toiled 
 with unremitting industry. 
 
 The nisrtit was dreary and cold, and the 
 dim light of a small candle just showed 
 Agnes the form of the poor worker, alone and 
 cheerless, unsolaced, like herself, by friendly 
 companionship. She watched in vain for 
 some time longer, and then, yielding to her 
 maid's persuasion, at eleven o'clock com- 
 posed herself to rest, harassed and exhausted 
 by the trials of that eventful day. 
 
 For hours our heroine vainly courted 
 sleep, and when, occasionally, it stole 
 over her, some rural noise or passing 
 carriage would recall her senses to their 
 wakeful activity. 
 
 Towards morning, these intervals of rest- 
 lessness were abridged, and then a placid 
 sleep withdrew poor Agnes from the re-
 
 118 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 memb ranee of lier recent distress. At nine, 
 when from some bustle in the house she was 
 awakened, the sun was exhaling his golden 
 breath over the country, and a long beam 
 of this heavenly emanation fell upon her 
 bed, and cheered her waking thoughts with 
 its brightness. 
 
 Agnes felt much better; the events of 
 yesterday seemed now like a dream that 
 she could not analyse while it lasted. 
 
 The morning light and air brought vigour 
 to her mind and body, and, ere Miss "Wil- 
 liams arrived, at ten o'clock, she had re- 
 sumed so much composure as speedily to 
 allay the fears of that lady, who dreaded 
 meeting her in a far different mood. Agnes 
 discussed their journey and all her future 
 plans; until it was agreed that both ladies 
 should proceed immediately to Paris, there 
 to await some further information, either 
 confirmatory of Sir Harry's accusations 
 or exculpating Annesley from the crime 
 with which they branded him.
 
 119 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 "Give every man thine ear; but few thy voice." 
 
 AVhile the two friends were yet preparing 
 to commence their journey a servant in- 
 formed Agnes that an old lady had just 
 arrived, a Mrs. Jones, who desired to be 
 shown into Miss Somerton's room imme- 
 diately. 
 
 " Good gracious, Agnes!" cried Miss 
 Williams ; " I bad hoped that her threat of 
 following you was but a momentary fancy, 
 and strenuously opposed it. Through pique 
 at my unasked-for interference she has, no 
 doubt, effected the preparationsfordeparture 
 with so much secrecy and expedition as to 
 reach here just an hour after my own 
 hurried arrival." 
 
 Agnes rose abruptly, unmindful of this
 
 120 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 observation, for Mrs. Jones stood at the 
 door, and, after some explanations and a 
 few condolences, plainly announced her 
 determined purpose of accompanying Agnes 
 in her journey to Paris. 
 
 Now, Agnes really loved her aunt with 
 dutiful affection ; but habit, the bond of con- 
 sanguineous attachments, had not strength- 
 ened theirs — for till the period of Miss 
 Somerton's return to England she had never 
 seen this relative, from whom pecuniary dis- 
 putes had hitherto estranged her family. Had 
 a more ready means of communication existed 
 between them, Agnes might have prized her 
 aunt's society more ; but Mrs. Jones, from 
 deafness, could not hear one half of Agnes's 
 conversation, the rest she often did not 
 understand, and the enjoyment of the poor 
 old lady's affection was purchased by 
 Agnes at the price of many sacrifices and 
 petty inconveniences, to which she most 
 cheerfully submitted. 
 
 Miss Somerton's persuasive powers effected
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 121 
 
 no change in her aunt's determination. The 
 dangers of a voyage, the inconvenience of 
 the journey, and above all (this Agnes hinted 
 mildly) the ignorance of French — which 
 was not taught in Mrs. Jones's younger 
 days, when parents thought one tongue suf- 
 ficient for a woman — all these objections 
 Miss Williams and her niece most forcibly 
 reiterated, but all in vain. A sudden spirit 
 of enterprise had animated the old lady. 
 Sin- packed up a few small necessaries, 
 and, with her maid's and Mr. O'Rourk's (the 
 butler's) help, stowed herself into the green 
 chariot, determined to see the world at last, 
 and charmed to travel under the friendly 
 auspices of her clever, darling Agnes. Be- 
 sides, she urged the propriety of sanctioning 
 the journey with her presence. Agnes was 
 young and might require the counsel and 
 protection of a matron, her nearest relative 
 alive. Mrs. Jones even wept at Agnes's 
 sad predicament, but smiled again on 
 thinking how much she should enjoy the
 
 122 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 journey and all the beautiful novelties, 
 and the lovely climate of France. 
 
 Miss Somerton found it would be use- 
 less further to thwart her aged relative, 
 and disbursing the amount of her bill at 
 the hotel, she followed Mrs. Jones down- 
 stairs, mentally lamenting the pertinacity of 
 her determination. There stood the green 
 chariot of the old lady, enclosing her 
 ancient abigail — a cross and ugh' damsel 
 of five-and-forty. 
 
 When Mr. O'Rourk had pushed his 
 rheumatic mistress into her place within, 
 he mounted to the rumble behind, where, 
 much to Agnes's dismay, she saw perched 
 beside him, in its large gilded cage, a parrot, 
 the companion and solace of her aunt's 
 lonely hours. This bird had long con- 
 tinued a grand favourite with Mrs. Jones — 
 his voice being always audible to every 
 ear, her deafness was almost forgotten — 
 when seated tcte-a-tete with Poll, not one 
 syllable of his vociferous observations and 
 queries escaped her.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 123 
 
 Mr. O'Rourk, the Irish butler, Agnes 
 deemed a greater burden than the other biped, 
 but to remonstrate with her aunt would now 
 be useless. Entering her carriage, there- 
 fore, preceded by Miss Williams, she quietly 
 resigned herself to fate, and even indulged a 
 smile at Mrs. Jones's strange equipment. Here 
 was a woman nearly incompetent to perform 
 a prosperous journey in her own quiet 
 county, now courting the perils of foreign 
 travel, encumbered, too, with two domestics 
 who must become quite helpless in a 
 country of which they did not understand 
 the language ; and this most promising trio 
 had Agnes to convey on a tour of pleasure. 
 
 Mr. O'Rourk, a genuine Milesian, entirely 
 governed her aunt's establishment, adopt- 
 ing a mincing pronunciation and softening 
 his vowels to correct a very unmistakable 
 brogue: painfully recognisable when any 
 exciting cause superseded the vigilance with 
 which he tried to correct it. 
 
 With much natural shrewdness Mr. 
 O'Rourk affected the simple manner of his
 
 124 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 compatriots belonging to the same sphere. 
 A faithful attachment to his employer, 
 the espousal of her interests on all 
 occasions, and a desire to enhance the 
 consequence of those whom he served, 
 constituted his merits; while, on the other 
 hand, they were counterbalanced by mis- 
 placed familiarity, officious interference, 
 and occasional extravagance of words and 
 expenditure, "to promote the honour of 
 the family," which conduced much to its 
 inconvenience. The national propensities 
 were duly represented by Mr. O'Rourk, 
 who drank and fought, and involved him- 
 self in all the troubles, and adopted all the 
 quarrels of his countrymen, whose travelling 
 tastes disseminate them far and wide upon 
 the surface of the habitable globe. 
 
 Such an attendant did not promise much 
 help in the task of steering Mrs. Jones safely 
 through a continental tour ; still the party 
 reached the coast without accident or delay, 
 contrary to Agnes's apprehensions.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 125 
 
 Your passage at that time from Dover to 
 the opposite shore was as uncertain as the 
 wind that might expedite it ; and whether 
 this would waft you to the coast, of France, 
 or only blow you half-way over, to meet 
 another current which would send you 
 back again, was always of course a matter 
 of doubt at embarkation. 
 
 The night of Agnes's arrival at Dover 
 sundry candidates called to propose 
 their own " fast-sailing vessels'' for her 
 transport the next morning. The Rose 
 was recommended by a brown, broad, la- 
 conic man; while the Britannia s merits 
 were duly eulogised in the nautical su- 
 perlatives of a tall athlete, noisy and pro- 
 fuse with his technical encomiums. "That 
 'ere Rose is a crazy thing, marm," said this 
 Hercules; "there ben't a sound plank in 
 the vessel.'' 
 
 "Good gracious!" cried Mrs. Jones to 
 Agnes, " you certainly won't think of taking 
 places in that ship, my love? The gentle-
 
 12 G SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 man is exceedingly kind to warn us against 
 
 it." 
 
 Poor Agnes, to satisfy her aunt, forth- 
 with engaged three berths in the Britannia. 
 It was formerly necessary to secure beds in 
 case you might spend a week on board. 
 
 The ladies now gathered round the fire, 
 well pleased at having been judiciously ad- 
 vised by their late visitor. 
 
 Another weather-beaten son of the sea, how- 
 ever, soon entered, unannounced — for then, 
 when the certainty of modern steam transits 
 was unknown, the period an d number of depar- 
 tures ever varied, and even time and tide, 
 which proverbially wait for no man, were dis- 
 regarded in the eagerness of competition by 
 rival captains. The new petitioner detailed 
 the merits of his Annie; she was < swift, 
 clean, and beautiful, and his encomiums 
 might have comprised all the cardinal 
 virtues, had not Mrs. Jones (to whom 
 maritime voices seemed exceedingly pro- 
 pitious) interrupted him by declaring
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 127 
 
 that she had engaged places in the 
 Britannia. 
 
 "You have, inarm, have ye? Then you 
 never will repent it but once, for as I am a 
 living man she is not seaworthy." 
 
 " Oh dear," said Mrs. Jones, "you know 
 that does not signify ; her being worthy of 
 the sea is of no sort of consequence to us if 
 she is a good vessel." 
 
 "Good vessel! Lord love you, marm, 
 she's a reg'lar bad 'un; now, dye know, 
 marm," he continued, in a confidential man- 
 ner, " if she wor to go down to-morrow 
 with all aboard, it would be no more nor I 
 expects.'' 
 
 " Good gracious !'' said Mrs. -Jones; " hear 
 that. Agnes dear. I'm sure it's very kind 
 of you to tell us this in time, sir, for we 
 should certainly have embarked in the 
 Britannia, but as you say your own ship is 
 a £Ood one, I think " 
 
 Here Agnes interrupted her aunt. " My 
 dear madam,' 1 said she, : ' I think we had
 
 128 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 better not decide on any change till morning. 
 I can speak to the proprietor of this hotel, 
 and we shall be partly guided by his 
 counsel." 
 
 " Yes, love," said Mrs. Jones, who always 
 could be led by Agnes, " yes, we can wait 
 till morning before we give this gentleman 
 his answer." 
 
 " Just as you please, marin," said the 
 sailor, "but d'ye see, the master of this 
 house is just an owner of the Briianny his- 
 self, and I should not much mind what he 
 says in the business." 
 
 " Oh dear, oh dear," cried Mrs. Jones, 
 " what shall we do ? who will advise us ? 
 Well, sir, just call to-morrow early, and 
 then we may, perhaps, agree to go in your 
 ship, the Rose, is it not?" 
 
 " No, no, marm, the Rose is worser nor 
 the Brittanny ; there's not much difference 
 atwixt 'em. Good evening, ladies; here's 
 a card of my ship, the Annie; remember, 
 Captain Junk."
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 129 
 
 Next morning our three travellers arose 
 betimes, and after breakfast, as they were 
 not to embark till three o'clock, Agnes per- 
 suaded Mrs. Jones to accompany her to the 
 Marine Parade in a bath-chair, as the old 
 lady had never seen the sea. Her wonder 
 and delight at all she passed amused Agnes 
 much ; the shops, the foreigners, the vessels 
 at the quays, were successively the objects 
 of her ejaculations. At last, however, when 
 on emerging from the close harbour they 
 reached a spot from whence the broad 
 green surging sea was visible, Mrs. Jones's 
 energy materially abated, the smile of 
 pleasure passed from her features, and 
 turning a piteous glance on Agnes, she 
 asked, "Are Ave to venture on that awful- 
 looking water ? Oh, Agnes, I shall never 
 have courage to embark on such a roaring 
 ma-- of waves; why, lam afraid even now 
 that tiny are coming on towards us. Are 
 you sure it is a safe place to remain in ?" 
 
 Her gravity did not relax from that 
 
 'VOL. I. K
 
 130 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 moment, and, although not recurring to 
 the subject on their return to the hotel, 
 still the poor woman considered her doom 
 as sealed. She could not now retract ; but 
 all the delights with which she had lately 
 invested a trip to Paris were more than 
 neutralized by the remembrance of that 
 fearful expanse of ocean. 
 
 Counselled by some disinterested adviser, 
 Agnes retained her passage in the Britannia, 
 although obliged to countenance a tacit 
 falsehood, when Mrs. Jones imagined her- 
 self seated in the Annie, never sup- 
 posing that Agnes would imperil their 
 lives by patronizing a vessel so notoriously 
 dangerous as the Britannia.
 
 131 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 " The bridegroom sea 
 Is toying with the shore, his wedded bride ; 
 And in the fulness of his married joy 
 He decorates her tawny brow with shells, 
 Retires a pace to see how fair she looks, 
 Then, proud, runs up to kiss her." — Smith. 
 
 The sea, and its sunny dancing waves, 
 undulating with the rhythm of the ocean, 
 the fresh wind that we first inhale before 
 another breath has tainted its purity, the 
 distant horizon which seems to render 
 vision boundless, all bring vigour to mind 
 and body, and inspirit us with active 
 energy. Then our pride in that power 
 which enables man to master one of nature's 
 great elements, and the novelty of another 
 mode of locomotion with which, in fine 
 weather, we glide over space unconscious of 
 
 K 2
 
 132 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 movement — all these sensations render a 
 short excursion to sea most exhilarating. 
 
 Agnes soon began to feel these agreeable 
 influences as she sat on deck, watching the 
 rippling waters through which the vessel 
 floated. The day had become calm and 
 oppressive for the season, and the sails flapped 
 languidly above her head with that measured 
 sound which is soothing from its monotonous 
 regularity. Recent occurrences crowded 
 to her memory, and now that the first 
 shock of surprise and disappointment was 
 a little abated, she deemed herself indeed 
 fortunate to have escaped the calamity 
 which Sir Harry Ash worth's interference 
 had so providentially averted. With the 
 variability of her sex she now felt that her 
 affection for Annesley was overcoming the 
 resentment with which she first heard of 
 his iniquity, and almost regretted her ready 
 belief in Ash worth's accusations. " I will 
 wait," she mentally said, " I will wait 
 patiently for confirmatory proofs of his
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 133 
 
 treachery, or for some extenuation of his 
 guilt; in either case it cannot avail to 
 make myself wretched now." 
 
 After a prosperous voyage, speedily ter- 
 minated, our travellers spent one day in 
 ( Jalais previous to their departure for Paris. 
 Mrs. Jones required some repose after her 
 many adventures, for she had been seized 
 by an Herculean sailor, and dropped into a 
 small boat beside the ship to be conveyed on 
 shore, and while thelittle craft kept bounding 
 up and down near the larger vessel, she had 
 sat awaiting death at every plunge. Finding 
 her entreaties to leave the other passengers 
 in the packet until her own party had landed 
 quite fruitless, she had sunk to the bottom 
 of the boat in helpless despair, screaming 
 vigorously as each person lowered into the 
 small skiff gave it an additional lurch. On 
 approaching the shore, this poor woman had 
 been again seized by her powerful friend 
 and handed to a French sailor, who had lifted 
 her up like a child through the surge,
 
 134 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 quite unmindful of struggles and shrieks 
 and kicks. 
 
 Deposited on terra firma, Mrs. Jones's 
 troubles had seemed to increase, for she had 
 been surrounded by noisy advocates of all the 
 hotels in the town, urging in sputtered 
 English, or vociferated French, the merits of 
 their respective houses. Dragged to one side 
 by a representative of the Hotel de France, 
 rescued violently by an opposition from the 
 Ville de Paris, bewildered by all, and sepa- 
 rated from her party, Mrs. Jones had been 
 at last released from this persecution by a 
 whiskered delegate from Dessein's, who had 
 led her off in triumph amidst the scowls and 
 jeers of his disappointed competitors. 
 
 The next morning Allies and her com- 
 es o 
 
 panions started at an early hour on the road 
 to Paris, Miss Somerton and Miss Williams 
 occupying a hired carriage, while Mrs. 
 Jones followed in the green chariot, seated be- 
 side her maid and protected by Mr. O'Rourk, 
 who looked very important in the rum-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. loO 
 
 ble, upon which he fastened Mrs. Jones's 
 parrot, in a French travelling cage of an 
 unpretending character. 
 
 The first day's journey was comfortably 
 aceomplished, but not so the second, for on 
 arriving at the termination of a long stage, 
 Mr. O'liourk, his companion, and the rumble 
 had entirely disappeared. To add to Mrs. 
 Jones's distress, no horses were found at the 
 post-house, and the man despatched on foot 
 along the road in search of the missing but- 
 ler returned unsuccessful. One of the jaded 
 posters was now mounted by the postillion 
 and sent in pursuit, while Agnes and her 
 companions sat in a dirty, miserable room 
 at the inn, anxiously awaiting the reap- 
 pearance of the Irishman. 
 
 Mr. O'Rourk, meantime, was by no means 
 in an enviable position. He had been roused 
 from a comfortable nap by a very unexpected 
 fall, and on recovering the shock his cries 
 and vociferations had been quite inaudible 
 from the clatter of the carriages over the
 
 136 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 rough pavement of the French road, along 
 which they rattled at great speed. A 
 slight sprain disabled him from more active 
 measures, while, sprawling on the ground, 
 he felt himself all over to ascertain the 
 amount of his injuries. 
 
 O'Rourk assuredly was most uncomfort- 
 able in his novel situation, particularly as a 
 constant fall of rain poured on his uncovered 
 head — for his hat had flown out of reach — 
 and the clouds promised its long continu- 
 ance. The parrot luckily escaped all injury, 
 and O'Rourk now, dragging the rumble 
 under a tree, seated himself upon its 
 cushions, and placing the cage beside him, 
 awaited with no very great patience the re- 
 turn of the carriage, or any other good luck 
 fortune might bring him. 
 
 u A mighty pleasant and sinsible thing it 
 is to travel, and to turn into a bird of para- 
 dise, always going from place to place," said 
 he, indulging in a soliloquy ; " sure then it's 
 very agreeable to be near wrecked at say,
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 137 
 
 and to be near kilt with the sickness, and to 
 
 be forgot below in the cabin when the others 
 went on shore, because I was too sick to 
 speak to that impudent steward, and then 
 to be shut down in the hold and taken out 
 for four hours to say again, to wait for a 
 tide to come up with the ship to the quay. 
 Oh, if ever I go to say again ! Sure I'll re- 
 main all my life in foreign parts and eat 
 bully beef every clay rather than put my 
 foot into a boat again. Oh then! 'tis 
 mighty sick I am at the present, tho' I 
 took ocheans of their oh davy at Calais to 
 settle ray stomach. 'Tis never right it will 
 be again." Here Pat's lamentations were 
 arrested by the appearance of some passen- 
 gers in the road, and of three labouring men 
 who stopped to question him. At the sight of 
 them O'Rourk began his story in English, 
 totally forgetful of being a foreigner. " Oh, 
 gentlemen, it's a nice way I'm in, to be sure, 
 and Mrs. Jones gone on in her beautiful 
 green chariot, and myself with my bones
 
 138 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 broken on the road, and this poor bird here 
 waiting to be sent for, or to meet some cha- 
 ritable body that would help us in our dis- 
 tress. Could you tell me, sir, how far it is 
 to where I am going on my way to Paris?" 
 
 # # Me 4r . * $ 
 
 "Faith, I don't understand a word you 
 say ; hist, sir, let me listen to that big, black, 
 swarthy man behind you. What is it you 
 mean, mossu?" 
 
 On being asked by this person if he was 
 wounded, " Blessy, blessy," said Pat, "thank 
 ye, sir, for the blessing; but I'd rather you'd 
 send a cart for me, and Mrs. Jones would 
 pay handsome for it." 
 
 After trying in vain to understand him 
 the men went their way to the neighbour- 
 ing village, and poor O'Rourk remained 
 where he was sitting another weary hour 
 till A^nes's messenger found him solilo- 
 quizing, and then talking as volubly as if 
 every one understood what he said. 
 
 Our travellers reached Paris in due time.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 139 
 
 and established themselves at a good hotel 
 in the Rue de Rivoli. 
 
 An heiress and a new arrival was sure to 
 attract Madame D'Albremont, and ere long 
 this enterprising lady, forewarned by Sir 
 Harry Ashworth, called on Agues. He 
 had not alluded to Miss Somerton's unfor- 
 tunate position, and his sister never heard 
 of it. Her manner was so easy, and her 
 offers of assistance so obliging, that the 
 three ladies were, charmed with their new 
 acquaintance, who discussed the present 
 English residents in Paris, the theatres, 
 fashions, artists, shops, and milliners ; 
 dwelling on the topic that seemed most 
 to interest her hearers. 
 
 For Agnes she was to secure a clever 
 artist to accompany her to the Louvre, and 
 then to give her lesson- in painting. To old 
 Mrs. Jones she proposed a French master, 
 and the good lady consented to employ a 
 person so ably recommended. Miss Williams 
 she walked off to a workshop, where the}"
 
 140 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 purchased various indescribable rectilinear 
 attempts to represent brigands and shep- 
 herdesses, warriors and dogs; patterns re- 
 quiring more time to execute than would be 
 sufficient to acquire a modern language; 
 worsted mosaics, to be finished in months 
 and soiled in days. 
 
 What lovely things Miss Williams 
 brought home to Mrs. Jones! 
 
 Madame D'Albremont procured a piano, 
 a harp, and a very easy chair, and volun- 
 teered directions without end about every 
 place, and every thing, and every person 
 that they might require. She fixed her 
 small black searching eyes on Agnes with a 
 stare of scrutiny which was converted into 
 a gaze of admiration as soon as she saw her- 
 self remarked. 
 
 The ladies were much amused with her 
 gossip ; but something in the expression of 
 her eyes displeased Agnes, who, although 
 too young to possess the knowledge of counte- 
 nances which lono- observation insures, still
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 141 
 
 had hear own correct instinctive prepo 
 
 sions. She saw that the little lady had ex- 
 changed her English manner and appear- 
 ance for French substitutes, and that she 
 frightened Miss Williams and Mrs. Jones 
 with the exuberance of her civility. 
 
 Madame D'Albrernont was by many rears 
 Sir Harry Ashworth's senior. She had 
 married an emigre before her father amassed 
 the immense fortune which Sir Harry squan- 
 dered. A legacy of thirty thousand pounds 
 bequeathed to her by her father, and an 
 allowance bestowed by relations of her hus- 
 band for the maintenance of her daughter, 
 had furnished sufficient means to live 
 elegantly in a small apartment, which was 
 embellished by the gifts of friends, and her 
 own address in purchasing curiosities when 
 their owners were obliged to part with them 
 toprocureinore available essentials. Madame 
 D'Albrernont belonged to a class peculiarly 
 French, that of les intrigantes. Endowed 
 with superior natural abilities, which had
 
 142 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 not been directed into a proper course by a 
 judicious education, her energies expended 
 themselves in a restless pursuit of trifles, 
 which she always invested with dispropor- 
 tionate importance. All the usual outlets 
 for female activity, either in the exercise of 
 accomplishments, or the fulfilment of house- 
 hold duties, she could not practise ; it was 
 therefore natural that her superabundant 
 energy should be directed to the regulation 
 of all possible concerns of another cha- 
 racter. 
 
 Born of the opposite sex, Madame D'Albre- 
 mont might have become a wily lawyer, a sue- 
 cessful quack, or a refined diplomatist ; con- 
 fined to a limited sphere, she still effected 
 all that she wished to accomplish there by 
 spirit, perseverance, and ingenuity. Short 
 and dark, with small black eyes and half- 
 closed lids, that screened their meaning and 
 direction from observation, her appearance 
 bespoke the character I describe. As yet 
 her schemes had conduced materially to
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 143 
 
 enlarge the circle of her enjoyments by 
 securing comforts and superfluities that a 
 small income could not compass. Many 
 intimates and endless acquaintances en- 
 joyed her vivacity and benefited by her 
 intelligence ; for many of these she secured 
 introductions to superiors, small official 
 places for sons, and desirable husbands for 
 daughters, according to the grade or ex- 
 pectations of the parties. Activity is ever 
 generous; your busy-bodies — the vulgar 
 race of intrigants — will toil and bustle 
 gratuitously for the mere pleasure of med- 
 dling, even in affairs that do not concern 
 them, and thus satisfying the restlessness 
 which afflicts them: to be quiet is un- 
 bearable. 
 
 Accustomed to French* hyperbole, Miss 
 Somerton did not entirely credit Madame 
 D'Albremont's professions, but Mrs. Jones 
 was in a short time overcome by them, and in 
 ecstasy with her new acquaintance. After a 
 long visit and with a promise to return soon,
 
 144 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 the mother and daughter departed. The 
 latter had made a most favourable impression 
 on Agnes; indeed it would have been impos- 
 sible not to admire the gentleness of Clelias 
 manner and the sweetness of her voice, 
 after being first captivated by the remark- 
 able loveliness of her person. Agnes felt 
 convinced that she could love her, and 
 longed for an opportunity of enjoying an- 
 other interview, exempt from the outbreaks 
 of her mother's volubility. 
 
 Agnes and her companions now drove 
 round the town, along the Boulevards, and 
 to the Champs Elysees, and much were they 
 dazzled by the brilliant throng which swept 
 along these gay thoroughfares. There 
 the light grisette trips past with an 
 elastic bound, balancing her pretty head 
 from side to side to catch the admiring 
 glances of small-moustachioed youths, dis- 
 playing every variety of capillary attraction. 
 
 Next comes a fossil dandy, ossified by 
 ycars'and rheumatism, but still affecting a
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 145 
 
 youthful gait, of which the movements 
 
 are more spasmodic than graceful: his hat 
 jauntily stuck on one side, he too looks 
 about for admiration, seeking it mostly 
 amongst the younger portion of the sex, on 
 whose inexperience he founds his hopes. 
 That splendid lad}- of mature years who 
 just sails by never once condescends to 
 look at him, poor man. Proud of her person, 
 and no less vain of the unquestionable 
 fashion and costliness of her dress, she 
 knows that both will be duly appreciated 
 by all observers, for in Paris taste for 
 dress is a universal acquirement. 
 
 A caucltoise bonne follows her, leading a 
 little girl, vouee an blanc, in compliment to 
 some patroness Saint, who lias vouchsafed, 
 on condition that she wears white for 
 a certain number of years, to guarantee 
 her against the perils of hooping-cough, 
 scarlatina, measles, and small-pox. The 
 bonne, too, is pretty, and she knows it, and 
 condescends to notice the flattering sfare of 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 the veteran beau, when he smiles and takes 
 a lighter step and turns his head round to 
 look after her — an effort which exposes 
 him to a shock from a dirty urchin who 
 very nearly throws him off his balance and 
 then tears away across the road before the 
 old dandy has recovered his equilibrium, or 
 clenched the whalebone gold-headed cane 
 which he holds with a painful grasp in his 
 gouty hand. 
 
 Now that boy is nearly run over by a 
 proud horseman, whose steed, chafing with 
 suppressed energies, you admire amazingly ; 
 a judge would tell you how the rider s off 
 spur excites all these curvets and prancings, 
 and he could show you the gentleman's 
 feet turned out to the most obtuse angle of 
 the first position, and you might wonder 
 how with such an attitude France kept her 
 seat during the last war. 
 
 "Did you ever see merrier people?" said 
 Miss Williams to Agnes. " How happy 
 vanity makes them; but what a strange 
 delusion it is which induces us to hope that
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 147 
 
 others will amplify our merits and over- 
 look our faults, while in our own estimate 
 of associates we adopt the opposite course. 
 The vain man imagines that society, like a 
 great magic mirror, will reflect and em- 
 bellish his person and fine qualities ; and I 
 really believe that a Frenchman, to his 
 latest day, never detects this self-decep- 
 tion.'" 
 
 "If vanity is the besetting sin here,"' said 
 Agnes, " pride is our foible at home, and 
 the source of much national moroseness." 
 
 " I hope, clear Agnes, you do not prefer 
 the childish frivolity of the French to the 
 sober self-possession, the steady reserve 
 which protects an Englishman against the 
 contagion of example or the encroachments 
 of familiarity, which indisposes him to 
 change the fashion of his clothes or the 
 structure of our constitution?" 
 
 " You will never I Lr English preju- 
 
 dices,'' said Agnes, laughing, and she certainly 
 thought that her friend would be improved 
 
 l 2
 
 148 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 by allowing others to influence her a little 
 more, both by example and counsel. 
 
 Miss Williams was one of those persons 
 who pride themselves exceedingly on dis- 
 regarding the smaller courtesies of life, who 
 consider deference to the wishes of others 
 mere servility, and any open expression 
 of regard or admiration actual deceit. 
 She mistook rudeness for sincerity, and 
 selfishness for honesty, and would have 
 felt great pleasure in saying the most dis- 
 agreeable thing possible because it was 
 true, and doing the most selfish thing 
 imaginable because she liked it. Indi- 
 viduals of her character are supposed to 
 possess excellent hearts, and active bene- 
 volence, in reserve for your especial use, 
 under the severe calamities of life when 
 they occur ; in the meantime, you must 
 bear with their blunt ness, and smile at 
 their exactions, and congratulate yourself 
 on having friends so exceedingly candid 
 and delightfully familiar.
 
 149 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 '■ : All, how the human mind wearies itself 
 With her own wand'rings, and involved in gloom 
 
 Impenetrable, speculates ami.-- '. 
 Measuring, in her folly, things divine 
 By human ; laws inscribed on adamant 
 By laws of man's device, and counsels tix'd 
 For ever b}~ the hours, that pass and die." 
 
 Before the arrival of our English ladies in 
 Paris, Madame D'Albremont had made the 
 acquaintance of her brothers friends. 
 Castelle and Vivian. The former was now 
 settled on the Boulevards Exterieurs of 
 Paris. 
 
 It is night, and through the windows 
 which open upon a small enclosed garden 
 you perceive faint rays of light streaming- 
 outwards in coloured pencils, tinted by the 
 red curtains that intercept the view of the 
 student's apartment.
 
 150 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 • There he sits at a table strewed with 
 papers, and books, and manuscripts ; before 
 him lies a thick volume in which he 
 writes continuously, as if the thoughts 
 that winged his pen were flowing from 
 it, already tested by the scrutiny of other 
 times. Now with a start or smile he just 
 records a new idea, or pauses for a 
 lengthened interval to subject his sur- 
 mises to strict investigation. 
 
 Castelle is pale as ever, but for a spot 
 that burns bright and red on either cheek, 
 the mark of long-protracted vigils and 
 excitement. The young student projects a 
 great work which is to reverse theories 
 hitherto accredited by science. There, in 
 that smaller book, are noted strange experi- 
 ments rescued from oblivion by the value 
 he ascribes to their results ; old tomes have 
 been ransacked, unintelligible black letter 
 has been deciphered to direct them. He 
 does not seek for receipts to compose the 
 philosopher's stone, nor for directions how
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 151 
 
 to distil the elixir vitce: but with ea^er 
 curiosity he searches for those terrible 
 secrets that open from hence the portals 
 of another world with a touch, that fell 
 the strongest by a breath, and have peopled 
 Hades with startled victims hurled from 
 life to death by the will of the domestic 
 poisoner. But the deadly substances that 
 he analyses and compounds are yet to 
 have a wide influence, and from them has 
 since been evolved the vapour that lulls the 
 pain and soothes the torture of those diseases 
 and accidents with which poor humanity till 
 now has writhed in helpless agony. 
 
 The morning hours our student always 
 devoted to the lectures and experiments of 
 others, and then after a hasty meal he mostly 
 sauntered forth to meditate in that arena 
 where lkerary aspirations and learned remi- 
 niscences occupy the thoughts of the young 
 student and the old recluse — the garden of 
 the Luxembourg. Here, quite unconscious 
 of the passing scene, he would loiter for a
 
 152 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 time, and afterwards return home to metho- 
 dize and note the product of his morning's 
 reverie. Castelle's small lodging in a 
 decayed palace lay just beside the Obser- 
 vatory ; he tenanted a rez-de-chaussee : 
 opening into a garden, if such a small enclo- 
 sure might be so called, which owed its 
 verdure mostly to the exuberance of kind 
 Nature, who fertilized the trees and shrubs 
 that had been planted there by other land 
 lords more tasteful and more opulent than 
 the present. 
 
 The dulness of the external boulevards 
 in those days contrasted strangely with the 
 gay and crowded thoroughfares which they 
 enclosed, and near the Observatory even 
 Nature herself seemed stunted and oppressed 
 by a peculiar influence that pervaded 
 the quarter. It was not the nakedness of 
 poverty, nor the instability of art that 
 struck you, for there were neither squalid 
 hovels, splendid ruins, nor premature decay. 
 But the trees, and shrubs, and grass had a
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 153 
 
 darkened tinge, such as we see diffused over 
 a painting meant to depict some waste and 
 desert landscape beneath a dull, lowering, 
 misty sky, where every leaf seems dead. 
 and every sound suspended by the still, 
 damp aii', which bears not on its lazy 
 current the usual odours, or the vague 
 soft murmurings of rural life. This scene 
 was rendered more depressing from its con- 
 trast with the gayer parts of Paris, where 
 radiant and joyous crowds thronged on the 
 path of pleasure, brilliant with all the 
 gaudy hues of fashion, and restless from 
 the petulance of excitement. 
 
 At the period to which I allude 
 this locality had become the retreat of 
 unfrocked priests, bearing about them 
 tokens of their destitution in pallid, care- 
 worn countenances and threadbare coats 
 of embrowned black, while the bourgeoisie 
 of the neighbourhood looked unlike 
 the light and gladsome beings who people 
 the other parts of Paris, and were at
 
 154 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 least fully fifty years behind the fashion of 
 the day. Amongst sueh proinenaders 
 Taste lie would take his daily walk, and 
 then at a small restaurant in the neigh- 
 bourhood partake of a frugal repast, 
 moderate alike in quality and price. 
 
 Vivian did not desert his friend in this 
 seclusion ; he sent or called constantly to 
 entreat that Castelle would remit it, to join the 
 brilliant parties frequently assembled at his 
 fine apartments in the Faubourg St. Honore. 
 
 The handsome Frederick Vivian was 
 soon courted and engrossed by the first 
 societv of the metropolis; his name and 
 fortune commanded an entry there Avhich 
 was rendered doubly enjoyable from the 
 sincere good-will which his kind nature had 
 already won even amongst the giddy votaries 
 of vanity and fashion. An ample fortune 
 facilitated the acquirement of objects of art, 
 which rendered his mansion a museum where 
 aspiring genius or modest unrecognised 
 talent received homage or encouragement 
 from the intelligent and generous.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 155 
 
 Sir Harry Ashworth's letter had secured 
 Vivian's acquaintance for his sister, Madame 
 
 D'Albremont, who, with her daughter, was 
 resident at a small hotel in the Chaussee 
 
 d'Antin. Although he could not personally 
 present his friends, an invitation, soon after 
 his arrival, to Madame D'Albremont's 
 weekly receptions convinced Frederick 
 and Castelle that Sir Harry had proposed 
 both as desirable acquaintances to his 
 sister. The latter could not be per- 
 suaded to accompany Vivian, and he pro- 
 ceeded to her party alone, at eight o'clock, 
 the time specified on his card. 
 
 A spacious hall and fine staircase led to 
 the apartment, which was not large, but at a 
 glance Vivian observed how taste and inge- 
 nuity had decorated and arranged the rooms, 
 until one thought that any enlargement of 
 the space they enclosed would but destroy 
 the effect of such pretty gems and exquisite 
 trifles placed within so small a casket. They 
 would be lost dispersed upon a wider sur-
 
 156 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 face; and the collections of miniatures, 
 medals, and antiques, all of small dimen- 
 sions, accorded well with the proportions 
 of the apartment. 
 
 Four clear alabaster lamps, supported by 
 figures of the same material, lighting the 
 room with a subdued lustre, threw a 
 silvered tint over it. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont rose courteously 
 to receive her guest, presenting him to her 
 daughter, a very beautiful girl, apparently 
 nineteen. Frederick was afterwards intro- 
 duced to some gentlemen already arrived, 
 and in a few minutes more three or four 
 ladies joined the party. Some brought 
 their work ; others gathered round a piano in 
 an adjoining room, and Madame D'Albre- 
 mont, producing the requisite drawing- 
 materials, two of the young men com- 
 menced little sketches, either from fancy, 
 or to give a slight representation of their 
 fair associates. Mademoiselle Clelia, Ma- 
 dame D'Albremont's daughter, now sang ?
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 157 
 
 with a soft full voice and clear accentuation, 
 a pathetic romance, consisting of some 
 beautiful verses, rendered most effective by 
 the pathos of her expressive style. 
 
 Frederick stood near the instrument, 
 leaning against the wall, his eyes fixed on 
 Clelia's enchanting countenance. It was one 
 that did not captivate upon a first survey by 
 the colouring which often recommends less 
 } M-rfect features ; a faint and pearly hue tinted 
 her complexion, while her eyes were only 
 lighted to their full brilliancy when bash- 
 fulness or any other emotion spread a pink 
 blush beneath them. These eyes were large 
 and blue, not shaded by a sinking lid; but 
 open and clear, like the young orbs of 
 infancy, unconscious yet of the evil from 
 which they should be averted. Below 
 them the blue veins shed a grey tint, 
 giving to all the face that clear transparency 
 which looks as if the frame was yet too 
 delicate and pure to be consolidated to the 
 substance of ordinary nature. Fair hair
 
 158 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 hung round her head in lucid ringlets 
 like a misty halo of soft light, and when her 
 eyes moved slowly in it their liquid spheres 
 appeared as if tears were still lingering 
 there, relics of some recent sorrow, which 
 one harsh word or unkind look would call 
 forth from their source. 
 
 It might be illness, it might be habit, 
 but the bright smile of youth very rarely 
 lighted up her features, and vet you scarcely 
 
 O 1 I ml ml ./ 
 
 remarked this peculiarity, for it was not 
 caused by pride or coldness, while the 
 modest sweetness of her countenance at- 
 tested every kindly feeling. Vivian out- 
 stayed the other guests of Madame I) r Al- 
 bremont, who had all departed. Still 
 tarrying in the place where he stood 
 while Clelia sang, he scarcely ventured to 
 address her, for the courteous Vivian was 
 now transformed into a taciturn guest ; 
 and when he quitted Madame D'Albre- 
 mont's apartment that night he left no 
 pleasing impression on her memory, while
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 159 
 
 he returned home to think and dream of 
 the beautiful Clelia. The next morning, 
 still engrossed by the same object, he arose 
 with a longing - determination to see her 
 soon again. 
 
 Entirely attracted by Mademoiselle D'Al- 
 bremont, Vivian had not much noticed her 
 mother. She was not a person likely to 
 please him, even before he had heard how, 
 as a society broker, she negotiated con- 
 tracts of alliance, matrimonial compacts 
 for friendly reciprocity, and social agree- 
 ments to interchange favours amongst her 
 clients, accepting a per-centage of civility 
 herself proportioned to the weight of the 
 transaction. A certain unenviable influence 
 she had hitherto attained through such 
 skilful activity ; but now Clelia's establish- 
 ment was the grand incentive to her 
 actual schemes, the object which incessantly 
 occupied her thoughts. 
 
 She had fully determined that her uncon- 
 scious daughter should become the property
 
 160 SHATTERED IDOLS, 
 
 of a Mr. Irvine, whose fortune and social 
 position justified in her eyes the assignment. 
 He had not appeared the night of Vivian's 
 presentation, and it was to seek him and 
 discover the cause of his unusual absence 
 that Madame D'Albremont proceeded to 
 the Tuileries, where at last, after an 
 hour's walk, the ladies were joined by 
 the object of their search, a tall, thin, 
 stiff man, essentially English in face 
 and figure. Madame D'Albremont accosted 
 him gaily, and at once started a subject 
 which she knew Avould interest Clelia, and 
 promote a conversation intended to last, with 
 her own able co-operation, till their walk 
 must be terminated by her daughter's 
 fatigue. As for herself, she was never 
 tired by anything but rest, which she con- 
 sidered a most unnecessary loss of time. 
 
 Frederick had reached the path sepa- 
 rating the groves of chestnut-trees which 
 ornament the centre of the garden on his 
 way to visit Madame D'Albremont, whose
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 161 
 
 house he had already passed more than once 
 that morning. Through an opening of the 
 avenue he perceived both ladies, and in an 
 instant was by Clelia's side; his senses, his 
 thoughts fascinated and engrossed by her 
 sweet voice, her lovely face, and the deep 
 melancholy which softened both. 
 
 Her silence to Vivian seemed sacred; he did 
 not break it with either observations or ques- 
 tions; and when Mr. Irvine requested him 
 to join their party at the Rocher de Cancale, 
 and then to accompany them to the opera, 
 Madame D'Albremont most anxiously 
 hoped he might decline both offers. 
 She thought that he would make a poor 
 companion to awaken Clelia's dormant 
 gaiety, or to enjoy her own bright sallies, 
 while the younger lady was left to their 
 host's exclusive conversation. Vivian, 
 however, readily accompanied his new- 
 made friends to their amusements, and 
 at one o'clock returned home, again to pass 
 a sleepless night. 
 
 VOL. i. m
 
 162 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont was little aware 
 of Vivian's worldly possessions, or she 
 would very speedily have transferred her 
 attentions from Irvine to him. But Sir 
 Harry had not alluded to them, dreading 
 that his sisters self-control might not suffi- 
 ciently conceal her pleasure at the introduc- 
 tion to such a Croesus, and aware how 
 Clelia's aversion to all good matches proposed 
 by her mother might militate against her 
 chance of propitiating the modest Vivian. 
 
 The wily mamma, however, was not long 
 in ascertaining the state of his affairs, 
 and in consequence the ungainly suitor, 
 Mr. Irvine, she soon received with 
 such evident coolness that he, won- 
 dering at the change, sought for its 
 cause, and found it in the admiration which 
 Mr. Vivian very openly expressed for the 
 lovely Mademoiselle D'Albremont. 
 
 Despairing of success, he slipped quietly out 
 of the flirtation, and left Paris very soon 
 after. It was not long before Mademoiselle
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 163 
 
 D'Albremont perceived Vivian's devotion, 
 so clearly manifested by vigilant attention to 
 her wants and wishes, by a softened inflexion 
 of voice when addressing her, by anxiety for 
 her pleasure, and distress at her inconveni- 
 ence, by tender looks that followed her 
 everywhere, and a surrender of his indivi- 
 duality which left his thoughts, wishes, feel- 
 ings, and projects to the sole control of her 
 will and pleasure. Happy time of youth, 
 when nature prompts us to make the 
 sacrifices of self which cold morality 
 vainly enforces, and benevolence emulates 
 when performing its kindest offices. 
 
 Restless but where she was, Vivian followed 
 Clelia, joining her daily in the Tuile- 
 ries, and riding a splendid Arab beside Miss 
 Somerton's carriage if they drove out to- 
 gether. It was even said that at hours 
 when visits are inadmissible Frederick 
 would pass before her house, looking up 
 at the windows for a glimpse of one who 
 was now the sole object of his life. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " And here, at once, the glittering saloon 
 Bursts on his sight, boundless and bright as noon ; 
 Where, in the midst, reflecting back the rays 
 In broken rainbows, a fresh fountain plays 
 High as th' enamell'd cupola which towers 
 All rich with arabesques of gold and flowers : 
 And the mosaic floor beneath shines through 
 The sprinkling of that fountain's silvery dew, 
 Like the wet, glistening shells of every dye 
 That on the margin of the Red Sea lie." — Moobe. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont's visits to the three 
 ladies were of daily occurrence, but all her 
 entreaties to engage Agnes in parties to the 
 country or the theatre continued ineffectual. 
 The post brought no news from Sir Harry ; 
 his promise seemed quite forgotten. Annes- 
 ley's silence was even more extraordinary ; 
 and Agnes's uneasiness increased with her 
 disappointment. 
 
 Days passed on, no letters arrived, no in-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 165 
 
 telligence of Annesley! It seemed most 
 unaccountable that he should not have sent 
 her some explanation of conduct so unworthy 
 and so entirely unexpected. No allusion 
 to him appeared in the papers, nor any 
 mention of their marriage, for Agnes daily 
 scrutinized each paragraph that might in- 
 directly glance at the event. Lord Court- 
 vine's departure »from London she saw re- 
 corded amongst the fashionable changes, but 
 in no other manner was the family named ; 
 nor could any allusion to the wedding be 
 expected, for Agnes had wished it to be 
 strictly private. Annesley for his own 
 reasons was equally desirous that no one 
 should hear of it; and Agnes in inform- 
 ing her correspondents that she was about 
 to become a bride did not specify the 
 time, although she assured them that the 
 marriage was not very distant. 
 
 She tried to draw, to read, to write, in 
 vain ; her distracted thoughts wandered from 
 all these pursuits far away to England and
 
 166 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Annesley; for with the strange inconsistency 
 of female nature, her affection for him 
 seemed to increase since the first stunning 
 distress at his deceit and villainy had 
 been calmed by the soothing effects of time. 
 Agnes never thought so often of him as 
 now when she feared that an insurmount- 
 able barrier separated them for ever. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont vainly endea- 
 voured to amuse Miss Somerton, and at last 
 persuaded her to visit Mr. Vivian's beauti- 
 ful residence, where he had collected works 
 of art at once remarkable for their variety 
 and excellence. On a day fixed for 
 the purpose, Agnes and Miss Williams 
 went to meet Madame D'Albremont at 
 Frederick's hotel, of which the external 
 magnificence soon surprised them. 
 
 Two marble halls preceded an anteroom 
 filled with the choicest sculptures of modern 
 artists, from whence a gallery lined with 
 orange-trees and rare plants, growing in 
 vases of exquisite workmanship, led to the 
 drawing-rooms.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 167 
 
 With the form, shades, and texture of the 
 furniture artistic taste had produced the 
 most pleasing effects by harmony of colour, 
 its contrasts, and the flow of drapery chosen 
 for its graceful folds. The atmosphere of 
 sweets, perfumed, but not overpowering, the 
 lights concentrated or subdued with the 
 most happy results — all bespoke the opulent, 
 luxurious artist. 
 
 Clelia meant to accompany her mother, and 
 Frederick was already gone himself to sum- 
 mon them, while Agnes and Miss Williams 
 walked through the rooms admiring their 
 noble proportions, but postponing a minuter 
 inspection of the contents till all the party 
 had assembled. Agnes strolled into the con- 
 servatory. It was much larger than those 
 in the same locality, and radiant with glow- 
 ing flowers, through which a beautiful 
 fountain sent sparkling streamlets in four 
 silvery jets, which fell into urns held by 
 marbleXaiads seated on mimic rocks, covered 
 with the rarest specimens of varied mosses. 
 Other graceful nymphs, forming an outer
 
 168 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 circle, held a chain of radiant creepers pass- 
 ing from one to the other beneath two 
 rows of orange-trees covered with their 
 white fragrant blossoms. An arch of ver- 
 dure at the end of the conservatory led to 
 a recess, illuminated artistically by coloured 
 light passing through painted glass of every 
 tint. Agnes entered this darkened en- 
 closure, and to the right perceived what she 
 supposed to be the painting of a student's 
 head, reading. Its extreme beauty almost 
 startled her ; she had never seen such a face 
 before, even in those paintings where great 
 artists try to realize their ideas of embodied 
 genius. She looked again; the figure seemed 
 surrounded by a frame ; and yet it moved, 
 advanced, and still did not come near her; 
 and then she perceived that what she sup- 
 posed to be the painting of this splendid 
 head was but the reflection in a glass of a 
 living person behind her. 
 
 Castelle, now advancing, apologized 
 for the surprise which he had so
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 169 
 
 involuntarily occasioned. Soon relieved 
 from all embarrassment by his respectful 
 conciliatory manner, Agnes entered into 
 conversation with him. 
 
 MissAVilliams remained still occupied with 
 some drawings in the outer rooms, and Vivian 
 had not yet appeared, so for some time the 
 dialogue was pursued uninterruptedly with 
 much animation between Agnes and Cas- 
 telle ; and when Madame D'Albremont's 
 arrival disturbed it, Agnes wished that 
 she had been less punctual, and Castelle 
 thought that he had never met a more 
 agreeable person than this new acquaint- 
 ance. 
 
 Frederick, devoted exclusively to Clelia, 
 described all his arrangements and listened 
 only to her commendations of them. Agnes, 
 fascinated by her new friend, seemed equally 
 engrossed ; and when they all returned home 
 in her carriage, she was delighted to find 
 her admiration of Castelle's conversation 
 justified, by hearing of the universal estima-
 
 170 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 tion in which he was held, — as a clever 
 man, and the most promising chemist of 
 the day. Madame D'Albremont herself 
 rejoiced in the highest spirits, for she had 
 remarked a very brilliant flush on Clelia's 
 cheek, and she had also seen her with- 
 drawn from the rest of the company and 
 detained in another room by their host ; and 
 it was after this absence that Clelia seemed 
 embarrassed, and that the ominous bloom 
 spread and deepened to its present tint. 
 
 Clelia,indeed, had j ust hear d the first avowal 
 of love from Frederick: he had declared 
 that all the enjoyments which wealth and 
 influence grouped around him, the power 
 to do good, the means of being happy, were 
 valueless if he could not share them with 
 her. His love, he said, was not the caprice 
 of boyish idleness, enhanced by the wish for 
 change to vary the monotony of a purpose- 
 less existence, for his mind was maturer 
 than his years, his life a constant pursuit of 
 what was worth attaining; and advisedly
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 171 
 
 and conscientiously he now placed his des- 
 tiny in her hands. He asked her to become 
 the idol of the shrine which he had pre- 
 pared for her, to be the priestess of the 
 worship he professed for the beautiful, the 
 exemplification of the love he experienced 
 for the good. He told her how she com- 
 bined what was purest, most ethereal in 
 the ideal, with what was best and most 
 appropriate in the real. 
 
 Clelia listened silently but not unem- 
 barrassed to these protestations, at 
 which she seemed neither Related nor 
 displeased; and when Frederick saw her 
 drive from the door, towards evening, 
 he returned to his room uncertain of the 
 result which he so eagerly desired. Throw- 
 ing himself upon a sofa he recalled the 
 whole scene just passed; at one moment 
 remembering some look or sign that seemed 
 encoura^'mo', the next, referring her silence 
 to aversion rather than to embarrassment. 
 
 Alternations of this kind succeeded each
 
 172 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 other till in the gloom of the balmy soft even- 
 ing he strayed through his beautiful winter- 
 garden, unconscious of its fragrance or the 
 fairy-like beauty of the marble nymphs 
 with their flowery burdens, now assuming 
 vaguer and more undulating outlines when 
 bathed in the blue and vaporous rays of 
 the moon. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont dared not ques- 
 tion Clelia; she dreaded to hear the confir- 
 mation of her fears that Vivian had been 
 discouraged. 
 
 She was too close to communicate her 
 hopes to Agnes, who returned home much 
 pleased with her morning's enjoyment, for 
 Castelle's conversation had proved more 
 agreeable than any she had heard for a long 
 time. It was with sunrise that she per- 
 ceived her renewed susceptibility to some 
 kind of enjoyment, and from that day her 
 seclusion was no longer irrevocable. 
 
 Castelle too seemed to have overcome his 
 repugnance to society, and most evenings 
 met Madame D'Albremont and Clelia at
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 173 
 
 Agnes's tea-table. There he described his 
 morning pursuits to Agnes, while she 
 practised her pencil. Mrs. Jones dozed, and 
 Frederick sat beside Clelia, who, bent over 
 some elaborate piece of embroidery, 
 scattered buds, and leaves, and flowers, by 
 the magic of her fairy touch upon the silken 
 canvas. Madame D'Albremont and Miss 
 Williams, the disengaged members of 
 the coterie, occupied each other with the 
 conversation usual on such occasions be- 
 tween ladies. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont usually bungled 
 at some Berlin work, and kept her 
 head near it, while from under her 
 half-closed eyelids she observed all that was 
 occurring around her. She worked ill, 
 patience in manual dexterity was not her 
 forte, and when anyone wished to see the 
 object of her industry, she readily displayed 
 the wretched article, quoting a wit's obser- 
 vation on Berlin work — u The stupider the 
 woman, the better the work." 
 
 She was now about to attain the grand
 
 174 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 object of her ambition, a great establishment 
 for Clelia, and it was not without eifort 
 that she subdued the looks of triumph and 
 delight which occasionally beamed on her ex- 
 pressive countenance. She had to restrain 
 them and all apparent conviction of Clelia's 
 new conquest, well aware how it might 
 be defeated by her recognition. Clelia was 
 of so sensitive a nature that any assumption 
 of success expressed by Madame D'Albre- 
 mont's manner would perhaps change her 
 conduct with Frederick, and before custom 
 and time had done their work provoke a 
 crisis fatal to all her mother's projects. 
 
 Ever unwilling to give pain, Mademoi- 
 selle D'Albremont listened almost passively 
 to Frederick, who had so many claims on 
 her attention, while he entreated her only 
 to hear him, and not to express a feeling or 
 to betray an emotion, lest they should 
 blight his hopes and dishearten him in a 
 pursuit which he still trusted might be suc- 
 cessful.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 175 
 
 " Listen to me," he would say, " while I 
 tell you of my love ; bear with me, but do 
 not decide too rashly against me. Give me 
 time to persuade you, opportunities to win 
 you, and I will bear suspense as long as I 
 may live beside you, or like a coward I shrink 
 from the avowal which you are perhaps 
 anxious and yet unwilling to make." 
 
 "With gratitude for his love and in pity 
 for his sufferings, Clelia would listen while 
 she fixed her large soft eyes upon him, and 
 thanked him for his kindness to her mother 
 and for his constant efforts to be useful and 
 agreeable to them both. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont preferred spending 
 her evenings quietly with Agnes to continu- 
 ing her own soirees at home, where other 
 visitors might notice Frederick's devotion 
 and publish it. At Agnes's apartment there 
 was no apprehension of this sort, for no 
 strangers were there to mar the tacit arrange- 
 ments of the party, which placed the lovers 
 together, while the friends assembled
 
 176 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 enjoyed uninterruptedly the conversation 
 each preferred. Sir Harry Ashworth would 
 soon join them — his arrival was daily ex- 
 pected, and Mrs. Jones intended to appro- 
 priate him till she exhausted his London 
 gossip. His presence was indifferent to 
 Clelia, who scarcely knew her uncle, for dur- 
 ing Monsieur DAlbremont's life the baronet 
 never acknowledged his sister. At that 
 time, busy with fashion's bustling idleness, 
 he abjured all consanguineous obligations, 
 wished himself a foundling, and declared 
 that relations reminded him of the censorious 
 chorus in Greek tragedies, which stands at 
 each side of the stage, supposed to be invi- 
 sible to the actors, while it communicates 
 with the audience, who are favoured with 
 criticisms and censures on the unconscious 
 personages before them. " Belations," said 
 Sir Harry, " act that chorus on the stage 
 of life, gratifying the public with a running 
 commentary on your private conduct."
 
 177 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " Thou wert a dew-drop which the morn brings forth, 
 Xot fitted to be trailed along the soiling earth ; 
 But at a touch of wrong, without a strife, 
 Slips in a moment out of life." 
 
 After her mother's guests had departed, 
 Clelia retired into her own little sitting- 
 room, and sat there pale and dejected, sunk 
 in a large chair near the window adjoin- 
 ing Madame D'Albremont's sleeping-apart- 
 ment. It opened on a pretty garden, sur- 
 rounded by high trees and filled with early 
 spring flowers. 
 
 The night was warm and calm, and the 
 moon shone brightly on the spot where 
 Clelia rested. She had exchanged her 
 evening's attire for a white shawl dressing- 
 gown, and her golden hair hung round her 
 
 VOL. I N
 
 178 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 in glossy folds, like another drapery. A 
 cushion placed before her supported a tiny 
 foot, in a blue silk slipper small enough for 
 Cinderella. 
 
 Poor Clelia seemed indifferent to the 
 balmy air, and to the hour which chimed 
 from a little clock in the room. She had 
 remained in the same position since it struck 
 before, and many a tear had stolen down her 
 cheek in the interval. Her maid's very 
 gentle knock at the door was unobserved, 
 but Louise came in at once, used to find 
 Clelia in this state of dreamy abstraction. 
 Its cause was well known to the clever 
 Abigail, who had been recommended to 
 Madame D'Albremont by a relation, on 
 whom she was partly dependent, as a 
 person of excellent education, and one 
 whom Clelia might consider more as a com- 
 panion than a servant. 
 
 "Madame thinks you were in bed long 
 ago, Mademoiselle Clelia, and here you sit at 
 one o'clock, in the night air, and not suf-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 179 
 
 nciently clad to prevent you from catching 
 cold." 
 
 " Oh, Louise ! I do not feel the air or the 
 chill ; my mind alone is alive — I am dead 
 to everything but miserable thoughts." 
 
 " You will really fall into bad health, 
 Mademoiselle, if you give way to this sor- 
 row and self-reproach ;" and Louise covered 
 Clelia with a warm shawl. Her calmness 
 now gave way to a burst of tears. 
 
 " Oh !" she exclaimed, holding her head 
 with both hands, " if I were not criminal, 
 Louise, I should not be so unhappy. I 
 could better endure disappointment and even 
 sorrow, but when I think of the past I grow 
 wild with shame." 
 
 " I have often given you my advice 
 in this business," said Louise. " Let me try 
 to discover what you ought to know; I 
 can do so without betraying you to your 
 mother." 
 
 " Louise !" cried Clelia, sinking on her 
 knees, and clasping her hands together with 
 
 N 2
 
 180 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 a convulsive earnestness; "anything but 
 that — I would die rather than have my 
 conduct exposed. As for marrying Frede- 
 rick, that is an impossibility; and yet life 
 will be but a prolonged suffering to me if I 
 lose him for ever. Louise ! Louise ! what 
 can I do?" and the poor girl wrung her 
 hands in helpless agony, and then covered 
 her face with them, as if to shut out all 
 thoughts of the past and prospects of the 
 future. 
 
 " Confide this secret to your mother ; she 
 is experienced and clever, and will know 
 how to advise you. Why not trust her?" 
 
 "Louise, I tell you that I would rather 
 die ! How could I ever ask her to pardon 
 me for what I have done ?" 
 
 The crafty Abigail knew full well that 
 Madame D'Albremont was the last person 
 in the world to whom Clelia would apply 
 for counsel under the circumstances. 
 
 Louise now lifted her mistress from the 
 ground, placed her on the chair — seating
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 181 
 
 herself upon the stool at her feet — chafing 
 her hands, and wrapping the loosened shawl 
 a^ain around her. 
 
 Clelia sat like a statue, so insensible to 
 outward things ; her face white as marble, 
 and the large tears still dropping down her 
 cheeks. 
 
 u Clelia, dear child," said Louise, " this 
 fretting is of no use : it will not undo what 
 is done." 
 
 " That is why I am so miserable, Louise. 
 Oh, if I could but even forget the past! 
 every caress of my mother, every kind word 
 of Frederick's, would not then sting me to 
 the heart. I am deceiving them, I am 
 playing a part — acting simplicity, innocence, 
 and truth, accepting her affection, listening 
 to his profession of love, while I know how 
 unworthy I am of either. The pang of 
 self-reproach, which their goodness only 
 sharpens, is a severe punishment, but it is 
 still easy to bear in comparison with the 
 misery of being discovered, disgraced, dis-
 
 182 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 carded by my mother, and spurned by 
 him!" 
 
 " Try and calm yourself, dear child; your 
 sobs will awaken Madame D'Albremont. 
 Listen, pray, dear Clelia, to reason. One 
 of two things must be done — you must 
 either " 
 
 " Nothing, nothing, will ever help me, 
 Louise; nothing can comfort me. Every 
 time that Frederick repeats his professions 
 of attachment I feel more abashed than 
 before, for I ought not to listen to them. 
 I would gladly lay down my life for his 
 sake, and yet I must deceive him, or part 
 from him for ever." 
 
 Louise was silent. Clelia had never before 
 expressed herself with so much firmness, nor 
 opposed the counsels of the unprincipled 
 Frenchwoman with such vehemence. She 
 quietly arranged the poor girl's hair for the 
 night, withdrew her from the window, and 
 leading her into the next room, laid her 
 gently in her little bed. She fanned her
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 183 
 
 burning forehead, and bathed her temples, 
 and soon finding that the late excitement was 
 subsiding, left her in quiet and darkness to 
 lie till morning in a state of exhaustion 
 such as had often of late followed 
 paroxysms like that just described. The 
 early sunbeams streamed into her win- 
 dow, tinted with the blue hue of the cur- 
 tains through which they passed, before 
 she sank into a peaceful sleep ; and when 
 Madame D'Albremont entered the room, on 
 tiptoe, at nine o'clock, she found Clelia 
 still dozing, her beautiful features lighted 
 by the blue rays that floated around her, 
 giving the atmosphere and her white couch 
 the appearance of a cloud upon which an 
 ano-el rested.
 
 184 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 " Rumour was the messenger 
 Of defamation, and so swift that none 
 Could be the first to tell an evil tale."— Pollok. 
 
 While some of our ladies passed their time 
 agreeably in Paris, the ex-bridegroom was far 
 from being pleasantly situated in England. 
 After quitting Agnes on the Dover road, he 
 proceeded to a village near London recom- 
 mended by Sir Harry, and remained there 
 till joined soon after by the crafty baronet. 
 On the plea of authenticating his informa- 
 tion respecting the first marriage, he re- 
 quired Annesley to come to London, pro- 
 mising to put him in communication there 
 with an old acquaintance and accomplice, 
 Ernest Fabelli, who was Sir Harrv's ser-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 185 
 
 vant at the time of the unfortunate affair 
 at Xevres. 
 
 Sir Harry hired a small secluded lodging 
 for his friend, and Fabelli soon made his 
 appearance, bringing additional proof to 
 Annesley of all he most dreaded to know. 
 His late accomplice, Captain Benson, it 
 appeared by Fabelli's account, dreading the 
 consequences to himself of a very infamous 
 conspiracy, engaged a clergyman of the 
 Church of England, who was travelling in 
 the neighbourhood, to perform the cere- 
 mony in the ruined chapel. 
 
 Fabelli had only lately heard of this 
 substitution, and wrote off at once to 
 Sir Harry, entreating him urgently to 
 communicate the discovery at once to 
 Annesley. In order to conceal his 
 collusion with Sir Harry, Fabelli now 
 pretended that the ceremony was invalid, 
 unauthorized by a municipal formality. 
 The laws of France would not sanction such 
 a contract, and Monsieur Annesley, accord-
 
 186 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 ing to Fabelli, was as free as air. Edward 
 inquired if lie ever heard that the circum- 
 stances of the elopement were known at 
 Nevres, or did he learn anything respecting 
 the young lady ? 
 
 Fabelli felt sure that the people of 
 Nevres were totally ignorant of the whole 
 transaction. From the convent nothing 
 would transpire, for apprehending some 
 bad sequel to the affair, the nuns would 
 have bound their protegee to secrecy by 
 solemn oaths or threats of disgrace, and it 
 was very probable that the fair Marie might 
 now be the wife of a more successful lover, 
 released from her previous engagement by 
 her friend's ignorance of its occurrence. 
 These assurances of exemption from a legal 
 responsibility which Fabelli repeated in 
 order to conceal his collusion with Sir 
 Harry, gave Annesley little comfort. He 
 might not be liable to a charge of bigamy ; 
 but in Agnes's opinion he knew that the 
 first engagement was as sacred as if it had
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 187 
 
 been ratified by all the Mayors of every 
 department in France. 
 
 Even could he legally claim Miss Somer- 
 ton as his wife, would she ever forgive his 
 deceit ? could she pardon the cruelty he had 
 perpetrated in seducing the affections of a 
 young and unsuspecting girl, with the view 
 of blighting her for ever? 
 
 He had often bitterly repented this 
 transaction, hoping that his own self- 
 reproach was its worst result. But the 
 affair now assumed another aspect, for be- 
 sides preventing his union with Agnes, a 
 religious functionary had been made the 
 instrument of his iniquitous project, and the 
 poor young girl he had deceived, if mar- 
 ried, was not the wife of the man whom she 
 considered her husband. Now, too, the 
 happiness of Agnes, for whom he enter- 
 tained the greatest affection and respect, 
 would be clouded for ever. Debarred from 
 forming another engagement, the object of 
 pity, or ridicule, or slander, a long period
 
 188 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 must elapse before she could resume the 
 tranquillity of mind which he had so 
 recklessly disturbed. 
 
 Sir Harry Ash worth, quite satisfied with 
 the success of his scheme, grateful to 
 Fabelli for his able co-operation, and con- 
 vinced that Annesley would not attempt 
 to make any explanations to Miss Somerton 
 without his advice, offered to proceed to 
 Paris in order to put her in possession of 
 details which could not be fully parti- 
 cularized in writing. He first, however, 
 visited Annesley's principal creditors, and 
 informed them of his retreat, and of the 
 failure of the projected marriage, advising 
 them to secure their reckless creditor's 
 person immediately, as some great relations 
 would assuredly release him at any cost. 
 Lest such a proceeding should really be 
 attempted by the family, he had Lord 
 Courtville apprized of his son's adventure, 
 greatly misrepresented to Annesley's pre- 
 judice. It was not necessary to recom-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 189 
 
 mend secrecy to the relatives, but to the 
 creditors he represented the propriety of 
 keeping to themselves all the information 
 which he communicated, implying that this 
 caution would advance their own interest. 
 To Miss Somerton lie wrote as follows : — 
 
 "Dear Miss Somerton, — You will be 
 surprised at not receiving a letter from 
 me in reply to your last inquiries; but I 
 thought it advisable not to address you 
 until, after many consultations with the 
 lawyer, I could communicate the par- 
 ticulars which he might collect. 
 
 " There is little doubt that Annesley was 
 married in the South of France to a young 
 French girl of low origin, and under cir- 
 cumstances of which it would be painful 
 for me to detail the particulars. He, it 
 appears, for some years incurred such con- 
 siderable debts in London that his relations 
 totally discarded him until the prospect of 
 a release from pecuniary difficulties and an
 
 190 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 acquittal of money responsibilities to several 
 members of bis family, by means of your 
 fortune, reconciled some of them to their 
 profligate relative. Still, with the usual ridi- 
 culous family pride of the Courtvilles, even 
 an heiress, if unknown to the world of 
 fashion, was not to be accepted with open 
 arms, and therefore Lord Courtville never 
 called upon you; for I am very sorry to 
 add that the person brought to your house 
 as Annesley's father was no other than his 
 tailor, Hudson, of Bond Street, who came 
 there to recover an old debt, to be ac- 
 quitted with some of his customers newly- 
 acquired wealth. 
 
 "It is better that you should be made 
 aware of all these circumstances, disagree- 
 able as they are, than remain in ignorance 
 of what may reconcile you to the strange 
 termination of your unfortunate engage- 
 ment. I see no chance of any improve- 
 ment in Annesley's position, for he will be a 
 prisoner for some time yet, as his creditors
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 191 
 
 can no doubt publish some damaging 
 manoeuvres of the young scamp's that will 
 prevent his release under the Act, and keep 
 him tight, in the expectation of benefiting 
 by a fortune which it is said will revert to 
 him at the death of an old cousin. 
 
 "After transacting some necessary busi- 
 ness here I shall start for Paris to see my 
 sister, and also to discuss this miserable 
 affair with you. I am happy to find that 
 there appeared no notice of the marriage in 
 any public paper. Every one was out of 
 town at the time, and the gossips at San don 
 have so little knowledge of the circle in 
 which Annesley's family live, and indeed of 
 any but their own, that a report of the 
 wedding may not go beyond it ; and Mrs. 
 Jones and her family will soon be forgotten 
 when the house which she hired is resumed 
 by its former occupants. To silence those 
 who in London were aware of your pro- 
 jected marriage, I have invented a plausible 
 reason for its postponement.
 
 192 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 " Should you have any commission to be 
 executed in London, pray command the 
 time and services of, dear Miss Somerton, 
 yours very faithfully, 
 
 "Harry Ashworth." 
 
 After inditing this letter, in which truth 
 and calumny were combined, Sir Harry 
 gave himself a great deal of trouble to 
 aggravate Annesley's difficulties. He cir- 
 culated a version of his affairs which was 
 most discreditable to the defaulter, and alto- 
 gether acquitted himself, very much to his 
 own satisfaction, with strategic malice. 
 
 Securing an irreproachable outfit from 
 Stultz, and all accessories to match, he 
 started for Paris on his matrimonial expe- 
 dition, quite convinced that Agnes would 
 now discover her error in preferring the 
 vapid assiduities of such a youth as Annesley 
 to the matured attractions of a man like 
 himself, who for years had lived in the 
 kernel of the London fashionable world.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 193 
 
 Startled and confused as Agnes had been 
 during her interview with Sir Harry Ash- 
 worth on the Dover road, she scarcely un- 
 derstood the particular circumstances of 
 Annesley's earlier marriage which he tried to 
 communicate. To Miss Williams she could 
 give but a confused recapitulation of what he 
 had explained, but it was quite sufficient 
 to induce that acute lady to write immedi- 
 ately to Agnes's lawyers a request that they 
 would at once communicate with Captain 
 Benson, requiring him to furnish the name 
 and address of the clergyman who per- 
 formed the marriage ceremony in the 
 ruined chapel near Nevres. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 " When he spoke what tender words he used ! 
 So softly that, like flakes of feathered snow, 
 They melted as they fell." 
 
 Before Sir Harry Ashworth arrived Agnes 
 and her friends passed their time pleasantly 
 in the enjoyment of a very agreeable coterie 
 and a variety of public amusements. When 
 Sir Harry's letter to Agnes, accompanied by 
 one to his sister, announced a visit for the 
 end of the week, the little party had grown 
 even more sociable ; for a few clever men were 
 their frequent guests, introduced by Castelle, 
 while some ladies joined Vivian and Clelia 
 in musical performances, and Miss Williams 
 had attracted an artist to vary the evening's 
 amusement by producing sketches from
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 195 
 
 subjects suggested by some of the com- 
 pany. 
 
 One evening, when many of the usual 
 visitors had absented themselves from acci- 
 dental causes, the family party was joined 
 only by Vivian and Castelle. The latter 
 had now become an expected friend, whose 
 presence was welcome to all; and — shall I 
 confess it? — despite the implied fickleness of 
 the sex, I must assure my young readers 
 that, whatever may be their estimate of the 
 constancy expected from persons about to 
 marry — who do not? — our Agnes looked 
 delighted when Castelle appeared, and since 
 his visits had begun to be of daily occurrence 
 her melancholy had grown less pale, and her 
 manner had become less dejected. Do not 
 condemn her till you learn that he was 
 supposed to possess some supernatural 
 spell, which fascinated all who believed 
 themselves only attracted by his captivating 
 address and remarkable beauty. 
 
 On the evening I am about to describe
 
 196 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 he had arrived early, bringing some cele- 
 brated engravings for Agnes's inspection. 
 Frederick came in soon after, followed by a 
 new personage, who had but recently be- 
 come a guest at the sociable tea-table. 
 
 Perhaps you do not know, good reader, 
 that at the time about which I write, France 
 was in a far less prosperous state than 
 at present. Speculation, which has since 
 become a science, was then only an art, 
 and fortunes were not made with greater 
 speed than that with which old alchymists 
 hoped to create solid gold. The philoso- 
 pher's stone had not been laid as the foun- 
 dation of the Bourse, nor was the " open 
 sesame" of the robber's cave yet pro- 
 nounced there to open the portals which led 
 to golden treasures. 
 
 France was impoverished; her sons, 
 chivalrous and proud, grandchildren of 
 Bourbon glories, despised commerce as a 
 degrading necessity, and rejected any but the 
 military profession as unworthy of their
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 197 
 
 descent. Their swords alone should cut a 
 road to fortune — it might be in the battle- 
 field, it might be in the boudoir, where heir- 
 esses surrendered themselves and their pos- 
 sessions at discretion to French chevaliers 
 bearing great names, and wearing the 
 swords of valiant fathers at their sides. 
 
 In this elegant arena the Gardes du Corps 
 distinguished themselves, capturing land 
 and securing booty with far less exertion 
 than their forefathers expended in less pro- 
 fitable forays. 
 
 With admirable strategy a well-organized 
 siege was laid to ladies' hearts, projected by 
 a club subscribing a certain amount yearly 
 to equip one of its members with the para- 
 phernalia required for amorous victory. 
 Dress, a horse, a cab, perfumes, a place at 
 the opera, pocket money, armed the elected 
 Adonis for the campaign. He was sent 
 out on a trial of three months, at the expi- 
 ration of which term, if unsuccessful, he fell 
 into the ranks of reserve stock, crestfallen
 
 198 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 and placed aside, till it was his turn again to 
 start, perhaps upon another forlorn hope. 
 When victorious the fortunate hero de- 
 posited in the general fund a percentage on 
 his captive's portion. 
 
 Now, the Parisian season was just closing 
 on the gloomy prospects of a hirsute son of 
 Mars whose siege to two British hearts had 
 been so ineffectual that his retreat into the 
 main body of his regiment at the expiration 
 of a month appeared inevitable. This gentle- 
 man's failures were supposed to be occasioned 
 by amatured appearance, which rendered him 
 unacceptable to the very young ladies, who 
 had been hitherto the objects of his attention. 
 
 Aware through the jokes of his comrades 
 of this circumstance, he determined on mak- 
 ing a last effort in the contrary direction. 
 Introduced by chance to Agnes's soirees, he 
 no sooner ascertained that Mrs. Jones 
 was a rich widow than he at once resolved 
 that she should fall a victim to his thread- 
 bare charms.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 199 
 
 Innocent woman! she little suspected 
 why the Count de Belleville was so cour- 
 teous, why he brought her bonbons, why 
 he sent her bouquets, or why he held secret 
 conversations with Mr. O'Rourk in the 
 courtyard of the hotel. That Irish gen- 
 tleman, with a love for fun which no 
 obstacle or no punishment will repress in 
 the Hibernian character, gave every encou- 
 ragement to the sabred adorer of the old 
 lady's income. The Count, of course, spoke 
 English, of which a knowledge was de- 
 sirable in the matrimonial candidates, 
 whose victories had hitherto been achieved 
 amongst the females of their natural enemies, 
 the British visitors of Paris. Many unions, 
 however, were effected through the medium 
 of no other language than that of the eyes, 
 while an interpreter had in such cases 
 negotiated the worldly affairs of the parties. 
 The Count, however, could use his tongue 
 as well as these other ocular outlets of 
 loving sympathies, and to Mr. O'Rourk it
 
 200 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 was fluent without being too explicit in its 
 disclosures. 
 
 " ' Faint heart never won fair lady,' " said 
 O'Rourk ; " try her, sir; just palaver her a 
 trifle, and talk loud enough if you plase, 
 for it's a could she has — not a bit of the 
 deafness, but a could she took from tra- 
 velling ; "and it's never a rest her ears have 
 with all the lovers whispering into them 
 always ; and she talks so much herself that 
 they get out of practice." 
 
 Monsieur de Belleville, encouraged by this 
 advice, whispered soft nonsense to Mrs. 
 Jones when they were alone, and was 
 demonstrative with mute, delicate atten- 
 tions in company, lolling over the back of 
 her chair, speaking very close to her ear, 
 and sometimes cramping his very long 
 limbs into a strained attitude to sit upon a 
 stool at her gouty feet. 
 
 He occupied this position while the rest 
 of the party were engaged as I have described 
 in Agnes's drawing-room the night on which
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 201 
 
 Sir Harry arrived. Agnes sat at a table 
 with Castelle, both bending over the prints 
 which he had brought, while Clelia and 
 Vivian were singing a duet with two 
 voices that seemed to come from one heart. 
 Silent, as if listening to it, Agnes and Castelle 
 looked, but saw nothing of the engraving 
 before them, each occupied with thoughts 
 the subject of which was not far distant. Cas- 
 telle turned over the leaves after his eyes 
 had met hers to signify his intention, while 
 these oft-repeated queries involved a less 
 avowed question, which was as silently but 
 as unmistakably answered. 
 
 That night the music, the evening air 
 which fanned them from the garden, the 
 beautiful works of art before them, all en- 
 hanced the charms of the interview to their 
 congenial minds — congenial in intellect, 
 congenial in ambition, congenial in the 
 sense of power, and in that mutual admira- 
 tion which originates in the head, but is so 
 soon transferred to the heart.
 
 202 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 The duet was over; Vivian, leaning on 
 the back of her chair, whispered his 
 approval to Clelia, and Castelle was looking 
 again into Agnes's eyes, when the door 
 opened and Sir Harry Ashworth entered, 
 surprising his sister by an arrival two days 
 earlier than she expected. He had dined 
 and dressed, and now looked as if com- 
 missioned to represent British neatness in 
 France, and to correct the general convic- 
 tion there, derived from our travelling 
 compatriots' strange dress and stranger 
 manners, that both are in great want of 
 correction. 
 
 It was not necessary for Sir Harry to 
 watch the assembled friends long, before 
 he discovered the actual state of affairs 
 amongst them. He rejoiced at the attentions 
 of Frederick to his niece, he smiled v at the 
 affected adoration of the Frenchman — but 
 it was with no agreeable feeling that he 
 observed the proximity of Castelle to Agnes, 
 and the intense interest with which they
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 203 
 
 pored over that book of prints, after having 
 been diverted from it but for a brief period 
 while interchanging the compliments of 
 greeting on his arrival. How he detested 
 foreigners and the Holy Alliance that night ! 
 Could they not have left France alone, to 
 exhaust herself in time by internal disunion, 
 without negotiating that very unnecessary 
 peace ?
 
 204 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 " Who dares think one thing and another tell, 
 My heart detests him as the gates of hell." — Pope. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont and Sir Harry were 
 assuredly not likely to be very attached 
 relations. She had offended her family 
 early in life by marrying an emiy7*e\ 
 and her engagement to another Frenchman 
 after a very short widowhood did not 
 reconcile them to her former mistake. 
 Clelia was the child of her first husband : the 
 later union had been one of interest alone, 
 while the earlier one resulted from a senti- 
 mental affection, which must have been an 
 epidemic at the time, for in a nature like 
 hers such an attack could never have had a 
 spontaneous origin. Xeither union was,
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 205 
 
 however, successful; and the poor lady's 
 last blunder — for her husband after all was 
 nearly ruined — did not re-cement the family 
 attachment, which required to be soldered 
 with gold. 
 
 The morning after Sir Harry's arrival he 
 hurried to his sister's apartment, with the 
 intention of propitiating her by unusual 
 demonstrations and promises of kindness, 
 as he required her co-operation just now, 
 and anticipated future advantages from the 
 union of his niece with the rich and generous 
 Vivian. It was by a tender embrace, there- 
 fore, that he prefaced their colloquy, first 
 beginning with queries as to the probable 
 result of Frederick's assiduities. 
 
 "He is deucedly in love, Constance ; I 
 never saw a fellow more spoony in my life. 
 But the girl does not give him much en- 
 couragement ; why don't you prompt her a 
 bit ? You understand that sort of thing." 
 
 "There is no use in speaking to her, Harry ; 
 she is so agitated when I interfere or ques-
 
 206 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 tion her at all upon the subject, that I am 
 obliged to wait in silence for the better effect 
 of his persuasion." 
 
 " Hang it, what's the girl about? what is 
 she looking for ? Here is a handsome, well- 
 bred fellow, as rich as Croesus, ready, I 
 can see, to marry her to-morrow, and she 
 refuses what any duke's daughter in England 
 would jump at." 
 
 "I cannot understand her conduct at all," 
 said Madame D'Albremont; "she seems 
 totally engrossed with him, she thinks as he 
 thinks, does as he wishes, watches for his ap- 
 pearance, and pines at his absence, and yet 
 will not hear of accepting him for a husband/' 
 
 u, Tis very provoking ; but time will tell us 
 more about it. Is the swain patient ?" said 
 Sir Harry. 
 
 "He bears with all her caprices, and 
 seems as if he was ready to wait for her till 
 doomsday." 
 
 "What do you think of that other Adonis? 
 — a deuced handsome dog too !"
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 207 
 
 " Do you mean Monsieur Belleville ?" 
 
 "Confound that fellow making love to the 
 bothered deaf old woman ! No, I mean 
 Castelle. I met him in the diligence travel- 
 ling with Vivian last November." 
 
 ''Well, it appears to me that he is despe- 
 rately smitten with Miss Somerton," said 
 Madame D'Albremont, "arid she really seems 
 to like him." 
 
 " No doubt that it would be a nice thing 
 for a beggar to marry such an heiress," said 
 Sir Harry. " Who is the fellow ?" 
 
 "He is one of the first chemists of the day, 
 and has discovered some new substances, 
 and some unexpected effects of others, but 
 not understanding these things I cannot tell 
 you much about them." 
 
 "He seems to have lost no time in making 
 up to her," said Sir Harry. 
 
 "He has not only done that, but fascinated 
 Vivian, who perfectly worships him, and 
 would give him half his property to-morrow 
 would Castelle accept it."
 
 208 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 " He must be a deuced clever fellow to 
 captivate them both so readily." 
 
 "People pretend that he possesses a 
 strange magnetic power, and practises some 
 art of governing others by it. For months, 
 Vivian tells me, he shut himself up in a 
 dilapidated house at Lieufort, a village near 
 Avignon, where the people said he was invent- 
 ing poisons, with which to experimental- 
 ize on their cats and dogs, and there were 
 odd stories circulated at which Yivianlaughs, 
 though he won't tell me what they were." 
 
 " Perhaps he is Cagliostro resuscitated or 
 Dr. Faustus revived." 
 
 "I don't believe all the supernatural part 
 of his history," said Madame D'Albremont, 
 "but still there is something very dark and 
 mysterious about him, and I never feel quite 
 at ease when his dreadfully splendid eyes look 
 through me." 
 
 "Well, don't be angry, Constance, but if he 
 can see through you he must be a sorcerer 
 indeed."
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 209 
 
 It suited Madame D'Albremont to seem in 
 a good humour with her brother, so she 
 laughed at his questionable compliment, just 
 as Clelia walked into the room and inter- 
 rupted their confidential conversation. 
 
 Undaunted by Castelle's presumption, Sir 
 Harry paid daily visits to Miss Somerton. 
 She learnt from him his version of Annesley's 
 affairs; he produced papers to confirm it, 
 leaving no doubt upon Agnes's mind that 
 she had been basely deceived, and by his own 
 timely interference rescued from impending 
 ruin. Out of gratitude for such a benefit, 
 Agnes received him kindly, although he was 
 not a person in whose society she felt any 
 pleasure. Heretofore he had appeared* in 
 company little above his own intellectual 
 level ; but now Agnes lived so much amongst 
 men of a higher order that she was struck 
 with the deficiencies which made him appear 
 so much their inferior. 
 
 The party, however, was enlivened by 
 his efforts to be agreeable, and affairs 
 
 vol. I. p
 
 210 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 amongst them remained in the same state 
 for some weeks, if we except the adorer's 
 ardour, which we all know never stands 
 still, for the thermometer of love, in the 
 atmosphere of sentiment, is always rising 
 and falling perceptibly in such a fitful 
 medium; but, under happy circumstances, 
 soon reaching fever heat, and at the boiling 
 point evaporating to siccity both passion 
 and water. 
 
 Our son of Gaul's manner soon grew 
 ebullient, and Mrs. Jones seemed to be 
 highly flattered by its fervour. Agnes 
 could scarcely believe her eyes when she at 
 last convinced herself, after much doubt, that 
 this was really the case. Miss Williams, of 
 course, being a matter-of-fact woman, whose 
 intellect ran in a groove, would require time 
 to adapt her mind to a new state of things ; 
 it was so permanently fixed, and so in- 
 capable of imagining any unusual contin- 
 gency, that she picked out the probable 
 from the possible, while the improbable,
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 211 
 
 which is always happening, was not in- 
 cluded in her calculations. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont said nothing, and 
 when Clelia asked her why she did not 
 warn Agnes of the count's designs, she re- 
 plied that it was no business of hers to 
 interfere. 
 
 " Clelia, dear, you are as yet inexpe- 
 rienced," she said; "when as old as I am, 
 things will appear differently; at your age you 
 should never volunteer an opinion. Opinions 
 are dangerous at all times: never seem to 
 have any. Should you express your ojrinion 
 of B to A, and it is unfavourable, A will 
 probably be afraid of repeating it to B; 
 but if you publish your convictions — when 
 censuring avarice, and disparaging stupidity, 
 if you object to vulgarity, condemn selfish- 
 ness, and deprecate folly before A and B — 
 then you assuredly offend both. If they 
 do not fancy that your general invective 
 applies particularly to themselves, they will 
 still dread and dislike the person who ob- 
 
 p2
 
 212 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 serves so closely, and estimates so openly 
 what she sees and hears. The sensitiveness 
 of self-love, my dear child, is incredible. 
 Most men, according to the French wit, are 
 in love with themselves, and have no 
 rivals." 
 
 "But then, poor Agnes!" interrupted 
 Clelia. 
 
 "It is her own affair, child; why does 
 she not see it ? Besides, Monsieur de Belle- 
 ville's relations are people of family, and 
 would resent any act of mine that might mar 
 his fortunes. Should the poor old lady be 
 fool enough to marry him, he will keep a 
 pleasant house, and after her death may 
 select some nice person of a suitable age 
 with whom to enjoy her fortune." 
 
 Belleville did, indeed, urge his suit suc- 
 cessfully, and Mrs. Jones began to manifest 
 strange symptoms of affection. Her cap, 
 which hitherto had been prolonged into the 
 lace whiskers with which staid ladies tie up 
 their jaws, now appeared without these ap-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 213 
 
 pendages. Her gowns grew more adhesive, 
 her bonnet took a wider circuit, and 
 there were equal changes in her 
 manner and ways, both becoming very 
 juvenile. 
 
 One morning, when an excursion to St. 
 Cloud was proposed, Mrs. Jones pleaded 
 business in Paris, and, much to the sur- 
 prise of Agnes, declined the party. From 
 some unexpected cause, the ladies returned 
 home at four o'clock, instead of remaining 
 absent till night; and what was Agnes's 
 astonishment, in passing along the Champs 
 Elysees, to meet her aunt in Monsieur de 
 Belleville's cabriolet, driven by him at a 
 frantic pace past the carriage. The gay 
 Lothario had secured an extra month's, 
 indulgence, on announcing his anticipated 
 success with an English heiress; for he 
 pretended to his brother officers that Miss 
 Somerton's fortune was to be the reward of 
 his " extension of leave ;" and they enter- 
 tained no doubt on the subject till two of
 
 214 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 them met him driving the old lady in the 
 Champs Elysees. 
 
 " Who was that beauty you were escort- 
 ing yesterday?" said one; "is that your 
 British flame, Belleville?" 
 
 "Oh no!'' answered the count; "that 
 was her aunt." 
 
 " And is it part of your plan to make 
 love to the old lady, buying violets for her, 
 and pinning them next to her heart?" 
 
 "Is it possible that he does so?" ex- 
 claimed another. 
 
 "What age is the old lass?" said a third. 
 " Are you to marry both of them ?" 
 
 " I tell you that she is Miss Somerton's 
 aunt ; if you will only listen, I'll " 
 
 " No, no," interrupted the first speaker ; 
 " we know it all, and only wanted to hear 
 what excuse you would make for marrying 
 your grandmother, for some one saw you 
 kissing the old girl in a retired part of the 
 Bois de Boulogne yesterday."
 
 215 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 " That meanest rage 
 And latest folly of man's sinking age, 
 Which, rarely venturing in the van of life, 
 While nobler passions wage their heated strife, 
 Comes skulking last, with selfishness and fear, 
 And dies, collecting lumber in the rear !" 
 
 AsHWORTH was very much annoyed at Mrs. 
 Jones's hero-worship on many accounts. 
 He disliked the loss of her income to Agnes, 
 in case that young lady's interests were to 
 be identified with his own ; and in the re- 
 cesses of his mind there was a spectral plan 
 of resigning himself to marry the aunt if 
 the niece finally discarded him. In no very 
 good humour he wrote the following letter 
 to his relative, Sir John Drainland, a coun- 
 try gentleman in Leicestershire : — 
 
 t; My dear Drainland, — You have not
 
 216 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 
 
 sent me the promised report of your hunt- 
 ing establishment, nor other details of mat- 
 ters equally interesting. With nothing 
 pleasant to communicate, I write this letter 
 to beg for an answer, such as you may 
 supply with your command of country 
 gossip and club conjecture. I cannot say 
 that time passes pleasantly here, where I 
 am come to visit my sister, Madame D'Al- 
 bremont. 
 
 " There is a great deal of love-making 
 going on around us, for my niece has cap- 
 tivated a rich and excellent young English- 
 man, whose name I need not mention ; and 
 Miss Somerton, an acquaintance of your 
 wife's, is followed by an Italian adventurer, 
 a deuced handsome fellow, who knows how 
 to make love in a scientific way. He is a 
 culler of simples, and a concocter of poi- 
 sons, a pupil of Orfila's, who has double- 
 distilled opium till the result would kill the 
 Wandering Jew, if he could but gQt at the 
 deadly potion, poor man !
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 217 
 
 " Then the comic element of our coterie 
 is a dowager Mrs. Jones, who has fallen a 
 victim to the seductions of a French Garde 
 du Corjis, six feet and a half high, and stocked 
 with as much impudence as would furnish a 
 whole cavalry regiment in England. He 
 drives the poor old soul out at the risk of her 
 life, takes her to theatres, wdiere, as she al- 
 ways uses an ear-trumpet, the pit one night 
 fancied that she accompanied the orchestra 
 with this novel instrument, to which they 
 attributed a solo of the best cornet, and ap- 
 plauded her accordingly. 
 
 " The rose-blossoms on the old girl's head 
 shake with the tremor of enamoured palsy 
 when he addresses her, and my own 
 opinion is that the excitement of love will 
 at last subside into the stupor of apoplexy. 
 If she survive to marry this adventurer 
 he will poison her, unless he kills her first 
 with the good living for which she pays, and 
 with which he stupefies her daily, while he 
 regales himself with impunity. Mrs. Jones's
 
 218 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 impudent Irish butler, Mr. O'Rourk, who 
 goes about to the sights and public amuse- 
 ments, laced with gold chains, and calling 
 himself the Irish Ambassador, manages 
 stolen interviews, to please these interesting 
 lovers; for the aged party is ashamed of 
 allowing old Jones's memory to be driven 
 too suddenly from her heart at the point 
 of the French sword of this rollicking 
 dragoon. — Adieu, dear Drainland, 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 "Harry Ashworth.'' 
 
 Vivian did not make much progress with 
 Clelia; the same gloom ever shaded her 
 spirit, the same dread of avowing her feel- 
 ings continued. As the spring advanced, 
 many were the pleasant days spent by 
 Agnes and her friends in the environs of 
 Paris. Belleville knew all the best restau- 
 rants, and was well acquainted with the 
 prettiest spots for a picnic, and the most 
 amusing beds champetres, which were only
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 219 
 
 now commencing as the summer season 
 approached. 
 
 Castelle often joined them towards even- 
 ing, and in the shades of budding woods, 
 or on the bright greensward of the open 
 plain, refreshed after the day's heat, and 
 reposing from its toil, he would pour the 
 flow of his fervid eloquence into the willing 
 ear of Agnes. He was in love — a wonder 
 to himself — a proof of the human incon- 
 sistency on which he had so often reflected, 
 of which he had often written, little antici- 
 pating how soon he would exemplify its 
 strangest vagary. Insensible hitherto to 
 feminine attractions, and, with one exception, 
 devoted solely to scientific pursuits, he now 
 found himself changed to the opposite of 
 his earlier self. 
 
 Sir Harry, who never attributed any but 
 interested motives to all actions, construed 
 CastehVs devotion to Agnes into a wish to 
 secure her dowry. Thus impressed, he led 
 the chemist one evening to the subject,
 
 220 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 when they were both expatiating on her 
 many social accomplishments. 
 
 " It is a pity," said Sir Harry, " that she 
 cannot marry to please herself, and very 
 unjust of her father to hamper the fortune 
 with such absurd conditions." 
 
 "What conditions?" inquired Castelle, 
 ever anxious to dwell on whatever con- 
 cerned his lady-love. 
 
 "Why," replied Sir Harry, "if she 
 marries a foreigner she is to forfeit the 
 whole of her property, and will be beggared 
 of course, if she chooses a poor man." 
 This was strange intelligence for Castelle. 
 
 Do not suppose, dear readers, that be- 
 cause he was in love he could discard his 
 conviction of the value of wealth in society. 
 I really don't believe that men ever labour 
 under delusions respecting it. They have 
 seldom the sacrifices to make in matrimonial 
 alliances thatwomen court, and Ifancy enjoy, 
 for while a girl descends from the pinnacle 
 of ducal eminence to the level of a damp
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 221 
 
 cottage, a man shares his fortune with the 
 object of his passion, but is not called upon 
 to relinquish the advantages of wealth for 
 the most imprudent attachment. 
 
 Perhaps Castelle, regenerated by his love 
 for Agnes, might have been capable of 
 some sacrifices ; but fortunately he was riot 
 called on to make any. Under other circum- 
 stances the well-balanced harmony of his 
 mental faculties would probably not be de- 
 ranged by any exigencies of the imagination, 
 were it even further exalted by passion. 
 Now the charms of his mistress were re- 
 fined, he thought, by a golden setting, 
 while he recapitulated the advantages of 
 wealth, and tried to convince himself that 
 the merits of beauty, of talent, of intellect, 
 and even of virtue, are enhanced by it. 
 Does it not embellish loveliness with grace- 
 ful environments? does it not afford the 
 means of acquiring accomplishments and 
 cultivating taste? does it not give scope 
 to intellect, and the power to encourage
 
 222 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 art? does it not enable the rich to dis- 
 pense charity and to bestow patronage? 
 All this can money accomplish, thought 
 Castelle. 
 
 You may not be of his opinion, good, 
 inexperienced reader, but still confess that 
 although young Yenus entering her teens 
 may look very captivating in a cheap 
 vapory garment of coarse muslin or a rag 
 of grey cloud, still, on advancing in life, 
 she requires warmer and richer clothing. 
 Even the most irreclaimable worshipper of 
 beauty unadorned with wealth and drapery 
 could not be pleased to see the very scanty 
 dress which the goddess sometimes wears, 
 tattered or dirty from the want of means 
 to pay her laundress's bill, or to ensure the 
 services of an expert ladies'-maid. All that 
 I am here inditing Castelle thought, and 
 consequently Ashworth's fabricated infor- 
 mation was anything but acceptable. He 
 determined on deliberating leisurely the 
 best mode of proceeding, but did not the 
 least alter his manner towards Agnes.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 223 
 
 She was now very much engrossed with 
 Clelia, who, from distress of mind, and the 
 difficulty of her position, began to fail in 
 health ; such a fragile frame as hers could 
 ill bear struggles that kept the thoughts in 
 perpetual action, wearing out the body with 
 unnatural mental excitement. Madame 
 D'Albremont would not appear to notice this 
 change — it was perhaps inconvenient just 
 then to acknowledge any delicacy in Frede- 
 rick's intended wife. Agnes, however, saw 
 with sorrow how her gentle friend drooped, 
 how the blush-roses of her complexion took 
 a creamy tint, and the pearly blue around 
 her eyes grew deeper, and the long eyelashes 
 rested oftcner upon the pallid cheek. With 
 Castelle, who of course was aware of 
 Frederick's attachment and its intensity, this 
 change had often been the subject of con- 
 versation when he with his winning voice ex- 
 patiated to Agnes on a passion which he could 
 paint as well from fancy as from experience. 
 
 "I often dread," said he, "that his love is 
 too intense, and that if ever deprived of
 
 224 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Clelia's presence his health must fail, and dis- 
 appointment increase to a dangerous extent 
 the morbid sensitiveness of his temperament." 
 "But what do you think of her, poor 
 child?" said Agnes ; u she fades and droops 
 daily more and more, and when sitting at 
 night within the glow of that alabaster 
 lamp, in Frederick's absence, her eyes fixed 
 on the ground, her hands laid listlessly upon 
 her lap, I often fancy that she is a predes- 
 tined angel, suffering rather than enjoying 
 a visit to earth, where she seems to shrink 
 from worldly contaminations. Did you ever 
 see anything more lovely? did you ever 
 know anyone more perfect?" 
 
 " For me," said Castelle, " she has other 
 attractions added to those you describe. 
 You will assuredly laugh when I add that 
 there is something physiologically remark- 
 able about her." 
 
 "Of course, something very mysterious, 
 perhaps second sight, or perhaps vampir- 
 ism," said Agnes.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 225 
 
 " Xo, Miss Somerton, I have not yetgained 
 sucli an insight into her nature as you imply ; 
 but from a conviction that there are powers 
 connected with mind which have not yet 
 been developed, influences that are not yet 
 understood, I look searchingly into charac- 
 ters which are of a type strange to me, and 
 unlike all others that I have hitherto inves- 
 tigated, and Mademoiselle D'Albremont's is 
 one of these." 
 
 ""What is there so very peculiar about 
 her ?'' said Agnes. 
 
 "It is difficult to define. I can only 
 explain myself by saying that she evinces an 
 unusual and extraordinary sensibility, which 
 keeps her mind in such close proximity to 
 the things around her that she must be 
 endowed with finer perceptions, more inti- 
 mate instincts, than those we all possess in 
 common." 
 
 " How fanciful you are," said Agnes, mus- 
 ingly; "but indeed you only express some- 
 thing of what I feel respecting her." 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 
 
 " It is difficult to communicate one's con- 
 victions," said Castelle, "but I believe that as 
 man's nature progresses to a higher state of 
 being, there will ensue a greater spirituality 
 of his faculties, and with this will concur 
 more active sympathies, more direct affinities 
 between separate mental existences. We 
 are even now on the eve of discovering 
 reciprocal actions of mind that have never 
 been anticipated." 
 
 " You are alluding, I suppose, to mag- 
 netic communications." 
 
 " Name it as you will, there is some occult 
 current passing between us, which we call 
 sympathy and instinct, that carries the indi- 
 vidual influence beyond what seems to us its 
 range ; mentally the will projects it, physi- 
 cally some unknown quality of matter 
 transmits it ; but we cannot tell how. To 
 return to Mademoiselle D' Albremont, I much 
 fear that the spirit there will exhaust the body 
 before it reaches maturity." 
 
 " She seems to me quite a condensation
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 2 '21 
 
 of spirit," said Agnes ; " too beautiful to be- 
 real, solid humanity, like myself." 
 
 Did Castelle lose this opportunity of 
 saying something philosophically compli- 
 mentary? Of course he did not ; but it 
 was whispered, and audible only to the ear 
 for which it was intended. 
 
 Q2
 
 228 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 " Oft beneath 
 The saintly veil the votary of sin 
 May lurk unseen, and to that eye alone 
 Which penetrates the inmost heart, revealed." 
 
 A few days after her interview with 
 Castelle, Agnes requested him to meet Clelia 
 in her room, and to bring with him a medical 
 man of much celebrity. This appointment 
 was made unknown to Madame D'Albre- 
 mont, and Clelia only consented to it in the 
 hope of gratifying her friend Agnes, who 
 had urged her long and often to take 
 medical advice. The doctor went through 
 the usual manual exercise of pulse and fee, 
 with the intermediate tongue inspection 
 and catechismal colloquy usual on such 
 occasions, when a nervous patient at once 
 assumes all the sensations that her querist
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 229 
 
 particularizes, flurried by the professional 
 impatience of a man who lets you see that 
 his time costs two shillings per minute. 
 Castelle, put in possession of the doctor's 
 opinion, received his instructions for the 
 direction of Miss Somerton, in case a sum- 
 mer tour which had been projected a few 
 days previously should be undertaken by 
 the friends. 
 
 One morning Sir Harry arrived at 
 Agnes's apartment in high spirits and great 
 good looks ; his whiskers particularly well 
 dressed, each hair being separated from the 
 others with industrious precision. His 
 teeth gleamed radiantly, his clothes seemed 
 glued on his person, and a voluminous 
 neckcloth, tied into an elaborate true- 
 lovers'-knot, appeared to repel criticism. 
 
 " Here I am, full of news, dear Miss 
 Somerton," said he ; " some friends just 
 arrived from London have brought with 
 them a stock of contraband stories, and par- 
 ticulars of impossible occurrences, which
 
 230 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 no one who does not believe in the im- 
 probable can credit." 
 
 " And who are your friends ?" said Miss 
 Somerton. 
 
 " My friends are Lady Mary Mantonford, 
 a very loquacious lady, with a brace of 
 matured daughters, and an appendix in 
 trousers and her teens." 
 
 Agnes looked a little surprised, for she 
 had heard of this Lady Mary as Annesley's 
 cousin and Lord Courtville's great-niece. Sir 
 Harry soon perceived Agnes's expression. 
 
 "Knows nothing of Annesley," said he. 
 " I don't believe that she ever saw him ; all 
 that family quarrel; never heard of his 
 proposal to you, as she seldom sees any of 
 the Courtvilles; they don't speak — can't 
 agree — consanguineous animosity " 
 
 Agnes, during this monologue, sat think- 
 ing how she should like to meet a relative 
 of Annesley, when Sir Harry began again : 
 
 " LadyMaryis an artful woman. I wonder 
 how she will get on with my sister D' Albre-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 231 
 
 mont, who won't like the set her ladyship 
 is sure to make at Vivian; I should not be 
 surprised if she came here on purpose." 
 
 Agnes had never heard Sir Harry rattle 
 on so volubly before. He was in great 
 glee, for Lady Mary had brought a 
 packet from his lawyers, in which they in- 
 formed him how inextricable were the 
 pecuniary difficulties from which Annesley 
 could never release himself. 
 
 In due time Lady Mary called on 
 Madame D'Albremont, where Agnes met her 
 at a tea-party ; she was tall and rigid, and 
 seemed to have a mind, if not so high, at 
 least as stiff as her person. Pride was the 
 centre round which her feelings and facul- 
 ties circled in an unvarying round. It 
 had taken a very pious character in early 
 life, that pride of spiritual superiority 
 which is an anomaly remarkable in some 
 ambitious characters, and which yields often 
 to its temporal successor when daughters 
 require worldly promotion.
 
 232 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Lady Mary now thought it prudent to 
 remit the sinful objections to innocent 
 things, by which she had hitherto published 
 her affected piety. That abominable crime 
 of dancing, against which she had always so 
 fiercely declaimed, was actually perpetrated 
 by her daughters whenever an opportunity 
 offered, and poor Lady Mary sank to the 
 level of ordinary fashion and useful ma- 
 ternity, instead of asserting by the practices 
 and professions usual for the purpose, her 
 claims to the highest place of prospective 
 greatness, from whence she might look down 
 on the kings and queens of our poor sinful 
 world with pity and contempt. In fact, 
 she gave herself a dispensation for the 
 nonce, discarded her peculiar and sectarian 
 costume, peeped into novels, played at 
 ecarte, and allowed herself to think that 
 there might be other Christian virtues 
 besides a firm belief in one's own immacu- 
 late perfection, so comfortably proved by 
 the un worthiness of our uninitiated neigh-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 233 
 
 bours, and so appropriately expressed in 
 jargon stereotyped for the occasion. 
 
 One daughter, Rosalind, the younger, 
 was what in these days we call fast ; she 
 understood the points of a horse ; hunted 
 with her cousin Sir John Benfield's hounds ; 
 spoke very rapidly in short sentences, and 
 had most ungraceful rectilinear action. 
 This abruptness was the more remarkable 
 as the eldest sister adopted a style exagger- 
 ating the languid manner of that day — 
 drawling her words, and dawdling about 
 her movements ; although far from having 
 anticipated the purring voices and inarticu- 
 late sounds of modern youthful gentility. 
 In person she was tall, limp, blonde, with 
 the neutral tints of ill-dyed humanity. 
 Rosalind, on the contrary, looked plump, 
 and vigorous, and brilliant, from the vivid 
 colouring of healthy life. Whether Lady 
 Mary had suggested the contrast, in imita- 
 tion of Thorwaldsen's Night and Day, or 
 whether their other mother, Nature, with a
 
 234 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 prior claim to authority, had endowed the 
 young ladies with these different charac- 
 teristics, I cannot say; it was a wise dis- 
 pensation of either parent, for men's tastes 
 vary, and the progenitor of a family of 
 girls should always supply different articles 
 to suit all preferences. 
 
 As I said before, Lady Mary's pride was 
 remarkable ; she really believed herself to be 
 of a different nature from other human 
 beings. While it was Agnes's wish to give 
 the tone of a request to what was virtually 
 a command, when directing her servants, 
 Lady Mary enjoyed the exercise of petty 
 purchased authority; while the one felt 
 humbled at being served by those whose ill 
 fortune placed them in her dependence, the 
 other exercised, with seeming exultation, 
 the privilege that she paid for. You would 
 not have made her believe that a little 
 money, and a little education, and a little 
 manner were the social distinctions be- 
 tween herself and her inferiors, for she
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 235 
 
 entertained an irrational conviction of in- 
 herent aristocratic supremacy, as the peculiar 
 gift of nature, and enjoyed real satisfaction 
 in exacting its rights. 
 
 Lady Mary condescended to patronize 
 Agnes with the tacit understanding which 
 Beau BrummeH's Bath acquaintance ignored 
 when he was surprised at not being recog- 
 nised by the fashionable coxcomb in London, 
 and asked if he did not remember their 
 intimacy at Bath. "To be sure I do," said 
 Brummell, "and I shall be very happy to 
 know you when I go there again." 
 
 Mrs. Jones, Lady Mary overlooked en- 
 tirely, and Miss Williams she positively dis- 
 liked, making no attempt to conceal her 
 aversion. Vivian was the attraction that 
 reconciled her to the very unfashionable 
 coterie, which she endured with the hope 
 that her daughters' superior position and 
 high connexions would divert him from 
 what she chose to consider a passing flirta- 
 tion with Clelia. The languid Mirabel
 
 236 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 entered the lists, armed cap-a-pie by feeble 
 elegance and musical monotony — very ineffi- 
 cient weapons to contend against such a com- 
 petitor as the genuine, fascinating Clelia. 
 Mirabel Mantonford slided through her 
 songs you could not tell how; then she was 
 too indolent or too fine to pronounce their 
 words ; they might be Hebrew or slang, for 
 anything the audience knew to the contrary, 
 although her ditties were of the chanting 
 character, depending for effect on the poetry, 
 to intone which the music is but a vehicle. 
 Rosalind, the lively sister, belaboured the 
 piano with powerful muscle. Musical com- 
 posers had not then introduced that method 
 of striding over the keys to the top of the 
 instrument, coming down to the bass with 
 the canter of an arpeggio, making a hit at 
 one note of an air on the way, then per- 
 forming the same operation for the next, 
 while the left hand, like charity, not know- 
 ing what the right one is about, establishes 
 an independent proceeding of its own in the
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 237 
 
 bass, only co-operative in an effort to come 
 down upon the appropriate chord when the 
 treble makes that expected shot. This dot 
 and go one process may sum up a sleepy air 
 of the Sonnambula, or jot down some gasp- 
 ing expression of despondency, battered by 
 the intervening skirmishing hits of musical 
 pugilism. 
 
 Hertz, however, even in 1822, supplied 
 Rosalind with startling eifects, quite strange 
 enough to astonish the crawling performers 
 of the old school. Both sisters were alwavs 
 at their music; and when they came to in- 
 habit an apartment in the hotel with 
 Madame D' Albremont, she was distracted by 
 their constant manual activitv.
 
 238 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 " Some act upon this prudent plan — 
 ' Say little and hear all you can ;' 
 Safe policy, but hateful — 
 So barren sands imbibe the show'r, 
 But render neither fruit nor flow'r, 
 Unpleasant and ungrateful." — Cowpeb. 
 
 Lady Mary soon commenced her attack on 
 Mr. Vivian ; he was invited to spend most 
 evenings in her apartment, when she pro- 
 posed many parties to the theatre and the 
 environs, in which it was clear she never 
 intended the other ladies to join. Vivian 
 met her advances very politely, and endea- 
 voured to evade all her arrangements for 
 his pleasure. 
 
 "Did you ever see a more disagreeable 
 person than Lady Mary?" said Miss Williams 
 to Agnes. 
 
 "Not often," was the answer; "but I
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 239 
 
 fancied that it was from a dislike to me parti- 
 cularly she assumed this haughty manner." 
 
 "Every one must have the same idea. 
 At first I too believed that she favoured me 
 alone with her repulsive dignity, till I per- 
 ceived that it was equally displayed to every 
 one else here." 
 
 "Does she not always appear to think 
 that one is saying something very wrong, or 
 doing something very strange, with her 
 school-mistress manner of filtered propriety 
 and double-distilled gentility?" 
 
 "You are very severe," chimed in Madame 
 D'Albremont, who could not in her heart 
 endure Lady Mary, but did not think it 
 prudent to abuse her just then; "it is her 
 English reserve that surprises you both, 
 now used to French animation. I really 
 don't find her unpleasant — besides, she is 
 cross because disappointed just now." 
 
 " And pray what is the fortunate circum- 
 stance which distressed her amiable lady- 
 ship?" said Miss Williams. 
 
 " A match in prospect for Rosalind failed
 
 240 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 unexpectedly. The gentleman said she 
 hurried him too much." 
 
 " So she is determined to secure another 
 swain for Mirabel if Mr. Vivian will consent," 
 said Miss Williams, looking provokingly at 
 Madame D' Albremont. " I see through her 
 clearly," proceeded Miss Williams, "and 
 know that she is full of schemes (another 
 glance at Madame D' Albremont). People 
 think that because they do not intend to be 
 understood, others are kind enough not to 
 detect them ; but Pope's cunning lady, ' who 
 could not drink her tea without a stratagem,' 
 like many of her class, must have learnt at 
 last that the efforts you make to conceal a 
 secret excite proportionate curiosity to 
 detect it, so that your mystery and your 
 manoeuvre are discovered together." 
 
 " And," said Agnes, " the latter is pro- 
 bably practised to blind your friend to the 
 fact that you purchased a blue gown last 
 week instead of a pink one, or that you are 
 making secret negotiations to get an invita- 
 tion to Lady Somebody's tea-party.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 241 
 
 u How I hate close people, don't you, 
 Amies ?" said Miss "Williams. ""What an 
 immensity of unnecessary trouble they take 
 to conceal what no one would wish to know 
 if they did not, like a foolish bird flying 
 about its nest, prove that something is 
 there which we are not to hear or to see. 
 The hidden mystery is often as well worth 
 discovering as the sparrow's eggs, or the 
 unfledged torn-tit.'' 
 
 " Miss Williams keeps her friends' secrets 
 as ill as she keeps her own," hissed Madame 
 D'Albremont. 
 
 "Of course," snapped Miss "Williams; 
 "therefore I never \vish to know them. 
 My plan is to make a clean breast of all 
 that others take such pains to shut up 
 within the ring-fence of their small minds ; 
 and on the same principle I leave so many 
 letters about that the servants will not be 
 at the trouble of reading them, and if they 
 do, are not so sure to misinterpret their 
 contents as when, by some lucky chance, 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 they pounce upon the one epistle that has 
 escaped your usual vigilance, over which 
 they pore with trembling delight, feeling 
 assured that what you are always so 
 anxious to hide must contain startling 
 particulars of family concerns, into which 
 they convert your correspondent's allu- 
 sion to history — probably concluding 
 that the vicious criminal referred to, in the 
 reign of Henry the Eighth, was your 
 maternal grandfather, who they knew 
 had been mean in his housekeeping, and 
 that the foibles of Anna Boleyne are those 
 of your little prim first cousin, Mary." 
 
 "I should not like to make the experi- 
 ment of leaving my letters about,'' mut- 
 tered Madame D'Albremont. 
 
 Lady Mary now began the assault on 
 Vivian in earnest, and, as usual, art was 
 summoned to supply what we call the 
 deficiencies of nature, and art, as usual, 
 sulked at the call. The peaceable Euterpe 
 and her large family of sisters were not at 
 all inclined to help the enterprising Miss
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 243 
 
 Mantonford in an onslaught on Mr. Vi- 
 vian's heart and property, for which the 
 terrestrial ladies prepared sprockets of 
 rushes up to the top of the piano — scales 
 that lead to social eminence — volleys of 
 chromatics, skirmishes in the treble, artil- 
 lery booming in the bass; while occasional 
 piteous vocal sounds from their apartment 
 reminded Madame D'Albremont of "the 
 cries of the dying" in our grandmothers' 
 field of display, the " Battle of Prague." 
 What canvas was spoilt by Miss Rosa, who 
 painted in flying colours ; what figures did 
 she represent, with contorted bodies which 
 the College of Surgeons could not dis- 
 entangle; what patchwork complexions 
 did she daub ; what unsteady footing and 
 precarious seats did she bestow; how she 
 libelled poor human nature, so often obliged 
 to see herself mercilessly vilified on canvas 
 by recreant progeny, whose libels she has 
 no power to punish through the co- 
 operation of a court of justice! 
 
 b2
 
 244 
 
 CHAPTER XXJ. 
 
 " What say'st tliou, wise one ? that all-powerful love 
 Can fortune's strong impediment remove ? 
 Nor is it strange that worth should wed to worth, 
 The pride of genius with the pride of birth." — Ceabbe. 
 
 A great change had come over Castelle's 
 habits and manner; that civilizer and 
 leveller, that conjurer and alchemist — Cupid 
 — arrived unexpectedly to regulate both. 
 
 With the power of his untiring energy the 
 student had hitherto conquered the prox- 
 imate difficulties of science ; the mysteries of 
 mind and the nature of matter had equally 
 engrossed him; their reciprocal action he 
 had incessantly studied and watched. 
 
 Now other problems occupied him — a 
 new scene opened, on which he was to be 
 an actor in common life, and to engage 
 with many performers whose characters he
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 245 
 
 must decipher, whose motives he must 
 detect, and whose conduct he must control. 
 The laboratory where he spent the midnight 
 hours, bending over furnace and crucible, 
 no longer teemed with the vapour of deadly 
 combinations, no sulphur fumes now 
 nearly choked him, no watery exhalation 
 rilled the room with mists that blinded him, 
 for the closed retreat had become the arena 
 of a lover's musing. 
 
 A flower purloined from Agnes emitted, 
 with the supernatural exhalations that 
 affect the senses in such cases, perfumes 
 which surrounded him with a novel atmo- 
 sphere, for love, as usual, acted as a vivify- 
 ing principle, enhancing the senses to a 
 new apprehension of their objects, and 
 giving the imagination fresh powers to 
 amplify, or conceal, or beautify them. 
 
 Castelle's fancy did not soar in the 
 spiritual world alone, it came down to 
 earth, and condescended to drive in finely- 
 equipped, well-hung carriages, and to spend
 
 246 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 some short time at a pleasant country 
 residence; where, however, Agnes's attrac- 
 tions did not withdraw him from a well- 
 furnished laboratory, in which he prose- 
 cuted the experiments that were yet to 
 immortalize him. 
 
 He had lately made some investment, 
 greatly increasing his pecuniary resources ; 
 and rather than offend his friend Frederick, 
 he consented to receive a pension, for which 
 some particular researches that Vivian made 
 a pretext for this arrangement, were to be the 
 return. Released from money difficulties, 
 Castelle could revel in his new contem- 
 plations. Still, how was he to secure the 
 competency without which he could not 
 pretend to Agnes's. hand, beggared as she 
 must be by a union with him ? hoAV was he 
 sure that she would sacrifice her fortune to 
 her love? On the contrary, he knew her to 
 be ambitious of preeminence, and anxious 
 for the hospitable social intercourse quite 
 incompatible with restricted means. 
 
 He would have to contend against the
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 247 
 
 influence of all her associates, who did not 
 yet even suspect his motives; for the con- 
 viction entertained by Sir Harry and his 
 sister had strangely escaped Castelle's notice. 
 Then his adored chemistry, of which he 
 felt the pursuit could only be temporarily 
 remitted, required new costly experiments, 
 for which enlarged means would soon be 
 required. These must at whatever cost be 
 prosecuted, to attain the scientific eminence 
 for which he had started. A great inven- 
 tion, that would utilize electricity, was to 
 raise him there; it not only supplied a 
 motive force to supersede all others, for 
 which a national reward would be decreed, 
 but should astonish the world with the 
 elucidation of mysteries yet impenetrable 
 to the most acute philosophic intellect. 
 He believed that, by the help of science, 
 man might acquire a creative power which 
 would almost deify humanity. He believed 
 in impossibilities, while rejecting the truths 
 that are self-evident to healthy minds; 
 thus unconsciously testifying by faith in the
 
 248 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 supernatural to the inherent longing for 
 spiritual dependence which is as much an 
 instinct of our nature as a guarantee of our 
 destination. 
 
 No practitioner of the black art, no 
 querist of the future, no inquisitor of the 
 various intimations which it is supposed to 
 supply to the present, no visionary who 
 fancies that he perceives through the mists 
 of the present those spectral indications 
 that foreshadow coming events, pursued 
 the ignis fatuus of philosophy with more 
 unreason than did our student. His keen 
 perception of the real, his accurate estimate 
 of its parts and qualities, changes and uses, 
 his well- poised comparisons, his correct de- 
 ductions, and his far-seeing prevision, all 
 merged in the vortex of fantastic specu- 
 lation. 
 
 Do not the poetic errors of great minds 
 float in a chaos from which, as from the first 
 unformed mass of being, the creative force of 
 genius can alone concrete nature and truth? 
 
 Castelle, who had left his lodging near
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 249 
 
 the Luxembourg, and now inhabited an 
 apartment in another direction, was seated 
 in his gloomy laboratory, when a visit from 
 Vivian was announced. Descending rapidly 
 the four flights of stairs that separated 
 him from a little room where he usually 
 received visits, there he found his friend. 
 
 " I have called on you for an object of 
 importance,"' commenced Frederick, u and 
 rejoice to find that you are able to see me." 
 He did not know how Castelle's habits were 
 lately changed since the time when constant 
 experiments and close study had rendered 
 him inaccessible to the most importunate 
 visitor. " I want to ask your advice.'' 
 
 " Nothing unpleasant has occurred, I 
 hope?" interrupted Castelle, looking into 
 Vivian's very serious face. 
 
 "No," answered Vivian, "nothing more 
 unpleasant than usual ; the same doubt, the 
 same anxiety as ever perplex me, until I 
 not only feel ill, but, as you see, look 
 harassed." 
 
 "You must have patience, my good friend ;
 
 250 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 time may yet effect much for you," said 
 Castelle. 
 
 " I really think that her own despondency 
 increases instead of diminishing," continued 
 Vivian, " and I am now not only distressed 
 at this, but also at its effect on her health, 
 for she grows thinner and paler, and more 
 like a spirit than a being made of human 
 elements. What can I do to release us 
 both from this miserable suspense?" 
 
 "Will she not give the promise of an 
 answer ?" asked Castelle. 
 
 "Without expressing herself distinctly," 
 said Vivian, "she lets me see that my 
 affection is reciprocated, and yet not only 
 will she not answer my inquiry if I shall 
 ever be accepted, but really becomes ill 
 from agitation when I urge it, so that a dread 
 of approaching the painful subject often 
 checks my importunity." 
 
 "From what you have before told me, 
 and from what I see myself," said Castelle, 
 "there must be some secret weighing on her
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 251 
 
 mind, some mystery which she dares not 
 reveal." Castelle was better informed on 
 this subject than he pretended. 
 
 "What can it be?" eagerly asked Vivian ; 
 11 it is no previous love-affair, no engagement 
 of any kind, for I believe that she never was 
 out of her mother's sight since quite a child, 
 and I need not tell you how vigilantly 
 French morals require a mother to watch 
 over an unmarried daughter, and Madame 
 D'Albremont is not likely to have neglected 
 prescribed social duties." 
 
 " There is a mystery about Mademoiselle 
 D'Albremont," proceeded Castelle, " which 
 interests me amazingly ; she is unlike any 
 one I ever saw before, and I agree with Miss 
 Somerton in thinking that she seems too 
 ethereal and pure to be formed of the in- 
 gredients which compose our ordinary 
 human nature. In classical times she would 
 have been accredited as the recipient of 
 some divine aura, or the favoured object of 
 some enamoured divinity who endowed her
 
 252 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 with extra earthly beauty and animated her 
 with extra spiritual essence to justify his 
 passion. There are, no doubt, magnetic in- 
 fluences connected with her which might, if 
 investigated, explain what we cannot now 
 understand ; or she may be subject to un- 
 known powers which control her contrary 
 to the suggestions of her feelings or the 
 conclusions of her reason." 
 
 Vivian listened to Castelle's suppositions 
 breathlessly; he was half a convert to his 
 friend's belief in the supernatural ; but while 
 with the chemist it was a substitute for higher 
 convictions, with Vivian it proved the ima- 
 ginative exaltation of his religious feelings. 
 He looked earnestly at Castelle, waiting to 
 hear more of what interested him so in- 
 tensely. 
 
 " Observe her," continued Castelle, "when 
 she seems abstracted from all ordinary 
 environments; see her eyes fixed on space 
 as if she perceived things invisible to our 
 eyes, and looked into the future with that
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 253 
 
 deep and solemn gaze. Then, how she 
 starts at sounds which do not reach our ears ; 
 they bear strange words to hers, vibrating 
 in tones which we have never heard, warn- 
 ings or promises that blanch and colour her 
 delicate cheek and chill and fever her sensi- 
 tive frame, when the flush of pleasure or 
 the tremor of dread passes over her." 
 
 11 Oh, Castelle !" ejaculated Frederick, ear- 
 nestly, "is she not of too exalted a nature 
 to accept my love? is it not too lowly, too 
 insignificant to mingle in her mind with the 
 higher impulses of inspiration ?" 
 
 " No," answered Castelle, " it seems to 
 me that she responds to your affection, and 
 that to her imaginative nature your taste 
 for the beautiful in art, your worship of 
 the good in life, give a charm to both feel- 
 ings and pursuits which she fully appre- 
 ciates — still" and he paused a moment — 
 
 "still, there is something on her mind that 
 chills the warmth with which she would 
 otherwise accept your devotion/'
 
 254 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 "What is it? what is it?" interrupted 
 Vivian. " I would give half that I possess 
 in the world to discover this mystery of 
 which I perceive now such convincing indi- 
 cations, since some time ago you led me 
 to remark them. Help me, dear friend; 
 relieve me from this suspense !" 
 
 " I see nothing to help you but sub- 
 jecting her to mesmeric influence. If she is, 
 as I suspect, likely to be a clairvoyante, an 
 expert operator might lead her to speak of 
 this secret, and to reveal all he wished to 
 know of her feelings and views." 
 
 " Oh no, I never will consent to learn 
 them by such means. Not for worlds would 
 I hear from her a word which she did not 
 intend to utter. What else can you do ?" 
 
 " I can observe her more closely," said 
 the chemist ; " and in the circumstances of 
 her mental condition perhaps find a clue 
 to her reserve." Vivian took Castelle's 
 hand and pressed it warmly. 
 
 After a pause of a few minutes, he con-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 255 
 
 tinuecl: "On another subject, Castelle, I 
 wished to speak to you this evening. I am 
 about to make a communication which you 
 must not interrupt, and the object of which 
 you are not to oppose. An orphan since 
 my earliest years, I have lost the few rela- 
 tions who might have gathered round me, 
 as a second family. They are dead, and I 
 stand alone in the world, the inheritor of 
 their wealth, and the only representative of 
 their race. All this you have heard before. 
 You know how uncertain is my health, how 
 likely it is entirely to break down if this 
 looked-for happiness is withheld for ever; 
 you see already how distress of mind has 
 changed me. Well, under all these circum- 
 stances, I have deemed it advisable to make 
 my will, and to leave to Clelia, for her life, 
 my entire fortune, with the exception of 
 an annuity to you, proportioned to the 
 moderation of your wishes, and in accordance 
 with the desire you have ever expressed 
 not to benefit by my bounty."
 
 256 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Castelle here entreated Frederick not to 
 think of any business that might only 
 deepen the gloom which was already darken- 
 ing his spirit. Not attending to this remark, 
 Vivian went on. 
 
 " In case of Clelia's demise preceding 
 yours, I have bequeathed my entire pro- 
 perty to you, for life ; at your death, to 
 revert to trustees who will be empowered 
 to erect with it a hospital in my native 
 country. No objections will I hear," said 
 Vivian, seeing Castelle ready to speak. 
 "The institution which I am so anxious to es- 
 tablish you can inaugurate, and on this con- 
 dition assuredly you will accept my bequest. 
 To you I owed my life in times past, to you 
 I now look to save it again by promoting 
 the union on which it depends. On your 
 interference I rest my hopes, being firmly 
 convinced that there is some power within 
 you which commands a greater influence 
 than you yourself imagine. " 
 
 Frederick now took his leave ; it was
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 257 
 
 dusk, and he departed hastily to meet some 
 friends at dinner. 
 
 That night, Castelie sat in the gloom of 
 his dark room, looking out on the starless 
 sky, which lowered over the many roofs 
 beneath his window, just perceptible by the 
 reflection of light from the street lamps 
 below. Long did he remain there, till these 
 died out; and long did he ruminate on all 
 that Frederick had communicated. We 
 will not penetrate the labyrinth of his 
 gloomy mind, nor try to unravel the meshes 
 with which he spun the net-work of future 
 events, that were to entangle or disable all 
 who engaged in the drama which he was 
 to direct. The embers in the little furnace 
 crackled and flared, when some substance that 
 had hitherto escaped their action slightly ex- 
 ploded, and while they aroused Castelie from 
 his reverie, threw a blue glare over the room, 
 lighting up an expression in the chemist's 
 countenance such as Faust may have ob- 
 served upon that of his demoniacal visitant. 
 
 vol. i. s
 
 25S 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 " The weakness we lament, ourselves create. 
 Instructed from our infant years to court, 
 With counterfeited fears, the aid of man, 
 We learn to shudder at the rustling 1 breeze, 
 Start at the light, and tremble in the dark ; 
 Till affectation, ripening to belief, 
 And folly, frighted at her own chimeras, 
 Habitual cowardice usurps the soul." — Johxsox. 
 
 Castelle lost no time in organizing the 
 plans of his party, according to matured 
 pre-arrangement, yet without appearing to 
 take any active part in them, or allowing 
 those he most influenced to detect his ob- 
 ject. To Agnes he recommended a change 
 to the country, on Clelia's account he 
 dilated on the cheapness of rural living to 
 Madame D'Albremont, and to Mons. Belle- 
 ville he proposed some incentive which 
 attracted that volatile gentleman to co-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 259 
 
 operate in the arrangements made for his 
 friends' convenience. He knew a young 
 artist, Charles Breton, who lived in the 
 neighbourhood of Fontainebleau, and no 
 time was lost in applying to him, and learn- 
 ing that an old chateau in that direction 
 was to let, and from its situation might 
 be an airy abode for the party. Castelle 
 started for Fontainebleau, and very speedily 
 engaged for some months the house in ques- 
 tion, authorized by Miss Somerton. 
 
 Who so pleased as Madame D'Albremont 
 at being invited for this period to live at 
 Agnes's expense ? Was she not sure that 
 Vivian would follow them? Did she not 
 look to the retirement of the country as a 
 means of insuring his success with Clelia? 
 for he engaged a cottage close to the chateau; 
 and there a room was to be ever ready for 
 Castelle. 
 
 All were delighted with the projected 
 change; Miss Williams particularly liked 
 the materialism of country life, its milk„
 
 260 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 and butter, and vegetables, its reno- 
 vating air, and opportunities of wearing 
 out old clothes, and leisure for confectioning 
 new ones from relics of faded finery. De 
 Balzac bad told her, in his u Vie de 
 Province," how sedentary Fashion is in the 
 country, where she sits down demurely, 
 instead of flying past on gauze and crape 
 wings, with ribbon streamers, as she careers 
 over populous towns. 
 
 Mrs. Jones did not much like the idea of 
 a change, for Mr. O'Rourk, whose partiality 
 to an English tavern in the neighbourhood 
 of the Rue Rivoli interfered with rural 
 tastes, had made her believe that the 
 French peasantry hated English people, 
 and that, although the chances of being mur- 
 dered were problematic, those of being robbed 
 were very certain. Besides, Mr. O'Rourk, 
 having heard of the household reptiles that 
 infest Eastern countries, transferred them by 
 an act of his imagination to French rural 
 districts, where he assured his mistress that
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 261 
 
 she would always find a scorpion nestling in 
 her bed, and a centipede walking the folds of 
 her dressing-gown. Hissing adders would 
 meet her when out walking by day, and 
 nmsquitoes keep her in a spurious erysipelas 
 by night. Still, the poor dear old lady was 
 too kind to oppose long the wishes of her 
 beloved niece, so the discomfited Mr. 
 O'Rourk was ordered to make preliminary 
 arrangements, of which he heard with an 
 offended expression of countenance that 
 his mistress turned away from, although 
 she was obliged to hear that very indicative 
 symptom of menial displeasure, a loud slam 
 to the door, as he indignantly shut it after 
 him. 
 
 Mrs. Jones was afraid of everything in 
 the world, besides her shadow ; she watched 
 with timid curiosity the ears of her old 
 horses, as they trotted quietly before her ; 
 the bark of a dog suggested fears of hydro- 
 phobia, and she always dreaded being 
 looked at by one of the species. As soon
 
 262 SHATTEEED IDOLS. 
 
 would she meet a tiger as a cow on a 
 narrow road, and she was even known to 
 return from a pleasant country walk on 
 meeting a bee, which pursued her she de- 
 clared with premeditated animosity. Being 
 entirely unacquainted with the habits and 
 views of animals, she ascribed to them 
 human propensities. 
 
 The house which Castelle had engaged 
 for Agnes was spacious and cool; a long 
 avenue of splendid beeches led to the en- 
 trance, opening on a very large hall sur- 
 rounded by statues. There were suites of 
 rooms scantily furnished, and dark, mys- 
 terious passages. Narrow circular stair- 
 cases led to four turrets, at the corners of 
 the main building, which seemed destined 
 for prison rooms ; and other flights in out of 
 the way places carried you into gloomy 
 galleries, from which you were glad to 
 descend very hastily. 
 
 There prevailed an air of desolation 
 everywhere, suggesting the vicissitudes of
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 263 
 
 a family for many years resident in this 
 old chateau — an heirloom through bygone 
 centuries. The house was built upon a 
 rock that rose from a plain, and spread out 
 in varying rough acclivities behind, leaving 
 a plateau before the facade, which was 
 terraced and kept in tolerable order as a 
 formal garden of the oldest fashion. Very 
 fine fir and pine-trees grew out between 
 the rocks, single and in groves, and giant 
 ferns and spreading mosses here and there 
 fertilized the aridity of the stony ground. 
 Behind the rocks an extensive wood, be- 
 longing to the proprietor of the chateau, 
 stretched off towards undulating sward, 
 where his sheep pastured on the short dry 
 grass, growing bright and crisp from its 
 warm soil. 
 
 Agnes was enchanted with the wild 
 
 strangeness of the place, and started at 
 
 once to reach the wood before dusk; and 
 
 afterwards with a flickering candle threaded 
 
 all the various passages that led through
 
 264 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 the curiously constructed wings of the 
 building. 
 
 Madame D'Albremont pretended to like 
 everything ; but poor Mrs. Jones, although 
 she said little, thought unutterable things, 
 and watched Mr. O'Rourk's grim expres- 
 sion when he waited at dinner, round a 
 small table in a room large enough to en- 
 tertain a feudal chiefs retainers. O'Rourk 
 certainly did not look pleased, for besides 
 the discomforts of the house, with a rapid 
 glance he bad seen that no hospitable shelter 
 in the neighbourhood would afford a pleasant 
 retreat from the duties of his profession, 
 while he quenched that national thirst 
 which is the bane of Hibernian natures. 
 
 Clelia encouraged the hopeful of the 
 party, and comforted the disappointed, 
 feeling that one of her mother's schemes — 
 suggested, of course, by Castelle — had re- 
 sulted in the inconveniences which they 
 experienced. All retired to rest, but with 
 various feelings, Mrs. Jones's not being the
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 265 
 
 most agreeable when her maid told her 
 how Mr. O'Rourk was sure that the house 
 must be haunted: indeed, he felt something 
 queer about him, an all-overishness that 
 he knew came from the presence of spirits. 
 The old lady, whose apprehensions were not 
 confined to the material world, grew tre- 
 mulously nervous, and for the rest of the 
 time that she inhabited Clairville persisted, 
 when walking about the house after dusk, 
 in holding her maid's hand, and shutting 
 her eyes, as soon as they came near the 
 passages, which Mr. O'Rourk pronounced 
 to be very ghostlike.
 
 266 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 t 
 
 " Rise and put on your foliage and be seen 
 To come forth like the spring-time and be green, 
 And sweet as Flora take no care 
 For jewels for your robe or hair; 
 Tear not, the leaves will strew 
 Gems in abundance upon you. 
 Besides, the childhood of the day hath kept 
 Against you come some Orient pearls unwept." 
 
 In two days after Clelias arrival A^ivian 
 appeared, laden with fruits and flowers — 
 offerings to Iris fair friend, who was not at 
 home, having just walked out alone to- 
 wards the wood. The weather had changed 
 from the sultry heat of the previous week, 
 and was now gloomy, and rarely varied by 
 gleams of sunlight, while the wind blew in 
 fitful gusts, carrying the clouds rapidly 
 along the sky, from whence they cast dark 
 shadows upon the ground that marked their
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 267 
 
 progress over the light greensward. Clelia, 
 with a thin shawl thrown over her shoulders, 
 her brow exposed to the wind, was hasten- 
 ing over the rocks on her way to the shelter 
 of the pine-wood- Madame D'Albremont 
 supposed that she had taken that path 
 when questioned by Frederick. Unused 
 to the freedom of country life, she had 
 hastily sought the enjoyment of a ramble 
 alone and unheeded, in the wild weather 
 that would have precluded the enjoyment 
 of a walk in town. Vivian dared not pro- 
 pose following her, well knowing how con- 
 trary to all French etiquette would be such 
 an offer, but sat restlessly looking down on 
 the plain under the French garden, and 
 discussing the weather with remarks that 
 would not have disgraced Britannic weather- 
 wisdom. 
 
 Chafing at the restraints of gallantry, 
 and most inattentive to its claims, he 
 answered the ladies' queries very vaguely; 
 and at last, on being invited to dine next
 
 268 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 day, took an abrupt leave with the pretence 
 of having necessary arrangements to make 
 in his new residence. He then rushed 
 through the hall, cleared the steps at a 
 bound, and leaping from rock to rock of 
 the ascending ground behind the house, 
 soon saw a rose-coloured drapery flitting 
 between the distant trees of the pine-wood. 
 Flushed and breathless, he stood beside 
 Clelia, who, startled at the surprise, and 
 rejoiced at the meeting, blushed and 
 trembled, as she ever did, on being sud- 
 denly accosted by him. 
 
 It might be rude to retrace her steps 
 — and how unwillingly would she have 
 done so — but to remain alone with a young 
 man was an infringement of propriety so 
 unusual in French society that she felt 
 to stay was unmaidenly. His pleading- 
 eyes, his anxious look, told her how much 
 he dreaded her decision; and a request 
 that she would let him accompany her 
 was spoken with tones that she vainly
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 2G9 
 
 tried to resist. They walked on together. 
 Clelia's blush deepened; the long silky 
 lashes vainly fanned the heated cheek, as 
 they sank beneath his gaze of tenderness ; 
 and the reddening lip quivered ere she could 
 form an answer to his tender words. The 
 little hand nervously grasped the shawl 
 which had hitherto floated around her as 
 they walked close together between the trees 
 that occasionally narrowed the wood path. 
 His burning words there were breathed 
 close to her ear, from which she drew away 
 the long locks of her golden hair that the 
 wind blew towards him. They had never 
 been thus alone before — no witnesses of 
 their love but 'the sun that brightened it, 
 and the birds that sang wooingly from 
 the trees, and contributed their part to the 
 universal chorus of nature. The violets 
 looked up at them from under their shel- 
 tering leaflets, and offered perfumed incense 
 as they passed ; and the wild thyme, pressed 
 by their light tread, sent forth a fragrance
 
 270 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 such as should follow the footsteps of love. 
 The wind that caressed inspirited them, 
 waving the dark branches of the old black 
 yew-trees above, an ominous greeting to 
 such youthful passion. 
 
 On an elevation overlooking the wood 
 below stood a log-house, screened from the 
 gusty winds now rushing around them when- 
 ever an opening gave it free current. There 
 Frederick led his companion, and there 
 they sat side by side, looking out on the 
 wild scene below. Still the burning words 
 betokened the fervour of the feelings which 
 he spoke; still the earnest eyes looked into 
 Clelia's for the response that eyes alone can 
 express; still her slight figure trembled 
 in dread of betraying by look or gesture 
 a secret which was never to be revealed. 
 Catching her hand in his, and drawing her 
 towards him, Frederick asked for one word 
 of hope, one sign that she accepted his 
 love. As she shrank from him large pearl 
 drops gathered in her eyes, and fell upon
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 271 
 
 his hand, when he clasped hers, over which 
 she stooped in sobbing agony. 
 
 " Clelia ! Clelia ! why these tears ? What 
 is there to dread? What is there not to 
 hope for in the life before us? What are the 
 doubts that come between you and happi- 
 ness? What is the terror that makes you 
 shrink from my touch as if you hated me, 
 while I know, my Clelia, that you feel for 
 me what you dare not express ?" 
 
 " Oh, Frederick, do not ask me too much, 
 do not press me to say more than I ought ; 
 gather from my acts, my looks, what you 
 desire to know, but do not urge me to utter 
 it." 
 
 " But why not speak ? why not pronounce 
 the words which I crave to hear? why not 
 whisper here close to my cheek the assent 
 that would sound to me like a promise from 
 Heaven ?" 
 
 Clelia's head sank lower, and snatching 
 her hands from Frederick's grasp, she held 
 them to her face, while the tears dropped
 
 272 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 through, them, and her whole frame trem- 
 bled with emotion. 
 
 " No, no, Frederick, my secret you can 
 never know; I ought not to listen to ques- 
 tions which I dare not answer. For mercy's 
 sake do not repeat them, do not again sub- 
 ject me to this agony ; to feel as I do, and to 
 be condemned to silence, is more than I 
 can bear." 
 
 " What secret, Clelia, is it that I may not 
 know ? Do you love another?" 
 
 " Xo, no, don't think that, Frederick; but 
 ask me no more." 
 
 " Yes, Clelia, I must know more. Did you 
 ever love before ?" 
 
 " Frederick, rather than that you should 
 think I love another I will tell you that you 
 are all the world to me, and yet that we 
 should and must part." She said this hur- 
 riedly, her words interrupted by heavy sobs, 
 and her face still covered by her hands." 
 
 Frederick drew her towards him, and 
 strove to remove them from before her face.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 273 
 
 "Clelia, my life, my soul, I ask no 
 more ; but for the future will respect your 
 silence, and wait till time effects a change that 
 may release you from some promise, or remove 
 some impediment which now seals your lips." 
 
 " Frederick, I dare not let you expect an 
 answer. I should not love you as I do, and 
 
 still " Here, pausing, as if to check some 
 
 expression of feeling which ought not to be 
 spoken, Clelia started from her seat, and 
 rushing out of the summer-house, flew 
 rather than ran over the rocky ground, with 
 a bird-like course that Frederick knew he 
 could not emulate. He sprang to the highest 
 rock, and from thence saw glimpses of her 
 figure as she flitted along the path descend- 
 ing to the house, which she hurriedly entered 
 by a side door. 
 
 Frederick stood still, gazing before him, 
 long after she had disappeared, and then 
 hurried back to the seat they had just left, 
 remaining there for some time, wrapped in 
 the happy consciousness of being beloved. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Anxious to think in solitude of the incidents 
 just passed, Clelia had glided to her room, 
 where she sank exhausted on her sofa, 
 burying her face in its cushion while she re- 
 called Frederick's words of passion. The 
 firm conviction that he loved her intensely 
 was joy so tumultuous that her heart 
 bounded with a movement which vibrated 
 through her frame and thrilled every nerve. 
 What happiness to be adored by a man so 
 good, so talented ! — to bask in the light of 
 eyes that were such faithful exponents of the 
 heart's kind feelings and the mind's high 
 thoughts ! 
 
 Love lent new faith to hope, while Clelia 
 remembered his tender gaze and his earnest 
 voice. When the bell rang for dinner she 
 joined the assembled party, with such 
 * heightened colour, and such gay spirits, that 
 Madame D'Albremont noticed the improve- 
 ment as the result of their airy situation.
 
 275 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ** Come — come while the light 
 Hangs on the dew-locks of the night, 
 And Titan on the eastern hill 
 Retires himself, or else stands still, 
 Till you come forth." 
 
 On their return to the very spacious 
 drawing-room, each lady found her place 
 arranged, her chair standing before the table 
 where her books and work were placed; for 
 Madame D'Albremont had expended some 
 of her redundant vitality in settling every- 
 thing. They soon occupied themselves with 
 that unsatisfactory feeling which is usual 
 on first inhabiting a room in a strange 
 house. 
 
 Clelia tried to work, and then sat looking 
 at the pages of a book, of which she scarcely 
 read a sentence — her thoughts far away in 
 
 t 2
 
 276 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 the pine wood, and longing for the time 
 to retire, that she might look towards that 
 spot on the eminence where stood the old 
 log-house. At last she gazed at it from the 
 window of her room. 
 
 The night was clear and bright, and no 
 sound broke its silence, when Clelia stole 
 gently forth, and again hurried to the scene 
 of her late interview with Vivian. Through 
 the pine wood she hastened breathlessly 
 reaching the seat, on which the moon-light 
 now fell with its silvering tints, that the 
 wild clouds often obscured, for it was a 
 blowing ni^ht. The late excitement had 
 been too much for a fragile nature; her 
 energies were nagging, as the fatigue of the 
 day weakened her, and she began to take 
 another view of her situation. All that was 
 cheering disappeared, all that was wrong 
 took startling prominence ; struggle as she 
 might to escape from the evil that menaced, 
 it still pursued her. Misery and shame 
 followed withholding her from the path
 
 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 277 
 
 to which hope beckoned. That was a sad 
 night for poor Clelia. The creaking of the 
 fir-trees, and the wind's wail, and the owl's 
 whoop were appropriate accompaniments to 
 the sobs of this poor child, as she leaned her 
 head wearily against a prop of the summer- 
 house, and allowed these mournful sounds 
 to darken her thoughts of the future. 
 
 Next morning when the party as- 
 sembled at breakfast, she was too ill to ap- 
 pear ; a bad cold with feverishness had quite 
 banished sleep, and obliged her to remain 
 quiet in her room, glad to be spared the 
 pain of meeting Frederick, and witnessing 
 the happiness which she knew he would 
 exultingly betray, transported by the first 
 confession of her love. 
 
 One of the objects which Agnes hoped to 
 secure by their country residence was an 
 escape from Count de Belleville, who she 
 supposed would be detained in Paris by his 
 military duties ; and a few mornings after 
 their arrival at Clairville she was alluding
 
 278 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 to this reprieve with Miss "Williams, as they 
 walked up and down a garden before the 
 house. Long did they discuss the demerits 
 of the gallant guardsman, sincerely did they 
 congratulate themselves on having brought 
 away his lady-love into remote parts 
 where he was not likely to follow her, 
 fervidly did they hope never to see him 
 again. 
 
 On entering the house a well-known 
 voice resounded through an open door of 
 the drawing-room, and on looking in there, 
 whom should they See seated at Mrs. Jones's 
 feet, with a guitar in his hand, but the 
 mature Lothario himself. He rose grace- 
 fully, and placed a chair for Miss Somerton 
 near her aunt, who glanced towards Agnes, 
 with a mingled expression half fearful and 
 half exulting at the flattering pursuit of her 
 faithful adorer. 
 
 The guitar was a newly introduced attrac- 
 tion, which he attached to his shoulders by a 
 broad blueribbon, and through sundry arpeg-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 279 
 
 gios, executed with his nails, summoned 
 Agnes's attention to the instrument. Al- 
 though much annoyed at seeing this presum- 
 ing man again devoted to her aunt, still the 
 sense of the ridiculous overcame her displea- 
 sure for the moment, when she requested M. 
 de Belleville to favour them with a specimen 
 of his performance. He did not want much 
 pressing, but started immediately with such 
 a scramble over the strings, and such a 
 very extraordinary voluntary, that she was 
 obliged by a very great effort to conceal her 
 laughter. Mrs. Jones smiled and nodded, of 
 course out of time, for the loudest twang 
 did not reach her ears, and no doubt the 
 only sound of the performance that she per- 
 ceived was an occasional thump on the body 
 of the poor guitar, with which he now and 
 then interspersed the cat-like scratching, 
 assuring Mrs. Jones that he was playing a 
 celebrated bolero composed by Cervantes. 
 
 Mrs. Jones had engaged the Count to 
 dinner, much to Agnes's annoyance, but that
 
 280 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 gentleman, not at all offended at this very 
 visible displeasure, did the honour of her 
 table with cordial hospitality. Whether the 
 tender sentiments which are supposed to 
 be promoted by rural scenes enhanced the old 
 widow's attachment, or whether the Count's 
 new musical attitudes enslaved her, Agnes 
 could not tell, but she perceived with regret 
 that at the end of a fortnight her aunt's 
 infatuation had increased, and that she no 
 longer took any pains to conceal it. Agnes 
 began to fear that the old lady's head was 
 affected by all the new emotions which the 
 dreadful Garde du Corps excited in her feeble 
 mind. 
 
 Castelle had already warned Miss Somer- 
 ton of the Count's projects, and on several 
 occasions enabled her in Paris to avoid his 
 visits and to defeat arrangements made for 
 several meetings between the very ardent 
 lovers. Still, he was quite ignorant of the 
 gentleman's character, for his limited 
 acquaintance among French people did not
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 281 
 
 enable him to gain information on the sub- 
 ject. Sir Harry Ashworth had been hitherto 
 equally officious in thwarting the emaciated 
 captain's manoeuvres, and now a letter 
 reached Agnes requesting an interview, at 
 which Ashworth promised very strange reve- 
 lations. Agnes' s consent to receive him was 
 soon followed by his appearance at the cha- 
 teau in a very elegant morning costume, of 
 light grey watered silk, crowned with a straw 
 hat of an anticipated fashion. Gloves did 
 not in those times require an operation and 
 two mechanical instruments to enable you 
 to insinuate the hands into receptacles much 
 too small for them, that now after this pro- 
 cess look, when they are well fitted, like 
 the natural skin tanned. Ashworth, no 
 doubt, according to the fashion of the day, 
 had ample play in the large wrinkled cases 
 of leather which hun^ round his finders so 
 loosely. 
 
 " I am come, fair lady," said he, after a 
 graceful bow, u to give you some informa-
 
 282 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 tion respecting this French. Apollo who is 
 desirous of becoming your uncle — I find 
 that the fellow pesters you continually." 
 
 "He does indeed," said Agnes; "he is 
 perpetually here, and although I ask my 
 aunt to discourage these visits, she still seems 
 more than ever inclined to receive him, 
 and no coldness on my part will deter him 
 from repeating them." 
 
 "The impudent reprobate is really too 
 audacious. I am sorry to tell you that she 
 has advanced him considerable sums of 
 money, and he actually boasts amongst 
 his friends that you have accepted him." 
 
 " Good gracious ! " exclaimed Agnes, 
 " what audacity !" 
 
 " Yes," interrupted Sir Harry, " and the 
 assertion is not very flattering to you, for I 
 understand that he is a man of very ques- 
 tionable character, both as to pecuniary 
 matters and to his affairs of gallantry, which 
 take a wide range." 
 
 " You surprise and distress me," said
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 283 
 
 Agnes ; " I had no idea that my poor aunt 
 supplied him with money; and really, as this 
 is the case, we must endeavour to rescue her 
 from a dilemma which may prove very 
 disastrous." 
 
 " The rascal will ruin her if you don't 
 take care, Miss Somerton ; and that fellow 
 O'Rourk negotiates the money transactions 
 between them, with a good percentage for 
 his trouble, you may be sure. Castelle sug- 
 gested the best mode of saving her from 
 further imposition, when I saw him this 
 morning before starting. He thinks that 
 there is much mental debility in your aunt's 
 infatuation, I will not call it imbecility, and 
 recommends your placing her for a time 
 in a Maison de Sante" 
 
 "How is that to be done?" said Agnes, 
 looking rather frightened at the suggestion. 
 " It is like putting her into a madhouse." 
 
 " Not at all, my dear young lady," said 
 Sir Harry ; " there is no restraint practised 
 at these establishments; people in delicate
 
 284 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 health, others in dejected spirits, many re- 
 quiring a strict regimen and regular habits, 
 reside there for some weeks, and often make 
 together a very pleasant society. Mrs. 
 Jones may be consigned to her room for a 
 while by an order from Castelle, and the 
 reception of visitors and letters rigorously 
 forbidden." 
 
 " My poor dear aunt," said Agnes, tears 
 coming into her eyes at the idea of such 
 coercion, " how miserable she will be!" 
 
 " For a day or two she may be irritated, 
 but with her weakened mental powers past 
 impressions must soon yield to the influ- 
 ence of a new scene and fresh faces."
 
 285 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 " Money, thou bane of bliss and source of woe, 
 Whence com'st that thou art so fresh and fine ? 
 I know thy parentage is base and low : 
 Man found thee poor and dirty in a ditch. 
 # * * # # 
 
 Man calleth thee his wealth — who made thee rich ? 
 And, while he digs out thee, falls in the ditch." 
 
 Heebeet. 
 
 Castelle, apprized by Sir Harry, called 
 next day with the terms of the Maison de 
 Sante. It was kept by a brother of Charles 
 Breton, and recommended by Castelle as a 
 desirable residence, and one where Mrs. 
 Jones's delusion would be soon overcome 
 by the salutary discipline of Dr. Breton. 
 
 Most fortunately, the whiskered Garde 
 du Corps in a few days announced his 
 departure for the South of France, where 
 he was summoned to see a sick relative;
 
 286 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Ms absence was to last a fortnight. Agnes 
 saw him depart with very great pleasure, 
 determining that her arrangement for the 
 seclusion of Mrs. Jones should imme- 
 diately be carried out. Miss Williams was 
 to assume the principal part in the pro- 
 ceedings, and to take Mrs. Jones a drive in 
 a hired carriage, which she sometimes 
 engaged to convey her for the day to Paris. 
 There was to be a pretext of calling on 
 some friends of Charles Breton; and the 
 old lady, once enticed into the house, 
 was to be kept there. She had received 
 sundry new bonnets and dresses from Paris, 
 which she displayed whenever the Count 
 was expected; and in the smartest of 
 these was she attired to pay the pro- 
 jected visit to the delightful Breton 
 family. 
 
 Entirely occupied with her toilet, the 
 old lady never noticed Agnes's embarrassed 
 manner as she bade her good-bye, and heard 
 her aunt's directions for some project to
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 287 
 
 be effected on the morrow. Miss Williams 
 kept her in conversation very successfully 
 daring the drive, and on approaching the 
 Maison de Sante answered many questions 
 about the family there as well as she could 
 without knowing any of the concerns of her 
 supposed intimate friends. They had brought 
 no footman, the carriage was an open one, 
 and Miss Williams jumped out before the 
 gates of a high railing that enclosed the 
 house within a large court. She begged 
 Mrs. Jones to wait till she ascertained if 
 her friends were at home, and left the old 
 lady to look about her, and to decide that 
 the house was a very desolate-looking one, 
 and the court grass-grown; and a fierce 
 dog, tied to a box, looked at her 
 threateningly till she covered her head 
 with a shawl, that he might not see her. 
 
 Miss Somerton found that, through some 
 mistake, they were not expected till the 
 next day. Dr. Breton had gone out, but 
 his wife thought he would be soon
 
 2S8 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 found if by a messenger sent to fetch him from 
 the village close by; and Mrs. Jones might 
 be kept waiting outside until he arrived to 
 explain the cause of her detention, and to 
 inform her that it was the desire of her 
 friendst she should improve her usual 
 health by strict attention to the regimen 
 enforced in his house. Other particulars 
 were discussed for some minutes, and at 
 their expiration Mrs. Breton showed Miss 
 Williams the recent improvements in a 
 room prepared for Mrs. Jones, opening to 
 a little garden at the back of the house. 
 They then proceeded towards the gates, 
 and, not seeing the carriage, looked for it 
 in every direction; nowhere was it to be 
 discovered. Mrs. Jones had disappeared in 
 most unaccountable manner ! 
 
 Dr. Breton found the two ladies in great 
 consternation. Could the coachman have 
 taken the poor imbecile lady to a wine- 
 shop in the village, that he might regale 
 himself there? How did she possibly
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 289 
 
 vanish in this very extraordinary manner? 
 Messengers returned without perceiving 
 any trace of the carriage ; and at last the 
 trio concluded that, suspecting the real 
 nature of the establishment, and having 
 overheard some allusion to it, which was 
 not intended to reach her ears, she had 
 driven back to the chateau in sudden 
 terror. 
 
 Nothing was now to be done by Miss 
 Williams but to return home; and as soon 
 as the doctor secured a carriage she de- 
 parted, after promising the Bretons to 
 bring back their intended charge next day. 
 The conveyance procured for Miss Williams 
 was a wretched one— the horse scarcely 
 able to draw it over very rough roads, 
 while the driver, unlike his countrymen, 
 did not seem to know much about any- 
 thing, after a short time losing his way in a 
 very desolate district, where no one was 
 near to show it to him. 
 
 After sundry disasters Miss Williams, in 
 vol. i. u
 
 290 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 
 
 no very amiable humour with the silly old 
 widow, reached home late in the evening 
 where she asked no questions, determined to 
 manifest her displeasure by withholding all 
 inquiries about a woman who could act so 
 rudely and occasion her so much trouble. 
 The servants were told by Agnes that Miss 
 Williams had taken their mistress to spend 
 a few days with a friend, and her luggage 
 was to be forwarded next morning. After 
 an hour's ill-humour Miss Williams's 
 curiosity got the better of her temper, so 
 she proceeded to learn from Agnes how 
 the old lady liked the day's excursion. 
 What was the surprise of both friends when 
 Agnes assured her that Mrs. Jones had not 
 returned, and that she had heard nothing of 
 her since in the morning she departed for 
 her destination ! 
 
 The house was now searched, the servants 
 questioned— none of them knew anything 
 about the old lady that could explain her 
 disappearance. Mr. O'Rourk, with Hiber-
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 291 
 
 nian vehemence, aggravated by recent pota- 
 tions, roared like a bull, and declared that 
 his darling mistress was murdered. " I had 
 a drame last night," said he, " in which I 
 saw her beautiful remains in the summer- 
 house on the hill. I must go there at once 
 to find them. Ohone ! ohone ! and it's a 
 sheet I'm to take, the drame toult me, to 
 bring them home." 
 
 Here Mr. O'Rourk set up such a howl 
 that the servant women all began to cry 
 from sympathy, and it was a long time 
 before he could command his feelings suffi- 
 ciently to be quiet, and to allow Agnes 
 any opportunity of considering how they 
 were all to act. Quite heedless of her 
 words, O'Rourk dragged a cover off* the 
 table, upsetting all the objects that rested 
 upon it, flinging them about, and then 
 rushing out of the room with five maids 
 tearing after him, to enjoy the excitement 
 of finding Mrs. Jones's remains mangled 
 in the summer-house. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 Everything seemed to go wrong. Madame 
 D' Albremont had taken the carriage to Paris, 
 where she was to remain on business till 
 the next day ; so there was no mode of con- 
 veyance near, and Frederick, in his britzka, 
 accompanied her with Castelle. Agnes, 
 however, recollected that there was still 
 in the stable one large spare carriage-horse, 
 which she ordered to be saddled for a 
 steady messenger, who should proceed to 
 Madame D'Albremont's, and claim Vivian's 
 assistance in this dilemma. Mr. O'Rourk 
 she could not trust with such an errand. 
 That Hibernian soon made his reappearance 
 with one of Mrs. Jones's shawls in his 
 hand, dispensing a trail of water around 
 him, and followed by the servants, who now 
 seemed more scared than ever, for Mr. 
 O'Rourk had found this relic of his late 
 mistress floating on a pond, where he de- 
 clared she lay drowned. 
 
 It was a long time before the hubbub 
 provoked by this suggestion could be quieted.
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 293 
 
 From Mr. O'Rourk's manner Agnes saw 
 that he knew more of her aunt's disappear- 
 ance than he pretended ; and remembering 
 various occasions on which he favoured 
 Belleville's interest, she had no doubt that 
 the poor lady was the victim not only of 
 the French adventurer, but of the Irish 
 reprobate. On looking into her room, 
 various valuables were missing — tljese, 
 and a small box that had contained money 
 and jewels, were nowhere to be found. 
 
 Agnes spent a very miserable night, 
 anxiously expecting the return of her mes- 
 senger, who never appeared, owing to several 
 mischances, till noon, then bringing no 
 satisfactory account of his mission. She 
 had not much longer to wait in suspense for 
 intelligence, as a letter soon arrived, di- 
 rected to Miss Somerton, with the following 
 information : — 
 
 " My dear Niece, — It gives me the heart- 
 felt pleasure to have the honour of thus ad-
 
 294 SHATTEKED IDOLS. 
 
 dressing you. An hour since your charm- 
 ing aunt conferred on me the privilege of 
 claiming you as a near relation. I am 
 just starting with my adored wife to make 
 a tour of two days, after which we shall 
 present ourselves at the chateau to accept 
 your congratulations, and to repeat the 
 good wishes with which I subscribe myself, 
 dear niece, your affectionate Uncle, 
 
 u Count Charles de Belleville. 
 U P.S. — My adored Mopsy sends you her 
 kind regards." 
 
 Agnes's distress was great on reading 
 this note, for she never supposed that her 
 aunt had any idea of marriage, and merely 
 thought that with imbecile vanity she 
 accepted the attention which Belleville so 
 sedulously and persistently offered. 
 
 To the rest of the party the surprise was 
 as startling, but less painful. It now 
 appeared probable that the Count's journey 
 to the South of France was a pretext to lull
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 295 
 
 their suspicions, and that, informed by 
 O'Kourk, who must have heard of it by 
 eaves-dropping, of Mrs. Jones's intended 
 seclusion, the Frenchman managed to 
 follow, and to carry her off in the hired 
 carriage with clever promptness. During 
 Miss Williams's search she was hidden in the 
 coach-house of an uninhabited villa near 
 Dr. Breton's, and afterwards concealed 
 somewhere in Paris, where no doubt Belle- 
 ville had the ceremony performed in that 
 off-hand manner which was so very usual 
 years since, when you could be married 
 at any time or place with a moment's 
 notice. 
 
 Poor Agnes wept bitterly at her aunt's 
 sad prospect, and shuddered while thinking 
 of the life she would lead with such a worth- 
 less husband, who was likely to beggar and 
 then desert her. The others tried to con- 
 sole her ; Madame D' Albremont by clearing 
 away all the disagreeables which the future 
 threatened, while Miss Williams relieved
 
 296 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 herself by thinking that she consoled Agnes 
 while abusing the new-married couple, and 
 including the poor old simpleton in the in- 
 vectives which the scheming Frenchman 
 alone deserved, Clelia tried to divert Agnes 
 from painful anticipations, although suffer- 
 ing from her own distresses, for since the 
 late interview with Frederick at the sum- 
 mer-house, her spirits were more dejected, 
 the gloom upon themyieldingless frequently 
 to the cheering sociability around her. She 
 grew if possible paler and thinner, till 
 Alice warned Madame D'Albremont of this 
 change, which appeared now quite alarming. 
 Even maternal love had no power to soften 
 that lady's hard nature, nor was it possible 
 for her unimaginative mind to anticipate the 
 future vividly; she could not take those 
 views of it, black and desolate, which 
 are so often pictured by the apprehen- 
 sions of a timid and loving mother's 
 heart. 
 
 Agnes now wrote her fears to Castelle,
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 297 
 
 and asked him to come and remain as much 
 as possible with Vivian, that he might see 
 Clelia daily. He soon obeyed her sum- 
 mons, and promised to stay three days each 
 week in the country.
 
 298 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 " He came like a dream in the dawn of life, 
 He fled like a shadow before its noon ; 
 He is gone, and my peace is turned to strife, 
 And I wander and wane like a weary moon. 
 swtet Echo, wake, 
 And for my sake 
 Make answer the while my heart shall break ! 
 
 Shelley. 
 
 There was another acquaintance of Cas- 
 telle's in the neighbourhood, of whose ex- 
 istence Agnes had never heard. Down in 
 a glen, beyond the extensive woods that 
 bordered the castle grounds and stretched 
 off in a long line of undulating slope, stood a 
 small cottage, sunk so much below their 
 level that, unless guided to the spot by those 
 well acquainted with it, you never would 
 suspect that a habitation lay concealed 
 under the high and crowded trees. There
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 299 
 
 Castelle was summoned by a secret message, 
 and thither he was led by an old woman, 
 so deaf and so averse to answer his ques- 
 tions that he soon tired of repeating them, 
 concluding that some neighbouring peasant 
 required his advice, induced to claim it on 
 hearing that a great doctor visited at the 
 chateau. 
 
 As Castelle descended from the upper 
 level of the woods, the sun was just sinking 
 below the horizon, his pink rays tinting 
 the tops of the trees lower down, while 
 here and there an opening admitted long 
 bright beams, which seemed to play around 
 the branches, as children do before they go 
 to rest. 
 
 On emerging from the wood he saw a 
 narrow river running near the house entirely 
 covered with ivy, and in the distance scarcely 
 distinguishable from the surrounding ver- 
 dure. The shades of night were anticipated 
 by those of the branching trees, as Castelle 
 advanced, and when he reached the cottage
 
 300 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 prevented him from readily recognising the 
 two figures who sat together before it in a 
 little garden, skiing to the water. A full, 
 sweet voice too soon told him more than he 
 wished to learn, when it greeted him with 
 tender earnestness, for the speaker was a 
 friend of bygone years, Leonora Villabella, 
 whom during his residence in Italy he had 
 seen daily with increasing pleasure. Then, 
 he was ever happy to meet her, and would 
 have greatly rejoiced at any fortunate inci- 
 dent which brought him into her presence, 
 instead of accosting her, as he now did, with 
 civil coldness. Latterly his visits to the 
 father and daughter had been few indeed, 
 and Leonora discovering how he spent much 
 of his time near Fontainebleau, also learnt 
 that a beautiful English giri was the object 
 of attraction there. With further questions 
 she ascertained many particulars respecting 
 the party at Clairville ; and possessed with 
 the jealousy which had often embittered a 
 tenderer feeling since Castelle's late neglect,
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 301 
 
 she determined to thwart his new love- 
 affair, and with this object engaged the 
 little residence where we just find her. 
 
 For three weeks she had watched the 
 chateau, but without discovering any means 
 of ascertaining exact particulars as to the 
 interior domestic life there. Her old servant, 
 deaf and stupid, was here of no avail, and 
 the care that a very aged father required, 
 and the painting by which she supported 
 him, kept her more at home than she anti- 
 cipated, now that the change of air seemed 
 to aofo-ravate the infirmities from which he 
 suffered. It was with much annoyance that 
 Castelle heard how Leonora had en^a^ed 
 her present abode for some months, well 
 aware from his experience of her impetuous, 
 jealous character what her object was in 
 this arrangement. It seemed, however, 
 irrevocable, and no reasons that he could 
 urge he well knew would now curtail her 
 stay there. She listened to his representa- 
 tions with an incredulous expression, and that
 
 302 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 night they separated, each fully conscious 
 of the motive which influenced the other. 
 
 For days Castelle did not return to the 
 cottage, but Leonora knew when he came 
 and when he left the castle, as his move- 
 ments were watched incessantly, while her 
 flittings about the wood were equally noticed 
 bv their neighbours, who wondered at the 
 old and the young female ; the former shri- 
 velled and yellow, and taciturn, frightened 
 their children, and seemed to avoid so 
 carefully any intercourse with themselves 
 that a whisper went round ascribing to her 
 supernatural qualities. Nor did Leonora 
 Yillabella, the younger woman, conciliate 
 the suspicious peasants ; her large dark eyes 
 gleamed on them with a fiery glance, when 
 she wandered through the trees, and her 
 extreme beauty, of the darkest southern 
 type, could not reconcile to the sternness of 
 its expression these ignorers of classical 
 loveliness. 
 
 She was an artist, and copied for the
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 303 
 
 Parisian trade old pictures so exactly as to 
 deceive the most practised judges. Engaged 
 in this secret department of art, she sat all 
 day at her easel, and only discontinued the 
 task at night-fall, when her sudden appear- 
 ance in the darkening woods, through 
 which she flitted like a spirit, caused much 
 uneasiness to the superstitious country 
 people. 
 
 Leonora had seen Castelle with Clelia in 
 Paris on several occasions, and hearing that 
 he visited the English family constantly 
 at their hotel, very rapid conclusions 
 satisfied her that the attractive English 
 girl was the object of his new passion. 
 With her artistic eye she appreciated the 
 peculiar beauty of Clelia, and did not be- 
 lieve that any man could be long in her com- 
 pany without becoming the slave of charms 
 at which she looked in wondering delight. 
 Castelle, while disclaiming the passion that 
 she ascribed to him, now rejoiced on finding 
 how she had not detected the real object of
 
 304 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 his assiduities amongst these English friends, 
 while mentally deploring with very great 
 apprehension her present whim, and deter- 
 mined to employ some effectual means for 
 preventing her continuance in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Chateau de Clairville. 
 
 On Leonora first meeting Castelle in Italy, 
 she was past the age when girlish fancies, 
 those will-o'-the-wisps of early life, lead the 
 child-like woman along a tortuous path from 
 which there is too often no return. The 
 impetus of a redundant nature, the thrill of 
 fresh sensations, that impel adolescence 
 onward, intoxicated with the spirit of young 
 life, were checked by a fastidious craving 
 for the beautiful and the excellent, for enthu- 
 siasm and imagination superseded passion, 
 while shesought for the realization of an ideal 
 too elevated and adorned to be met with in 
 the course of an every-day career. With no 
 such visionary standard, no such conceptions 
 of mental superiority, the ordinary girl 
 decks the first man who pleases her with a
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 305 
 
 poor investment of the trivial qualities which 
 her unimaginative mind can supply. Love, 
 not the lover, is unconsciously her object, and 
 the recognition by him of her own personal 
 charms, which form the staple of her poor 
 ideal, satisfies her in this early interchange 
 of flattery, implied or confessed, which is 
 called courtship. 
 
 Years had elapsed, and the lovely artist 
 still bestowed on an aged father the concen- 
 trated force of her affections. He, sickly and 
 nearly decrepit, depressed by misfortune, 
 and neglected by the world, devoted his 
 undivided love to this only child, whose 
 talents were a transfer from himself, whose 
 beauty was a revival of his own. Incapaci- 
 tated by age, his senses impaired, his intel- 
 lect slightly weakened, they were ever 
 reanimated by her presence, which seemed 
 to transfuse new life into his wearied frame, 
 hastening the languid pulse, and braeing 
 the unstrung nerves by the influence of her 
 tenderness. 
 
 vol. i. x
 
 306 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 When Castelle first knew the Villabellas 
 •they lived at Padua, where he was studying, 
 and where the young student was at once fas- 
 cinated by Leonora's beauty, which surprised 
 him no less than her artistic skill. A 
 frequent visitor at their home, it was 
 not long before Leonora perceived that 
 in him were combined many of the 
 qualities which she had lately begun 
 to consider incompatible. His singularly 
 beautiful person, his great learning, his 
 winning eloquence and dignified manner 
 were such as she had never seen equalled; 
 and now she found realized some of the 
 visions of her early youth. Hers was a 
 vigorous nature — strength and impulse com- 
 bined in it, impulse to act, strength to for- 
 bear; but now all her powers and feelings 
 coalesced to increase the intensity of her 
 passion for the admirable Castelle. He 
 came every evening to their small house 
 in the outskirts of Padua, where, in 
 summer, they sat within a shady verandah,
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 307 
 
 while he read and she plied her pencil 
 to complete the daily task. The old- 
 man dozing near them, would awake 
 every now and then, and smile when 
 he saw his child beside him, and knew that 
 she was happy Avith one whom she now loved 
 better than himself. But that capacious 
 heart could entertain two fervid affections ; 
 ■filial love only enhanced the other by the 
 long practice of devotion to her father, 
 which had taught her forgetfulness of self, 
 and given her the faculty of identifying 
 another with her own existence. 
 
 In winter, for they spent a year together, 
 Castelle read still, now within their little 
 room, and then the old man, invigorated by 
 the cooled atmosphere, entertained them 
 with stories of his early life. Whatever 
 was startlingly strange in Castelle's origin 
 and career, his actions and opinions added 
 another charm to the spell with which he 
 fascinated Leonora. She believed him to 
 be inspired, but did not consider whether
 
 308 SHATTERED IDOLS. 
 
 it was by a good or by an evil spirit, and 
 some astrologer had lately told her that the 
 same star ruled both destinies, of which the 
 interests were so identified that each must 
 be involved in the good or bad fortune 
 which befell the other. The wonderful and 
 then unexplained phenomena of animal 
 magnetism, the recent experiments of Yolta, 
 which the young student amplified to mis- 
 apply with strange results, of which there 
 is now no record, terrified while they 
 delighted her; she saw several and also 
 heard of others, so terrible that no eye but 
 the operator's dared witness them when 
 accomplished during the stillness of night in 
 his laboratory. 
 
 The neighbours talked of ominous sounds 
 coming from thence, and of Castelle's seclu- 
 sion there for days and nights, while no 
 voice or movement during daylight indicated 
 the presence of a living being within the 
 building. There were unquestionable proofs 
 that anatomical investigations occupied him,
 
 SHATTERED IDOLS. 309 
 
 and whispers told of things which no one 
 ventured to mention aloud. 
 
 Time stole on; Castelle left Padua sud- 
 denly, and another departure followed very 
 soon afterwards, when Leonora realized her 
 father's small possessions, and brought the 
 yielding old man to Paris, where, through 
 some useful introductions, she was employed 
 to illustrate literary works or to imitate old 
 paintings for the Parisian trade, by which 
 she earned sufficient to maintain the family 
 respectably. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, 
 
 COTENT GARDEN.
 
 £