vtmemmfOF Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/crosspurposesnov01sinc responsible or ?» r™" ^y„, Y„„ below previous due date. CROSS PURPOSES A NOVEL. CATHERINE SINCLAIR, AUTHOR OF "modern ACCOMPLISHMENTS," "BEATRICE," ETC. IN" THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1855. LOXDOIT : K. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. V. I PREFACE. is' *'• Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, Our own felicity \re make or find." Goldsmith. In free and liappy England there are four kinds of slaveiy, which of late, as the Author ventures to suggest, have increased, are ui- creasing, and ought to be diminished : — first, the slavery of over- done education ; secondly, the slavery of over- worked needlewomen ; thirdly, the slavery of intemperance; and, fourthly, the slavery, worse than all united, of Romanism. The Author asked herself, one day, whether, before sitting down finally in the arm-chah' of retirement, and before her pen has grown IV PREFACE. grey in the service of fiction, she might not attempt to weave a story in which the evil of all these heavy yokes might be warningly pourtrayed ; and, after much anxious consi- deration, file following pages resulted from that experiment. It adds greatly, of course, to the difficulty of relating a narrative, when, instead of merely following every impulse of thought at the moment, a specific object is kept constantly in view ; but no pains have been spared to realize her plan of show- ing up the evils to be deprecated ; and it is hoped that the intention, at least, will receive a favourable sanction from some friendly readers. As no one individual in her own family, or elsewhere, ever sees the Author's works till they are in the press, she feels a very anxious diffidence when first beholding them " in fair print, rather than in ugly manuscript," pre- pared for trial before a private as well as a public tribunal ; though she has a most grateful sense of the generous partiality with which her now very numerous volumes have been received. The pleasmg recreation of PREFACE. V writing these pages must at length be resigned; and though few occupations are so agreeable as to wander through the pleasant fields of fancy, yet that indulgence becomes at last only too enticing. There is a time for all things ; and the Author w^ould not have allowed herself this relaxation again did she not fully believe that the reading of harmless fiction, as an occasional amusement, is actually beneficial to young and old, besides being a cheerful occupation for her own leisure. A matter-of-fact, heavy, sensible education, without anything to enliven the imagination, will '* make Jack a very dull boy." He learns in the wise little nm'sery -books to know for certain that " a sheep, when killed, becomes mutton, and the wool makes flan- nel ;" or, in more mature years, that there are three angles to a triangle ; but his mind runs on from youth to age like a railway between embankments, rather than like a flowery path across the meadow. In the school-room now, memory is con- sidered all in all; while modem fanatics in education apparently consider that imagina- VI PREFACE. tion should be extinguishecl as an enemy to man, rather than cherished as a friend ; yet are not its uses recognised in Holy Scripture itself by the introduction of allegories and pai^ables ? In the glorious apprenticeship of human life, it becomes necessary to send the mind frequently onward, beyond all that ap- pears tangible around, to an unseen world ; while the imagination only, when put to its highest use, can paint those scenes which we are told that " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard." Even the faculty of dreaming in our sleep is an attribute of our nature, in which Divine Providence, without giving parents or tutors a choice, appoints that fancy shall pre- dominate over reason : but there are very few teachers in the present day who would not think it a better arrangement if their pupils could be made to dream sensible and instruc- tive dreams. One night they would devote to geographical dreaming, another for gram- matical, and a third for the use of the globes. But, after all, the old way succeeded very well in bringing forth poets, philosophers, soldiers, and Christians, fit for every duty of PREFACE. Vll life, as well as ready for another and a better life; therefore still may memory and imagi- nation be long allowed to grow up, like the Siamese twins, united and inseparable ! " Oh, should this boot, my leisure's best resource, When through the world it steals its secret course. Revive but once a generous wish supprest, Chase but a sigh, or charm a care to rest. In one good deed a fleeting hour employ, Or flush one kdcd cheek with honest joy, Blest were my lines, though limited tlieir sphere, Though short their date as he who traced ihem here." Rogers. CEOSS PUEPOSES. CHAPTER I. " These struggling tides of life that seem, In way^vard, aimless course to tend, Are eddies of the mighty stream That rolls to its appointed end." — Bryant. A MAN of yesterday, a rich, ostentatious upstart, anxious to aggrandize his family by obtaining for himself a distinguished place in aristocratic society, cannot commit a more fatal blunder in his tactics than to purchase the ancient, time-honoured resi- dence of some decayed old family, long respected in a very select and exclusive neighbourhood. All Middlesex Avas in a storm of indignation and astonishment when it first became announced throughout that very exclusive county, that the ancient seat of the Earls of Brentford had been purchased by an East -end millionaire from VOL, I. B Z CROSS PUEPOSES. Kussell-square, and that Alderman Brownlow, the Croesus of Cheapside, had actually presumed, with his vulgar, every -day money, to purchase Torchester Abbey ! '' It is too shocking ! too ridiculous ! too dread- ful !^^ exclaimed old General Plantagenet, thrust- ing his thumbs into the arm-holes of his waistcoat, and walking hurriedly up and down his library at Athelstane Tower. " What ! an alderman and an alderman-ess to be my nearest neighbours ! Shoppy sort of people like these to be the successors of a time-out-of-mind family like the Brentfords ! To see Torchester Abbey, with its broad terraces, its pointed arches, and its grand old windows, degraded under my very nose into a City villa, by a City Midas, turning all he touches into gold ! " " It is most aggravating, no doubt/^ replied Mr. Terence O' Grady, a demure, quiet-looking young man, who held a sort of undefined position in the house. Iso one could ever find out how he had stormed the fortress of Athelstane Tower, and effected a lodgement at the dinner-table ; but he had no very obvious business there, and evidently no intention ever to go away, so long CROSS PURPOSES. 3 as he could, by subservient flattery, keep his place. " To you, General, whose origin is lost in the mists of antiquity, and whose honoured name appears in the roll of Battle Abbey, I can con- ceive what it must be for one of the noble old regime, and of our ancient Roman Catholic faith, to see that old place disfigured by the good- humoured rotundity of a fat, hon-mvant alderman, bursting with turtle and champagne V • " Look there, O'Grady/' said the General, who was pacing up and down his room in a storm of indignation ; '' look at the noble deer-park, the forests, the farms, the lakes, the islands, and the swarthy old trees, all visible from my window, and all vulgarized into mere gilt-gingerbread by my consciousness of who has hung out his figure- head there V " Yes, General ; and the Abbey itself degraded ! a perfect Vatican inside and out for taste and splendour ! I am told that the nowceau-riclie pro- prietor has actually bought all the plate, fixtures, and family portraits. The old cavaliers will start out of their frames, or spring out of their tombs, at such an indignity, and the old coronets will turn themselves upside down!" b2 4 CEOSS PUEPOSES. Though the Earl of Brentford had long been considered throughout the fashionable world as in a state of graceful and refined bankruptcy, yet his friends were so accustomed to hear him jocularly sighing or laughing over his pauper state, and expressing himself in a style of gentlemanlike dissatisfaction with the times generally, that they could not bring themselves to apprehend any such catastrophe as a real matter-of-fact break-up. Even after Torchester Abbey had been adver- tised for many months to be sold, or let, or, in short, got rid of on any terms, it seemed scarcely credible that Alderman Brownlow had been pre- sumptuous enough to buy it. If the worthy old citizen had stolen the property, General Planta- genet and his aristocratic cotemporaries could scarcely have been in a state of more virtuous indignation, or treated him more like a swindler. Even Lord Brentford — " a penniless peer wi^ a lang pedigree" — when he pocketed the J90,000 which Torchester Abbey cost, though himself and his creditors must have been ruined without the money, expressed a vehement wish, enforced by an oath needless to record, that he could have burned down the old Abbey, and Caleb CROSS PURPOSES. 5 Baklerstoned his ancient seat, before its venerable walls had such a Jack-in-the-box upstart for their master. At length the presumptuous Alderman and his family came to take possession of their noble residence, totally unconscious of the disgust their presence caused; and General Plantagenet ac- tually with his own eyes saw them arrive in a large, most provokingly magnificent barouche, drawn by four grey horses, followed by a char- a-hanc filled with servants, and a chariot con- taining a tutor in charge of three riotous youths from Oxford, all in an uproar of delight at beholding their new home, dark, sombre, and magnificent as it appeared. Alderman Brownlow, accustomed to shovel gold in bushels across his counter, to number his crisp bank-notes in massy bundles, and to reckon his gigantic capital by tens of thousands, began immediately to live in a style of princely magnifi- cence, which excited more ill-will than ever in all the half-bankrupt General Plantagenets of that neiirhbourhood. It became a favourite amusement throughout Middlesex to circulate the most absurd, incredible stories of the lavish waste at Torchester 6 CROSS PURPOSES. Abbey, and to lament loudly that it should be gilded by the touch of a '^ vulgar, low-born mil- lionaire/^ O' Grady, being very clever as well as totally unscrupulous about truth, invented a fresh relay every morning of anecdotes respecting the fabulous magnificence in the establishment of their unconscious butt, " old Brownlow/'' The cutlets served up in bank-notes would scarcely have been more than the laughter-loving neigh- bours were ready to swallow. That claret was drunk at the second table— that Mrs. Brownlow came to breakfast in white satin shoes — that she wore her second-best set of diamonds at family dinners — and that her man-cook' kept his brougham — were facts authenticated on the testimony of O' Grady, who deposed, almost upon oath, that he had seen the chef de cuisine bowling along in his own carriage, equipped in his white night-cap. Absurd speeches were invented with ceaseless ingenuity by O^ Grady, which were supposed to have been spoken by poor unlucky Mrs. Brown- low, the most single-hearted old dowager who ever wore a cap ; and that unfortunate culprit, the Alderman, was reported to have said that he never drank any champagne but of his own CROSS PUEPOSES. 7 importing — that lie would ride nothing but '' a two hundred-guinea horse" — and that he had dismissed seven of his stable-boys in one day for keeping him ten minutes waiting. Alderman Brownlow, one of those good-hu- moured men on excellent terms with himself and everybody else, used often laughingly to contrast his insignificance now, after he had been some time settled at Torchester, in the country, com- pared with his importance in the City, saying, ^' I am cut in Middlesex, and eaten up in London/^ '•' I hate lonely grandeur !" exclaimed Richard Brownlow, his father^s favourite, though only the second son. '• We seem to have reached the top of a pyramid, where nothing but ice and clouds surround us ! This entrance -hall is a great, cold, marble vault, the walls as chilly and grand as the glaciers ! Give me a little human nature and human society !" " Hold your tongue, Dick,^^ exclaimed Mrs. Brownlow, seeing her husband turn away with a mortified look. " We have risen above the society that suited us formerly, and are not yet quite amalgamated with the gentry of this neigh- 8 CEOSS PURPOSES. bourhoocl. I suppose some of them will call on us soon. I wonder whether I ought to leave my cards all round for them. General Plantagenet has only that pretty little heiress daughter, and we really ought to do something kind for the poor motherless girl. Her papa always glides hurriedly away when we approach ! I wonder to see an old military officer so painfully shy ! Poor man ! he looks as if he would put his head in his pocket whenever we pass ! I am sure, though our house and equipage are so superior to his, I have no wish to look down upon him, or give myself airs, even though I am told he has only a twelve-guinea cook." " Yes, and the General's old grey -haired butler, though a perfect model of ^^late-cleaning dignity, has only a boy in buttons under him," said Daniel Brownlow, the Alderman^s third son, who always flattered all his mother's foibles, and found his account in dolncj so. " The General has a lons^ pedigree, and a very short purse. He actually dines off blue china, and is frightfully envious of your magnificent plate." " I thought," said Mrs. Brownlow delightedly, " I understood that he kept an excellent table." CROSS PUKPOSES. y " Yes," answered Daniel drily, " but he puts very little on it ! " '*' Poor man I he looks so respectable ! so per- fectly respectable I"' said Mrs. Brownlow, in a tone of motherly compassion that would have driven the proud old General frantic. " Daniel, we really must give him a dinner some day." The hospitable hostess smilingly sat down, with a floating vision before her mind's eye of a grand, heavy, hot dinner-party — a regular champagne and turtle affair — with pates and vol au vents, fricassees and fricandeaux, plovers^ eggs, removes, and risolles ; but in reply to a card she ventured to leave for little Miss Plantagenet in her school- room, with a politely- worded invitation for the General to dinner, she only received a retort not very courteous, but particularly pompous, which Alderman Brownlow never saw or heard of, stating that General Plantagenet was previously enscao^ed at home. " He was a cold, good, honourable man. Proud of his birth, and proud of everything." " Pride and shyness are always united !" ob- served Daniel soothingly, to compose the ruffled feathers of good old Mrs. Brownlow's dignity, b3 10 CEOSS PUEPOSES. whom he petted, shawled, and footstooled most assiduously. " The General knows that he could not, if he dined with you, give as good as he gets ; it would be retui'ning copper for gold ; therefore he would rather starve on a smoked chop and a singed pudding, than be obliged to any one for turtle and champagne." Torchester Abbey was indeed a noble edifice, like no other that had ever adorned the neigh- bourhood. It crowned a rising ground, as if standing on the summit of an inverted basin, and the grounds, descending precipitously on every side, had been cut into magnificent terraces of velvet grass, falling in successive slopes to the margin of a broad stream, which swept along the valley and reflected as in a resplendent mirror the majestic ecclesiastical-looking structure which hung in picturesque magnificence over the precipice. The architecture of Torchester Abbey was in a very miscellaneous school, the main body being of almost Saxon antiquity, with prominent but- tresses and pointed cliurch-like windows, each surmounted by the arms and coronet of Brentford. Additions had been built in both ancient and modern times, all characteristic of their date, — CROSS PURPOSES. 11 a chapel by Earl Godfrey, on returning from the Crusades, and a tennis-court by Earl Cuthbert^ after being Ambassador in France. The worthy Alderman commemorated his own taste by a hideous modern appendage, greatly resembling an extensive brewery, and Mrs. Brownlow out- flanked it by an enormous conservatory, like a Crystal Palace. ]N"otwithstanding all this eccentric blending of styles and dates, which would have driven a scientific architect delirious, Torchester Abbey was indisputably a very impressive residence, cal- culated to be the scene of many romantic legends, many ballads of love, or many ghost stories, some of which were the dehght and terror of the three merry young Brownlows, who fully persuaded their simple-minded mother that the rattling of chains might be heard along the haunted passages at midnight, and that mysterious blue lights were frequently visible in the windows of the chapel. :] The romance of real Hfe began very early in Alderman Brownlow^s house ; for there is in some families a particular genius for matrimony, which appeared so early among the three young Brown- lows, that Richard laughingly said, the mania had 12 CEOSS PUEPOSES. spread so suddenly, he thought some mad bride- groom must have bitten them all. Frank, the eldest, without the consent of any Brownlow but himself, saw, admired, and married a poor curate's orphan daughter, the lovely Evelyn Montagu. She was thoroughly amiable, well- principled, and accomplished ; but the enthusiastic young lover only knew that she was beautiful, and the indi2:nant old Alderman that she added nothing to the aristocracy of his connexions — not a single coronet could she claim cousinhood to — and she was penniless. To every argument of his son in Evelyn's favour, the Alderman, rich, arbitrary, and obstinate, might have answered, like Moli^re's miser, " Sans dotP Still Frank resolved to believe that his father, so rich, and so very ostentatious, would relent, for the young heir was madly in love, and very mad he thought himself afterwards, when, at the early age of twenty-three, he had on his hands already a rather faded wife and two little girls. Never did any better-half make a more unwel- come gift to her husband than these very lovely twins, for they were dreadfully in the way when he had to draw on the small allowance his angry CROSS PURPOSES. 13 father made him; and very small it was, as the Alderman grudged every shilling not spent in display, and in astonishing his ^Middlesex neigh- bours. " Ah !" said Richard condolingly, " Our gover- nor likes a great deal of show to reward what he spends; but for private occasions like yours, Frank, he is not fond of o-oino; to the sisfn of the * Hand and Pocket ! ' " " True/*' replied Frank discontentedly. " The expense of children is hke a wedge. At first these girls of mine needed nothing more than a rattle and a long frock, but soon follows educa- tion at hundreds a-year, and afterwards what peoi call, in a general way, ' advantages I '" " And trousseaux at last," added Richard laugh- ingly, observing the frown of calculating antici- pation with which Frank spoke of the two loveliest girls that ever adorned a nurseiy, and feeling privately very indignant on behalf of his little favourites. " Theresa and Fanny did very wrong- not to be boys, for our honoured father certainly has that feehng so common to men of property, that he perfectly identifies himself with his own succes- sors, as if his very soul were to be transmigi'ated 14 CROSS PURPOSES. into the body of any descendant who represents him here. Had your dear good Evelyn produced an heir, as she ought, and is much to blame for not having done, then she would have risen to the very summit of his good graces. In Polynesia it is such a disgrace to have daughters, that they are buried alive in families of distinction. Is there no well in this neighbourhood where you could drown yours like kittens ? '' Two more beautiful children never were seen than Theresa and Fanny Brownlow. At the age of three they looked like cherubs cut out of a painting by some eminent master. Theresa, "a quick brunette, well-moulded, falcon-eyed,^' was already a laughing, lively, pert little atom, " the delight of the village, the ringing joy of the hall," full of merry caprices, whose very faults were enchanting ; and Fanny, fair as a lily, being the perfection of all that is amiable, was very apt to be overlooked entirely by those who jested, coquetted, and quarrelled with her much naughtier sister, whom no one could manage, but whom every one idolized. Already artists had asked Frank's permission to paint portraits of those fascinating children, as CROSS PURPOSES. 15 being so charmiug a contrast; but while Fanny- sat as immovable as a lay figure, delighted to do her small duties well, Theresa fidgetted herself into a thousand pretty contortions, and yet, after all, her portrait was much the most effective. Fanny's dolls lasted for ever, while not a crease or a scar could be seen to disfigure their aspect in a month; but in three days, if Theresa's doll had sat for its likeness, it would have been minus an eye or two, besides arms, nose, and hair. Everybody scolded and loved Theresa, for with her genius for mischief and nonsense, she was the most diverting human plaything on earth, espe- cially under Uncle Richard^s tuition. She rent the air with her cries if anything were refused to her, while Fanny's large blue eyes would fill with silent tears of sympathy and astonishment at this alarming outbreak of her sister's incomprehensible naughtiness, but still she was the favourite. There was at the same time a courageous tender- ness occasionally exhibited and not to have been expected in the character of little Fanny, who had even been known to fly like a small tiger at any one she thought guilty of ill-treating Theresa, whom she looked up to in general as a very 16 CROSS PUEPOSES. superior being, entitled to have every whim in- dulged, and every wish anticipated. Even in children character is power, and though Theresa thus carried the world before her at first with the vehemence of a little whirlwind, Fanny, in the long run, sometimes acquired a certain degree of supremacy above that of her sister by a sort of conscientious firmness. Fanny never said any- thing odd enough to stare at, silly enough to laugh at, or clever enough to be worth retaihng, and she never could be prevailed on to repeat, as Theresa did every day for the bribe of a sugar- plum, with an arch elfish laugh, full of glee, what was popularly called " Uncle Dick's naughty speech -.'^ " I would rather be pretty than good — I would rather be merry than wise — I would much rather be rich than happy ! '^ When Kichard Brownlow heard that his younger brother Daniel was about to marry, he exclaimed in a tone of alarm, that the epidemic seemed to spare neither age nor sex, so he feared his turn would come at last, especially as he had already met with nine inconsolable disappointments. The Alderman^s third son, Daniel, had betrayed in his earliest boyhood a degree of low cunning and CROSS PURPOSES. 17 heartless duplicity, which marked him out to his generous-hearted brother Kichard for a dangerous enemy, and still more dangerous friend. The blame of any harm done by Daniel, never some- how rested on himself, but on any one unfortu- nate enough to trust him, and especially on his high-spirited harum-scarum companion, Dick, who was very slow to believe in any treachery, and who suffered so often in his brother's place, that whenever he found himself bearing an undeserved penalty, he called it, in a tone of noble contempt, " a Daniel-ism." Richard thoroughly despised, when he at last saw through all the mean, low, petty-fogging ways of his very unbrotherly brother Daniel, — he despised even the punishments that from boyhood he had habitually suffered by Daniel's contrivance in Daniel's place, without having deserved them. He had a noble-minded indifference about trifles, and he often said, in a tone of heroic spirit, " I have no ambition to be great, but I have an ambition to do great actions, as well as to avoid all mean ones." Daniel having chosen the profession of an attor- ney, in which there is opportunity for the most 18 CEOSS PUEPOSES. high-minded honour, or for the lowest cunning, at once put his conscience in his pocket, resolved to put everything else in his pocket that he could conveniently lay his hands on. From his very earliest years the talent for intrigue, and the daring audacity of his really clever manosuvres, perplexed and confounded all who became the subject of his experiments in the difficult art of over -reaching a client, and time seemed greatly to improve his dexterity. Richard laughingly declared that Daniel had obtained the most admirable scope for his incor- rigible cunning, when he married, in his twentieth year Miss Drummond Armitage, the heiress pre- sumptive to four rich old-bachelor uncles. All these venerable gentlemen had their oddities and particularities, which must be studied and care- fully propitiated, while each required a perfectly different mode of treatment. The elder uncle had become a pervert to Romanism; another was a Methodist; No. 3 was a Plymouth Brother; and No. 4, a Latter-day Saint ; yet, by his marvellous power of amalgamation, Daniel seemed cordially to agree with all. Had there been a fifth uncle, rich and old, professing Quakerism, Daniel would have CEOSS PURPOSES. 19 called upon him in a broad-brimmed bat. Richard often said it was a sight to see his brother's sup- plicating bow when approaching any one it was his interest to please, and the elaborate frieudliness of his manner ; " but he is as hollow as the Thames Tunnel," added Richard, in a tone of melancholy contempt. '• How happy Daniel would be, if he might sit night and day cnjoling the whole miserhood of London, and receiving a stream of pounds shillings and pence continually, without ever spending one fraction, or benefitting one single human being ! '' Never certainly were two brothers more utterly different than Dick and Dan Brownlow, and they mutually looked down on each other with huge contempt. Richard, gay, dashing, high-spirited, testifying the usual passion of such boys for the sea, had very soon served his time in many wild and stormy latitudes as a midshipman, and was now waiting at home for his appointment as a lieu- tenant. He delighted in hardships, gloried in danger, excelled in every manly exercise, and had a heart full of chivalrous enterprise. Never was a father more proud of a son than the worthy Alder- man of Richard Brownlow, R. N. ; not merely 20 CROSS PUKPOSES. because he was pre-eminently handsome, though his mother secretly believed there was not his equal upon earth ; not because he was illustrious in the [NTaval College, for both his brothers excelled him in learning ; and not because he was particularly studious or obedient, for he was conspicuously the reverse ; yet the proud and admiring parents flattered themselves they saw in their second son a splendid variety in human nature, and a rather brilliant specimen of the human species ; so that, truth to say, Alderman Brownlow would rather have lost both his other sons than "that un- governable young rascal, Dick ! " Alderman Brownlow had lonoj a^o tired of being reminded that his eldest son took first-class honours at Oxford, for meanwhile Frank^s brains had been so addled witli continually poring over the classics, that he scarcely knew his own name or had a sins^le thouo-ht of his own orio-inatin^. Richard often declared that a new idea would give Frank a headache, as his mind was mere clock-work. The Alderman wearied to death of Frank's level tameness in character and conversation ; for he so often delivered trite and obvious truths with CROSS PURPOSES. 21 the pomp and solemnity of important discoveries. He invited Frank as little as possible after his unacceptable marriage to Torchester Abbey, say- ing, — " I shall leave you my estate, Frank, but^ I cannot be troubled with your society." The worthy Alderman utterly abhorred also the constant good-boy-ism of his youngest son, Daniel, always a model young man, and a perfect Joseph Surface for making " proper-behaved " speeches, while it seemed as if the warm, living, breathino: affections of Richard were chained to a mere dead carcase when he bestowed them on either of his brothers. In boyhood Daniel, sly, sleek and cunning, always expressed the utmost consternation at, and disapproval of Richard's riotous and rebellious doings, which it would have taken two or three tutors to curb ; but in manhood, the envy and ill- will of Daniel testified itself in a much deeper and more cunning manner, by adopting the most elaborate friendliness of tone^ and by pretending magnanimously to admire the very faults he pointed out to others, with a pretence of apolo- getic partiality. An insinuation against any one is worse than any direct charge. The one speaks 2t CROSS PURPOSES. plainly and may be answered openly. It is like a foe wlio meets us in the light of day ; but in- siauation resembles the assassin who stabs in ^the dark, while the destroyer is shrouded from detection. No words can describe the daily and hourly irritation to a noble and impulsive nature, of living constantly under the eye of one who mis- conceives and misrepresents the warm-hearted imprudences of a generous but inconsiderate dis- position. Daniel, while pretending to love " his very dear brother Kichard," and affecting to praise him, made every word that expressed his artificial attachment a blow, if possible, to the estimation in which his brother was held by many friends of the family, till at length Richard angrily exclaimed- — " Not an intimacy I can form, Daniel, but ' the trail of the serpent ' is over them all. You are a perfect upas-tree to me ! People often wonder that I do not more warmly return the love of a brother who is contiQually praising me ; but such praise, Daniel ! If you would only promise not to speak of me at all : if you vrould but forget me, Daniel : leave something for my enemies to say against me : even my own family are almost deceived by CROSS PUEPOSES. 23 your pretended kindness for me ; so that life goes on, and your sly, underhand, malicious panegyrics are alienating from me every friend I possess, as well as making home almost intolerable/^ Daniel's mode of advancins; his own interests in the world, was by professing the most interesting humility ; and he disseminated a general impression of Richard having so completely overshadowed and annihilated him by his superior fascinations, that he stirred up in all who visited at Torchester Abbey a strong spirit of partisanship. People all like to patronise, and everybody patronised the humble and thankful Daniel. If any visitor seemed to like his society, he would say, with a look of the most deprecating candour, " I am so glad to have ten minutes' chat with you before Dick appears. When once you see him my hum- drum, common-place remarks will not be worth a thought! I am but a farthing candle beside the sun after he enters. I never venture to speak before Dick, he is so very superior. Having nothing to be proud of in myself, I am proud of him ! Do not mention, however, that I spoke of Richard, for there is scarcely anything I can say of him at which he is not offended.* He makes no 24 CEOSS PURPOSES. allowance for my affectionate enthusiasm ; I never shall get my brother to like me ; but who can wonder when he is every way my superior? It made me so happy the other morning, when he spoke for half-an-hour to me, and I was quite breathless not to lose a word. After he left the room I felt the tears in my eyes, to think how kind he was in giving me the diamond of his brilliant conversation in exchange for the mere dross of mine. Ah! here he comes. I hope he will appear to advantage : but Kichard says there are very few persons he can endure, or who can draw him out. For my own part, I constantly irritate him v/ithout intending it, by my affec- tionate follies in trumpeting his merit. Now listen ! Did he but reflect how I admire and look up to him, he could not repulse all my poor efforts to serve the brother I almost idolize. He returns only hatred and contempt for all my endea- vours. Oh ! how I wish he knew me better ! "^ *' But he does know you ! " replied Eichard, who had overheard this, turning contemptuously away, " II y' a des reproches qui louent, Et "des louanges qui medisant ! " CROSS PURPOSES. 25 Who would not have pitied Daniel and abhorred Richard under such a representation ? so that it took a long time for the manly, generous, open- hearted sailor to get over the evil impression made by these laughable, extravagant, and ridicu- lous panegyrics ; though in time, penetrating and observant visitors discovered that Richard, with his full-toned harmonious voice, always on every occasion, said the best thing that could have been said, and that with an inexhaustible vein of jest- ing humour: there was even accompanying his broadest smiles, a serious chord to be struck, tes- tifying more sensibility than is usual at light- hearted nineteen or twenty. Richard Brownlow, R.N. got into a thousand good-hearted scrapes while attempting to make the world in general happier than he found it. How frequently did Daniel satirically assert that Dick gave away more than he ever possessed, and promised ten times more than he could perform ! Richard often scolded himself with humorous indignation for such heedlessness, and was for ever making himself protestations that he would be more guarded in future ; but no sooner did he see the most distant glimpse of a hope that he VOL. I. C 26 CEOSS PUEPOSES. might confer some little kindness on another, than he flew headlong after it, and only blamed himself that it was not possible to do ten times more. To the Alderman^s consternation, people fre- quently arrived to the family pot-luck at Tor- chester Abbey, whom Richard had invited on a friendly impulse, without leave asked and given ; or persons appeared, claiming charitable dona- tions which he had rashly promised to bestow, without an idea how the funds could be raised. Daniel, when he saw Richard in some such gene- rous difficulty, listened with downcast look and brooding eye, while he often finished by giving a low prolonged whistle of utter contempt, and then assumed his usual tone of hypocritical panegyric, lauding Richard's very faults, till the Alderman was made more irritable than before by the tone of Daniel's pretended defence. Probably few in this world ever lost so rarely an opportunity to do a liberal action as Richard, who seemed continually on the watch, with large- hearted charity, to discover how he could oblige any one. If his numerous plans of kindness failed, he had all the blame ; but if they succeeded, then Daniel most ingeniously contrived to share the CROSS PURPOSES. 27 credit, or to Insinuate that he would have done ten times more in Richard's place. " Only fancy ! " exclaimed Daniel one day, with a wretched attempt at a smile, but in a voice harsh and grating as a rusty hinge, " I hear Dick has bestowed a pound on that starving, ne'er-do- well family of O' Haras ! can you imagine how nine Irish paupers are to be supported on a paltry one- pound note ! "What good can such a mite as that do them! It is either too much or too little. Either give the O^Haras something worth while, or leave it entirely alone !" In spite of Daniel's criticisms, Richard worked night and day, until he got the whole miserable cabin-full of O'Haras comfortably emigrated to Australia, except one very clever energetic youth of his own age* This boy Richard had himself assisted with marvellous perseverance to educate, and he persuaded the Alderman, in spite of Pat's half-ridiculous, half-disconsolate look of awkward- ness, to hire him as a sort of deputy bailiff and factotum. As soon as this was all most laboriously accom- plished by means of Richard, Daniel privately called on his brother's i^rottge to wish him joy, c 2 28 CROSS PURPOSES. and assumed a tone of generous feeling, as he said : " I was charmed to unite my influence with Kichard's, that we might get you appointed to the vacancy here, but pray say nothing about me to my brother, as he likes to enjoy the whole credit of having provided for you. I always give up everything to him : let me be nobody, and Dick all in all. I dare say he might have suc- ceeded without my assistance, but I did all in my power." Patrick O'Hara was a very penetrating indi- vidual, and he kept his thoughts to himself in respect to his pretended benefactor; but the whole enthusiasm of his Irish nature glowed and burned with admiration for Richard, who thought only of his j^roteg€s advantage, and who seemed never to remember that there was such a word as "self." O'Hara did not love his young patron the less for being one of the fast species, and looked with sympathetic delight at his bold, spirited, almost reckless bearing — at his flashing eye, his lips quivering with continual smiles, his wild dark hair blowing in every breeze, his buoyant, impatient step, as he hurried from place to place, his flying jest for all who passed, his CROSS PURPOSES. 29 skill in every manly exercise, even his very wilfulness testifying still the most noble impulses — and if ever a Damon had a Pythias in lower life, Richard had secured a friend never to be alienated, who would live only for him, and rejoice with his latest breath to die for him. Patrick O'Hara w^as a singular being, clever, impulsive, double-distilled Irish ; keen almost to insanity upon some points, eloquent almost to sublimity when he spoke upon them, and fully persuaded that he was, in politics, religion, and conduct, the most moderate of men — moderate even in drinkins; and smokino; as he indulojed in both these luxuries at the expense of only half his small income. Patrick maintained that he could at any time without difficulty leave them off, but nevertheless he did not ! Richard sometimes re- monstrated with O'Hara, and sometimes pointed out the waste of time, intellect, and money, these habits cost, to one who could little spare either. But still, while O'Hara smilingly promised future abstinence, the intended day never came. "He had quite the command of himself," he said; "and never, never exceeded yet. A pipe and a glass, after a hard day's labour, were not luxu- ries, tliey were absolute necessaries." 30 CROSS PUEPOSES. CHAPTER II. "Frame thy mind to mirth and merriment, Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life." Shakspeare. Poor Alderman Brownlow ! All Middlesex con- tinued to be afironted that an Alderman and an Alderwoman should hang up their hat and bonnet in Torchester Abbey, " mce the Earl of Brentford, superseded ! " The only person of old family who treated the whole affair with indif- ferent-ism, was the noble Lord himself. He laughingly declared that the estate had been sold for an old song, and that he threw into the bargain for another old song, meaning 10,000?., the old hereditary plate, pictures, and library, wishing the "old fellow" much joy of his acqui- sition. It was with a mixture of laughter and horror, that the few-and-far-between neischboiirs who now CROSS PUEPOSES. 31 visited "those Brownlow people" perceived por- traits of the grand old peers in armour and in their robes, frowning with apparent contempt at a likeness of the fat, good-humoured, prosperous- looking Alderman, and his fat, good-humoured, self-satisfied wife. Both these kind-hearted indi- viduals laboured to conciKate the good-will of high or low around Torchester, but in vain. The poor accepted Alderman Brownlow's alms, but despised the hand it came from, while they sighed for the grand old family endeared to them by a thousand traditionary remembrances. Even the gorgeous hangings of crimson velvet, suspended over the Torchester gallery in church, were thought vulgarly ostentatious, contrasted with the old hereditary green-baize adorned with several ancient escutcheons, which had hung in venerable rags for ages, while belonging to the Lords of Brentford. The oldest inhabitant now became an oracle respecting ^'the great Lord and the good Lord, father and grandfather to the spendthrift Lord, now representing the ancient race/^ Alderman Brownlow was unable to conciliate even his own tenants, and became filled with never-ceasing 32 CEOSS PUEPOSES. surprise at not being more cordially welcomed by the lower orders, who could not be prevailed on to touch their hats to him in passing, nor by the upper classes, who coldly repulsed every attempt to improve the very slightest acquaintance into an intimacy ; so that at length, finding that the yarn of his life was spun in so very solitary a state, he observed, with smiling good-humour, that his life at Torchester Abbey was a perfect burden to him. Not merely one of the oldest families in Mid- dlesex, but actually the very oldest, was that of General Plantagenet, resident in Athelstane Tower, not ten minutes distant from the Abbey. Nothinor on earth could be more agjsfravatlno: to the good-natured Alderman, than his neighbour's haughty condescension whenever they had the mutual misfortune to meet. These rencontres between two neighbours, who politely detested each other, certainly added nothing to the cor- diality of their feelings. The General, an aristo- cratic old martinet, lived in the highest pitch of exclusiveness on an estate which was, like most entailed property, up to its very chin in debt; therefore, if the General despised the Alderman as a noiiveau riclie, his contempt was repaid with CROSS PURPOSES. 33 interest for being proud and poor, while the contrast in their appearance was as great as in their circumstances. General Plantagenet, with his high, pale, chivalrous features, and magni- ficent grey hair, seemed of a perfectly different species from the wortliy Alderman in a modern brown wig, with a blotting-paper complexion and self-satisfied aspect. '' That upstart at Torchester," observed the General sternly, and he never condescended to remember his aldermanic name ; '^ That new man at Torchester is a mere parody on anything usually pointed out to me as a gentleman." "General Plantagenet's pride is no more to you than the pride of any half-savage prince in Timbuctoo ! " observed Richard, wishing to soothe his father's evident mortification ; " that bleak- looking, formal, pernicious old General, in his old rat-gnawed tower, with his bald head bleached as white as Mont Blanc, his haughty carelessness of manner, and his smile like a wintry sunbeam, is not worth your wasting a thought upon. We must pull the ears of his pride some day, and bring him down to the level of mortals like our own vulgar everyday selves!" c 3 34 CROSS PURPOSES. General Plantagenet, being a Papist who had married a Protestant, was bound to let his only daughter be educated, contrary to his own wishes, in the Eeformed Church, and while his wife survived she so carefully guarded Emily's belief against the dark inroads of superstition, that it seemed, after Lady Madelaine Plantagenet's death, as if the dying mother's prayers and instructions had rendered the young Emily's clear under- standing and enlightened faith perfectly impreg- nable to all attacks. Many and vigorous were the onsets clandes- tinely made on her Protestantism by Terence O' Grady, who had suddenly appeared at Athel- stone Tower soon after the death of Lady Madelaine, without any very obvious position in the house, or any very definite reason apparently for his being there, but who, from the day of his arrival, quietly and unostentatiously assumed a despotic command over fevery person in the house except Emily. All most unaccountably sub- mitted to this usurpation, from the proud old General himself, down to the lowest groom in the stable. "Who and what is this Mr. O'Grady?" asked CROSS PURPOSES. 35 Emily of herself, with daily increasing surprise. *' Everybody likes and fears and obeys him except me. Even my arbitrary new governess, Made- moiselle Argentin, strikes her flag before his ! AVhocanhebe?" Richard's incorrigible love of fun, frolic, mis- chief, and nonsense, led him, in many of his boyish exploits, to the very edge of the well- preserved Athelstane property with his gun or his fishing-rod, when it frequently happened quite by accident that he came in sight of or passed close beside the loveliest object he had ever seen in nature or in art. This was no other than the stern old General's pretty young daughter, Emily Plantagenet, carefully duenna'd by Mademoiselle Argentin. At first the parties lounged indif- ferently past, without appearing sensible of each other's existence. At leno;th Richard thousrht it would be only common civility to touch his hat with the very smallest soup^on of a bow, and Mademoiselle Ai'gentin, seeing a remarkably good- looking youth so often falling in her way and so gracefully acknowledging her presence, made, in return, a shght inclination of the head. Emily gave a shy, momentary smile, before she vanished. 36 CEOSS PURPOSES. and next time the smile was accompanied by a blush, while she kept her eyes on the ground and walked on. The river-side became now more and more frequented by the eager sportsman, though, truth to say, during his "sentimental journey" the trout had latterly very little share in his atten- tions. Kichard's young imagination became hence- forth quite excited in search of such adventures as a meeting with Miss Plantagenet, " the fairy of Athelstane," as he named her to himself, and every day found him fishing over a rustic bridge leading to the village of Athelstane, which was the common property of both families. There a narrow sparkling river danced and glittered in the sunbeams, scarcelv so brio^ht as the flashinor and sparkling countenance of Richard Brownlow, as he sung from day to day with passionate emotion his favourite songs of love and chivalry, unconscious of any listeners, or, at least, trying to appear so. Mademoiselle Argentin had long felt her own fascinations frightfully thrown away on the white- haired General ; she found it very hard work to amuse herself at Athelstane Tower, with nothing, CROSS PUEPOSES. 37 as she said, but owls, ghosts, and ivy ; and being very deeply versed in novel reading, slie knew it to be the commonest event in the world for hand- some young men of family and fortune to fall desperately and hopelessly in love with a gover- ness. The thing in fact very seldom failed to happen, if there were opportunities afforded ; and she began to think that in the case of this elegant, romantic-looking youth, Mr. Brownlow, it would be very foolish indeed not to let those opportu- nities occur. She listened, therefore, with a per- fectly French enthusiasm, to the fine modulations of Richard's most exquisite voice, as he poured out a flood of melody on the bridge, in no parti- cular key ; and then, with the finest stage effect imaginable, she suddenly emerged from behind an old oak-tree, drag^jrlns: forward her shrinkinor young pupil, and, in her own broken English, entreated him to favour her by singing that " enchanting little air " once more. From that day Mademoiselle Argentin, who had been dressing in a most done-with-the-world style of slovenliness, wore the most becoming bonnets, the newest Parisian fashions, and the tightest shoes and Moves ima^^inable. She laid on 38 GROSS PUEPOSES. a trifle more rouge, pulled her veil down, and met Kichard by accident every morning with the most unbounded exclamations of astonishment, that he should happen, by mere accident, to be passing so frequently, when she was taking her pupil to Athelstane Kectory. There she informed Richard that they must go every day, at two o'clock pre- cisely, as Miss Plantagenet had to see the Rector in preparation for being confirmed, as she was now nearly sixteen ; and this accidental informa- tion, given on purpose, was not thrown away on an inattentive ear. Richard made a point of not forgetting this intelligence, and thought Mademoiselle a perfect queen among governesses, to be so very commu- nicative ; therefore this implied appointment became perfectly stereotyped between the two parties, while Emily, not being asked her opinion on the subject, gave none, and rather enjoyed than otherwise the quantity of unmitigated badi- nage spoken by Richard, which the merry school- girl devoured with greedy attention. The light- hearted youth, rattling out whole bushels of nonsense, little guessed that Mademoiselle sup- posed him to be an admirer of her own. The CROSS PURPOSES. 39 little conscious giggle, and the little coquettish graces of the sentimental governess were subjects of incessant wonder and amusement to Richard, whose whole care was not to betray how entirely ridiculous he thought her, and how exclusively his heart, soul, and eyes were pre-occupied with the muslin frock and blue ribbons of the young, pretty, and demure Httle Emily. The young angler was much diverted one dav to receive from Mademoiselle a gift of several flies she had invented and manufactured herself. They were scarlet, blue, and yellow, like no human flies that ever were contrived by the hand of man before, and it would have been a very credulous trout that ventured to nibble ; but Richard enjoyed the joke, was amused with her oddities, and there- fore cheerfully endured all Mademoiselle's little Goqueteries and fantastic airs. He delighted, indeed, to watch how she tossed her artificial ringlets with a look of conscious beauty, sprinkled perfume over her handkerchief, made him pick her a bouquet of wild flowers, bid him tie her shoe-strings, and allowed him to carry her shawl, parasol, salts, and clogs, as well as other un- necessary necessaries of her country walks, and 40 CROSS PURPOSES. she exacted altogether as much care and solicitude from her willing attendant, Klchard, as if she had been a precious bit of Sevres, which had for a wonder stepped out to take the air, and must be carefully sheltered from the possibility of being damaged. Like most French governesses, Mile. Argen- tin's whole conversation consisted of little ro- mances of which she was herself the heroine. She had made more conquests than Buonaparte or Alexander the Great, and Emily had already sympathized with the heart-broken disappoint- ments of the many admirers of Mademoiselle. Several had actually put an end to themselves, and the rest were all living in a state of incon- solable celibacy ; but when this elderly governess — as Richard considered Mademoiselle, at the mature age of twenty-five — imparted her belief to Emily that the young and handsome Kichard Brownlow was actually dying for her, it might have been a subject for any artist's pencil to re- present the young girfs look of beautiful astonish- ment and suppressed diversion. Emily felt that her powers of credulity, already somewhat over- taxed, were now fairly in a state of rebellion. CROSS PURPOSES. 41 She could not and would not believe this ! If an idea stole into her own mind, wduch accounted more naturally for many an unexpected meeting with the young sportsman, she prudently kept it to herself, but the colour deepened on her cheek, and a light sparkled in her eye, as she recalled the scarlet flush that had dyed the countenance of Eichard, when last they met, and the graceful shyness with which he had offered her *' the last rose of summer." That rose was now beinoj carefully dried in her music-book ; and the thoughts it gave rise to were still as freshly pre- served as itself in her memory ; for, bred in a solitude almost as intense as that of Miranda, Emily had not been long in finding a Ferdinand ; and in the freshness of her girlhood, let her imagination stray into all the flowery fields of unknown felicity. It was now the great event of each day to these young people when they met. While Richard contrived in a thousand ways unmistakeably to intimate to Emily his attachment, still his look of animated delight, when he saw a distant glimpse of the two ladies advancing, might have misled any six into belicvincc he was in love with them all. 42 CROSS PURPOSES. " Oh ! if life were made up of such moments as this!" he exclaimed one day, when turning suddenly round, he saw Emily and Mademoiselle standing by his side, the young girl's bright smiles and brighter blushes rendering her more interesting and attractive than words could ex- press. '' Your presence is a wind that blows everybody good! Pray let us put a drag upon the wheels of time, — or let us sit here in perfect happiness till we all grow old. I desire no greater felicity, — no other enjoyment!" ''Ah, very good! I like your idea," replied Mademoiselle, greatly elated at this declaration. *' But if we stay here so long, and live here for one another, my little Miss Emily must go home. She must find another teacher — another friend." ''Do you mean," asked Richard, breaking out into an explosion of juvenile laughter, " that Miss Plantagenet should get a new governess, and that you shall be mine?" "Yours — yours for ever!" murmured Made- moiselle, ecstatically, while Eichard looked for a moment bewildered into perfect gravity, and then gave a perplexed glance towards Emily, who was almost sinkinsr into the earth with CROSS PURPOSES. 43 suppressed laughter, as ^Mademoiselle sentiment- ally added, — '• I have read your heart, and I knowaU!" " Then you know a great deal more than I do !" replied Eichard, in a tone of good-humoured raillery. "But do you know that I am going to-morrow with some commissions for my father to Paris, and that I intend to make Madame Herbault send the most becoming of bonnets, to the best of governesses. Pray do not let your lovely pupil entirely forget me! You are too ffood-natured and too romantic not to assist a case of true-love, felt in the very depths of my heart for — " *' For whom ? " asked Mademoiselle, perempto- rily, -while there was a lurking demon in the flash of her eye, that might have appalled any one less in love and less resolute than Eichard. " Have you perfidiously led me on to this intimacy, meaning nothing by it ? " " I meant, under your sanction, jNIademoiselle, that the boy and girl acquaintance which you so kindly permitted between Miss Plantagenet and me should hereafter be improved — " "Never! oh, never! impossible!" exclaimed 4A CROSS PUEPOSES. Mademoiselle, in accents of almost tragic fury. " You meet no more I Never again ! never !" Seldom did woman's face ever look more fiercely angry ; and Kicliard afterwards laughingly said, he would carry a terrified remembrance of her glance to the grave with him. Not only did Mademoiselle feel her disappointment in " Love's young dream," and hate the thoughts that her mortification had become known to her pupil, but even the permanency of her settlement at Athel- stane Tower was endangered, if the General ever became aware of the imprudent introduction she had permitted ; but she thought, with a sigh that caused her ringlets to flutter, as in a gale of wind, that it would be very difficult to break up a mutual partiality between the young people, which her own heart whispered might perhaps be permanent and inextinguishable. While these thoughts passed rapidly through the mind of Mile. Argentin, her head was bent down in deep and angry thought. She was in a state of stifled ferocity, while Richard took the opportunity to make in his sketch-book a hurried scratch of a very romantic-looking cottage, and having written over it, " Could you be happy CROSS PUEPOSES. 45 with me there?" he Landed it in trembling excite- ment to Emily, and underneath she saw that he had done a hideous likeness of himself, in the act of exclaiming, with an earnest imploring look, "Say, Yes!" Emily said nothing, but, instead of returning the sketch, she quietly inserted it into her reticule, while her colour flitted like an aurora borealis, and a smile dimpled round her mouth, that certainly did not say " No ! " Eichard stood for some moments in a state of half-frolic- some perturbation, hoping and fearing that Emily's evident ag^itation mis^ht form itself into words; but Mademoiselle angrily beckoned her away, as Bichard, his face in a glow of mingled emotions, repeated in a sort of burlesque, these pathetic lines — " My heart to you is given, Oh, do give yours to me ! "We'll lock them up together, And throw away the key !" Never had any attachment more the elements of romance than that which had now dawned in the hearts of Emily and Richard, who understood each other^s emotions, and who both felt that the whole affair was quite according to rule. The mutual dislike of their parents, the blindness of 46 CROSS PURPOSES. Mademoiselle to all clanger of their falling in love, their own utterly penniless condition, their ex- treme youth, and their intense devotion to each other, were all most poetical incidents, and they both secretly determined to be perfect models of constancy. Emily had not been taught by a French governess in vain, as she knew the whole etiquette for a disappointed young lady, now that she and Kichard were to meet no more. She lost all appetite — her smiles and her colour vanished — she sung very melancholy, heart-broken airs — was often surprised in tears — read the most dismal poetry she could find — and felt her lessons a greater bore than ever; so that Mademoiselle Argentin, to improve her pupil's morals and spirits, put Emily through a very extensive course of French novels. Richard's despair took a wilder turn. He wandered by moonlight under the windows of Athelstane Tower, till he narrowly escaped being shot by General Plantagenet for a poacher ; he cut Emily's name conspicuously on every rock or tree within reach; and he ceaselessly endea- voured to obtain another accidental meeting, which Mademoiselle as ceaselessly prevented. CROSS PURPOSES. 47 Meanwhile Daniel, 'wlio had always a dread that Richard by marrying might cut him off from every chance of the succession, never was idle in making as much mischief as he conveniently could. How true are the words of Scripture — " Anger is fierce, and hatred is cruel, but who can stand against envy?" Having, in his usual habit of espionage^ discovered pretty nearly the state of Kichard's affairs at Athelstane Tower, Daniel lost no time in dropping a hint to his father on that rather delicate as well as important subject. Daniel remarked one day to the Alderman, with a sly, anxious glance, but assuming a very acci- dental tone, that he thought Dick had become very fond of sketching the ancient towers of Athelstane. "Not that there is any harm in that, ^' he added ; " but I suspect the at- traction is in the young lady who inhabits them.'' Daniel now confidentially produced for his father's inspection a very lovely sketch of Emily, her loDg fair hair streaming far out in the breeze, which Richard had left in his own album, and beneath were inscribed some extremely senti- mental verses. 48 CROSS PUEPOSES. " B}' day or night, in weal or- woe. My heart no longer free, Must bear the love it dare not show. And silent ache for thee." AlcleiTQan Brownlow now got into what his neighbour the General would have called a per- fectly plebeian rage; for Daniel, by a series of masterly manoeuvres, had contrived to aggravate the Alderman against the General, and the Ge- neral against the Alderman, so that, thanks to his management, both were in a state of the most belligerent animosity. Terence O' Grady, too, at Athelstane Tower, did his own little best to fan the flame of mutual dislike, by which he had his own objects to serve. O' Grady had a good- looking nephew, who was himself an admirer of the beautiful young Emily, so that in the end there came on an eruption between the owners of Torchester and Athelstane, compared with which Vesuvius itself would have been tame; after which the General and Alderman swore perpetual enmity. At Daniel's very private instigation, the Al- derman wrote to inform General Plantagenet, that an intimacy had been recently begun be- tween the young people entirely without his CROSS PURPOSES. 49 sanction. The letter concluded by saying, that as he disapproved of all clandestine proceedings, he thou2:ht it riojht to mention that Miss Plan- tagenet's governess had encouraged and promoted several successive meetings. Words would fail in any attempt even remotely to describe the burning rage of that proud old General at this discovery, made under the most aggravating cir- cumstances; and he flew into an almost vulgar rage at the idea that an attachment might ever by possibility have sprung up between his own far-descended Emily and " one of those plebeian Brownlows !" The old General quivered from head to foot when he read the Alderman^s rather impertinent letter, dictated, truth to say, by Daniel. He very cavalierly dismissed Made- moiselle Argentin immediately, as she certainly deserved ; and forbad Emily, whom he considered merely as part of his own goods and chattels, ever, as long as he lived on the earth, to exchange one syllable of conversation with any of the " Torchester upstarts.^^ It was impossible that Emily should so long have been taught by a French governess, without imbibing some folly and much romantic sentiment. VOL. I. D SQ CROSS PURPOSES. She had always cherished an intense desire of earthly happiness, and a castle in the air of what life might be with one she could love ; and, there- fore, now she received her new teacher, INliss Palmer, as her future jailor, with most heart- broken civility. Emily secretly cherished, how- ever, in spite of every prohibition, a tender remembrance, never afterwards to be extinguished, of Eichard's almost boyish attachment, so fuU of fervour, and so full of animation. His bright looks and earnest voice all spoke of the most devoted love, when looks or words could venture to express themselves clearly, — and they were words and looks never afterwards forgot. How variously do the disappointments of life affect the sufferer ! Eichard, when the General's missive arrived forbidding him intercourse, boldly faced the worst, and resolved by a desperate struggle to bear all the sorrow brought on him, as he guessed, by Daniel's mischievous busybodyism. He felt that it must be a warfare for life to withstand the crafty, underhand conduct of such a companion at home ; but he exclaimed, on hearing the man- date that separated him from the possibility of CROSS PURPOSES, 5l seeing Emily again, " Let the General despise me as he pleases, but the name of Brownlow shall become glorious for Emily's sake, if my efforts can make it so. In such a cause death itself would be welcome, and nothing shall be im- possible." Richard meanwhile did not even attempt to crush down or annihilate his love for Emily, but constantly told himself, with juvenile enthusiasm, that she was the bright star of all his earthly hopes, his first and only love. He turned with loathing from books, thinking them only cold, calm, unsympathising friends, merely intended for reflecting men, but unsuited to the rushing torrent of feelings and emotions with which his heart was glowing. Hour after hour, and day after day, he encouraged himself to think of Emily with increasing affection, often resolving nq longer to be the slave of a hopeless attach- ment, to fly anywhere from the scene of such an engrossing interest; but to-morrow came, and still where was Richard? Again with untiring step on his way through the shrubbery to that bridge so full of agreeable reminiscences; and he wondered that id- had ever for a moment U. OF ILL LIB. 52 CROSS PUEPOSES. seemed possible for him to tear himself away, when occasionally he caught a distant glimpse of Emily, and received a blushing recognition in return for his animated bow. " Richard, you lucky fellow I" exclaimed Daniel one day, " I hear you have saved Miss Planta- genet^s life to-day, by seizing the bridle of her horse when he was about to take a flying leap over the Alton bridge. That really was a hit ! And as her father saw the exploit, he cannot any longer stave off an acquaintance with you, much as he thinks it worth avoiding. Poor man ! How annoyed that old prig will be ! If his hair could ever be whiter than it is, we should see him grow grey in a night V " I have not taken any advantage of the acci- dent, " replied Kichard quietly ; " and as the General carries his chin in the air, so that his face appears to be on the crown of his hat, perhaps he did not observe me.'^ "■ But as you have already struck up a sort of romantic Abelard and Eloise intimacy with the heiress, you should not be the man to give it up now. She has lately inherited from an aunt 80;000/. and no end of landed property, so be sure CROSS PURPOSES. 53 you call at Athelstane Tower to inquire for her to-morrow, and next day, — and the next!" There was a lurking demon in DanieFs eye, when he added in careless accents, ^^ I do admire a love-match, when the love of money is in- cluded. Some people are born with a silver spoon, but you must have arrived in the world wdth a whole service of plate !" '^ Daniel I if Emily were made of gold, and studded with diamonds, it would make no dif- ference to me," said Eichard vehemently. ^' I feel quite wickedly angry when you talk in that self-interested manner. It is her fortune, and that only, which prevents my proposing now. "While Emily remains unmarried, I shall live in hope, the last refuge of unhappy mortals, and for her sake I shall fight for distinction against every diffi- culty to the last gasp, even if I cannot conquer !" There was a sparkle in Daniel's eye when he listened, as cold as steel ; and a sinister look, that only Shylock could have matched, strangely con- trasted to the open-hearted, noble impulsiveness, of the more animated brother, as Richard added, with smiling earnestness, ''I am growling more and more savage at every word you speak ; but you know. 54 CROSS PURPOSES. Daniel, that my heart is in a conflagration of dis- interested love for Emily, and therefore, if fire can soften iron, my flame should melt you into good-will and kindness, in estimating my feel- ings for the most lovely of all loveable girls. My heart shall beat for her only while I live, and break for her if she die. In giving her up, as must inevitably be done at present, I give up all the happiness that life can bring ; but what could I offer her that others would not gladly bestow, with far more than is mine to give ? Had I mil- lions of gold, and more heraldic quarterings than any German baron, they should all be laid at Emily's feet; but with nothing beyond what nature and education have bestowed, what right have I even to wish for Emily's afiection? or for her father^s consent, without which neither of us could advance a step . Yet still I cannot, cannot give her up. I wish she were pennyless, ugly, and even low-born ! all, in short, that she is not, and still I could unchangeably love whatever bears the name of EmUy." '' Nonsense, Dick ! Offer the young lady your hand to-morrow ; but the less you say of your heart I guess the better, considering that you have CROSS PUEPOSES. 55 been in love, one after another, with half the girls we know, and that all of them are now in love with you. Emily is tolerably well-looking for an heiress, but no more. She is in fact the prettiest ugly person I ever saw ; but surely, between us brothers, you do not seriously pretend to me that you are in love with her little short, turn-up nose, and cork-screw curls. It is very well to make her believe that romantic fable if you can, and to sport the disinterested dodge as far as it will go ; but excuse me, Dick ! I know the world, and let me tell you between friends " " Between friends, Daniel ! You are my bro- ther, and I can't help that ; but do you call your- self my friend?" exclaimed Richard, in a tone of kind reproach. '^I deserve better; but dare you look me in the face, Daniel, and say you have ever in a single instance been my friend ? Oh no ! To be inflicted with such a brother, as I know you are, as I know you have always been, plausible, deep, and treacherous, might drive any ordinary man to Bedlam." Well might Richard thus distrust and upbraid Daniel, knowing that whenever his brother spoke of him, he spoke anything but the truth. Richard's 56 CROSS PURPOSES. warm heart shrunk from all contact with Daniel's cold one ; and to his sensitive ear, Daniel's short, sharp, barking tone of voice now sounded like that of a human dog ; while the glowing purity of his own emotions became dimmed when they were breathed upon by Daniel. His younger brother either could not, or would not, understand him, but always threw a black shadow of misconception or misrepresentation on all his most generous actions and sentiments ; therefore it was no new subject of wonder that Daniel seemed now resolved to take from Richard's devoted attachment the grace of being, as it w^as, perfectly disinterested. He now continued, with undaunted perseverance, saying, " Miss Plantagenet certainly is the greatest catch in our neighbourhood, and I never shall forget, at the last review, how she was sur- rounded and beset by would-be admirers. Being young and shy, she evidently w^ished to escape from their persecutions, and her position reminded one of a lady when her carriage stops in Regent Street, the w^indows instantly surrounded by beg- gars, clamorously trying to force themselves on her notice. Not that I include you, Dick, because, even as a candidate for the Plantagenet plate and CROSS PURPOSES. 57 stakes, you will always act like a gentleman. Still, for a younger brother like yourself, to get at one coup such a settlement, would really be selling yourself to great advantage." Richard writhed with silent indignation, but he disdained any new attempt to elucidate his feelings, which were, had they been seen and appreciated, pure and beautiful as a rainbow on the mountain- side; but they died within him, giving place to angry indignation as he listened to Daniel's disparaging and selfish view of a subject so dear and sacred to his thoughts. To bury the whole affair in hope- less silence was his own very prudent resolution ; but a new discovery of Daniel's treachery made him soon after burst every bond of reserve, and plunge into a discussion, only too painful and irritating, upon the hopes and prospects and dis- couragements of his unhappy attachment. Having attended a fancy bazaar, where Emily appeared, escorted by her father and Terence O'Grady, Kichard being seated on a sofa behind one of the counters, overheard a conversation, which filled him with almost despairing anger and consterna- tion. He hurried home to his brother, white as death, and actually trembling with rage, as he D 3 58 QROSS PUEPOSES. almost breathlessly said, " Tell me, Daniel — say if you can for once in a lifetime speak the truth, — did you tell O'Grady to inform Emily, with a most mischievous intention, that I have long been devotedly attached to a young and beautiful girl, every way suitable for me to marry?" " Of course I did ! You need not knock the house down about that !" replied Daniel unflinch- ingly. " Surely Miss Plantagenet is not such a school-girlish idiot as to misunderstand my mean- ing! That could only relate to herself ! She is the young lady I intended to say you are attached to I Do not waste your magnificent wrath upon me, Dick! Why! your countenance now would make the fortune of any tragical actor, when fumbling for a pistol to shoot his enemy, or when presenting a dagger at his breast ! I feel at this moment exactly as Pompeii did, the minute before being buried alive by Vesuvius ! I merely said" — " You said enough to convince Emily, that from the first I have been a double-hearted villain, such as my very soul abhors. I have no earthly means of explaining that falsehood. She rashly believed the lie that you and O'Grady have invented. Fancy any mortal believing you ! As for O'Grady, CEOSS PUEPOSES. 59 he does not speak the truth once in a year, and then he does so by mistake. I heard him whisper this lie on your authority ; and I heard Emily, with very natural indignation, promise her father, if we met in the bazaar, not even to look at me." " Impossible !" exclaimed Daniel, with ill-con- cealed delight, while he found that the safest place for his eyes was on the floor. " When O'Grady spoke to me on the subject, I merely said — " " Never mind what you said ! Those who tell a lie should do it thoroughly," replied Kichard sternly. " Whatever you said, the effect has been to destroy my happiness for life utterly — utterly. Had I retained Emily's confidence, I might have fought through fire and water to make myself a name and position worthy of her ; but you have extinguished every hope." There was a depth of wringing anguish in Richard's voice, which would have touched any heart less wrapped up and congealed in selfishness than Daniel's ; but he merely stared at the fire with all his might, unable to meet the honest, stern eye of his brother, and he endeavoured to assume an injured tone, saying, *' It is very hard to blame me ! I was the last man on earth likely to 60 CROSS PUEPOSES. interfere. If you would not speak and act so like a moon-struck maniac, I might completely justify myself by informing you, that Miss Plantagenet has been engaged from childhood, and is now, to a nephew of Terence O' Grady's. You may depend on the truth of this, as I had it from himself." E/ichard paused in consternation and perplexity, while Daniel assumed so truthful a look, that it was difficult not for once to believe him; yet Kichard doubted and struggled to throw off this new apprehension of evil, but in vain. He thought how long 0' Grady, and a very handsome young nephew, had been domesticated, no one knew why, at Athelstane Tower ; and now, when Daniel continued to say, with rock-like firmness, that the marriage had long been settled, that he was astonished to find any one not aware of it — that 0^ Grady was the chief of his ancient name in Ireland, and his good-looking nephew a man of large estate and long descent, the person selected by her father for Emily, who had been brought up to accept him — E,ichard felt all his most sanguine hopes destroyed. Pie leaned his elbow on the chimney-piece, reflecting deeply CROSS PUP.POSES. 61 and mournfully on this most unexpected disco- very ; while Daniel, assuming the office of com- forter, for which he was very little fitted, exclaimed, in a rallying tone — " You know, Dick, hearts were made to be broken ; mine was a dozen of times before I mar- ried, and yours will turn out more of an ever- green than you think ; so pray do not wear the willow too seriously. Broken hearts are quite out of fashion this season! Nobody ever hears of such a thing now, except when Peggy the dairymaid breaks hers for Thomas the ploughman. Any lady would have required to change her mind very quickly last year if she were to get the start of you ! Only make a wealthy marriage now, and there can be no mistake in that ; but younger brothers unattached like us, should always form a disinterested preference where the young lady has at least 200,000^. I prefer the main chance to a hollow tree and liberty, though, of course, we are all bound to believe that if Miss Plantagenet had been disengaged, and not in this O'Grady fix, you would have married her and her forlorn rinjrlets without a shillino^ '^ " Without a farthlniT ! If neither of us had 62 CROSS PURPOSES. possessed a single coin on the earth ; I was totally- disinterested, and, Daniel, you know it!" "Of course, everybody knows it ! and I am ready to swear it in all the languages of Europe," exclaimed Daniel, laughing satirically. " That glance of yours is intended to annihilate me, Dick. Yes ! I know you to be above all mer- cenary or sublunary considerations. Mammon would have no chance versus Cupid ! In short, you perfectly hate money as a vulgar drug. Very few younger sons have a weakness that way, but yours is quite a monomania against gold. Now, Dick! spare me that look of majestic dis- pleasure !" " Daniel/^ said Richard, in a tone of impressive emotion, " you have long raised up a wall of ice between us. We have no feeling in common. You and I were born of the same parents, slept in the same nursery, were taught in the same school-books, and have grown up under the same roof, yet you so little feel for me on any occasion, that I could almost wish the same country, the same hemisphere, the same world did not contain us ; and I shall soon depart from our old home, probably never to return." CROSS PUEPOSES. 63 " Never is a long word not born for this world/^ replied Daniel, carelessly, and then added, as if he were speaking some grand moral senti- ment ; '' if one day-dream of felicity fails, why not try another? First love is a juvenile com- plaint, like the whooping-cough, that must be got over once, and after that, there is no more danger. I expect you will yet fall into as much romantic happiness as ever completed a fairy tale. It would take ten Miss Plantagenets to break my heart. I perfectly remember my own first mis- adventure, how laughable it was. With my heart full of unutterable love, and my pocket full of gingerbread-nuts, I used daily to set out under a cotton umbrella, for the express purpose of falling in love with Mary Drummond ! ^Yhat love-letters I used to write then, with a quill from the wing of Cupid himself, and professing to be wearied of life at nineteen !" " I wish we were all ninety ! " said Eichard dejectedly ; " life is long to the miserable, and though I must not put an end to mine, I wish some one else would. Perhaps, Daniel, you would oblige me? You could torment any body to death!" 64 CROSS PURPOSES. " Or suppose you shoot O' Grady's nephew ! You are getting quite savage, Dick ! If there be as good fish in the water as ever came out of it, some may be gold fish, and fall to your lot. I am a keen advocate for being disinterested if you can make 200,000/. by it. My modest merit never taught me what to say to heiresses or authoresses, but your merit not being so modest might get on better. Try one of those Bryanstone girls. The old father is so lavishly be-daughtered, he would spare you the best. There are four fair and one dark — four chestnuts and a bay! You might rough it with Octavia, the least ugly of the set, with 50,000?." " How strange, Daniel, that you cannot, or will not understand me ! I need not any more explain myself to a stone wall. Next week I join my ship; I applied for any ship, or any station, and am appointed to South Africa." *' A capital country to get promoted in." " Yes, Daniel ! and perhaps there may be pro- motion for you at home," answered Kichard, with a penetrating glance of sorrowful reproach. " Tastes differ, but for my own part, I never could enjoy any advancement resulting from a CROSS PUEPOSES. 65 death, least of all from losing those with whom I have associated. Your world and mj world will belong for the future to different hemispheres. After next month, most probably, we may meet no more on earth." " Pshaw, Dick ! you cannot be serious ! " exclaimed Daniel, turning away ; for there was that in his thoughts which could not bear the eye of his brother. " It would be too distressing to see you leave home in this done-with-life state ; but when you do depart, pray let us hear from you often — a mere line will be sufficient to say you are alive and well ; but people should always let one know their whereabouts, if it were only on account of the legal perplexities that some- times arise in families during any very lengthened absence." " Ah ! there you are ! The man of law as usual, Dan ! I hoped for a moment that one spark of natural feeling had been excited by the prospect of my long farewell — but, no ! Daniel Brownlow cannot take leave of a brother, perhaps for life, without betraying that he keeps a single unwinking eye on his own interest. To prove, however, that I go in Christian charity with you, 66 CEOSS PUEPOSES. as much as with all my other persecutors or slan- derers, if there be any more like yourself, draw up a power of attorney for me to sign to-morrow, constituting you and dear Frank my trustees and executors, that you may both act for me in my absence as if I were dead." " But, Dick ! after all, surely you are not going in sober earnest to bid us an eternal farewell for more than a year. This is all a mere piece of sentimental comedy ! for I am a total unbeliever in undving attachments and broken hearts. Susan Bryanstone, with her 50,000/. is ten times prettier than the little atom in a white frock, that I used to call Miss Duodecimo Plantagenet !" " Daniel ! you always were a human iceberg ! The very rocks we formerly climbed together had more feeling than you. If I had announced that I was about to have my hair cropped, you could not be more indifferent than about my going to the regions of death in Africa! but I forgive you—" " You forgive me for nothing, but I shall not thank you for nothing," replied Daniel, in a blustering tone of self-justification ; " is it my fault that Mr. O'Grady is to marry Miss Plan- CROSS PURPOSES. 67 tagenet ? Your love and your anger were always like a mere blaze of shavings, quickly burned out ; and though you look as dignified now as an ancient Roman, or a dying gladiator, I expect you will soon again be in a state of mirth and sunshine, forgetting your wrath against Mr. O'Grady and me, as well as your love for the fair Emily." " Time will show," answered Richard, with solemn earnestness; " at the bazaar to-day I learned to know the falsehood of my enemies. I name no names, but by the most black-hearted treachery and the most stupendous cunning, my best hopes in life are blasted, and my old home is to be my home no longer. Perhaps, Daniel, it may yet be in the power of your far-distant brother to warm your icicle of a heart by proving that his affection and his confidence, now so cruelly outraged, are worth more than you think : — " Oh ! let me walk tMs world Yoked in all exercise of noble end. And so through those dark gates across the wild That no man knows." — Tennyson. 68 CROSS PUEPOSES. CHAPTER III. " To return good for good is human ; To return evil for evil is wrong ; To return good for evil is Divine ; To return evil for good is diabolical." General Plantagenet, the proudest of com- moners, used often to remark, that the only use of being made a Baronet is, if you have any doubt of being a gentleman ! Soon after the final departure of his young sailor-son, Alderman Brownlow attained what had long been the highest object of his Aldermanic ambition, — to be made a Baronet ! The title was, however, of little more advantage than to be engraved on his magnificent marble tomb-stone, as he died a victim to champagne and turtle soon afterwards, leaving his eldest son, Sir Francis, with the most amiable of wives and two lovely little infant daughters, to take up their abode within the crumbling old walls of Torchester Abbey. CROSS PUEPOSES. 69 Richard's former protege, O'Hara, having been for some time factor, was found by the new- Baronet an inestimable treasure of talent and resource in the management of property. He was indeed quick as lightning and firm as iron in all his arrangements for Sir Francis, who trusted implicitly in his extraordinary ability, and in his truly devoted attachment. The warm- hearted Irishman recommended himself to Lady Brownlow by his genuine kindness to her lovely little girls, of whom he often said that they wanted only wings to be angels. ]\Iany an ex- citing little story he told them, suited to their tender years, while their gratified mother smil- ingly watched Theresa's kindling eyes, and the glowing colour mounting into Fanny's cheeks, as that animated Irishman, of such marvellous elo- quence, adapted his language, his thoughts, his very looks, to the capacity of infants, whose young ideas had scarcely yet found time to shoot. The whole enthusiasm of O'Hara's nature, and that was fiery to excess, became respectfully and most gratefully devoted to the family of his bene- factor, and if he could have laid down ten lives to serve them, he would have thought it both a 70 CEOSS PURPOSIirS. duty and a pleasure, without considering it^ in the slightest degree a merit, to sacrifice his very- existence, especially for the children. O'Hara, clever and penetrating, was only once in his life completely outwitted, but that once turned out very permanent in its effects. General Plantagenet having dropped down dead one day, as suddenly as if he had been shot, was found to have made so many wills, and to have angrily revoked as many codicils, that it was very diffi- cult to know what he had really wished or in- tended. The dearest thing on earth is cheap law, and the General had intended to economize by not employing a regular lawyer, therefore his final will was evidently drawn up by an amateur penman, supposed to be some friend of O'Grady's, to whom enormous legacies had been bequeathed ; but the result was, that everything fell to the General's one daughter, and Mr. Terence O'Grady's immense expectations were completely disappointed. He had not even the comfort of being cut off with a shilling, but he and his nephew left the house utterly penniless. It was believed that the young man had given Miss Plantagenet very strong reasons to dislike him. CKOSS PURPOSES. 71 and the more so as she traced to his pen an announcement which appeared at this time, that a marriage, long on the tapis between the young heiress of Athelstane Tower and Mr. Alfred 0' Grady, would be celebrated as soon as the ar- rangements could be completed, a contract having been settled with the sanction of the recently deceased General. This paragraph Kichard read at Portsmouth the day before he sailed for Africa, and bitter were the feelings it caused him, though not comparable to the angry astonishment of Emily. Her guardians published an indignant contradiction to this fabulous report, but it never reached the right quarter, as Richard remained for years on service in Africa, thinking often of Emily as lost to him for ever, and dreading to hear that the marriage had actually taken place, though he believed that it must have done so. O Hara was sitting one evening, with what he called his "moderate glass and moderate pipe." An hour's indulgence in these had put his mind into that vague state expressively called " moon- ing," when ]VIr. O^ Grady, who had unaccountably lingered about the neighbourhood, was most un- expectedly announced into the factor's dining- 72 CROSS PURPOSES. roonij as if he had dropped from the moon. No one ever went through a difficult scene of diplo- macy with more perfect ease and tact than Mr. O'Grady, who opened the interview thus forced upon the good-humoured factor by expressing his regret that, during his long residence at Athel- stane Tower, owing to General Plantagenet's peculiarities, they had not sooner been acquainted, and his opinion^ that, as countrymen in a strange land, ]Mr. O'Hara and he ought to give each other an Irish welcome whenever they met. He hoped there would be no difficulty in breaking the ice between them, as there was no ice on his side to break, nor, he believed, on Mr. 0"Hara's. '• Pray," added Mr. O'Grady, assuming at once a tone of friendly gentlemanlike companionship, "Did you ever hear what the quaker wrote to the statesman ? ' Friend I I send thee a turkey because I have a favour to ask.' Now I have several favours to ask of you, O'Hara, and I do not come quite empty-handed. Some of our mutual friends in Ireland, hearing how the cholera was raging in Brentford, have sent a cask of the finest whiskey ever distilled, which I am CROSS PURPOSES. 73 desired to divide equally between myself and my distinguished countryman, Mr. O'Hara ; there fore, the pleasantest way to divide the gift will be if we drink it out together ! " Patrick was not inaccessible to flattery, and in ten minutes he found himself hob-and-nobbingr over a large punch-bowl with Mr. O'Grady, whom he had often before seen but never known, and whose insinuating manner it was quite im- possible to resist. The almost unbounded influence exercised by one human being over another is extraordinary, and much the more so that it is not always persons of the strongest intellects who influence the Aveaker, or of the highest position who take a command over men in a lower grade; as very frequently, those who from their inferior talents and humble rank seem bom to remain always subordinates, such as servants, tutors, or gover- nesses of very moderate capacity, obtain occa- sionally an almost despostic and perfectly un- accountable sway over whole households, and over masters whom they were hired to obey. Nobody knew much of O'Grady, and still fewer liked him; yet the fiery and excited genius of VOL. I. E 74 CROSS PURPOSES. O'Hara sunk to nothing before the calm, resolute, matter-of-course manner in which O'Grady during all their future intercourse assumed, a tone of superiority and kept it. O'Hara never after- wards could imagine how it happened that he became at once subdued, but no doubt he was. All his deep intense vehemence of character, his originality of thought, his wild picturesque elo- quence of language, equal at times to that of the most distinguished orators, were gradually quelled, tamed, and submissive, before the mys- terious power by which O' Grady, while treating people apparently with the most obsequious ser--. vility, his eyelids lowered as if it would be im- possible ever to raise them again, still contrived to throw coil after coil around those he wished to influence till he became their master. Nothing could be more propitiating to O'Hara than the tone of profound humility in which his insinuating countryman addressed him, and several meetings followed of a rather jovial nature. Though O' Grady might have been a member of the Temperance Society for anything he took himself, yet he plied the glass for his companion most zealously, and that usquebaugh certainly CEOSS PURPOSES. 75 was the finest that ever touched the lips of an Irishman. Glass after glass, tumbler after tum- bler, pipe after pipe, and bowl after bowl, were filled and emptied, while O' Grady, with a smile that displayed his white and very firm teeth, insinuated himself into the confidence and good- fellowship of O'Hara, whose sobriety he seemed bent on entirely overthrowing. While making himself delightfully entertaining, 0' Grady cor- dially insisted on filling up O'Hara's "toddy" himself, mistaking the pure spirit sometimes for pure water, for he poured out the whiskey with- out stint or measure, and took water himself when he pretended to take usquebaugh. Nothing was ever better than the acting of O'Grady, who afterwards affected to be drunk, though perfectly sober, and any looker-on would have now sup- posed him to be the most intoxicated of the two. One forenoon, as soon as O'Hara was com- pletely primed and loaded with more in his head than he could very steadily carry, 0' Grady per- suaded him to walk through the village, or rather, if the truth must be told, to stagger along, for O'Hara's motions were not certainly quite straight- forward; and O'Grady, who lent him an arm, E 2 76 CROSS PURPOSES. took no pains to steady his steps or to conceal his rather disreputable state from the staring and astonished villagers, who gazed with vacant wonder on beholding the hitherto respected factor undeniably intoxicated. Having led O'Hara towards Torchester Abbey, the enterprising O' Grady in the course of con- versation remarked, that he understood his com- panion had the privilege of taking his friends occasionally to see the library, which he expressed a great wish to inspect, saying, that as these books had belonged once to the monks of Cologne, he believed the collection was very rich in curious old missals and manuscripts. O'Hara having been so carefully wound up to the proper pitch, was, as 0' Grady expected, all complaisance, and they entered by a side door the seat of knowledge at Torchester Abbey, one of the grandest old libraries in England. Long and earnestly did the studious visitor now inspect these precious relics, while O'Hara became very impatient to lead him away, feeling tired him- self, and afraid of being caught in the fact of introducing a stranger by any of Sir Francis Brownlow's family, as it was only during their CROSS PURPOSES. 77 absence that he had the privilege of doing so. It might have been perfectly evident to any- sober observer, which O'Hara was not, that O'Grady had some very private and rather im- portant reason of his own, for obstinately linger- ing on among these dusty volumes. Hours elapsed and still he remained immovably planted before the book-shelves, while O'Hara, after remon- strating frequently on the length of their visit, had fallen into a tipsy slumber, heedless of time, in the most comfortable of arm-chairs. At last what O'Hara had rather dreaded, and O'Grady secretly wished, really did take place, for the door opened and Sir Francis and Lady Brownlow accidentally strolled into the library. The worthy Baronet was rather asto- nished than otherwise to find it already occupied, and to see his confidential adviser, Mr. O^Hara, with his hat over his eyes, asleep, in rather a dis- reputable-looking state of red-faced drowsiness. Lady Brownlow, without delay, sat down to execute several breadths of immeasurable hem- ming, in which she was almost constantly occu- pied, while O'Grady instantly advanced, making a deep, slow, reverential bow to Sir Francis. He 78 CEOSS PURPOSES. uttered a well-expressed apology for having in- truded, " at the instigation of his friend, — an in- discretion for which he hoped to be pardoned,^' and after expressing a great deal more superfluous modesty about not presuming for worlds to intrude, he added, lowering his voice, confiden- tially, " Indeed, to say the truth. Sir Francis, I was not aware, till this minute, that my friend is a little after-dinner-ish to-day! O'Hara is the best fellow upon earth, and my relation, but this morning he certainly seems to have carried his potations to the full extent of sobriety, and I am half shocked to death that you should see him so. My countryman there might say, like the black servant, 'Me can only do anything and every- thing whatsoever, Massa, but me cannot keep sober !^" *' I suppose you would recommend him as invaluable for any situation in which perfect sobriety can be dispensed with," replied Sir Francis, looking contemptuously at his unconscious factor. "I never credited any reports of this kind against him before, but seeing is believing, and without seeing O'Hara actually drunk, there should have been no believins;." CROSS PURPOSES. 79 "My friend is not certainly a total abstainer," answered O'Grady, looking the picture of candid virtue and of tolerating condescension for the failings of others. " We Irishmen are apt to be convivial, but O'Hara is in general a perfect sand-bag, able to imbibe any given quantity without apparent injury. His old servant says he is often the better of drink but very seldom the worse, and he certainly follows the good rule of loving his enemies, as there are few enemies so pernicious to him as the whiskey-bottle, to which no one can deny he is attached. I am, of course, partial myself to my own relative, besides his beins such an unadulterated Irishman, which is the greatest of recommendations to a countryman. " And should you meet in Lapland's snow, You'd say, ' What news from Erin, boy ] ' " Mr. O'Grady never lost an opportunity when he had any great object to advance, and he now rendered himself so singularly entertaining, by a brilliant display of extensive information, enli- vened with Irish humour, that the fascinated Sir Francis invited this entertaining intruder to stay dinner, and felt that he had met with a most agreeable cure for dulness at a country fireside. 80 CROSS PURPOSES. In so very complaisant and most diverting a guest. *^ O'Hara would sacrifice anything on earth for you, Sir Francis, except his bottle, but that is too much for human gratitude!" continued O'Grady, affecting to cast a look of melancholy regret at the sleeping object of his panegyric, while a quiet observant eye became fixed upon him, of which the cunning guest was totally uncon- scious. Lady Brownlow's endless hemming had been • several times, during this conversation, suspended, and she now gave a very intelligent and very observant examination to this plausible speaker. '*I am told,^^ added O'Grady, in an amiable tone, "that much of O'Hara's extraordinary eloquence is derived from the elevating effect of Barclay, Perkins and Co. ; but his powers of oratory are such, that even when I see him drunk, he always contrives to persuade me that he is the soberest of men." "Drunkenness is the crime that of all others most infallibly betrays itself, yet I never once suspected O'Hara of being a drunkard,'^ said Lady Brownlow, quietly. "ISTor do I believe CROSS PURPOSES. 81 SO now : I never saw him drunk, and I never expect to see him so." " Certainly not ! He is sometimes sober, and only then allows himself to be visible here," replied O^Grady. *' Besides, if we saw him intox- icated, he could persuade us all against the evi- dence of our senses, that he is the soberest man in the company. I can see a bad shilling through a leather purse as well as the most penetrating, and yet it was long before I suspected this little aberration of my good countryman's here. His time slips jovially away at home, while he drowns care like Tam O'Shanter." "Mr. O'Hara!" said Lady Brownlow, in a distinct, kind, and resolute voice : '*' It is time to be very wide awake, for your friends are talking of you!" The drowsy factor started up at the sound of this well-known and much-respected voice; he then made a very tipsy effort to look particularly sober, smiled with vacant perseverance, and would have even accomplished a walk of respectable steadiness across the room, towards the assembled party, had not O'Grady officiously taken hold of his arm, with a look of compassionate regret, and E 3 82 CROSS PURPOSES. clandestinely shaking his head to Sir Francis, led him slowly and staggeringly out of the room. Lady Brownlow observantly followed the two with her mild penetrating eye, and thoughtfully resumed her hemming, while Sir Francis walked up and down the room, waiting impatiently for O'Grady^s return to dinner, and meditating whether to dismiss O'Hara next day or not. *' Such a break-down! The cleverest factor on earth ! " he exclaimed, indignantly. " A man with talents fit to be a minister of state, — so honest that I could have trusted him with un- told gold." ^* And so attached that he would lay down his life for you," observed Lady Brownlow, adding another stitch to her frill. "I do not like the look of that Mr. Terence O'Grady, and I do not intend ever to like him. There is something unintelligible in his whole manner, in his small busy-looking eyes. His odd ghastly smile per- fectly freezes me, for I should say that there is frost in his blood and ice in his heart. He has probably committed some great crime long ago, and worn a hair shirt ever since ; he seems so uneasy when I look at him. O^Grady looks like CROSS PURPOSES. 83 an uncomfortable G^host ! I remember seeinor him formerly with General Plantagenet. " His eye, with deepest cunning fraught, Affects a plenteous lack of thought. And not one line his whole face seen in That can be justly charged with meaning !" " My dear good Evelyn ! You are quite cen- sorious! You are growing personal! Excuse me if I decapitate your speech ; but what is your quarrel with that most entertaining and agreeable man?" *•' He has a stealthy, furtive, sneaking, slouch- ing look, as if wishing to fade out of sight, like a dissolving view, and there is an elaborate calm- ness in his manner very artificial. That Mr. O' Grady seems to me made for listening at key-holes and hidiag in corners, for I felt to- day as if my very silence were audible to his keen, sly curiosity. In short, he reminds me of a skulking rat." "But O'Hara brought him here as his friend." " And a very crocodile friendship it is on IVIr. O^Grady^s part, or I am immensely mistaken," rephed Lady Brownlow, in a half-sarcastic, and wholly distrustful tone. ''He seems to me a 84 CROSS PURPOSES. man who might be a partner in any man's follies, a prompter of his vices, and the betrayer of both. I observed him well to-day, and there was some- thing very double, — very Jesuitical in his conduct toO'Hara." " You are not generally so suspicious of human nature, Evelyn." "Jesuitism is not human nature, Francis, and I recollect hearing that Mr. O' Grady was educated at Salamanca. He has used O'Hara as an instru- ment to introduce himself here to-day, and would willingly throw him aside now as a broken tool. What can he want with us that he should manoeuvre so to become acquainted?" " Nonsense ! Keep to your hemming, Evelyn, if you cannot better appreciate that clever, chatty, pleasant guest, who diverts me immeasurably, and who showed a most friendly feeling for that poor degraded creature, O^Hara. I cannot get over the shock of seeing him in such a state." " And who exhibited him to you in that state ? Who pointed it out, Sir Francis, and drew your eye upon it, and paraded the poor man^s wretch- edness conspicuously before us?" " Oh ! our new friend is a mere off-hand Irish- CEOSS PURPOSES. 85 man; but had he willingly injured O'Hara, under the pretence of being his friend, he never could look me in the face." " No more he does ! Mr. O'Grady is obviously one of those men who cannot be eye to eye with any one, nor show his full front in society. He has evidently an iron-chest in his mind, only to be unlocked when alone. Such persons always are treacherous, and there is something lizard-like about that man, which makes me creep. If ever I saw the evil eye it was Mr. O' Grady's, when he glanced round at our sleeping factor. In short, your new acquaintance rather strikes me as being a gentlemanlike scoundrel, and I would prefer trusting Patrick O'Hara, in spite of all his fearless, harum-scarum faults, but with his very transpa- rent candour, and his firm bright unflinching eye, rather than confide in the quiet, cunning, sancti- monious pretensions of that Mr. Terence O'Grady, with a face as destitute of expression as any hieroglyphic on the walls of Xineveh. He talks religion, but does he act it? for he spoke most beautifully just now on Christian duty, and his own church, but he spoke one way and acted another towards O'Hara, — 86 CROSS PURPOSES. " A man may cry ' Church, church/ at every word. With no more piety than other people ; The daw 's not reckon'd a religious bird Because it keeps caw-cawing from the steeple.'* "You are made of suspicion, to-day, Evelyn! You must have put on a pair of your blackest spectacles through which to judge of him. O' Grady has as much true friendship for O'Hara as any factor has any right to expect ! If 0' Grady does look a little sly, yet you know *La finesse est permis quand on ne fait pas de mal.' " "Trust me that Mr. O'Grady is like Owen Glendower, ' a gentleman profited in strange con- cealments.' He has not even a bold honest walk, but he creeps about almost on tiptoe ; and I observe he is constantly on his guard, never to let out an opinion, though always asking yours. In short, Mr. O'Grady is not of the right sort. He has something strangely serpent-like about him, and he reminded me to-day of Frankenstein." Sir Francis gave a long, low, prolonged whistle of utter contempt, as well as of extreme annoy- ance at this verdict, and walked to the window ; but he literally started on turning round the next minute, to find O'Grady standing close beside CROSS PURPOSES. 87 him, yet so stealthy had been the Tisitor's step, that the wondering Baronet thought a mouse could scarcely have approached so noiselessly. He banished the remembrance of all Lady Brownlow's likings and dislikings, however, on the spot, resolved to enjoy the novelty in that quiet house of a really conversable well-informed companion, and seldom, indeed, had any one been more entertained or better amused than he was, during the next few hours. Anecdotes told with dramatic effect, followed one after another ; quo- tations from new books, from old books, from black-letter books, from books that had never been written or read, but in O'Grady's invention ; from poems, from songs, from the sayings of cele- brated men whom O" Grady seemed to have per- sonally known ; from sayings that he impromptued himself and attributed to anybody, all crowded after each other in a brilliant kaleidoscope ; and while Sir Francis listened entranced, he felt also gratified that his own most trifling remark was received with animated attention, or weighed with serious reflection as if he had been a Delphic oracle. This was a delightful evenino; of intel- lectual enjoyment, and Lady Brownlow had S8 CROSS PURPOSES. silently completed the last mile of her hemming, when Sir Francis, at length, with unfeigned regret, heard the clock strike twelve, and saw Mr. O'Grady, with a look of incredulous astonish- ment draw out his watch, exclaiming — '•' Impossible ! Twelve o'clock ! Then my land- lady has long ago locked up her house for the night, and I must make a burglarious entrance at home by breaking in at my own window." O' Grady now gave a ludicrous description of all the different lodgings, and lodging-house-keepers in the village of Torchester, which was equal for amusement to the broadest farce at the Adelphi. Such had been the numerous importation of Irish lately, he observed, at Torchester, that there were four hundred additional fiimilies squatted within the precincts of the village and not one additional house. The squalid misery of the lodgings, there- fore, he described with a degree of pathos and humour that brought tears of laughter and pity into the eyes of Sir Francis, seeing which O'Grady added, "I must, however, try the difficult ex- periment of remaining on business in your village for three or four days longer, and wish I knew where to put myself up more tolerably." CEOSS PURPOSES. 89 " Let me recommend an excellent lodging to you then, which will have the merit of costing nothing," said Sir Francis, without venturing a look at his hemming wife, but in the resolute tone of one who knew she would not approve. " The ^Brownlow Arms,' at Torchester Abbey, will open to receive you with pleasure to-morrow, and I shall stand as mine host at the door to welcome your return, bag and baggage : stay here as many days as it suits you to remain." There was a gleam in the eyes of 0' Grady at these words that shunned observation ; and he dropped his eyelids as if they never could be raised again, while Lady Brownlow actually- started so that the work dropped out of her hand, at hearing this unexpected burst of hospitality from her usually reserved husband. — The invita- tion was not seconded on her part ; but O'Grady, instantly assuming an air of gentleman-like easy off-hand gratitude, thanked both Sir Francis and Lady Brownlow for their very considerate invita- tion, and acknowledged, with an appearance of irrepressible frankness, that to have such a com- panion as his host for the few days that business detained him, was much more important in his 90 CROSS PURPOSES. eyes, than the mere bodily comfort of better accommodation. "I am an epicure in society and in mental food," he said, gracefully bowing liimself away ; " give me but a crust of bread, with liberty to listen to you, Sir Francis, and I am feasted. I hate hackneyed quotations, but I know how to value the feast of reason, as well as the flow of soul. Wit is to me better than wine, and your droll way of stating your opinions, more enlivening to me than whiskey is to O'Hara." Next morning early, Mr. O'Grady arrived with a startlingly large supply of baggage, — trunks, carpet-bags, and portmanteaus, enough to astonish a railway porter; and from that day he seemed able to do anything at Torchester Abbey, except to depart. Hours, days, weeks, and even months elapsed, but still Lady Brownlow saw her ex- tremely unwelcome guest becoming every evening more firmly rooted in the most comfortable arm- chair he could select at Torchester Abbey. There he made himself in each successive morning, noon, or night, more indispensably amusing to Sir Francis, with whom he played at chess, discussed politics, deplored the times, complained of the taxes, pitied the agricultural interest, and told CROSS PURPOSES. 91 a succession of authentic anecdotes, which Lady Brownlow guessed were all the impromptu inven- tion of the moment, to support whatever opinion Sir Francis chose to advocate. Not a single extra- ordinary circumstance seemed to have ever oc- curred to any one, but O' Grady could "cap it" by telling of something much more remarkable, and ten times more amusing, which had happened to himself. Sir Francis believed all these hien trouve stories, and Lady Brownlow believed none of them. Sir Francis often remarked what an adven- turous life O'Grady had enjoyed, and Lady Brownlow always gravely added, " Or rather, what an endless invention he has ! If I told him to-day that yoiu: nose had been broken by a fall, and a new one cut out of your forehead, he would tell me that the very same thing had occurred to himself ten years ago, with some very marvellous and perhaps amusing additions; and did you observe to-day, when we expressed our great un- easiness that three years had elapsed since your brother Richard wrote from the Cape to let us know his whereabouts, he mentioned having been there two years ago, — impromptued a very enter- taining description of the colony, and announced 92 CROSS PURPOSES. that Dick was considered the most rising young man there. I do not believe Mr. 0' Grady ever was at the Cape, or ever heard where Kichard was living abroad till this morning ; but he described him on the spur of the moment as very handsome, and extremely like you ! " " Well ! I suppose it is not impossible that he should be both ; and he gave a very satisfactory account of Dick." " Very, — if true ! ^' replied Lady Brownlow, resuming her work. " But I have an old-fashioned partiality for facts that I can allow myself to believe." O' Grady's perseverance in out-staying every hint from his hostess to depart was a caricature on all that any hospitable proprietor of a country- house ever before experienced. He cared for no insult, observed no aflfront, took everything most bafflingly in good part, and smiled with a look of superlative good humour at every suggestion of Lady Brownlow's that his friends in Ireland must be lonojinsr to see him. Even when she announced to him that the room he occupied was about to be repainted and repapered, he replied in a most accommodating tone, that men who had travelled CEOSS PURPOSES. 93 like himself were accustomed to rough it ; that he could sleep admirably on a billiard-table, or in the conservatory ; that he begged his kind hostess would not put herself out of her way ; and that a Duchess of his acquaintance had once fitted up most comfortable quarters for a superfluous guest in the pig-sty. " Give me only such a friendly welcome as I receive here, and if the beds were no better than those from the cheap upholsterers, who furnish bachelors' rooms at thirty shillings, or in a most superior style at two pounds, I should imi- tate their cheerful endurance, and remain here.'' O'Hara, when he saw his free-and-easy country- man thus domesticated at Torchester Abbey, became thunder-struck to find how completely he had been out-generalled. Most provokingly did O'Grady, even the very first time they afterwards met at the table of Sir Francis, afiect, with ex- treme politeness, to do the honours of the house, as if he were himself a resident guest, at home, and O'Hara a comparative stranger; while Sir Francis could not restrain a smile at the look of perplexed self-importance with which the long- established factor endeavoured to keep his former supremacy in the house over that most excruciating 94 CEOSS PURPOSES. of men O'Gradj, who tormented the irritated factor with his very officious civility, and who actually had the hardihood to propose, in a most patron- ising tone, .that they should take a glass of wine together. "Not equal to the toddy you gave me last Friday," said O' Grady, with a look of good- fellowship. "Father Mathew himself could not have resisted that little excess; but for a staid sober man like me one tumbler goes as far as your three or four." O' Grady's eyes, when he did glance round, which was very seldom, were of almost intolerable lustre, so that few could meet their steadfast gaze ; but at this moment Lady Brownlow looked full and very steadily at him, till, in a moment, he altered his tone, becoming cold and polished as the fire-irons, at which he now stared with fixed attention, for he was completely master of diplo- macy, never saying more than enough, seeing more than enough, or knowing more than enough on any occasion, and he saw that now his game was a little more seen through by Lady Brown- low than was quite convenient. The more O'Hara struggled day after day to CROSS PURPOSES. 95 banish his rival from Torchester Abbey the more he resembled a man lost in a bog, who gets deeper and deeper with every effort to deliver himself. Often did O^Hara wish that 0' Grady could be muzzled ; but " all the king's horses, and all the king^s men," might have tried in vain to unseat the intruder, or to put him out of countenance. He struck his root deeper and deeper every day in the heart, and beside the hearth-rug of Sir Francis Brownlow. It is said, that " to give a Muscovite a sensa- tion you must flay him alive," and nothing short of that unpleasant operation could apparently have moved the superb repose of O' Grady's manner, or altered the stony mildness of his ex- pression, when he chose to be imperturbable. To Sir Francis he was inexhaustibly diverting, so that the table was hterally in a roar; and even the well-bred servants rushed out of the room some- times in irrepressible gusts of laughter. O' Grady could impromptu a speech in Chinese, in Gaelic, in all impossible and unspoken languages, without knowing one of them. He sung songs in imita- tion of Mario or Henry Russell. He could imitate the speech a stammering young officer 96 CPvOSS PURPOSES. would make on the first day of joining his regi- ment; or he could give a temperance lecture, illustrated with anecdotes, all related with such dramatic effect, while he imitated Irishmen, Scotch- men, innkeepers, waiters, and old women, so per- fectly, 'that he seemed as if he w^ere five or six persons at once. Most of these total abstinence speeches he jestingly addressed in a most marked manner to O^Hara, who w^rithed with suppressed anger, and yet dared not openly resent the personal application of the very amusing incidents he re- lated; and by his wonderful powers of ventri- loquism he often made O'Hara seem to reply in a tone of stupid intoxication to his cleverly imagined questions. '*' When I came home from the Cape," observed O' Grady, turning one day to his incredulous auditor Lady Brownlow, who scarcely listened, "we had on ship-board the most mischievous and amus- ing monkey who ever played monkey-tricks. The sailors, who constantly shared their grog with him, used to say that he was the happiest man on board, as he had nothing to do, and w^as drunk twice a-day. Poor creature ! he knew no better ; O'Hara, and rational beings like us, must make CROSS PURPOSES. 97 allowances. The rascal used to know perfectly whenever he was going to do wrong. You saw him always carefully coil up the long rope by which he was usually caught, aud as soon as that could be safely tucked under his own arm, Jack was ripe for any extremity of mischief, xit last the poor fellow had delirium tremens, lost the use of his limbs, and died as miserable a worn-out drunkard as ever disgraced his nature. Intoxication leads to every other crime, and we ought all to take warning, like the Spartans, from observing how the miserable victims of drink are degraded by it, and betrayed into every crime that ever blackened the annals of guilt. O'Hara, will you join me in a glass of wine? ^' The Baronet laughed heartily, as he always did at whatever O'Grady said, sometimes even before he spoke at all ; and O'Hara ground his teeth, muttering to himself in accents of suppressed bitterness, " Sir Francis is a goose ! or worse, for that very respectable bird has some brains, and he no longer has any ! His wits are evidently gone to that paradise of lost things, the moon." " Speak out, O'Hara, if you have anything to say ! " exclaimed Sir Francis, in vehement spirits. VOL. I. F 98 , CROSS PURPOSES. ^' You have spoken to-day at the rate of only two words an hour, with intervals of rest. A Chinese mandarin would be a more animated companion, for he at least smiles and shakes his empty head, but you seem only to speak to yourself to-day. In conversation, O'Grady has his basket always fulir^ Clever as O'Hara really was, — and he could have bought or sold O' Grady ten times over, in point of true ability, — his rushing eloquence and impulsive energy Avere quelled before the cool, quiet depths of his adversary, who had contrived now to build up an impenetrable wall of repulsiveness between them, as if they belonged to different worlds, and who quietly laughed at many deep little schemes which he as quietly frustrated as soon as formed by O'Hara to get him dislodged. O' Grady con- tinued perfectly impregnable, politely contemp- tuous, and apparently quite indifferent, while O'Hara foamed with rage to see himself con- stantly out-manceuvered, and to feel himself a mere shrimp in the grasp of a dangerous enemy and unscrupulous rival. He was playing the 'game of life against a skilful adversary, and as soon as he exposed himself to a check, was not CROSS PUEPOSES. 99 long in receiving the severest that could be inflicted. At length, one day, when the two well-bred enemies were left during some minutes alone, O'Hara, unable to contain himself longer, openly remonstrated with O" Grady for making so perma- nent a home of Torchester Abbey, when Sir Francis had evidently meant to give him no more than a very limited invitation to remain in his house, and when Lady Brownlow so obviously wished him gone. Mr. O'Grady listened with a face immovable as marble. He looked like an automaton, or a calculating machine, until O'Hara paused, and then, in the calmest imaginable voice, he deliberately replied, assuming a strong Irish accent, which he often did in jest. '*You are most stunningly polite, Mr. O'Hara, and thanks to you ! If Sir Francis wishes me to stay, and you wish me to go, of course, you are the person to be first consulted. He is the most hospitable of hosts, and never yet has * hinted a fault or hesitated a dislike' to my remaining. His wel- come to me every morning is as certain as sunrise, and fully more warm, or I should instantly pack up my portmanteau." f2 100 CROSS PUEPOSES. " If it depended on Lady Brownlow, your port- manteau would have been packed a month since," replied O'Hara, vehemently; **and I have little doubt that Sir Francis himself would help to give it a lift." "On the contrary," answered O'Grady, with a very insidious look that startled O'Hara, *' Sir Francis, finding me a perfect Bonnycastle for arithmetic, and that it is ages since the Torchester affairs have been thoroughly looked into, has yesterday offered me very handsome terms to go over all your papers and documents ever since his accession, and even before that. We know per- fectly what an excellent account the best of stewards can give of his stewardship, and that such an investigation cannot but redound to your highest honour, but the candle of inquiry should every now and then throw light on the dark cellars of concealment. For a faithful manager like you, O'Hara, nothing is more agreeable than to have his merits tested, proved, and rewarded ; but, as Sir Francis says, it ought now to be done, and it shall. You know, that in this and all things I am your best friend." O'Hara looked at his wily companion with CROSS PURPOSES. 101 burning indignation, and, foaming with rage, began a sentence in reply, which prudence made him afterwards alter, as he exclaimed in a voice of thunder, " You lie! — under a mistake!" " Well, we shall see ! I could, perhaps, a little mar the fair face of your respectability, Mr. O'Hara ; but Irishmen, as countrymen, should be friends, if for no other reason.'^ The factor would have greatly preferred seeing O'Grady in a good honest rage, to the sly malig- nity of his manner now ; but he felt the greatness of his own danger, and remained silent, but it was a silence that spoke in the flash of his eye, and in the quivering of his white and compressed lip. During their not very long dialogue, which 0' Grady ended with a hard and very malignant smile, O'Hara several times again changed colour. He bent the cane in his hand until it broke, then gave a short feverish laugh at his own awkward- ness, and remained finally of an ashy paleness. The worthy factor's conscience did not accuse him of the slightest embezzlement or dishonesty; he had often even preferred the interest of Sir Francis to his own ; and but for his very occasional intimacy with the brandy-bottle, his character 102 CEOSS PURPOSES. would have been quite unassailable ; neverthe- " less, O'Hara had an instinctive consciousness of O'Gradjr's treacherous malice, which was not diminished by his tormentor drily adding, with sarcastic look and emphasis, — " You will turn out, I am sure, my excellent friend, to be a steward made up to order, as accurately as any receipt in old Mrs. Dod's cookery-book, — every grain of honesty and every scruple of sobriety as it should be. For that very reason, Sir Francis and I have resolved, unanimously, to form our- selves into a committee of inquiry. As Dyonisius of Halicarnassus said, or, at least, might have said, ^ Merit ought to be rewarded!' and your merit shall, at least, be known." During these words, O'Hara was furiously biting the end of his pen, and quarrelling with himself for having so rashly introduced to Sir Francis this wandering countryman, evidently a mere adventurer, who most obviously wished to supplant him in office as factor, and who seemed, moreover, very likely to succeed, if the most diabolical cunning could do so. It was " worse than a crime, it was a blunder " ^ to have welcomed * Talleyrand. CROSS PURPOSES.. 103; O^Grady's first visit, as he originally did, with Irish frankness; but an imprudence which appeared at first the merest trifle, had now become the pivot on which events were turning, which in- creased in magnitude every hour. It may in- variably be noticed in every man's life, and in every woman's too, that each individual once, and perhaps only once, makes some frightful and irre- mediable mistake, of which, during all his remain- ing days, he hopelessly repents. Who cannot at once recal to memory his own particular blunder ? It may be in the choice of a wife, the purchase of an estate, the publishing a pamphtet, the writing of an imprudent letter, the forming of an un- worthy friendship, the. giving an imprudent opi- .nion, or the uttering an angry reply: but it haunts the perpetrator ever afterwards ; and now O'Hara angrily told himself, that as long as he breathed the breath of life, he was destined to lament having been so off his usual guard, as to introduce at Torchester Abbey that walking and talking mystery, O'Grady. From this time the thermometer of Sir Francis Brownlow's kindness to O'Hara fell rapidly towards freezing point ; and the perplexed factor. 104 CROSS PUEPOSES. by one of those odd coincidences which conti- nually happen when people wish to avoid, had thus constantly encountered the Baronet at every turn in his own house and grounds, always tete- a-tete with O'Grady. At first the two seemed often in fits of laughter, and merry, like two school-boys in a holiday; but latterly, a deeper game evidently came on the tapis, for the con- ferences evidently became grave, serious, and important. As O'Hara anxiously watched the two, he observed their heads down, their step slow, and their voices subdued almost to a whisper, so that Lady Brownlow one day said to her husband, assuming a careless tone to conceal much real apprehension, — "My dear Frank, what treason are you and that strange Irishman talking of from day to-day? You and he look, when together, like a couple of dismal rooks, debating where to build your nest next summer. There is surely some enthralling spell in the mere presence of that man O^ Grady ; something there is to me quite appallingly spectral about his whole aspect. When with him I always feel beside an icicle, — beside one who is never moved by affection to smile, or by joy to laugh, but CROSS PURPOSES. 105 who has made himself an outlaw from every human attachment. It seems to me as if not the ghost of an emotion could ever warm his heart — as if every good impulse of nature were extinguished in him; and as for the bad impulses, they are safely hid beneath a long face, a long coat, and a very long white neckcloth. At times he re- minds me of a sea without a tide, so deep and so motionless, while his fixed eyes, his noiseless tread, and occasionally his ghostly silence, are quite appalling. All the twelve judges of Eng- land, in their twelve wigs, could scarcely over- awe me more than that strange automaton ! His cold, passionless manner of speaking to you lately, sounds as if he used some other person's voice, not his own." "Yet there is abundance of quicksilver in his composition too," replied Sir Francis drily. "The might of a powerful mind, and of powerful passions also, is stamped in every feature of OGrady's face." "But he has a sort of impenetrable filagree- work frosted over all his feelings, that it is impos- sible to see through I I never fimcy that he bestows on us his real opinion even as to the weather! " f3 106. CROSS PURPOSES. " But he gives me his real opinion very plainly, indeed, as to your favourite factor, O'Hara, with whom O'Grady strongly advises me to part im- mediately. He observed in his droll way, that O'Hara has excellent sentiments, but very weak principles. When O'Grady found fault with my worthy steward for being extravagant, his answer was, ' How can I live within my income, when I ^ have no income to live upon ?' " " Get twelve respectable witnesses to testify that O^Hara said anything as foolish and wrong — get them all to swear to its truth/^ interrupted Lady Brownlow, earnestly, " and still I will not believe it." ^' I always thought O'Hara resembled a burn- ing volcano, not very safe to live near, even though apparently cooled down for the time into a fire for the grate of my study," observed Sir Francis, carelessly. ^' Between friends, O'Grady tells me that my inestimable factor is always either at the ink-bottle or the brandy-bottle, and that lately he has taken to Irish whisky, mce gin resigned." '^Well!" replied Lady Brownlow, incredu- lously, " that is a very extraordinary fact — if it CROSS PURPOSES. 107 be a fact ; and as you seem inclined for a com- fortable dislike of poor O'Hara, I shall not inter- fere with your enjoyment of it, if you will allow me in return most politely to detest O^ Grady ; and let us observe both for some time with per- fect impartiality before we dismiss either from the house. One or other must go, and I guess, it will be in the end O'Grady.^^ " '\^^hen he would smile, 'Tis like the gleaming of December's sun ; And when he frowns— in truth I tremble for you." Kenkkdy. 108 CROSS PUEPOSES. CHAPTER IV. "Yes ! the wild bliss of nature needs alloy. And fear and sorrow fan the fire of jo}-." Campbell. Terence O'Grady^ with the most yielding polite- ness of aspect, with the blandest servility of manner, now ruled despotically as commander-in- chief at Torchester Abbey ; and while pretending to have no will of his own, he yet forced all others to bend their wills before his in almost prostrate obedience. It seemed to Lady Brown- low, who alone resisted his influence, that, with his stealthy, creeping, tiptoe step, he could pass through a sunbeam without casting any shadow, and that every mark or line of his face betrayed the deepest cunning, while with a strange, formal, passive distance in his manner, he could contrive to make any one in a moment feel a thousand times his inferior, or writhe in hopeless opposition to his calm and resolute supremacy. CROSS PUEPOSES. 109 O'Grady had a peculiarly whispering, confiden- tial way of asking innumerable questions, in a tone that made people fancy he was entrusting them with his most private thoughts, rather than discover that he was searching out theirs. Never w^as there a despotism more unobtrusively estab- lished, but it was despotism, sanctioned to the fullest extent by Sir Francis; so that Lady Brownlow herself very soon felt, with indignant astonishment, that it was an irresistible power ; for the very servants looked as if they might scarcely bring up coals or announce dinner with- out his leave. The inscrutable O'Grady could in an instant banish from his face every appearance of expres- sion till it became at once blank and impenetrable, a sealed book, a perfect void, which baffled the most intense scrutiny. Who or what was he? His cold grey eyes, like those of a picture, seemed to observe everything in the room, and everything that passed, and even many things that did not pass ; yet he never looked at any one. He evi- dently heard Lady Brownlow's lowest whisper, but never seemed to listen ; and his slow, stealthy step, always reminded her of a tiger on the spring. 110 CEOSS PURPOSES. Had he been one recently escaped from a mena- gerie, Sir Francis could scarcely have looked more afraid to irritate him ; for nothing could be more amazing than the Baronet's almost subservient and apparently blind devotion to O' Grady. He no more attempted to resist him than to resist fate. The strange sense of oppression which his presence caused to Lady Brownlow daily in- creased, while she observed, wondered at, and tried to check this growing influence, which it seemed not in the chapter of possibilities for her to diminish, as O' Grady's quick, restless, anxious eyes flashed out upon her sometimes with a fire that seemed almost unnaturally bright, and he was ready to meet and to foil her at every turn. Though Lady Brownlow, in her desperation, even took O'Hara into her confidence, and they both exerted every imaginable energy to check this mysterious power, it baflled their penetration to find out the source, as well as their united power to resist or diminish the domestic tyranny of O'Grady. To find herself become a cipher where she had once been all in all, was most unbearably aggravating ; and Lady Brownlow writhed with unspoken misery, while observing CROSS PURPOSES. Ill how evidently embarrassed Sir Francis always felt now in the presence of his hitherto much-loved wife, and how impatiently he often glanced at the door as if to escape. He avoided her eye; discontinued his cordial old custom of takins: wine with her at dinner ; never now walked out aloDe with her; seemed totally uninterested in all the little family chat or family news she had to teU him ; and left off entirely playing, as in former days, with his two beautiful little girls, whom he scarcely of late ever noticed, and whom he carelessly got rid of, like a couple of troublesome creditors, as soon as he could free himself from their playful assiduities. From this time forth, whenever O'Hara said a syllable not perfectly palatable to O'Grady, the other immediately, in a tone of unmistakable threat, made very marked reference to his inten- tion of assisting Sir Francis in scrutinizing and remodelling his affairs, accompanied by hints which became every day broader, that he thought the situation of factor to Sir Francis a most desirable and very agreeable occupation. O'Hara was gradually becoming almost delirious with vexation at the danger of thus losing his employ- 112 CEOSS PURPOSES. ment, and of being maliciously misrepresented by an enemy who evidently wished now to push him from his own stool that he might seize the vacant place. O' Grady, always himself upon his guard, seemed to have the faculty of at once reading through every individual's most private thoughts. He could perfectly conceal all that passed behind the cur- tain of his own mind, while his cautious step had often an air of apprehension, as if he were afraid of his own shadow pursuing him too closely. He looked, in short, as if always ready to make his escape from some lurking, unseen danger, but never for one moment off his guard in the adhe- siveness with which he clung to Sir Francis. Lady Brownlow pitied the poor factor, and felt still more for herself, and for her two darling little girls ! What were the means by which this newly-arrived stranger had poured a withering blight over all that was so lately prosperous, flourishing, and happy at Torchester ? What could so suddenly have extinguished every domestic and amiable feeling in Sir Francis ? What made him alter and remodel everything in the old Abbey which had been so long satisfied with itself. CROSS PURPOSES. 113 and wished for no change ? What was the mys- tery at work in the mind, heart, and home of Sir Francis Brownlow ? One morning all was explained at a single glance. O'Hara, when coming as usual to trans- act business at the Abbey, took a different circuit from common towards the business room, and passed a large old building in the shrubbery which had formerly been used as a riding-house, though it had long been a mere neglected ivy-covered ruin. There, to his utter astonishment, he observed that the ordinary square ugl}' windoAV facing towards the east, which used to resemble a school- boy's slate, had been almost miraculously con- verted into a large ecclesiastical-looking gothic arch, such as Ruskin might have delighted to see, divided with stone mullions, and richly decorated. The divisions were filled with gaudy figures in stained glass, as showy in harlequin colours as if they had been the knave, queen, and king in a pack of cards ; and a large gilt image stood blazing in sunshine over the door. O'Hara clandestinely stole up to the entrance and looked in, when he became almost apoplectic with asto- nishment and consternation to see the entire 114 CEOSS PURPOSES. floor of that old building covered with a tesselated pavement of gaudy tiles, and scattered over with prie-Dieu chairs. A high altar faced him, glit- tering in tinsel, and gorgeous with velvet, satin, and flowers. Behind these were six massive gilt candlesticks, carrying large wax lights, which were burning reverentially in front of a large wax doll, gorgeously equipped in a dress he remem- bered to have seen worn by Lady Brownlow, the last time she went to court. The startled factor stood transfixed with con- sternation, while he observed Sir Francis and O' Grady kneeling side by side before Father Clement, a well-known Jesuit priest, who had lately been observed lurking about the neighbour- hood ; one of the cleverest and most sanctimonious of men, who was supposed never either to eat or sleep. O'Hara wished he could have strangled all three on the spot ! No conversions are so rapidly completed, or so superstitiously abject, as those from careless infidelity, in which Sir Francis had long trifled, to the most prostrate submission of mind, heart, and will, before the authority of a dominating Church. There is something so appalling to the CROSS PURPOSES. 115 natural heart of man in feeling himself darkly groping onwards in life, without one hope beyond the dreary inevitable grave, that if, by sacri- ficing some money for masses, and a great deal of time for processions, the unbelieving convert can purchase a single chance in the lottery of a future existence, he feels it prudent to secure an additional barrier against the vrorst which conscience can threaten. Like all recent converts. Sir Francis was very soon worked upon by his new masters to a perfect delirium of fanaticism, believing in every legend of a saint, and in all their imaginary miracles, their visions, and their images. No Hindoo worshipper was more abject before his idols or his Brahminical priests, than Sir Francis before Father Clement and his images. The astonished and bewildered Lady Brownlow felt as if, in truth, the sky were falling, when she first heard from O'Hara of this very startling change in her husband. She wept, in all the prostration of an almost intolerable grief, over this greatest of all misfortunes, — a misfortune which she knew not how to combat, which no earthly power could avert. From day to day 116 CEOSS PUEPOSES. her colour blanched, and blanched with anguish, while she prayed in agony of spirit over her two lovely children, that they might be preserved from an idolatrous education, — that they might rather become beggars, or die on the spot, than ever adopt a superstition which she dreaded far more than death, which extinguishes the feelings, enslaves the intellect, confiscates every possession, betrays every confidence, and outrages every ordinance of God and man. Many, many have died rather than be so sacrificed to the Moloch of superstition, and Lady Brownlow felt in herself that she could indeed be a martyr. It is strange that, in religious superstition, men. will part with their rational senses more entirely than on any other subject ; and for those who once abandon the Bible, there seems no prostration of folly to which their minds may not be degraded. Mormonism, Agapemonism, Hindooism, or Ro- manism, are all diseases of the understanding, produced by mental distortion, resulting from spiritual terrors. Lord Bacon observes, that superstition is even more pernicious than scepti- cism, or even atheism, in its practical conse- quences, and more degrading to the Deity in the CROSS PURPOSES. 117 lessons it inculcates. Romanism strikes at the root of every law established in Britain with respect to God or man, by placing the Virgin Mary above the Saviour, the Pope above the Queen, and the priest above the husband. "It appears to me that, in these modern days of flying about from place to place, changing and changing everything, people are no more able to remain of the same opinions than on the same spot," said Lady Brownlow, towards the conclu- sion of a very long and very agitating discussion, with Sir Francis, during which she tried every argument and every entreaty to make him at least delay his apostacy. " I, who have not two ideas to rub against each other, cannot attempt to follow all the mere quibbling theology of O' Grady and Father Clement; but when I hear your strangely perverted ideas, I seem in a miserable dream ! Shake me, Frank, to convince my mind that I am awake ! Oh ! that I could awake, to find it all indeed a dream ! You cannot seriously believe those nonsensical legends of the middle ages which you have been alluding to now, and used formerly to ridicule as a mere branch of the Pagan theology ! '* 118 CROSS PURPOSES. *' Listen to me once for all now, Evelyn ! " said her husband imperatively, "and let this be the last word we ever exchange on the subject, unless you join my Church, which O' Grady warns me I need not immediately expect. He says your narrow mind is bounded on the north by the 'Protestant Magazine,' on the south by the Presbyterian ' Bulwark,' on the east by the 'Kecord' newspaper, and on the west by the * Anti- Jesuit Miscellany.' For my own part, I have given myself over, body and soul, neck and heels, into the hands of Father Clement; there- fore, whatever he bids me believe or do, that I shall do, and that I must believe." Lady Brownlow, when this appalling declara- tion came from Sir Francis, threw her head forward almost to her knees, with her face buried in her hands, but so solemn and overawed was her grief, that she could not shed a tear. It was plain now that her husband, herself, and her two little girls, would be thoroughly swindled by a clever impostor of every precious possession. The value of all she was about to lose no arith- metic could calculate; but she sat in tearless anguish, unable for some time to articulate, or CROSS PURPOSES. 119 to collect her scattered thoughts for several minutes. "Well!" exclaimed Lady Brownlow at last, with a deep, low, heart-broken sigh ; " there never is peace long in any house that a Jesuit enters ! My position of late seemed amazing, astounding, perfectly incomprehensible to me, till O'Hara explained the whole by discovering that this grim, gloomy O'Grady — this false, flat- tering, sneaking, dangerous villain — is a Jesuit, who has been cheating you out of your very soul." *' Speak on," said Sir Francis sternly ; " you wish to insinuate that I am making a fool of myself." " No other mortal could make a fool of you, Frank," replied Lady Brownlow, with a little allowable flattery. '' But O'Grady, from the top of his head to the sole of his foot, is a self- interested hypocrite." " On the contrary, he says that this world, and all the trumpery afiairs of mankind, have ceased to occupy a moment of his thoughts, except for my sake and that of his Church. He does work with energy, however, to deliver me from that 120 CROSS PURPOSES. mismanager of all my affairs, O'Hara, who is, he tells me, frightfully drunk every night of late ; and that then a maniac chained in his den is sane in comparison with him, so fearful is his excite- ment. He may be heard shouting and swearing a mile off." " Sir Francis, do not believe that of your old and faithful factor ! '' exclaimed Lady Brownlow earnestly. " He would throw himself into the fire if that could serve you ; he would be torn by wild horses, if it could oblige you, or assist me ; he would give up " " Yes ! yes ! anything but the brandy-bottle, and after indulging in that, he loses all command of himself. Only yesterday he assaulted and beat O'Grady with a stick, till no more dust was left in my good friend's jacket than in a well-punished carpet." "Poor O'Hara! The worse he treats O'Grady, the more it will be accordino* to the man's merits ! He had great provocation, and has abundance of pluck," replied Lady Brownlow, rather appro- vingly than otherwise. " That preternatural calmness of O'Grady, while speaking with the deepest malignity, is to me perfectly odious, being CROSS PURPOSES. 121 SO fearfully unnatural, as well as the fixed smile worn by Papists as a part of their full-dress manners. I am timid as a hare by nature, you well know, so that an insect terrifies me ; yet I would rather face any wild creature in the highest rage of excitement, than trust myself to that pale-faced, livid-looking favourite of yours. I always feel in his presence like a frosted fly ! When O'Hara first warned me against him, I was incredulous. Then I laughed ; but now I have learned to perceive that he is a dangerous enemy, and a yet more dangerous friend. It is his own bad heart that begets every unworthy suspicion against O'Hara." " But not without reason," answered Sir Francis, doggedly. " 0' Grady most justly remarks that O'Hara is so prodigal in his expenditure, he cannot be really honest, and gives away money to beggars and cottagers with all the recklessness of ten spendthrifts^ so that to replenish his exhausted coffers he may have to commit hereafter any crime. From this moment, therefore, forget O'Hara's existence ; for he must soon be banished, as he deserves, from my estate, and his place will be twenty times better filled by O' Grady." VOL. I. G 122 CROSS PURPOSES. . "I dare say it will!" replied Lady Brownlow, with marked emphasis, and resuming her needle- work; ** 0' Grady will not be the first unjust steward who has prospered and been commended." " Well ! our two proteges are in a very different style of villainy, if they are villains," answered Sir Francis, carelessly; " 0' Grady calm, cool, deep, and never for an instant losing his self-possession, while O'Hara! — poor fellow, I used certainly to like his very faults — so open, generous, fervid, and excitable ! But the drink ! the drink ! O'Grady tells me he is like one possessed with an evil spirit at times, and thinks my life scarcely safe from him then." "Yes! when O'Grady stands beside O'Hara, he is himself the evil spirit," observed Lady Brownlow, earnestly. " If these -were the last words I am ever to speak, let me say that your former favourite is safer than your present one ; and that O'Hara is not a confirmed, or even a frequent drunkard. He does penitently acknow- ledge, with a frankness which makes one almost pity him, that now and then, in a moderate way, he indulges in a pipe and a glass, ' but,' he adds, though I do not agree with him, that 'his best CROSS PURPOSES. 123 friends must acknowleclf]^e, a bard-worklnoj mind like his cannot be supported on soda-water and butter-milk.' " Sir Francis, carelessly shrugging his shoulders, lounged, whistling away, to the stable, and Lady Brownlow sat down at the window of her hus- band's business-room to admire one of the most beautiful landscapes in jMiddlesex. It was a perfect world of hills and forests, bathed in sun- shine, and glittering with cheerfulness. She brought her colour-box, settled herself behind the folds of a heavy crimson velvet curtain, and began to sketch the view in water-colours with a mas- terly hand. It was a labour she delighted in, and the trees rapidly grew under her brush, wliich washed in sky and earth in all their glowing tints with admirable skill; and with a rapidity that seemed like magic. Lady Brownlow con- tinued so intent upon her work, that she did not observe the door cautiously and slowly opened, after which a head looked anxiously in. It was O'Grady, who stood for several minutes searching the room with his eyes in very careful scrutiny ; and having satisfied himself that no one was in the library, he crept noiselessly in, closing the g2 124 CROSS PUEPOSES. lock with a degree of caution that rendered it quite inaudible. He was heated and agitated in a most unusual degree; his long dark hair had been dashed off his forehead, his pale lip drawn tightly over his teeth, and his whole aspect seemed that of one almost distracted with guilty appre- hension. O'Grady advanced, with steps as inaudible as those of Macbeth in the room of King Duncan, towards a large escritoire, in which Sir Francis kept his most private papers. They were pre- served so very privately, that even Lady Brown- low had never seen the contents. O'Grady, however, produced a key from his pocket, his hand meanwhile shaking vrith impatience : and having hurriedly taken out a parcel, carefully endorsed on the back, he replaced it with another, and deliberately closed down the lid, yet not so dehberately but that the click of the bolt, as it was shot, attracted the attention of Lady Brownlow, who quietly looked up. Xever was astonishment greater than hers, to see how O'Grady had been employed. She watched him locking the escritoire, and instantly afterwards rising, advanced without a moment's CROSS PURPOSES. 125 hesitation ; and without a thought of fear, collect- edly and sternly saying, — " Mr. O' Grady, may I trouble you to show me that key ? It is a very remarkable one ! Bluebeard himself was not more careful of his than Sir Francis, who never used to let it out of his own possession. Allow me to see that, and also the packet of papers in your possession.^^ Lady Brownlow had resolutely advanced with- out a moment's consideration to accost O' Grady, but the hand which she held out for that key was instantly withdrawn when she looked in his face, which had assumed an expression terrifying to behold. Changing in a moment from pretended jest to earnest, she grasped hold of the nearest bell-rope, and before O'Grady could stop her, which he attempted with almost frantic violence to do, she rung a peal that resounded through the house. The countenance of O'Grady had become livid as that of a corpse; he shook in every limb from head to foot, and there was death in the fierce glitter of his eye, now when he glanced round at her. Lady Brownlow felt that had they been alone, he would have murdered her on the spot, but with a curse muttered 126 CROSS PURPOSES. between his pallid lips, he rushed out of the house, muttering between his clenched teeth — " It is all up with me now, unless I get the start of her with Sir Francis. They must never meet again, or her evidence might hang me ! " When several servants, who had hurried to answer Lady Brownlow's summons, had entered her room, they found her in a fainting fit on the floor. That night Sir Francis had not returned home at twelve o'clock, but this was concealed from Lady Brownlow on account of her continuing in a very nervous, excited state ; therefore, she was hurried early to bed, w^hile she requested that the door into Sir Francis' dressing-room might be left open to give her the earliest tidings of his arrival, as she could not close an eye with- out unburthening her mind to Sir Francis about O' Grady's mysterious possession of his keys, or, more probably, of a master key for every lock in the house. It was long past midnight, and the maid who sat up beside Lady Brownlow had fallen into a most enviably comfortable sleep, so that her long regular breathings, and the ticking of an CROSS PURPOSES. 127 old clock, were the only sounds that disturbed the deep repose of all around. The room was totally dark, but for a red glare from the fire in Sir Francis' room, and Lady Brownlow lay impatiently counting the moments till her husband should appear, and silently con- templating the lurid flame. There was something deeply solemnizing in the silence so intense, in the darkness so impenetrable all around, and Lady Brownlow felt a sensation of unusual awe stealing: over her as the clock struck two. The long shadows from Sir Francis' room seemed to darken every moment, and the grave itself could scarcely have looked more lonely and silent, while there seemed to grow upon Lady Brown- low's mind some overpowering, dreamy, awful anticipation of evil. An increasingly nervous apprehensiveness made the slightest creak of the old furniture painfully startling, but she tried, though vainly, to hush all her unaccount- able tremors. It mi^ht be a fall of coals from the grate, but Lady Brownlow fancied she heard a noise as if the closet door were opened in the next room, and a low suppressed breath- ing followed. She could scarcely refrain from 128 CROSS PURPOSES. shrieking aloud now with frantic fear. The beating of her pulses miglit almost be heard, and nothing kept her quiet but the trembling appre- hension of being instantly silenced in death itself. Lady Brownlow's hearing had become so acute, she seemed to have ten pair of ears, and there was now a sound in Sir Francis^ room like the slow shutting of a drawer. Afraid to stir, Lady Brownlow gazed in terrified expectation towards the only light she could see ; and as the fire sud- denly blazed up brighter than before, she per- ceived a man's arm held over the flame, and paper after paper thrown by handfuls into the burning grate. Every drop of blood flew back to her heart, and her very brain became giddy; but Lady Brownlow did not dare to speak or to stir, for in the silent darkness of midnight there was a nameless horror not to be borne in lying un- protected within sight of so mysterious a scene, but she breathed a silent prayer for help, and remained quiet. Had it been Sir Francis him- self, she thought he would certainly have spoken, as usual, to her on returning home, and she had half-determined to call out his name, in hopes CROSS PURPOSES. 129 of agreeably relieving her suspense by hearing him reply, when, all at once, a larger heap of papers than before was thrown hurriedly on the coals, a brighter blaze sprung up the chimney, the dressing-room door was silently opened, and she heard a retreating step hasten rapidly along the passage. All was then silent as death, while Lady Brownlow, stealing out of bed, threw on her dressincj-o;o\vn, and with terrified caution gazed into the next room. Her husband's desk, boxes, and drawers, were wide open and in frightful disorder; torn papers lay all over the floor; and within the fender, among a heap of ashes and half-burned documents, appeared the smouldering remnant of a portrait valued by Sir Francis beyond all his other possessions, the smiling, animated, glowing likeness of his favourite brother, Richard. '*0h! that he were here!'^ thought Lady Brownlow, her eves filling w^th tears as she looked at it ; " generous, high-minded, and honest, he would have helped me effectually now ! " Lady Brownlow, trembling, opened the shutters to look out. It was a glorious moonlight, that threw down its silvery beams upon that scene g3 130 CROSS PURPOSES. of wild disorder on the floor. As Lady Brown- low stood there for an instant to compose her- self, the clock struck three, and she was startled as well as greatly astonished to observe Stratton, the gamekeeper, hastily rushing towards the house without his hat, accompanied by a man whom in the darkness she could not recognise, though the impression on her mind was that it might be O'Hara. Lady Brownlow instantly awoke her maid, and rung peal after peal at the bell, but no one answered. She then became more and more alarmed, yet at a loss what to fear ; but hurrying once more to the window, she distinctly saw O'Grady, O'Hara, and Stratton, with hurried and evidently very agitated steps, rushing from the house down the approach, and away towards the village. Lady Brownlow threw open the window and called to them, but they heard her not, and almost frantic with apprehension, she desired her maid to get ready instantly, and prepare to follow with her. Something of tremendous im- port had ■ certainly happened to Sir Francis ! What that was she scarcely dared to conjecture, but she desu'ed that the butler and other servants CROSS PURPOSES. 131 should be aroused, and without one moment of unnecessary delay, Lady Brownlow, with nearly the whole numerous establishment, had followed in the direction taken by Stratton and his two companions, along a path leading to the factor's house. The cattle lay dozing in every field, the birds were slumbering in their nests, the very flowers hung their heads, closed up in their nightly sleep, but fearful had been the awakening of Lady Brownlow and of many a terrified spec- tator to the scene that followed ! " horror ! horror ! horror ! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee ! Confusion now hath made his master-piece." Shakspeake. 132 CROSS PUEPOSES. CHAPTER V. " Let him bar my path, Or stay me but one hour in my life-purpose, And I will fell him as a savage beast." Sainfs Tragedy. A DEEP game had been played all that day at Torchester Abbey, a game of life and of death ! Almost immediately after Lady Brownlow had discovered 0' Grady with his key in the lock of Sir Francis' escritoire, that rather enterprising guest, knowing he must now be convicted, dis- graced, and dismissed, resolved at any price to avert his fate. He therefore wrote a few hur- ried lines, in a hand that exactly imitated that of Sir Francis, and closing them up in an enve- lope, affixed the seal commonly used by the Baronet to this letter, and he left it with his own hands at the door of Mr. O'Hara's house, where it was received by the boy in buttons. CROSS PURPOSES. 133 This communication, supposed to come from his landlord, was a strangely-worded document, written in a hand so nearly resembling the worthy Baronet's, that no one could have sus- pected it to be otherwise, though the style was very unlike any one O'Hara had ever before received from his hitherto friendly patron, as it announced that being totally dissatisfied with his factor's whole proceedings of late, he would call upon him that very evening alone to explain his views more fully, and to give O'Hara at once his final dismissal. As Sir Francis had ridden on horseback alone to Brentford that morning, he must naturally pass by O'Hara's house on his way home, and being admonished by his spiritual director, O'Grady, to remain for the afternoon service at the Popish chapel, it must necessarily be late before he could possibly get back to the Abbey. The evening became dark, fitful, and tem- pestuous, the wind sharp as a file, howling and ranting mournfully through the crashing forest, while the branches of every aged tree rattled and groaned in the blast. The very sky seemed to lower with a guilty scowl, when Sir Francis rode 134 CROSS PURPOSES. slowly on towards Torchester Lodge. Black clouds came trooping on like the dark banners of desolation over his head, and darker still were the thoughts which crowded that night over the mind of Sir Francis, filled as it was with gloomy superstition. O'Hara sat mournfully contemplating the future, over his own almost forgotten and nearly extinguished fire. The contents of that pe- remptory note, which announced tliat the long- threatened investigation, or rather condemnation without proof, must immediately take place, seemed burned on his brain with fire ; for the threats of Sir Francis would undoubtedly place the factor's office and his character at the mercy of O^ Grady — and what mercy was that likely to be? Little could O'Hara's very small servant, when he brought up tea, guess how astonished and startled his master had been by the letter which lay before him. The worthy factor, though con- scious of his own perfect integrity, felt com- pletely overwhelmed by the evident suspicions hinted at in this unfriendly communication ; yet he deliberately folded up the unwelcome letter, CROSS PURPOSES. 135 and his hand did not shake. He examined the seal, he counted a clock striking the hour, and with apparent calmness gave some directions to his factotum in waiting; but no sooner was he left alone and unobserved, than his blood boiled with intense, immeasurable rage. He guessed that O'Grady was coming predetermined on his ruin, as well as resolved, coute qui coutet to sup- plant him in the office of factor, while he paced up and down the room, like a caged lion lashing himself into unbounded fury. At length he once more took up that fatal letter, slowly read it over, and afterwards clenching his teeth with low muttered exclamations of anger, he dug his nails into his hair, and tore it out by handfuls with impotent fury, so that the servant, who had returned unperceived into the room, watched his master with silent wonder, and almost with fear, lest his intellects had given way. Eight o'clock, the hour appointed by Sir Francis, had struck. A large fire blazed cheer- fully in the grate, gas glittered on every side, and the boy in buttons having placed the usual tray containing hot water, whisky, and other enticements to drink, stood for a moment listening 136 CROSS PURPOSES. to O'Hara, who was cursing between his clenched teeth, while he thought of O' Grady, and threaten- ing vengeance on his enemy, whom, however, he did not name. At ten o'clock it became perfectly evident that Sir Francis had changed his mind about coming at eight, but the servants heard O'Hara still treading up and down his room at a furious pace. More than once he burst out of the house, impatiently wondering what had become of his intended visitor, and wandered to the very gate in search of Sir Francis and O'Grady, but in vain. The wind wrestled through the aged forest, thundering and shrieking with fearful tumult, when, during his walk in the darkest part of the shrubbery, O'Hara felt as if some one stealthily followed him ; and as he darted into the house, closing and chaining the door hurriedly behind him, O'Hara distinctly saw the gleam of two very glittering eyes that were fastened upon him, and afterwards heard a retreating step sound hurriedly along the gravel. About eleven, O'Hara made his servants look to see exactly what o'clock it was, and told the maid and boy that they need sit up no longer, CROSS PUEPOSES. 137 as Sir Francis was evidently not coming. Their two rooms being towards the back of the house, both were startled, soon after going up-stairs, by the report of a gun almost immediately under their windows, followed by a loud, wild shriek, and a dull heavy noise, as of some lumbering weight fallinoj to the orround. Havinor listened durino; some moments, and the noise not being repeated, they heard O'Hara locking the front gate, and slowly retiring to his room, where he slammed the door with ano;rv vehemence, when shuttinoj himself up for the night. His servants supposed that the gamekeeper, who lived close beside them, had been firing the charge out of his gun before returning home, as he very frequently did, or that some poachers were enjoying a field-da}^ among the pheasants, and the boy, trutli to say, had no desire to spoil their sport. He fell asleep, therefore, anxiously hoping that if any one were hurt, it might be Stratton the gamekeeper, who was no very special favourite with him, nor with any one, being both passionate and stern, one of those honest but disagreeable people, who are universally respected and disliked. At O'Hara's dwelling, the whole household 138 CROSS PURPOSES. continued to be hushed in silence till three in the morning, when the inhabitants were startled from their slumbers by a vehement, almost frantic ringing at the outer bell. It was pulled again and again, re-echoing through every room in vociferous peals, accompanied by the most fearful of all cries — " Murder ! murder ! help ! help ! murder ! " But a moment of horrid, agonized confusion seemed to elapse, and O^Hara saw a crowd of faces, pale as ashes, livid as death itself, crowded into his small parlour, and the gamekeeper with his assistant, carrying in their trembling arms a dead body, bespattered with blood and dust, stiff, mangled, and ghastly. In the dark, cold moonlight, it had been discovered close under the back windows of O' Harass house. There the under-gumekeeper, when passing from the pursuit of a man whom he saw retreating from that direction, and whom he supposed to be a poacher, had seen that sight of indescribable horror, the shattered remains of a human being, doubled up in a heap, and half-buried in a ditch. The victim had been still breathing, and able to utter an almost inarticulate word or two, when the CROSS PURPOSES. 139 keeper first reached the spot ; but now the dead eyes stared as only dead eyes can, the features were all convulsed, and the whole countenance appeared scarcely human in its expression of mortal agony. While people were all hurrying wildly about as if on purpose to get in each other's way, and before the startled servants could strusrsle forward to see this fearful sight, almost before it seemed possible for any one to have caught a glimpse of the bleeding corpse, O'Hara had rushed impetuously forward, gazed for a moment on that livid face, and then staggering back with a look of blank consternation and horror, ex- claimed in accents of piercing alarm — " How can this be ? Stratton ! you have shot Sir Francis!" Never did any mortal look more fiercely indig- nant than the individual thus rashly accused. He angrily disdained to notice these words, but from that hour he hated the man who uttered them. Silently, with his assistant, he placed the ghastly corpse on a sofa, and after having gazed a moment on the livid countenance, on the white, blood- stained features, he turned sternly towards 140 CEOSS PURPOSES. O'Hara, saying, " I wish those rigid, stony lips could accuse the wretch who did this ! I am glad it did not happen under my window, or I should have thought myself very deaf not to hear the shot!" " I unfortunately thought it was you firing the charge out of your gun on going home for the night," answered O'Hara, quite unconscious of the gamekeeper's angry feelings, while Stratton listened, with a pair of very insidious black eyes fastened suspiciously upon him. " I had seen you go out a few hours before carrying your gun." " And you mean to insinuate that for a game- keeper to be seen carrying his gun is a thing to be very much remarked upon?'' asked Stratton fiercely. " Do not attempt to shift any suspicion on me, for it shall fall on the right shoulders. You ought to be hung up like the ferret nailed on my door, or the crows that are rotting on my wall ! How dare you attempt to throw suspicion on an honest man ? My assistant there, Bantone, will tell you what he knows. Murder will out, and a very black murder this is ! " -All eyes were turned in eager excitement towards Bantone, a rough shaggy-looking indi- CROSS PURPOSES. 141 Yidual, who deposed, that in passing near O'Hara's house, he heard a crashin<2C noise amono; the dead leaves and branches, followed by a low groan, which led him to follow the sound, when he dis- covered Sir Francis still breathing, but so nearly speechless, that to make out a word he said was next to impossible. An instant before he expired, the murdered man gained a momentary strength, and was able to mutter a few incoherent syllables, of which Bantone could only make out these words, — " That treacherous Irishman — I trusted him ! My poor wife, — my poor girls ! Warn them against " The sentence died off inaudibly, and the keeper said he thou<:rht the name that followed beo'an with an Irish O', but he could not be certain. Stratton again fixed his eyes on the ghastly face of his murdered master, and, while all around listened with speechless horror, he added, — " Mr. O'Grady told me this morning that, much against the factor's own will, his accounts were to be overhauled by Sir Francis last evening, and we thouglit it very odd that so late an hour had been appointed. I name no names, but I fear that 142 CROSS PURPOSES. somebody has taken a very short way of settling accounts with our unfortunate master. You all know who is the best shot in this neighbourhood, and Mr. O' Grady was reminding me yesterday that I have seen Mr. O'Hara more than once, at sixty paces, strike the ace of hearts, or snuff out a candle. It would have been well for him now if he had not hit the mark quite so well !" O'Hara seemed as if turned to stone by these few words I He gasped with astonishment ! His eyes became glassy, his lips became livid, his whole countenance, white with sudden alarm, seemed to undergo a collapse, and he tremblingly grasped the back of a chair, but words were denied him. If a cannon had exploded at his ear, — if a shell had fallen at his feet,— he could not have looked more utterly bewildered and amazed. The crowd gathered round him in a state of horrified curiosity, while many, with Stratton, thought the excess of his agitation a certain proof of guilt. After eyeing O'Hara with very obvious suspicion, and omi- nously shaking his head to the agitated crowd of bystanders, Stratton declared that he must in- stantly hurry off to rouse the family at Torchester CROSS PURPOSES. 143 Abbey, saying, " Poor Mr. 0^ Grady was so attached to Sir Francis ! He seemed afraid yesterday that something was very wrong be- tween the factor and my poor master. What will ]Mr. O'Grady say to this ? I must summon him from the Abbey instantly ! His worst fears are worse than realized ! " Stratton saw not that he was followed at a distance by O'Hara, who, with blanched cheeks and trembling lips, vainly endeavoured to over- take and speak to him, but whose limbs shook beneath him as he attempted to hurry onwards, so that those who saw his tottering, uncertain step as he approached the Abbey, thought him intoxicated, while they made many most excellent reflections, quite worthy of attention at a tempe- rance soirde, on the crimes often instigated by intoxication. Stratton hurriedly entered the Abbey by a side-door, of which he had long been allowed a key, flew up-stairs, crashed through the passages, and hastened into the bed-room of O'Grady, whom he found in so very deep a state of repose that it was almost impossible to awaken him. The slow, regular breathings of a man so 144 CROSS PURPOSES. comfortably asleep, were most irritating to any one in the state of wild, hair-upon-end excitement in which Stratton had arrived; and he shook 0' Grady vehemently by the shoulder, while almost angrily muttering to himself, " One might fancy he was shamming. No human sleep was ever like this ! If Mr. O^ Grady dozes thus every night, he must have a very quiet conscience !" The drowsy man at length turned round, and sat up in bed, gazing about with a look of pallid horror and consternation in his countenance which perfectly startled Stratton. His eyes were unnaturally distended, his ashy lips quivered, his cheek was white as the wall, and his whole coun- tenance looked pinched and sharpened with agi- tation ; but in a moment he attempted to recover himself, loudly complaining of having endured a horrible night-mare. Giving a hollow, ghastly laugh, and flaring his eyes wide open, O^ Grady now assumed a tone of irritation, saying, " What brino's you here in the dead of nio;ht? Whv do you rush in like a ball out of a cannon's mouth ? I seem awoke by a thunder-bolt ! My dreams lately have been very frightful, and I was suffering under a dreadful oppression." CROSS PURPOSES. 145 '' That cannot be worse than the reality of what has happened/' answered Stratton, in ac- cents of indescribable horror. " Sir Francis, my master, has been murdered last night in his own park V *' By O'Hara?" exclaimed O'Grady, springing out of bed in consternation, and clutching hold of Stratton's arm with a hand tliat became cold as death. He then busily occupied himself in ga- thering all his scattered garments together, as well as in putting them confusedly on. O'Grady's nervous haste appeared excessive ; but, to the surprise of Stratton, he scarcely asked a single question, uttered a word of regret, or expressed any astonishment at tlie dreadful intelligence. At length, when O'Grady was nearly dressed, he became more composed, and said in a sharp, agi- tated whisper to Stratton, " I have not seen Sir Francis since we were at chapel, but he had some very unpleasant appointment, I know, with his factor at night I So Sir Francis was shot near O'Hara's house?" *' I did not say so. Sir ! but the body was dis- covered immediately under the scullery window there. ]\Iy master's hat was lying in the opposite VOL. I. n 146 CEOSS PURPOSES. direction ; his glove had been violently torn oiF after death, and his poor hand sadly lacerated, apparently with a ring being pulled off." '* That rascal O'Hara ! I have long feared this,'* exclaimed 0' Grady, as if speaking only to him- self; and from that moment, in all that he said to Stratton, his calm voice seemed to grow calmer than ever, and his deliberate step more deliberate ; yet once when he next met Lady Brownlow, for one single moment a dark expression of horror, ter- rible as the convulsion of death, shot athwart his countenance. When Stratton and O'Grady returned to the factor's house, followed at a somewhat timid distance by O'Hara, tliey found the assembled crowd still in a state of wild, confused, and exclamatory horror, not knowing what to think or what to do. One of the bystanders had pointed out the left hand of Sir Francis, from which it was evident that a ring had been roughly torn ; and while many had drawn near, knitting their brows with intense curiosity as well as horror, O'Hara, who at that moment re-entered, exclaimed in accents of deep emotion, — " The ringj ! that rins; ! How dearlv Sir CROSS PUEPOSES. 147 Francis prized that ring, the parting gift of his favourite brother ! Yes, he kept his promise, never, never to part with that till he parted with life itself. Oh ! that Richard Brownlow himself were here ! Perhaps one day that ring may be a clue to the murderer, for it was very remark- able, — an eastern onyx cut into an ape's head, with diamond eyes.'' " It would require very good eyes to see through this fearful mystery," said O'Grady, sternly ; " but it shall be diamond cut diamond with me till I detect the blood-thirsty murderer. Only yesterday my dear lamented benefactor gave me the keys of his escritoire to search for the papers necessary to detect his steward's pecu- lations, and it wanted but a few hours to Mr. O'Hara's dismissal in disgrace. AVe concealed all this from Lady Brownlow, for she, good, excellent, and unsuspicious, has quite a partiality for the wretched man; but now I must explain to her and to every one concerned why I had possession of those keys, which Sir Francis never entrusted to any one but myself." From the moment that Stratton's insinuations against O'Hara became intelligible to the factor h2 148 CROSS PURPOSES. himself, an entire change took place in his whole manner and aspect. He now appeared nervous, hesitating, and timid in whatever he said or did ; and O'Grady having, apparently by accident, placed a bottle of whisky in his way, O'Hara drank off glass after glass, as if to steady his nerves, though the greatness of his excitement prevented it from causing intoxication. When examined by a magistrate, O'Hara now gave so confused and prevaricating an account of all his proceedings during the previous night, that O^Grady, whose self-possession seemed almost superhuman, exclaimed, loud enough for all pre- sent to hear, — " Least said is soonest mended. Would it not be safest to say nothing at all ? " When Lady Brownlow at length arrived at O^Hara's house, she gathered, amid pale faces and whispering voices, the dreadful truth that her husband had been murdered : and with a shrill cry of anguish that rang through the hall, expressing the sharpest agony of human suffering, she sank on the floor in a death-like trance, cold, motion- less, and perfectly insensible. After being re- stored to consciousness, her face remained pallid CROSS PURPOSES. 149 as death, and her very life seemed at once to have been blighted by the inexpressible horror of the fearful event. In the wild paroxysm of her almost frenzied grief, she rocked herself to and fro, trembling like a leaf in the winter blast, while convulsive sobs impeded her utterance, and a low wailing sound alone expressed the unutter- able weight of her woe. It seemed like despair itself more than grief, as she lay passively on her bed, all strength and life itself apparently de- parted. Nothing aroused her from a stupor of bewildering grief till it was communicated to Lady Brownlow that the only person on whom suspicion seemed to rest with any degree of evi- dence was O'Hara. This she heard with the utmost astonishment, and when all the circum- stances had been related to her, Lady Brownlow, with a low quivering sob and a shudder of renewed anguish, expressed her strong and distinct belief that O'Hara was perfectly innocent of her hus- band's assassination. She gathered up her fortitude publicly to state before the \ assembled crowd all that she had seen and suspected during the day of O' Grady. She declared that O'Hara had always merited the esteem of Sir Francis for integrity, 150 CROSS PURPOSES. and that in his most confidential moments he never had expressed a doubt of his factor's entire honesty. White and sad was her face, but very- decided when she said he had never mentioned to her any intention to examine O'Hara's accounts, nor the least suspicion against him ; and she could not but observe that every report of their being garbled had originated with his declared enemy O^ Grady, of whose own trustworthiness she had the very gravest doubts. When Lady Brownlow, with blanched cheeks and quivering lips, her head bowed down with anguish, stunned and giddy, bore this solemn testimony to the faithfulness of O'Hara's services, the warm-hearted Irishman clasped his hands over his face, ashamed to betray his overwhelming emotion, and burst into a paroxysm of tears, while there was a flash in the eyes of O' Grady perfectly terrific to behold. The anxious spectators looked sternly on at this burst of feeling, perplexed what to think. Some one must have shot Sir Francis, for he had evidently not committed suicide. A gun had been found buried in the dead leaves, which was identified as belongino- to O'Hara, but the fatal CROSS PURPOSES. 161 bullet, when extracted from Sir Francis's body, proved much too large for the suspected musket, which was itself in so dilapidated a state that it would have burst with half a charge. Stratton felt some of that mysterious pleasure, undeniably common in human nature, at the mis- fortunes of another, and parties were running high against the devoted factor, w^hen O' Grady, his face like marble, suddenly stepped forward, and in a firm, hard, distinct voice, but sepulchral, as if it came from a tomb, accused O'Hara of having shot Sir Francis Brownlow from the back window of his house ; and after summing up what- ever evidence he could adduce, altered to suit his own purpose, suggested that the factor should be taken into custody on suspicion of being the assassin. During O'Grady's whole speech, he seemed addressing himself to Stratton, w4io was evidently flattered by obtaining so much notice, and became at once his zealous friend and supporter in all he chose to affirm, shrinking away from O'Hara as if he were already convicted, and looking daorgers of accusation afjrainst the unfortunate factor, which had a powerful effect on the spec- 152 CROSS PURPOSES. tators. O'Hara seemed petrified with astonish- ment and apprehension. He stood erect, and stared almost vacantly before hira in a state of stuplfied silence. He could not think, he could only feel utterly and entirely wretched, while O'Grady insinuated to all around that the accused was in a state of idiotical intoxication shameful to behold, and very suspicious too. " O'Hara is endeavouring to look particularly sober, but it does not come off well," he whispered, in a tone of deprecating gentleness to Stratton, slowly dropping out his words as if unwilling to be severe ; '^ his best plan, when examined, will be to say, like Sir Isaac Newton, * All I know is, that I know nothing.^ Non mi ricordo ! He must have done the deed in a fit of tipsy irrita- tion. Never was man so violent as he when really drunk.^^ O'Hara at last became roused from his appa- rently helpless depression, and suddenly foamed up into a state of effervescence at once, when he caught the malignant eye of O^ Grady upon him with a look of insidious triumph. Advancing, therefore, with a firm step to where the body of Sir Francis lay, he gently placed his hand with CROSS PUEPOSES. 153 reverential emotion on the corpse, exclaiming, in accents of piercing emotion — " Oh ! that an angel from heaven could now appear to proclaim the truth ! My benefactor and friend, I am not an assassin ; and if by word, deed, or action, I ever injured you, let my eyes that look upon this injured countenance be blasted for life ! In the presence of my murdered master, I swear to my own innocence, and that never was man more zealously devoted to another than I have ever most honestly, most truly been to Sir Francis Brownlow !" " This melo-dramatic acting does not alter the facts,^^ observed O' Grady, in a cold, business-like tone ; " an eruption of eloquence may bury the truth like Herculaneum itself, but it cannot alter the evidence. Whatever is the power of oratory,, we must not let ourselves be, as certain people- are, intoxicated! If any one has the barest- scruple of a doubt respecting Mr. O'Hara's guilt, give him the benefit of their doubts. I have not a grain." One glance of bitter hate the two exchanged, and their eyes seemed to burn each other with a scorching glare; then O'Hara, in a tone subdued II 3 154 CEOSS PUKPOSES. by the fierceness of his indignation to a perfect whisper, said, in a voice that he vainly tried to steady — *' I may be conquered by your satanic cunning now ; I am abeady ruined by it, utterly, utterly ruined ; but a just judgment will yet be pro- nounced in heaven and earth on the true mur- derer of Sir Francis Brownlow. The evidence collected against me seems likely to become as complete as any that ever sent an innocent man to the gallows, but it is entu'ely false ! Terence " O'Grady ! you can measure my wretchedness now as indifferently as an undertaker measures a corpse, but if there be justice above or below, you and I shall onfe day change places !" O'Hara's words, which rushed from him with almost savage vehemence, formed a strange con- trast to the language of O'Grady, cold, petrifying, and deliberate as a snow-fall, when he replied — " I have not the ghost of a doubt, say what he will, that there stands Patrick O'Hara, the mur- derer of Sir Francis ! " At the inquest which followed, Lady Brownlow, with noble dignity and generous warmth, gave her testimony so decidedly in favour of O'Hara, CROSS PURPOSES. 155 that she produced a strong reaction in his favour before the coroner, though O' Grady perse- veringly shook his head, as people generally shake their heads when confident that they are right, and that everybody else is wrong. The whole mystery seemed clothed in impenetrable darkness. What Lady Brownlow related in respect to O' Grady proved nothing against him, and O'Hara was finally liberated, though evidently under very strong suspicion of having committed the murder. There arose, indeed, a stifled hissing and groaning throughout the inquest-room, which was, however, instantly checked, when the jury brought in their verdict, " Killed by some person or persons unknown." "Yes!" whispered O'Grady aside to Stratton. " But the jury recommend Mr. O'Hara not to do it again.'' The prisoner laboured evidently under most overwhelming emotions when he found himself restored to liberty, but it struck him to the very heart that not one of his old friends or neisch- hours held out a hand of kindness on the occasion. He stood alone in that crowd ! O'Hara cast one fevered glance around, on all the averted eyes of 156 CEOSS PURPOSES. those who had once esteemed and respected him, but there was the agony of a life-time in that single moment, . for the unhappy man saw — he could not but see — that, though legally acquitted by a jury, he had been placed for ever under the ban of society. He felt, indeed, deserted, and in the agony of his proud spirit, death itself would have been a thousand times preferable to life on such terms. Before the jury retired, O'Hara, his voice trembling in the very depths of anguish, and his eye, nevertheless, blazing in the fierceness of his indignation, grasped the arm of O'Grady, when the accuser was about to make a hurried exit, and spoke in hoarse, deep accents, with an intensity of emotion that stayed every retreating footstep, as he sternly exclaimed — " One of us shall hereafter be hung for this murder, O'Grady, and that one shall not be me! The eje of God already sees the guilty assassin, but the eye of man shall yet detect him too, or my name is not Patrick O'Hara. Go where you may, yours is a black destiny now, and my eye shall for ever be upon you. There shall not be room enough in this world for us both, and one or other must die on a scaffold. Where a murderer CROSS PURPOSES. 157 treads, the ground is withered — where he breathes, the air is fire — where he eats, his food is poison ; and wander where you may, I am on your track. Danger and death shall pursue you hke blood- hounds to the gallows at last." O' Grady stood like a rock amid the foaming surf, with his ice-like face turned coldly towards O'Hara, who became more and more excited, while he paused, gasping for breath like a hard- run horse, his nostrils distended, and his eyes dilated w^th wild, reckless agony, as he added — " I never conceived one thought against my benefactor. Yes ! my benefactor and yours ! His last words applied to you, only you ; and all here shall one day know that fact, if the power of man can bring out the truth. Friends and neighbours, you cannot surely suppose me, your old familiar acquaintance, a red-handed murderer, a midnight assassin ! What does it avail me to be acquitted by any jury, if I am condemned in the hearts of those who ought to know me better ? Every suspicious glance around me this day is burned on my brain in characters of fire ; yet I disdain any appeal to my former character, for you all know that its honesty and truth has been my pride and 158 CROSS PURPOSES. honour from boyhood. Henceforth I shall become a benighted traveller along the road of human life, accused falsely of the blackest crime that can stain humanity, and every finger will point at me as the man who was tried for murdering his benefactor. My own conscience abjures the calumny, and this man knows its utter false- hood." There was an intensity in O'Hara's look and voice almost appalling, while the flash of his eye made even 0' Grady quail, as the accused man added, in tones of wringing anguish, *^ If my life only had been threatened, I should have parted with that now, and not felt a momentary regret, but my reputation is far more precious ; yet the weary drag of disgrace must weigh me down for ever along my path of existence. Yesterday I was happy, honoured, trusted, and beloved; to-day I am become the most wretched thing that lives. Who has caused this , O'Grady, who^ Tremble, then, for my just and righteous vengeance ! Oh ! let me not die unrevenged! I ask but justice, and that justice is, to see you stand in the opinion of all men where I do now. To that end I dedicate every remaining hour of my life I " CROSS PUEPOSES. 159 There was something savagely terrific, yet lofty and emphatic, in the look and attitude of O'Hara ; but suddenly his whole aspect changed to the deepest sensibility, and his voice fell into accents of profound emotion, as he added, with trembling agitation, which he vainly endeavoured to command — " It shall be my consolation through a dreary existence of un pitied misery, that my generous benefactress. Lady Brownlow, has nobly stood my friend when all others failed. If any prayer of mine shall be granted on this weary earth, let it be that I may serve her in an hour of need, as she has served me to-day." O'Hara clasped his hands fervently together, and while he looked solemnly upwards, large tears coursed each other down his face. He stood thus for some moments wrapped in agonizing thought, and then, covering up his eyes, he wept for several minutes like a child, while sobs loud and deep convulsed his whole frame. " Really,'^ whispered O' Grady, fixing his cold, pitiless eyes on O'Hara, "his words come pelting out hke hail-stones ! Luckily for me, I am in a sort of patent-safety van for the present. 160 CROSS PURPOSES. Demosthenes might envy that man his eloquence, but it is very inconvenient in its eiFects to one lie detests, like poor inoffensive me. I was sorry to throw a stone into the glass house of O'Hara's respectability, but it could not be helped. As nothing in this world lasts for ever, and nothing lasts long with O^Hara, I must hope he may at length forget his un- accountable hatred to poor innocent Terence 'Grady. I do believe, poor wretch, he already regrets having committed the fearful crime." These words having partly reached the ear of O'Hara, roused him anew to a state of almost delirious excitement, and his loud angry vehemence told ill upon all the common, ordinary minds around, compared with the imperturbable calmness of his adversary, who listened with a pale cold smile to a burning torrent of angry declamation which followed from O'Hara, and which had no more effect on him to whom it was all addressed than a stone thrown into the Dead Sea. A silence of some moments followed, but it was like the silence before an earthquake. At length O'Hara exclaimed sternly, '' You deeply-dyed hypocrite ! is your face a mask. CROSS PURPOSES. 161 that no expression of guilt or shame appears there ! You have baited me on to destruc- tion, but I shall talk, think, or dream of nothing, pray for nothing night and day, winter and summer_, but that you may stand here- after in the sight of man as you are now in the sight of God, a treacherous assassin ! While a heart beats in my breast, it shall beat for that one only object. It is not to-day, nor to-morrow only, that I shall be busy about it, but months, and weeks, and years, shall make no change. Till one of us is in his coffin, 0' Grady, I shall never be at rest, but shall hunger for revenge, and could gladly die for re- venge. Let me be but the man to knot a cord on your life, O^ Grady, and I care not if the next moment be my last." O' Grady stood during this address meek and motionless, his arms folded, his eyes cast down, his eye-brows somewhat elevated, but not one single indication of anger could be traced in his whole aspect. His very dress looked as if cut in stone, and his whole attitude was one of pro- found humility and of hard-hearted cunning, as he said in a low tone of forced composure, 162 CEOSS PUKPOSES. "I pity you for those unbridled passions. See what they have brought you to now ! May a timely repentance bring you pardon from the laws of your country, as freely as I oflfer it myself to you now!" '^May those have pardon who most require it ! " replied O'Hara expressively. " The verdict of another world will at all events reach the true criminal. From this hour I shall fly the face of every living man who has hitherto known me. I will not remain here, to be deserted among my former friends, to be shunned among mankind, to be alone in the most crowded meetings, to have my glance avoided like that of a basilisk, all through the treacherous machina- tions of that man, who introduced himself as a friend, who has at this hour turned every heart to flint against me, and who has nearly brought on me a felon's doom ! Each day of life is, to each living man, a day of judgment, on which we are judged by our fellow-men ; but, my friends and neighbours, when that final day comes, in which there can be no mistake, you will all regret having in your secret minds condemned Patrick O'Hara as a lurkiDpj assassin." CROSS PURPOSES. 163 "He always speaks best when a very little intoxicated," whispered O' Grady to Stratton, in a particularly amiable and confidential tone. " I know many Irishmen with whom that is the case. Poor O'Hara ! I saw him nearly sober the day before yesterday, and he looked so different, quite respectable and composed." " None of us could look very composed under an accusation of murder," answered Stratton, relentiogly, for there was a truthful eloquence in O'Hara's manner, almost irresistible. O' Grady's ill-timed jocularity would have seemed, even to his reverential listener, Stratton, rather mal- apropos, had not the gamekeeper's feelings become steeled again by thinking that the accused was levelling a hit against his own profession, when O'Hara added with indignant reproachfulness to those around— " I, who never hurt bird, beast, insect, or living creature, man, woman, or boy, have narrowly escaped being thrust shivering into irons within a condemned cell, by an unprovoked enemy, who would willingly pluck out my heart and trample it in the dust; but not one of 164 CROSS PURPOSES. you, my old friends, has stepped forward to my rescue. O^Grady, observe my words; life has been to me one scene of many misfortunes, yet never in my long experience did any man who injured me thrive himself. I have invariably •observed, without any endeavour on my part, the utter ruin of all who ever betrayed me. It is strange but true! Let it, as long as life remains, ring upon your brain, sleeping or waking, that I am as a hound upon the scent; my sole object in existence, for which I live, move, or breathe, to detect and bring to the gallows that butcher, for whose dark, deadly, hideous crime, I have this day been tried. Meanwhile, may your pillow every night be as a pillow of fire !" O'Grady seemed no more to mind the impre- cation of his vehement adversary than if it had been the barking of a little terrier dog; yet beneath his lowered eye-lids there lay concealed a world of abject fear, as well as of scornful hatred, as he turned away, saying half-aloud, "What sober, innocent man ever spoke in that hectoring style? I have always foreseen that chains and darkness, straw and Bedlam, would be his doom at last ! O'Hara would shoot his CROSS PURPOSES. 165 grandfather for gin, and trust me, Stratton, the gibbet has been cheated to-day of its due." " Xo one knows that better than yourself," exclaimed O'Hara, following. " How, in the name of the gallows, are you at liberty ? But see if your sleep be ever sound again, or your heart, if you have one, at rest." '^ May we never meet more, either in this world or in another ! " answered O'Grady with a ghastly laugh. " I declare, Stratton, he looks like a detected pickpocket. He is attempting to ride the high horse of pretended innocence, but I have got him down now, and down he shall remain.'' When O'Hara disappeared from the room, he looked undone, and he felt so ; but when O'Grady vanished, a smile of triumph gleamed in his dark, sinister eyes ; it was as if some demon spirit were suddenly revealed in his fierce-looking counte- nance, and he muttered to himself, " O'Hara is now an exploded mine, incapable of doing me further mischief, but he must be watched and crushed." " No voice to pity, and no hand to greet." 166 CROSS PURPOSES. CHAPTEE VI. " still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labour and to wait." Longfellow. Lady Brownlow, in the dark, wide, dreary gulf of sorrow around her, had so excellently consti- tuted a nature, that it seemed impossible for her to help being amiable, or ever to be entirely engrossed with her own sufferings. She was excellent by disposition, — by choice and even by accident, always kind, always considerate, always generous, and actively good. Late on the evening of the inquest, she learned from a remark of her maid's, that a general conviction had been propagated — no one exactly knew how — among her servants, that O'Hara, though acquitted by a jury, had been really the murderer of Sir Francis, a crime committed to conceal the garbled state of his accounts. During several minutes after hearing this, Lady Brownlow sat in very deep thought, while CROSS PURPOSES. 167 it appeared as if her grief had for a moment become quelled by some great reflection of over- whelming importance. The generous soul of Lady Brownlow was roused by the idea of that high-spirited, clever, though faulty man, about to be crushed down to the earth by an undeserved imputation of murder ; and after an hour of very prayerful deliberation she suddenly rung the bell, and orave orders for her whole establishment to assemble in the library, and she desired, at the same time, that Mr. O'Hara should be sent for to meet her there. If ever any one inspired an enthusiastic reve- rence among her domestics, it was Lady Brown- low ; and now it occurred with no ordinary feelings of emotion that the servants found themselves assembled in the presence of their deeply afflicted mistress. Even the most insignificant of human beings creates, when under the cloud of a great sorrow, much consideration ; but every eye filled with tears when, with a long-drawn, shuddering sigh of intense anguish, she slowly entered, pale as death, and her eyes already dimmed by grief. Lady Brownlow, every feature quivering with agitation, glanced round the room, and seeing 168 CEOSS PURPOSES. O'Hara aloof from all the others, with haggard countenance, and tight-drawn, bloodless lips, the very image of despair, a gleam of noble com- passion lighted up her countenance for the moment, and, deliberately advancing, she held out her hand to him, saying, " Let all here bear witness that I believe the acquittal of O'Hara this day to be perfectly just. It is my desire publicly to declare my conviction of his entire innocence, and to request that you will all testify it for me." O'Hara felt as if the grateful throbbing of his heart must be heard aloud ; his lip quivered, his whole face became convulsed, and it was long before he recovered sufficient composure to arti- culate one syllable. At last, in broken but vehement accents, he exclaimed, " There are no human words that can half express my utter abhorrence of that fearful deed. May lightning destroy me this instant if I ever harmed Sir Francis, or if ever I forget your kindness now. Lady Brownlow ! Give me some task of danger, or of death itself, — the more hazardous the better, — to testify my gratitude, and I shall die happy." After one great grief, it appears to the sufferer CROSS PURPOSES. 169 as if nothing else could ever be felt again, and Lady Brownlow's afflicted heart seemed now to suffer a complete collapse ; but she sent without delay for Daniel Brownlow to take charge of affixirs for her children, and anxiously awaited his arrival. All external nature looked the same as ever at Torchester Abbey, when the sun shone gloriously on its woods and forests next day; but how changed was every scene to those who lived there, for the whole bright landscape seemed to Lady Brownlow as mournful as if covered with crape ! The black-coated, white-neckclothed, blandly polite Mr. Daniel Brownlow, who appeared next morning, was too much a man of business to seem very greatly disconcerted by the startling event in his family. He had now become quite a flash London man of fashion, and was always im- mensely got-up in eccentric costumes and Palais Royal jewellery. He usually copied from every creature's best, imitating the more fashionable among his clients. Lord Tipperary^s odd-looking hat, Lord Brentford's remarkable tie. General CHfford's exquisite hair-dressing, and the Duke of Wolverton's peculiar coat, were all united in a VOL. I. I 17Q CROSS PURPOSES. sort of pic-nic costume in his person. Many- people found " old Brownie" — as he was already- called among his associates, on account of being quite " an old hand" — a most convenient agent, as whatever affair in business had to be very privately- discussed with closed doors, he was the surest man to consult. No one could equal Daniel Brownlow for rescuing his clients, by the most ingenious doublings and windings, out of a difficulty, pro- vided his friends were not troublesomely consci- entious as to the means, and he had lately become, on the strength of various extraordinary successes in manoeuvring, as consequential as if he were Lord Chancellor, or at least Master of the Eolls. Daniel's letters to his brother Kichard were the perfection of diplomacy, as his great object in them was to keep his brother abroad, therefore he gave anything but an inviting picture of events at the Abbey ; and now he felt a melancholy pleasure in thinking that the whole affairs of Torchester, with the guardianship of his young nieces, would pro- bably devolve on himself alone. Richard must certainly not be allowed to come home ! That was the resolution carried nem. con. in Daniel's own CROSS PURPOSES. 171 mind, as he alighted from his carriage on arriving at Torchester Abbey, and with dignified gravity- took possession of every key or paper he could lay his experienced hands on. Next morning, when Daniel Brownlow and Mr. 0' Grady proceeded to examine the repositories of Sir Francis, the first scrap of writing the attorney found was a large sheet of paper, on which some one had evidently been practising a signature like that of Sir Francis. Several of these autographs were very well imitated, and some otherwise, but all assumed more or less a likeness to the deceased Baronet's writing, who had himself made a memo- randum on the outside, that having accidentally found this fragment, he must investigate who had been copying his signature, and for what purpose. '* My brother may not probably have completed any testamentary disposition," observed the attor- ney, in a half-legal, half-melancholy tone ; ** he always thought the signing of a will like sending a card of invitation to death." " Sir Francis knew his duty too well not to leave a will," replied O'Grady, demurely ; '' you will certainly find one." " The last book my lamented brother read in i2 172 CROSS PURPOSES. this world was one found in his pocket, with your name inscribed on it," said Daniel, casting a searching glance at O' Grady. '' Do you approve of the sentiments in this work?" '' It is written by the greatest and best of modern saints," replied O'Grady, reverentially, " St. Alphonso Liguori, canonized by Cardinal Wiseman." " It would be difficult to find a more villainous code of virtue than that worthy saint's," observed Daniel, sneeringly ; " and this extract from Casnedi * is in the same spirit: ' I may desire my father s death, either as an evil to my father, which is not lawful, or as an advantage to myself. In the former manner it is not permitted; in the latter it is. This doctrine should be made familiar to all those who desire a good which they can only obtain by the death of another, as it constantly happens in every station, in peace or war, in every secular or ecclesiastical dignity!' Do you approve of these opinions, Mr. O'Grady?" " If I do !" replied he, gloomily, " what then?" '' Why, then, I would rather not walk out * Charles Anthony Casnedi. "Crisis Theologica," torn. v. disp. 13, sect. 3. CROSS PURPOSES. 173 with you after dark," replied Daniel, sternly. *' If I lived in the house with any one who considered indulgences ' the most precious and sublime of gifts to man,' able even to remit those sins which we intend to commie, I should immediately ensure my own life without delay, and lock up my purse ! '' Mr. Brownlow found that the locking up process was rather too late, Avhen he most unexpectedly discovered a will made by Sir Francis, apparently but three months previously, under the dictation evidently of Mr. O^ Grady. In that document, all which Sir Francis possessed the power of be- queathing on earth was left, first, to be divided between his two little daughters, and failing them, the whole of his unentailed property to a set of Popish trustees, to be expended entirely at their discretion. The sole guardianship of his children was entrusted, not to their excellent mother, not to his brothers, Richard and Daniel, but to O^Grady, or as Daniel bitterly called him, " Mr. O' Greedy." As the Cardinal Archbishop of Ham- mersmith was named also guardian, it became obvious that the children would be taken from their home, and buried for life in a convent, if not 174 CROSS PURPOSES. previously buried in their graves; and that, either way, their heirs, guardians and executors, might now take sole possession of all that Alderman Brownlow had so long and laboriously amassed. Never were words more truly applicable than thesCj " He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." Seldom has a more astonished countenance been seen than Mr. Brownlow's, when he slowly, care- fully, and most deliberately examined this very strange document. Soon afterwards, Daniel's pale, almost ghastly face, appearing suddenly in Lady Brownlow' s boudoir, almost prepared her to hear some new tidings of horror ; but the worst of her apprehensions did not equal the dreadful reality, when the intelligence was gradually broken to her that those two lovely girls, who were all in all to their bereaved mother, had been sacrificed by their own father to the all-devouring Moloch of con- ventualism. With a groan of intense, almost of despairing anguish. Lady Brownlow, as soon as she took in the whole truth, fell senseless on the floor, as if a thunderbolt had struck her. The dull sound of her fall went to the very heart of her mourning CROSS PURPOSES. 175 attendants, wlio rushed in and conveyed her to bed, still apparently petrified and conDpletely bewildered. She saw the pale, sad faces of those who attended on her, but they seemed to be only the flitting forms in some dreadful dream; and as they closed her shutters to keep out the light of heaven from her mournful chamber, Lady Brownlow felt her heart die within her. Then the whole extent of this calamity to the children became more and more clear to her understanding, bereaved, desolate, and perfectly helpless as she felt to succour them. Her whole feelings were strung up now to the extremest pitch of human suffering. She felt herself cheated of her children ; she felt that her children were cheated of their inheritance; she felt that, body and soul, they would both be ruined; and she felt that it was not the real will of Sir Francis, by w^iich all this cruel mischief was to be done ; yet how could any effort of hers avert the very worst ? Never was there a sadder or a drearier heart than Lady Brownlow's; but when the very heaviest blow that can reach the heart of any woman has fallen on her, she seems often help- lessly, yet with something like calmness, to rest 176 CKOSS PUEPOSES. on her despair. Ladj Brownlow's very being appeared as if suddenly severed in two, and as she lay in her solitary bed, it felt to her like the death-bed of hope. Bewildered, petrified, almost delirious with anguish, she could scarcely even form her thoughts to prayer, but became stupified into silence, till at length the doctor, who had been sent for to rouse her from this state of stony, almost dan- gerous insensibility, brought the two little girls into the room. The heart-broken mother then clasping them both in her arms, as if she feared an instant separation, burst into a paroxysm of tears, prayers, and lamentations, which relieved her overburthened spirit, and actually saved her life or her reason, w^hile the frightened and ao-itated children cluno' sobbino; round her neck. Had Lady Brownlow alone been the sufferer by this fearful will, she might have remained inert as death itself, and broken her heart in silence ; but her two innocent young girls must be thought for, felt for, praj^ed for, and, if possible, protected from ruin. Often did she wish the good, honest- hearted BIchard had been at home, for she felt no confidence whatever in Daniel. He lived with CROSS PURPOSES. 177 a single eye to his own interest, and recklessly clutched every guinea -within his reach, so that Lady Brownlow felt now as if she could not have trusted him with the affairs of her Blenheim spaniel. She knew that as a boy he would have swindled his own mother, if opportunity offered ; and he was so arrant a moral coward, that to withstand a powerful priesthood in defence of her children, was what Lady Brownlow could not feel certain lie would do, especially as several of his own most lucrative clients happened to be Papists. Daniel Brownlow — without any parti- cular faith or principles — was a mere animal, living like the brutes for instinct and passion. He had no enjoyment in the sentiments or feelings of an intellectual being ; he never reflected on the higher duties or nobler pleasures of life ; and he never considered seriously that his was an immortal and responsible existence ; therefore he regarded nothing beyond his own immediate will and pleasure, till, during a life of shuffling, manceuvring, and over-reaching, his heart had become petrified to stone. Nevertheless, Daniel being himself in some distant degree personally interested in the entail i3 178 CROSS PURPOSES. of the Torchester property, which might be cut off entirely by the girls when they came of age, saw that it was his interest by every possible or impossible scheme to discover some flaw in his brother's will, but he tried in vain. It was com- posed by a Jesuit lawyer, witnessed by Jesuit perverts, and it bequeathed thousands to the Jesuit Church ; but though the whole document appeared so flagrantly drawn up under Jesuit influence, yet there seemed to Daniel no disputing that the children must be given up to their Jesuit guardians. It became evident, then, that Tor- chester Abbey must hereafter be transformed into a convent, in which the girls would themselves be imprisoned for life, and that the Protestant mother would immediately be deprived of her children by a legal process. Daniel, foreseeing the fate of Torchester Abbey, and the destruction of his own prospects in that property, angrily tore his hair with vexation, but he could not tear the will I There it stood, as firm and indisputable a piece of rascality as if he had perpetrated the deed himself! and there, without the possibility of dispute, it must remain. The look of unutterable anguish with which CROSS PURPOSES. 179 Lady Brownlow gazed at her darling girls after hearing from Daniel that the evil was without remedy, haunted the memory of all who saw it to their dying hour. Her pale face became whiter than the handkerchief in her hand, and her eyes were full of startled anguish, which gave them a lustre almost supernatural. Lady Brownlow seemed at first unable to breathe or move, while her rigid lips long refused to utter a sound. Any statue would have seemed to possess as much sense or motion ; for her aspect was that of death itself, except for the tremulous convulsiveness around her lips, and the low sobs which burst from her breaking heart. This did not, however, last long, for the Chris- tian mother felt that she must not deliver herself up to helpless despondency when those dearer to her than life required her aid. There had always been hitherto in the character of Lady Brownlow a firmness, dignity, and gentleness, so blended together that, like the tints of a rainbow, no one could have told where the one melted into the other. Now Lady Brownlow, pale as a corpse, and after a night-mare sleep of most feverish restless- ness, suddenly became as composed as if she had 180 CROSS PUEPOSES. been a spirit from another world, whom no vicis- situdes could reach, and she rose from her bed earlj next morning without one external evidence of agitation, except that her beautiful face had become rigid as iron ; there was a firm compression of her pale lips, and a deep pathos in her low but steady voice. In this her hour of extremity, Lady Brownlow sent for O'Hara I She knew him to be rash, hot- headed, clever, full of faults, yet with generous impulses, and above all, she firmly believed he would be true to herself and to her children, Avere it to cost him his life. She knew and felt how gladly he would lay it down to prove his grati- tude, therefore Lady Brownlow resolved to claim his help, conscious that he would thank her for doing so ; yet, while she awaited his appearance, seated in her di'^ssing-room, there was the stamp of cold despair in her every feature, and the rest- lessness of agony in every breath she drew. When O'Hara stood before Lady Brownlow, no homage paid to an empress was ever more profound or more sincere than that which the warm-hearted feelings of the Irishman dictated towards his benefactress. When he ventured to CROSS PUEPOSES. 181 raise his eyes, it seemed as if the very shadow of death were abeady upon the afflicted widow, whose aspect of spectral paleness was perfectly startling as she looked up for a moment, and made a sign for him to be seated. O'Hara's lip quivered^ his eye became moistened with tears, and a deep red flush passed over his face for a moment; but he sat down without utter- ing a word, and a very solemn pause ensued. He Avaited anxiously to hear what communication trembled on the lip of his revered benefactress, and felt all the impressive dignity of her manner, when she said, with a voice scarcely audible from agitation, — " O'Hara ! you are of a grateful nature ! You have always over-estimated any little services which my good wishes and intentions have enabled me to render to you and yours ; but were they ten thousand times redoubled, an opportunity has occurred to-day by which you could more than return every kindness." "I thank God for that!" exclaimed O'Hara, with solemn energy. " Oh ! if I can have one earthly wish granted, it would be to serve my noble benefactress. I can cfive those tears to 182 CROSS PURPOSES. gratitude now which anguish and despair had frozen. Let me but lay down my life for you and the children, Lady Brownlow, now, and I could die contented." " You must live, O'Hara, and you must help us. I know you will be glad to do my little girls and me a most inestimable service." " I desire no greater happiness ; I can imagine no higher honoui'," replied O'Hara earnestly. " If every other earthly hope were extinct, I could live for that." " I believe you, O^Hara. I am about to place in you the most sacred confidence that a heart- broken and perhaps dying mortal can place in a faithful and trusted friend. Never was any one a more implicit believer ia the good intentions of another than I am in yours, O'Hara," replied Lady Brownlow, closing her eyes, and remainuig for several minutes in very solemn thought, perhaps in prayer. There was a fixed agony in Lady Brownlow's benumbed features almost startling to look at, and when she spoke again, it was in a low medi- tative voice, but full of dignity, as she thought- fully added — CEOSS PURPOSES. 18S " The last few days have entirely shattered my fragile constitution. I would cling to life on my children's account, — but no! For me, days and hours must soon be no more. The wing of time is bearing ine onwards to the verge of eternity, and I have but one regret. Look there, O'Hara, at my two young girls, happy in their ignorance of the past and future. Think what a mother's feelings must be, when I would rather they were placed in the coffin beside me to-morrow than that they lived to endure the fearful fate decreed for them by their father's suppositious will. It cannot be genuine, O'Hara ! You know that it cannot be considered a true will, but it is considered a legal one. What can I do?" " I would give millions that their good and kind uncle, Richard, were at home. He might think of some resource I A dark dungeon for life, with bread and water, would be better than the destiny that awaits your daughters ; for there, at least, they would be protected by the law from further evil, but within the walls of a convent there is no law except the will of a tyrannical priest," answered O'Hara, with honest bluntness. " Who can tell for what they are destined ? but 184 CEOSS PURPOSES. only say that Tve can rescue them, Lady Brown- low, and fire or water, life or death, are as nothing to me in comparison of serving them and you." "It is not in human tears or in human prayers to reach that man O'Grady, who seeks to take my girls away. 'No I his eyes are like those of a rattle- snake, and I feel like a fluttering bird when under his gaze. He never looks human in his expres- sion, and it is he who is to rob me of my children ! " Lady Brownlow riveted her hands convulsively together, and turned her streaming eyes towards heaven. Then, solemnly pointing upwards, she added, in a tone of im^^ressive seriousness, " I am about to place in your hands a sacred trust, O'Hara! When we all meet in that unseen world hereafter, where I shall very soon go, may you have been such a faithful steward for me, the dying mother of those orphan girls, that God shall reward and bless you ! Take my thanks already, for I know an honest face from a mask, and I see you are to be trusted." O'Hara's usual eloquence forsook him now. Every nerve of his face quivered with agitation, and words were not needed, when his whole coun- CROSS PURPOSES. 185 tenance showed such sincerity, that any oath in a court of justice would scarcely have been half so binding as his own inward resolution at the moment. Lady Brownlow seemed now about to impart her plan of action, and had tried once or twice to begin, but her voice failed, so that no sound was audible for some minutes but the ceaseless tickinir of an old clock. Suddenly, however, O'Hara started, listened intensely for a moment, and then sprang towards a door close beside him, which led into a narrow passage. He endeavoured with almost frantic energy to open it, but, contrary to the usual practice of the house, it had been locked outside, and though he almost instantly burst it open, nothing could then be seen or heard but the distant shadow of a man's figure disappearing, and the sound of a hasty step retreating. A far-off door slammed hurriedly afterwards, and all was silent as death. "It was he!" exclaimed O'llara, panting for breath, as he re-entered the library from his fruit- less pursuit. " Wherever O'Grady is, there walls have ears ! I should want courage, Lady Brown- low, to face a prolonged existence of disgrace, but for two motives. My present sufferings should be 186 CEOSS PURPOSES. ended in the nearest pool but for the expectation of serving you, and of being honourably revenged on that plausible villain, O'Grady. These are the hopes for which I can consent to breathe yet in a world grown utterly hateful to me ! Fortune has been a cruel step-mother to me of late !" " I trust you will find higher motives for which to live^ and better thoughts with which to die," answered Lady Brownlow gravely, rising and feebly leading the way to her own boudoir, where she could feel secure from all listeners. " I have little strength left now to speak, and no time to losCj for my hour-glass is very nearly run out. O'Hara !" continued she, when they were safely seated beyond ear-shot, " my husband gave me, when we married, entire and unquestionable con- trol over the 5,000^. which my kind old father bestowed on me as a portion. Here are all the papers on that subject, along with my own legal deed, written this day, transferring the entire sum to you. Need I say, O'Hara, that it is a trust placed in your hand for my girls, and for purposes connected with their safety which I am about to explain V^ O'Hara received the packet, his eyes respect- CEOSS PURPOSES. 187 fully fixed on Lady Brownlow to lose not a word of her instructions, while the documents evidently had no value to him except in relation to the use he was about to hear that they were destined for, and he stood before his benefactress listening intensely for the low whisper in which she now spoke, saying, in trembling accents, — *' It is late in the evening now, yet you must arrange for the children and their maid escaping with me from the house this night. My only wonder is that O'Grady, pretending to act as a legal guardian, has not already taken my girls into his own custody. To-morrow they become either his or mine for ever V O'Hara's eyes brightened as Lady Brownlow spoke, for he seemed at once to take up the possi- bility of their escape, and he clenched his hands over the back of a chair on which he leaned, say- ing with fervent animation, " It would surround all my future years with a perfect glory of happi- ness, could I rescue those children from the snare of O'Grady. If you have formed any plan. Lady Brownlow, say but the word, and it is done ! To serve you and to circumvent that villain, — there can scarcely be such felicity on earth for poor 188 CPvOSS PURPOSES. unfortunate me ! I had intended never to hope again, but there is a gleam on my path once more which restores me to myself. Has any scheme occurred to you ?" " Yes I" interrupted Lady Brownlow, subduing the strong agony at her heart, and speaking with firmness ; " my scheme has been thought upon, slept upon, dreamed upon, and with your help it shall now be acted on. I must escape with my children and their nurse this nisrht. If we are overtaken, they are lost for ever, body and soul. Then I should have no power to keep them, for I cannot prove what I know, that the will is a forgery. Still I am not bound to obey a false deed. An emigrant vessel sails at twelve o'clock to-morrow night from Liverpool, and touches at Cork, where I have friends, who will receive me and assist my plan of concealment. We must take the express train to-night, which starts at one in the morning. 'We embark to-morrow by sea, land in Ireland, and seek out my friends ; but, O'Hara, if I do not long survive, — and life seems to me now an affair of only \^'eeks or months, — you are the only Protestant guardian to whom I can bequeath my children till Richard CROSS PURPOSES. 189 returns. Place them in some good school mean- ■while, under assumed names ; pass them oif as your relatives till they come of age ; and always keep in your own private care ample proofs of their identity." " That must be particularly attended to/^ said O^Hara ; "and I shall obtain the direction of Eichard Brownlow abroad from their uncle. Daniel would be somewhat on the pattern of that old guardian uncle in ' The Babes of the T\^ood/ if the children were completely in his power." "Above all things, O'Hara, let my girls rather be needlewomen struggling for existence ; let them beg a crust of bread, or want one, rather than fall into the hands of their Papal guardians." '• I had thought that hope was extinct for ever in this world to me, — that nothing in life could ever make me glad or sorry again ; but I breathe once more, since it is possible to serve the children of my benefactor. If I had been trusted only with his dog, it should have been dear as life to me ; and you are right. Lady Brownlow, in thinking that were a single mortal but myself to know where the real heiresses of Torchester Abbey are concealed, they might be betrayed, and be 190 CEOSS PURPOSES. legally dragged away from you on the authority of a will never made by their father. We must not, then, kill this opportunity by delay. All shall be ready in a few hours for your journey, and the grave itself is not more silent than I shall be respecting where they go." When Lady Brownlow retired, she threw her- self on the bed, wliich shook with her convulsive sobs of agony as she thought what a departure this was from her old and happy home! What a departure for the mistress of that house, and for the mother of those children ! She was filled with self-pity, with compassion for herself, her altered fortunes, her sorrowful doom ; but the alternative was not for one moment to be weighed in the balance, when her children's interests were in question. That night, as Lady Brownlow, with anguish striving and struggling in her heart, stole silently out of the noble old Abbey, she felt as if walking in a dream. The respectable old nurse, assisted by O'Hara, carried the children, both more than half asleep, to a carriage which waited at the gate ; and the whole fugitive party were safely deposited in an express train for Liverpool, before Lady CROSS PURPOSES. 191 Brownlow's abigail at home drowsily opened the shutters of her mistress's bed-room, and finding it had not been slept in all night, gave an alarm. Xo criminal having committed an offence against the laws of his country was ever more keenly ad- vertised for, in placards and newspapers, than the missing Lady Brownlow and her daughters, though all in vain. Various clues appeared at times to have been found, but the thread broke, and not a trace remained of those wanderers. The electric telegraph fatigued itself in vain with describing Theresa and Fanny, with their escort. Several inoffensive travellers were stopped by the vigilant police at a variety of places, and carefully scru- tinized, but none that exactly answered the de- scription given by 0' Grady of what he chose to call "the stolen children;" therefore his myr- midons remained next morning completely at fault. " You are safe now! as safe as mortals can be any where in this uncertain world!" exclaimed O'Hara, as he respectfully placed Lady Brownlow and the old nurse on seats in a state cabin of the Neptune steamer, while the little girls played 192 CROSS PURPOSES. merrily on deck. " This easy escape from O'Grady^s toils is indeed, I trust, an omen of luck, and it is very seldom indeed, of late, that fortune favours me! " " O^Hara ! '^ replied Lady Brownlow, holding out to him, with gentle dignity, her wasted hand, " there are no such words in the Bible as ^ for- tunate' or ' unfortunate.' Let me say to you, in all kindness, what weighs on my mind now, and if this were the last sentence I am ever to speak, let it be a friendly warning to a friend I truly esteem. Not one of O'Grady's assertions against you could have obtained credit from any living mortal who knew you as Sir Francis and I did, but for our also knowing of one most lamentable flaw lately observed in your habits, one vice indulged in that is the root of all others, one leak that sinks many a noble vessel in destruction. Let me implore you, then, to abjure all intoxicating spirits, and though I shall not probably live to witness your reformation, your worst enemy alone will regret the change, but every friend you possess will rejoice." " They shall!" replied O'Hara, in a low, deep voice of determined resolution. Then the rushing CROSS PURPOSES. 193 words came thick and fast, while his warm-hearted but erring spirit seemed for the moment restored to a feeling of genuine self-approbation. " Even my enemies — and they are many, even the most inveterate, even O'Grady himself — shall learn to respect me. From this hour. Lady Brownlow, your honoured name shall be the watchword of my perfect reform." " Once friends might pity what I felt, To fear that I was lost for ever ; But now I bask in other joys Than revel's long and empty noise." VOL. L 194 CROSS PURPOSES. CHAPTEE VII. " Wherever the Christian builds a church, the devil sets up a gin-palace." — Free Translation of a German Proverb. Two days after the disappearance of Lady Brownlow and her children from Torchester Abbey, there appeared in the newspapers a para- graph in large letters, headed, *^ Dreadful cata- strophe! Loss of five hundred lives. Wreck of the Neptune Steamer off Dublin Harbour!" Nothino; could be more heart-rendlno; than the description which followed. A noble vessel, sea- worthy in every respect, had been heedlessly steered too near the shore, because her captain wished to boast that he had made the passage in fewer hours than it had ever taken to cross that sea before. The wind was fair, the breeze steady, the sun bright, the passengers dining, and the captain nowhere, when suddenly the ship struck on a reef of hidden rocks close to the harbour, and went instantaneously to pieces. CROSS PUEPOSES. 195 Loud shrieks, blasphemous curses, wailiugs of grief, and fervent prayers, all resounded to the very heavens in one mighty uproar. The waves beat, the vessel fell to atoms, the boats were immovably fixed on deck, orders were given and countermanded, signals of help at hand were made from the shore, cheers arose to encourage the sur- vivors, hope and despair were alternately on every pallid face now struggling for life, lanterns were waved aloft on the rocks, and many a drowning sufferer heard the last signal gun as if it had been fired over his watery grave; for next moment the parting waves raised on high the shattered vessel, and dashed it, shivering to fragments, on the hidden rocks. It was an awful moment! Somewhat aloof from the drowning multitude, shrieking their last prayers to heaven for mercy, was a pale and silent mother, clasping her two little girls in solemn agony of soul to her heart, and evidently conscious that this was a last farewell. There seemed not a gleam of hope, not a chance of possible escape, and many a wild expiring scream had resounded over the tumultuous waters, when one man was seen battling his way, with frenzied gestures, k2 196" CEOSS PURPOSES. along that crowded deck, and rushing towards those young and helpless children, clinging in terror to their mother. Instantly disengaging herself from their agonized embrace, she called out to their approaching deliverer, in accents both of entreaty and command, " You cannot save all, O'Hara ; take my children first ; save them, and God bless you !" Lady Brownlow relaxed her benumbed hold of the terrified girls, and fervently clasped her hands towards heaven, but could not trust herself to look at them again. The ship then gave one mighty lurch, it settled for a moment, and sunk like a stone in the deep and gurgling waters, which darkly closed over the fated vessel, leaving not a trace behind. Little did Mr. Daniel Brownlow, sitting in his office next morning, think, when he glanced carelessly over these harrowing particulars of the wreck, caring much less about the loss of eighty lives than about a fall in the stocks, that the life or death of any one passenger on board could at all in the remotest degree concern himself. Some days afterwards, however, a letter arrived which made him actually start bolt upright in his CROSS PURPOSES. 197 chair, after he had hastily glanced over its pages^ with consternation and amazement. It had neither date nor post-mark, but was signed in the well-known autograph of Patrick O'Hara, and announced that in this Irish vessel, the Xeptune, Lady Brownlow had been most calamitously drowned. How the children were both saved was, he wrote, next to miraculous ; but as their concealment from 0' Grady had become so essential, and he was so anxious him- self to remain undiscovered, O'Hara stated his intention not for many years to let it become known, except to Mr. Brownlow himself, that he and the children had survived a wreck in which so many had perished. In what distant land he might hereafter settle with those children com- mitted to his charge should never, he declared, for years be revealed, as it was their mother's last and only earthly wish that her daughters should be protected from Popish intrigues or Interference ; he had, therefore, her dying sanction for saying that the place of their retirement should never be known till both were of age, thougli ample means of legally identifying them hereafter should be carefully kept in his own possession. 198 CROSS PURPOSES. Even the cold, hard, worldly mind of Daniel Brownlow was very solemnly impressed by this melancholy intimation of the good amiable Lady Brownlow's calamitous death; yet the thought almost instantly struck him that as no one knew of O^ Harass letter, and as the ci-detant factor seemed resolved that neither he nor the girls should be heard of again during ten years at least, it might be quite possible now, in the meanwhile, to produce a belief that both children had perished, and thus to rescue the estate from O' Grady's fraudulent possession. Scarcely had the idea started into his crafty head before it was vigo- rously executed. Daniel set off instantly to Dublin, where he identified the countenance of Lady Brownlow, lovely as it still was in death; and not even Daniel could look on that pale, rigid, marble face, without an emotion of pity, tenderness, and regret. Among the numerous passengers, many young children had been lost; and the bodies of two, which were washed ashore in a state extremely disfigured by long immersion, were mournfully claimed by Daniel, who at once hurriedly enclosed them both in cofi&ns, and proceeded with the melan- CROSS PURPOSES. 199 choly cavalcade, as chief mourner, to Torchester Abbey, where all three were laid with dismal solemnity, not a suspicion occurring to any one individual present of any mistake or misrepresen- tation. In the newspapers next day a melancholy intimation appeared, that Lady Brownlow and a little girl, her youngest daughter, had been most unfortunately drowned together in the Neptune. This mistake led subsequently to important con- sequences, as Richard, in the Russian Crimea, that far-distant land, where he had gone to reside for hunting, read a description of the mournful catastrophe in a newspaper, forwarded to him from St. Petersburgh. He instantly wrote to Daniel for full particulars of that most unexpected cala- mity ; and added, that he was about to proceed still further up this unknown country by the valley of Inkerman, to see some new Russian fortresses hitherto unheard of in England, espe- cially the modern very strong fortification of Sebastopol, with its neighbouring towers, unless his presence at home were necessary. He ex- pressed great consolation in the apparent fact that only one of Lady Brownlow's children had been drowned, great as that misfortune was ; and 200 CROSS PURPOSES. hoped that his surviving young niece, Theresa, would find a safe and kind guardian uncle mean- while in one who had not been, he must say, either a safe or a kind brother to himself. Eichard having been fully persuaded that Emily Plantagenet was engaged or married to O' Grady's relation, now reiterated his intention to remain for ever abroad, exploring such undiscovered coun- tries as those around the shores of the Black Sea ; therefore, the acute rascality of Daniel was not slow in perceiving that when he carefully burned O^Hara's letter, his own long-cherished ambition to possess Torchester Abbey would, for a time at least, be almost accomplished. It was diamond cut diamond between his own villainy and that of O'Grady, whom he had at last outwitted; and he persuaded himself that to defeat the fraudulent will attributed to Sir Francis was, in reality, an act of virtue and necessity. Richard, too, with his roving habits, was much happier hunting in the wilds of Russia than he could ever become settled in a humdrum way at home. In short, his plan would be pleasant for some years in the meanwhile ; and Daniel trusted to his own ready invention for shuffling himself out of any scrape CROSS PURPOSES. 201 into which his present manoeuvre might here- after bring him, should Richard ever survive to return from those unknown regions in the Crimea, which Daniel knew to be particularly unhealthy. Temptation was a thing that Daniel in all his life never attempted to resist, and he possessed a wife who certainly did not strengthen his hands on the side of integrity, but exerted her influence always to persuade him that whatever he wished to do was wise, right, and best. To take pos- session, therefore, of Torchester Abbey, as no- minal trustee for his far-distant brother, seemed a very easy as well as a very agreeable process, and he trusted to the chapter of accidents for getting him out of any subsequent difficulties that might arise. Few persons living in ^liddlesex knew or cared much about the '* Brownlow people," after due lamentation given to the uncertainty of human life, — especially in steam-boats, — and a few mournful remarks on the calamitous end of Lady Brownlow and her two little girls. Daniel took unquestioned possession of every thing in his brother's name, produced the legal documents k3 202 CEOSS PURPOSES. tbiat gave him full power to act for Richard, and sat down during the summer at Torchester Abbey, his head filled with many Alnaschar-like visions of retaining his position as its master for ever. ''' Really, if all girls were drowned like mice, they are such mere lumber in a succession that it would be no loss," thought the attorney, buttering his roll at breakfast, and conning over his damp newspaper. " As for O'Hara, such rascals never are drowned; and as for O'Grady, hanging is too good for him, for he seems inclined to be very troublesome yet.^^ Time passed on, while O'Hara, still young and prepossessing, had the good fortune, without re- vealing his own history, to obtain, under the assumed name of O'Meara, a situation as factor, in Ireland, to Lord Tipperary, an aged, indolent, and hypochondriacal peer, feeble in mind and in character, but fond of amusing excitement; therefore, the boisterous and almost over-bearing eloquence of O'Hara in conversation proved a great recommendation. It relieved Lord Tip- perary 's own dignified dulness, attracted his attention, and amused his fancy, if he had any fancy at all, while O'Meara would sometimes CROSS PURPOSES. 203 take off a stammering member of parliament getting up for his maiden speech, or a young son and heir returning thanks when his health was drank for the first time, or sing through a mock opera, or a comic Irish song, or a very sentimental one, so as to cause almost intolerable merriment. Albert Smith was nothing to him ! The new factor's habits Lord Tipperary thought rather jovial, certainly, but as they never amounted to intoxication, or exceeded the average of general society around the neighbourhood, where it was not in human nature, or at least in Irish nature, to resist the excellency of the whisky, Ms Lordship coincided at least in O'Meara's laughing assertion, that a sociable tumbler of toddy is good for man, woman, child, bird, beast, or insect. To be diverted and " leavened " into convivial animation by a flood of wit, good stories, and comic songs, in a dull, almost solitary house, during his many hours of blank leisure and magnificent solitude, was an inestimable comfort to Lord Tipperary and to his young daughter, Lady Dora Fitzalan, blooming unseen as well as unadmired in the desolate wilds of Ireland, where her only 204 CROSS PUEPOSES. companion was a very humble one, the amiable (laughter of a poor, very poor Protestant curate, a man who lived and died in that sort of learned and gentlemen-like poverty which only Irish cui'ates ever fully endure. In the tempestous mind of O'Hara, revenge on O' Grady continued to be the subject of his Avaking thoughts and nightly dreams. He was, unfortunately, without the polar-star of religion to guide his eager mind aright, therefore, its whole energy was wasted on one burning desire for venojeance. O'Hara could hear but little from Torchester, owino; to the strict incoscnito he felt obliged to preserve, but he did ascertain that O'Grady was no more heard of there now than if the grave had closed over him for ever. Sir Richard's letters from the shores of the Black Sea had become more and more rare^ till they entirely ceased; and Mr. Attorney Brownlow, with his wife and family, took up their summer residence at Torchester Abbey, as if they had been in final possession. Daniel, also, entertained his city friends at the Alderman's old residence in Bedford-square, in great splendour, not appa- rently very anxious to advertise for the absentee CROSS PURPOSES. • 205[ Barouet, but very much of opinion with Byron when he said — " If a man does not let us know- That he's alive — he's dead, or should be so." O'Hara being one of those sanguine men who expect to grow rich in a day, became from this time a most determined as well as a most unsuc- cessful railway gambler, and plunged wildly into a thousand money-getting or rather money-losing speculations, intrigues, and manoeuvres, with which to double and redouble the money entrusted to him by Lady Brownlow for her children. He had every honest intention towards the memory of his revered benefactress, but there seemed in this hazardous game of speculation at least ten blanks to a prize. Several great financial earthquakes caused such vicissitudes, that Lord Tipperary did not escape some losses, on account of various enterprises recommended to him by his too hopeful factor, and began to look alarmingly grave even at some of O'Hara's best stories. It now occurred to O'Hara, still in the prime of life, and very good-looking, that he might add much to his own respectability by making a prudent, rational marriage, though among all the 206 CROSS PURPOSES. marriageable girls whom he considered as " can- didates" around, he had, truth to say, few likings and a thousand dislikings. Some were too lively, others too grave, some too young, others too old, some too tall, and others too short ; but one image always presented itself before his mind with daily increasing attraction. The companion of Lady Dora Fitzalan, the highly educated orphan daughter of that recently deceased Irish curate, occupied in Lord Tippe- rary's family a sort of amphibious position, scarcely definable, being neither a duchess nor a house- keeper, but. was treated by her whimsical mistress as either or both, according to the caprice of the moment, and always conducted herself with gentle propriety, even with a certain amount of dignity, in whichever capacity she had occasion to appear. Half-governess and half-companion, as well as factotum to everybody,. Susan Fitz- gerald was expected to be a perfect " Goody Two-shoes" in taking care of Lady Dora's parrots, poultry, pigeons, dogs, cats, and other idols of a spoiled only child. Susan did likewise all the difficult parts of Lady Dora's needlework, finished her drawings, cheapened her bargains. CROSS PUKPOSES. 207 composed her letters, copied her manuscript music, and sometimes dressed her hair. Susan Fitzgerald, perfectly unaccustomed to have any will of her own, was a simple-hearted, artless young girl, most intelligent and highly principled ; her bright eyes sparkling with good nature and vivacity, but her heart perfectly starvinsT for affection and mutual confidence, as she had a soul capable of being roused to strength and to the noblest courage for those she loved. The usual expression of her countenance was one of deprecating timidity, of grave, gentle, innocent integrity. It was a dear, good, sensible, and most loveable face, full of mild, serene, heaven-born peace, and no one thought of asking himself whether Susan were a regular beauty or not. In her eye shone a high cast of noble intellect and of earnest feeling, which gave sure indication of all the grood thouojhts as well as kind feelings that passed within Susan's heart, always a mine of precious emotions. She had abundant brains of the best quality, aud abun- dant energy to use them well, while in her active life there seemed no self. Throughout the village every cottager trusted Susan at once, and no 208 CROSS PURPOSES. one ever altered their faith in the excellence of one whose mind was radiant with all the graces of Christianity. Hitherto a few birds and flowers were all that had ever belonged to Susan, though little as she possessed to give away, many a face in the neigh- bourinsc villao-e became bri2:htened to welcome her appearance, and many a sick-bed owed its most cheering sunshine to lier presence. Lady Dora used laughingly to say that Susan would like even to make a young rat happy. Abounding as she did in kindnesses to others, she felt perfectly overwhelmed by receiving the smallest civility herself; for very few among Lady Dora's guests showed her any kindness, or con- sidered how cruel and unjust it is, by ungracious manners and cold repulsiveness towards an un- offending individual who cannot escape, to rob her of that cheerful enjoyment in society which might have been the very sunshine of existence to a heart full of every kind impulse like Susan's. When the very agreeable Mr. O'Hara now and then relieved her of an empty tea-cup, or assisted her to put on a shawl, Susan felt that the air of condescension with which he did it was not at all CROSS PURPOSES. 209 misplaced, while her gentle, deprecating smile seemed to return thanks, that by him, at least, she was not entirely overlooked. Lady Dora used laughingly to assert that once, when Lord Tipperary's carriage had been upset, Susan be- came quite overcome by the unexpected polite- ness of the post-boy in civilly asking her whether she AY ere much hurt. Miss Fitzgerald's look of deep and beautiful calmness might have prepos- sessed every one in her favour, but it was the frankness of Susan's humility which made it interesting, and prevented her ever seeming subservient. O'Hara had for some time considered Susan a mere "pretty daisy," apt to be overlooked or even trod on by himself or others, but as time developed to him her higher faculties of mind and heart, he became greatly flattered by the breathless, unaftected interest with which the young girl, quite an Irish Desdemona, listened to whatever histories or anecdotes O'Hara chose to impart of his former adventures, though these were always obscured by apparent mystery, as if the shadow of some secret sorrow overclouded his mind. Miss Fitzgerald seemed sensible of 210 CROSS PURPOSES. his presence, often without even looking round, and watched with such timid delight for all he said, that O'Hara secretly resolved to reward such amiable discrimination by making the gentle and admiring Susan his wife, an offer which, being himself still young and handsome, he flat- tered himself would be acceptable, and in fact could not, he thought, be otherwise. When O'Hara entered the drawing-room one day, Susan's face exhibited, as usual of late, a flush of gladness like sunlight; and seeing her alone, he made a few touching, melancholy re- marks on the misery of au old bachelor's solitude, and the dulness of his home, where he lived the life of a mere human calculating machine, and concluded by asking who she thought would be most ready to take compassion on his desolate state, and to enliven his lonely fireside ? "I cannot guess or imagine," replied Susan, her voice in a flutter of agitation ; '^ you might as well consult the queen of the Sandwich Islands as meJ' " Do you not know any amiable, feminine, gentle girl, not appreciated in her present home, who would be willing to make mine happy ?^^ CROSS PURPOSES. 211 asked O'Hara, while the colour rushed in scarlet billows over Susan's countenance. "Could you advise such a girl to trust her happiness with me?" " Could I ! " exclaimed Susan^ with a look so simple-hearted and confiding, that O'Hara felt gratified and touched beyond expression ; " I should only warn her against being too happy for this world." ** Make me so then, — make me happier than I ever hoped to be on earth," exclaimed O^Hara, with genuine emotion. " Let us be all in all to each other, Susan, till we are divided by death. ^' Miss Fitzgerald felt as if acting over some strange dream, when she timidly glanced at O'Hara, doubting for one moment the evidence of her senses, and in a state of almost stupified astonishment ; then clasping her hands over her face, she burst into tears of irrepressible agitation. O'Hara now, with all the eloquence of strongly excited feeling, declared to Susan his heart-felt attachment, and never did such language from an ardent heart fall on any ear more open to every tender and ennobling impression. This seemed to Susan the only hour of her earthly 21^ CROSS PUEPOSES. existence worth living for ; it appeared as if she could listen for ever, as if she had never known life before, and as if she never more could suffer the common share of mortal trials. O'Hara could have spoken without end, his heart was so overflowing with felicity, but happy hours have double wings to fly fast away, and only too speedily the lovers had to separate, both rejoicing in hope of the day, soon to come, after which they need part no more. Susan had so long accustomed herself to be neglected and uncared for, in loveless, joyless soli- tude of heart, that seldom has any girl been more surprised at her own good fortune than she, when recalling, with a smile of devoted attachment and yet of goodhumoured forgiveness, that her lover's expressions had been those of rather proud and very self-confident humility as he made his pro- posal ; but tears of grateful emotion fell from her eyes like summer rain, as she remembered the languasie he had used of heart-felt and unbounded attachment. To have a home of her own, where daily, hourly, momentarily, she might devote herself to all the kind affections of her very kind heart, and watch CROSS PURPOSES. 213 over the joys or sorrows, health or sickness, prosperity or adversity, of a man she so greatly honoured as O^Hara, was to Susan a perfect castle in the air of felicity. " Point de milieu, THyinen et scs liens Sont les plus grands ou des maux ou des Mens ! " Lord Tipperary, who delighted in w^eddings, and who had a little army of very small jests always ready for such occasions, attended one day during the subsequent month Susan's marriage, and gave her away himself; while Lady Dora, with an infinity of exceedingly dignified condescension, acted as bridesmaid. All passed off, in short, to the entire satisfaction of the villagers, who declared that they had never seen a handsomer bridegroom than Mr. O'Hara, or a prettier bride than Miss Fitzgerald, though beauty w^as the least of her merits. From the hour when Susan, now Mrs. O'Hara, dropped her anchor on the hearthrug of her hus- band's home, she was, indeed, a model w^ife, only fearins: lest her heart should become filled with a blind idolatry of one she loved so well. Gentle and confiding, the young bride looked to O'Hara for direction with a G;raceful diffidence, which 214 CEOSS PURPOSES. seemed to claim his guidance as her most cherished privilege. Though Susan made no display of talent, yet there was abundance of well-cultivated ability in that gentle mind, and her principles were unalterably firm, while her judgment in all matters of taste was intuitive and pure. She believed that O'Hara's opinions were infallibly right, and attributed to him a thousand scenerous and noble influences, of which he smiled and almost blushed to take the credit. There was an elegant refinement in the peaceful quiet of Susan's domestic habits which was a delightful novelty to O'Hara. She read aloud to him in the evenings, or sung to him some simple ballad, or she talked over all her own former life, and asked many questions about his, though she could not but wonder at the agitation caused him by some of her apparently insignificant inquiries, and at the deep, Eugene- Aram-like obscurity which her hus- band threw over nearly all the history of his past years. That O'Hara had been unjustly ruined by an enemy, that he lived still in terror of that enemy's machinations, and in the hope of revenge, she gradually gathered; but how, when, and wherefore all this had occurred, were left in such CROSS PUEPOSES. 215 utterly unexplainable mystery, that Susan could only wonder in silence, and wish, with all her kind Christian heart, to make peace. Deep feelings are shy of expression; but no language could have described, no imagination could have conceived, how utterly and admiringly Susan was devoted to her husband. Every word or thought became directed to him, every prayer was for his happiness ; yet so timid and sensitive was her affection, that a glance or a word encou- raged or repressed her. Susan watched O'Hara's most transient remark, treasured up his opinions, counted the moments of his absence, met him with smiles of joy on his return, and delighted to sur- round him with a thousand little luxuries which only affection could suggest ; while he, with some slight tinge of selfishness, liked that she should have no happiness which did not flow through himself. Susan derived her deepest and dearest emotions from the hope of making her husband perfectly happy, and from the mere felicity of his presence ; therefore, what heart could withstand such un- bounded love ? Not, certainly, the warm-hearted though sometimes erring O'Hara^s. Every pas- sing hour brouorht with it no other regret than 216 CEOSS PURPOSES. what arose from knowing it to be gone past recal. The time came at last, however, after their short and felicitous honeymoon, when, much as he loved the very best of wives, the vicissitudes of fortune, and the difficulty of tracing out 0' Grady, rendered O'Hara sometimes gloomy, sullen, and even intem- perate. Still Susan's engrossing attachment for this rather awful husband, as he occasionally seemed, nothing could change ; and while his now rather frequent outbursts of temper pained her to the very heart, that only brought forth in her mind new energies of excellence such as she never was before suspected to possess. Nothinor seemed difficult to affection such as o Susan's for O'Hara ; and, indeed, what extreme ever can equal the love of a gentle, all-enduring wife to a tyrannical husband ! The more tyran- nical and the more selfish, the more devotedly loved ! Seldom, indeed, is woman's attachment appreciated or returned as it deserves. " I am quite satisfied to live only for Christian duty and for one earthly object, to make you happy," said Susan one day, gently leaning on the arm of her husband, as they strolled to church. " Let this be the emblem of all my future CROSS PURPOSES. 217 existence, walking in sunshine towards the house of God with you alone. I used to count over as my best treasures, daily, all those I loved or who loved me. Dear to my heart, beyond expression, was it to find any one glad to see me, or sorry when we parted, — who would take a friendly interest in my health, or, perhaps, merely in my dress ; but now you are all in all to me in this world." " And I am glad no longer to wander through the desert of life alone, Susan ; for I need one like you to make my home what it is at last — a little earthly paradise. You have been till now like a fine piano-forte, with nobody who understood or cared how to draw out the tones, or to touch the keys aright. The harmony will be all my own, and we shall both play in concert, never going out of tune." *' It has often filled me with wonder," replied she, *' that whenever I have seen any mortal who appeared more fortunate than all around him in a happy home, I generally find he is planning some entire change, — to let his house and go abroad, or some other total upset ot his whole existence!" VOL. I. L 218 CEOSS PURPOSES. " "We are to be disciplined in this life, and only to enjov ourselves in another/' answered O'Hara, reflectively. ^' You must, like a good and kind wife, protect me from myself, Susan ; for there is one danger to me, one leak that has sunk many a noble vessel in ruin, that undermines your unfor- tunate husband. I am sometimes a weak, impul- sive, miserable being; and after being almost totally wrecked by a cruel enemy, I became the slave of one bad habit, that seemed, till you again made me hopeful and happy, glued to my very soul. I must entirely conquer it or die." Susan gave a timid, confiding glance at her husband, firmly assured that for all their future lives he could do no wrong. Her own attach- ment, she thought, originating in enthusiastic admiration of his talents, and increased by sym- pathy, must shield him from every trial. She felt a noble pride in his abilities, which com- manded the admiration of all men ; and she had accustomed herself to consider her much-loved husband not merely the first of human beings, but also the best of men. *' You live only to do good, Susan," added O'Hara kindly ; " and I know your chief object CROSS PURPOSES. 219 will be to do good to your own husband, in your own quiet, happy home." '* That is my sole ambition,'* replied Susan, earnestly, " to reward your preference of me by living only for you; and indeed, O'Hara, I could not now even attempt to live without you ! Surely my dear husband will introduce me soon to some of his relations. I should so love any one that loved you ! Nothing in life astonishes me half so much as to see those who have ties of attachment — brothers, sisters, uncles, or even cousins — who live long years away on the Con- tinent, distant from those who would have smiled to see them happy, wept for their sorrow, or mourned for their death." " You do not care for the mere spectacle of life, for mere heartless amusement, my own good, little wife, except when adorned with kind affections; and long may our quiet little home be all you wish to make it ! I see your eyes, Susan, are brightening with tears. Ladies always have them ready for use, like water in a fire-engine ; but I trust it is not from any apprehension of the future, as I intend my marriage to reform me quite." " There is no past or future for me at this l2 220 CROSS PURPOSES. moment, but mere unqualified felicity/^ answered Susan cheerfully. '^ Le present est pour ceux qui jouissent, — I'avenir pour ceux qui souffert." *' It is said that the vine produces three kinds of grape — the first pleasure, the second intemperance, and the third repentance ; but I have abandoned them all/^ observed O'Hara, laughing. *' On first arriving in Ireland, I chose my fault well, as no one here objects to a little joviality ; but it must be very little, and hereafter it shall be alto- gether laid aside. If I feel any symptoms of a relapse, you shall be told in good time to get up a quarrel with me, and my excellent Susan would look a very awful little personage if I were to transgress." " Yes, O'Hara ! no doubt of that, for your own Susan would be the most miseral)le creature alive, if married to a man she could not entirely respect as well as love ; but there is no danger of such a calamity befalling the person happy enough to be your wife.^^ '' Long may you think so !" replied O'Hara, earnestly. " And let me hope the best of myself. ^L'amour fait souvent unfou du plus habile homme, et rend souvent 1' habile le plus sot.' May it CROSS PURPOSES. 221 always be to me a talisman against my own greatest fault and chiefest danger ! My life was once when I became a smoker, and as the inevitable conse- quence, a drunkard, — a black spot on the fair face of nature ; but now — " 111 firmly to resist, Good fully to grasp, Be the whole science of my philosophy." That was a joyous day to both Mr. and Mrs. O'Hara, as well as many days, weeks, and months which followed, while their romantic little cot- tage-home, charmingly situated in an island on Loch Elan, became ornamented with so much taste and fancy, that the most transient passers-by saw at once how much it must be the abode of rural happiness and of peaceful hearts. It was a beautiful though very small residence to which O^Hara, as factor for Lord Tipperary, became entitled, and it suited well with Susan's very domestic habits. The house, a very pictu- resque thatched cottage, tapestried with roses, was situated on Pine-forest Isle, surrounded by the bright waters of Loch Elan, and only to be approached in high floods by boat. Eocks and 222 CROSS PURPOSES. trees were beautifully intermingled behind the house, and in front a gorgeous flower-garden was cultivated by O'Hara himself, who delighted to work there, assisted now by Susan. In the distant landscape appeared a wild profusion of hills, clad to their summits by fir-trees, and varied by mountain torrents, pouring in white, glittering cascades into the streams, which rushed on all sides to mingle with the lake beneath. Many a traveller had given a page in his sketch*book to that lovely house. All went on in nearly perfect enjoyment for some years, and might perhaps have continued so, but for a present which arrived one day anony- mously to O'Hara, and which filled him with agreeable conjectures as to what kind friend had sent it, though Susan gently remarked that she thought it came rather from an enemy ; and she now remembered, on the previous Sunday, to have observed a stranger in church, who started visibly when he first observed O'Hara, and who had clandestinely kept his eye on her husband during the whole service. This unexpected gift was a large supply of the very finest Irish old whisky. It turned out to be exquisite, and so CEOSS PURPOSE?. 223 thought O'Hara, while indulging in a potation deeper than any he had allowed himself for years, till at length he became evidently quite intoxi- cated, while his trembling wife tearfully besought him to forbear, saying that some foe, if he had one, must have sent this means of his destruction. " You know, dear Patrick, as well as I do, that this will be misery and desolation to us both !" ex- claimed Susan, with mournful earnestness. " You have often said that intoxication is like the ivy, that appears at first a mere twig, but at length covers a whole structure, and at last oversets it ; or like the first bubbles on a stream, as it approaches the cascade, looking all the more animated in nearing the irresistible plunge and the fearful gulph ! Oh spare yourself and me from utter destruction !" O^Hara became furious at the smallest inter- ference from Susan now, and bid her be silent. One day at length O'Hara, who had again become the slave of his old practices, was carried home frightfully inebriated on a wheelbarrow by some labourers; and when Susan first saw the slow-moving cavalcade, she rushed forward in an agony of alarm, believing that some accident had happened, and exclaiming in tones of piercing 224 CEOSS PUEPOSES. terror, *' My husband I — Patrick ! Is he hurt ? Is he dead?" " Only dead drunk," replied one of the crowd, looking with a derisive and contemptuous laugh at O'Hara, which ended in an unconquerable giggle. This brought the scarlet hue of shame, for the first time in her married life, to Susan's face ; but she assumed a look of external calm- ness, dismissed all O' Harass bearers with a small gratuity, and only when left alone with her insensible husband did she give vent to the anguish of her grief by a burst of scalding tears. Susan let none of O'Hara's servants see him in this state, but quietly supported his reeling steps herself to bed, while she tremblingly uttered on his behalf those prayers which they had lately been accustomed to say together, but which her husband was in no state now to share. Never in all her life of many disappointments had Susan felt so desolate! How unutterable had been her past felicity with O'Hara, but how short-lived and delusive ! It was but a short time, a very few weeks, before Susan discovered that O'Hara in his secret hours had relapsed into those habits of private intoxication, so totally incurable, which CROSS PURPOSES. 225 are the bane of all domestic happiness or virtue* Now all her little playful devices, her gentler manoeuvres, or more serious efforts to counteract his old habits, were vain. Susan had taken that step in life never to be retraced, and she awoke to find all her happiness a dream ; but she could not regret that her fate was linked for ever to one she loved so entirely, and whom she vet hoped to reclaim. One sigh only the devoted affection of Susan could spare for her own blighted hopes, as in subsequent days she saw O'Hara s face become haggard, and his step unsteady ; then she aroused herself to meet this misfortune with all the affec- tionate influence she could acquire, and to conceal from others every indication of that vice, which seduced her talented husband at times into being a mere stao^gerinoj idiot. It was with sorrowful and heavy emotion that Susan sometimes watched O'Hara attempting vainly to cross the room in a straight line, or to extinguish the candle, while too often his hands, arms, and legs, had a free, independent motion of their own not to be controlled. Yet though at times unable to stop short of the wildest excess, l3 226 CEOSS PUEPOSES. O'Hara would awake next morning to an agony of repentance. " Susan ! " said O'Hara one day, In a paroxysm of self-reproach, " my heart seems burning — choked — gone to ashes ; all within me is agony, stupor, and grief! Your sorrow is anguish to me, yet your tears bring me consolation, for I know that every tear carries with it a prayer for my pardon and reformation." Though Susan was the most affectionate and lenient of advisers, yet after a time the slightest hint to O'Hara of self-control brought on an out- break of irritation, which it took all her courage to meet, as Susan became by degrees rather frightened than otherwise for the husband she loved so well and truly. That devoted wife was too gentle for O'Hara's harder nature, so that the effect of her husband's violence was like that of an iron file upon velvet in wearing her bloom away ; yet no change did he find in the cheerful affection with which she daily welcomed him home. O'Hara sat for hours sometimes after one of these intoxicated outbreaks, musing in his arm- chair, and buried amidst his own inscrutable thoughts, while Susan's heart, stron^r in its CROSS PURPOSES. 227 affections, felt nevertheless that the greatest of all earthly trials is to be indissolubly attached to one whom it was impossible now to respect, yet impossible not to love. O'Hara inwardly smiled sometimes when, in his worst humours, he saw Susan dare tremblingly to encounter him, with a gentle attempt to control his excesses. Occa- sionally, then, his worthier feelings getting the better of him, O'Hara would move her pity and her deepest commiseration by the anguish of his apology for not being a better husband, and she then even trembled at the agony of his despair. " With a wife whose heart is true to the very core, I ought to live only for you, Susan," he said one day, in a tone of almost ferocious self-reproach. " If ever any mortal valued more than life the good opinion of others, that being was once my'^^lf : yet I have most unjustly suSered by the malignity of an enemy, the scorn and execration of all man- kind. Mental torment drove me once almost to insanity, and certainly to intoxication. My pride humbled to agony by injustice, my very soul turned to bitterness, my heart once strong, now prostrated to the ground at the drag-chain of an 228 CROSS PURPOSES. undeserved accusation, what can I do but seek forgetfulness — and revenge ? '* *' Yet who ever was happier than we were till this unfortunate relapse?" replied Susan, looking with mournful tenderness at her husband. " Can you really wish to forget the felicity we once and so lately enjoyed ? Who did not then admire your talents, and envy me for having such a companion ? While the last breath of life remains, I shall live for you, O'Hara, pray for you, and even die for you, if it could do my husband any good.^' '' My past life, Susan, has fled as an arrow, gone as a dream, dispersed as a cloud ; but it has left behind one stinging memory, which haunts me with a desire for revenge, and till that be achieved all my better feelings seem extinct," said O'Hara, turning from his gentle wife, whose face had become blanched with apprehension. " This world in which I still breathe and live was rendered a desert to me by one who shall pay his reckoning yet, and perish on the gallows, or my name is not Patrick O'Hara. I have much to do, and very little time to do it in, but he shall be tracked out, detected, and destroyed." Susan listened, wept, and trembled to witness CROSS PURPOSES. 229 the agony she could not relieve, while O'Hara added, '* There has been for me on earth only faithless friends, undeserved calumny, unpitied sufferings, unrelenting enemies, a fear of death, and a weariness of life ! Why, oh ! why was I born?'' That craving for excitement, induced by intoxi- cation, leads almost inevitably to gambling ; and O'Hara now plunged fiercely into every imagin- able speculation, risking all, as well as losing all, in some nearly insane enterprises, by which he hoped to rise up after every plunge with every golden hope realized, but he invariable reappeared a beggar. Californian shares, gas companies, rail- roads, all seemed to fail as soon as he touched them. Day after day, O'Hara parted privately with articles of furniture. First, his luxuries disap- peared, then his necessaries, and all vanished with a privacy that astonished while it almost irritated even the gentle nature of Susan, always till now a model of neatness as well as of comfort in her household arrangements. " I hate all workhouse cares about economy," exclaimed O'Hara impatiently, when he saw Susan 230 CROSS PURPOSES. with aching eyes tearfully watch the removal of their best furniture; the mahogany wardrobe, the pretty dinner set of china, and lastly, the handsome old clock, which had pointed to many hours of wedded happiness she had once enjoyed ! Susan's mild intellectual countenance became sad- dened as she thought that such hours of peaceful contentment could return no more. There appeared to be one object which the miserable O'Hara evidently felt an impossibility of parting with. It was the miniature portrait of a gentleman and lady very handsomely framed, but his peculiar interest in the personages represented O'Hara never explained to Susan, though often his eyes became fixed upon these pictures with an expression of mournful regret. Even in his most intoxicated moments, a look of reverential awe stole over every feature of O'Hara's face, when he looked at the grave dignity of the gentleman's aspect, and at the benignity of expression in the lady's portrait, which had a smile ghmmering in the eyes most beautiful to look at. O'Hara had several times gone unexpectedly from home since his marriage, always saying, with that authoritative look common to husbands when CROSS PURPOSES. 231 they must not be questioned, that he ought to visit two young wards he had at school. After these short excursions, he always returned home singularly thoughtful, as well as much more com- posed and gentle in his manner to Susan. She also observed that he abstained from drinking to excess for several days after such interviews. He seemed anxious to consider himself a perfect Father Matthew when these absences were over, and to appreciate much more cordially her own affec- tionate solicitude for his welfare. One morning O'Hara had been sunk for several minutes in deep and evidently perplexed medita- tion, when Susan at last ventured, in a tone of deferential interest, to ask if he had heard any bad news. She was agreeably surprised, however, that her husband did not repulse her assiduities, with the impatience to which she was recently but too much accustomed. He leaned his head on his hands for some time, and said at length, in a tone of anxious reflection, "Susan! I greatly fear that nothing but the bite of a mad dog can ever cure me of drinkinir. Our difficulties are every day increasing, and I must relieve myself of them by a coup de main. Listen to my plan." 232 CROSS purpose! Mrs. O'Hara required no such injunction, for she was already all attention, but her husband seemed to have suddenly run aground in what he had to say, and a long pause ensued. At length he added, with considerable trepidation, — *' You know You have heard that my two wards are at school. Their education has been for years an enormous voluntary expense of above four hundred a-year, which I have some thoughts of economizing, by bringing them to live here. They were, as I have often mentioned, the orphan children, of dear and valued friends, whose loss was to me irreparable, and I adopted the children, who are not entirely unprovided for ; but a dim, untold peril encompasses those girls, which I am forbid by an oath to tell at present, even to my own wife. Their entire history and their real names must be known to none but myself, as an enemy might claim them, and then there may probably be one day a trial in the law courts, when you must be able to swear that I never told you who they really are." " Well, Patrick ! so be it ! In this world the most confidential friends know only half each other's mind, and I shall wait patiently to hear CROSS PURPOSES. 233 the whole of yours. INIeanwhile, two young girls in this house will be like sunbeams of joy and cheerfulness to me, and we must do them all the good we can." " Worlds would not tempt me to take from them any real advantage," answered O'Hara hur- riedly, " but they will be much happier and better cared for at home with us than at school. It is my intention to repair the ravages lately made on my income, by educating them both under the eye of my best of wives here, where you will initiate them into the mysteries of cross-stitch, satin- stitch, hem-stitch, and no-stitch." " I shall give them the kindest of welcomes," replied Susan, with good-humoured alacrity. **But now, pray give me any particulars I can be allowed to know of their history, for you never did so.-*^ " I have told you a thousand times all about them," exclaimed O'Hara, putting himself in a formidable rage to intimidate his gentle wife from asking inconvenient questions. " Can you not understand that the less you know about them the better, in case of their being legally claimed? I must really study stupidity to become a suitable companion for you." 234 CROSS PURPOSES. " Well, Patrick," replied she, smiling, *' you might, perhaps, go to the end of the earth and lo(^k over, to find any one more stupid than myself, but, believe me, you never have explained the very names of those girls and their belongings. I shall have a thousand questions hereafter to ask you about them." ^^ Pray do not expect a thousand answers, then," replied O'Hara, in a very discouraging tone, as he rose to leave the room. " Among all your multi- farious virtues, Susan, I entreat that one may be a total want of curiosity on this subject; and now I move that this meeting do adjourn." "When O'Hara w^as in an irritable humour, his mere glance was like a blow to Susan, who had learned to fear her imperative husband as much as she loved him ; and now she leaned on the table, with her face laid on her arm, in deep and perplexing thought, unable to remember a single circumstance which O'Hara had ever communi- cated in respect to these wards in whom he took so deep an interest, and anxiously trying to imagine what claim they could have upon him, which seemed paramount to every other; at the same time she cordially rejoiced in the hope of CROSS PURPOSES. 235 their arrival, as well as in the desire to render them happy. Susan's astonishment and perplexity in respect to her husband's wards became greatly increased when Theresa and Fanny at length arrived in their future home, for never had she conceived or imagined anything so dazzlingly beautiful and so very interesting as they both appeared. She thought that the round world could scarcely have produced their equals I Though very plainly dressed, and as frolicsome as a couple of pet kittens in the house, there was a piquante and picturesque beauty in their whole aspect nearly angelic, and most attractive. Susan thought them alike, yet very different. Both had small Grecian features, and most delicately-moulded figures, resembling the poetical beauty of the Graces on an ancient cameo ; but the elder, w^hom O'Hara presented to his wafe as Theresa Brown, was a brilliant brunette. Her raven black hair seemed steeped in darkness, hanging in rich masses down to her waist, and she had a profile neither Grecian nor Roman, nor of any peculiar country, though it would have been admired in all, and a manner the most enlivenino; that could be imasfined. 236 CROSS PURPOSES. 'Fa.nnj, the younger girl, had an exquisite deli- cacy of complexion, like the finest colouring on a Dresden china figure, eyes of intense blue like an April sky, and the gentle grace of Murillo's Madonna. Both were frolicsome, happy, rather idle girls, charmed to leave school, whom care or sorrow never seemed to have yet tormented or even reached. The laughing fearlessness of their manner to Mr. O'Hara proved how little they were accustomed to be afraid of him, while his replies to them displayed a mixture of kindness and of gentlemanlike respect which made their guardian appear to the utmost advantage. Susan, who always looked on the brightest side of every event, as well as on the best side of every charac- ter, felt as if her life were again to be surrounded by a perfect halo of felicity, seeing a change for the better now in her husband, as great as the transformation in a Christmas pantomime. There was a degree of courteous refinement in the manner he adopted towards these fascinating young wards quite unlike his usual careless self- confidence, while the smile with which he joined in every merry jest which these captivating young strangers sometimes even levelled fearlessly against CROSS PURPOSES. 237 himself, was pleasing in the extreme. Not their wildest whim was for a moment to be thwarted. Their bright young faces looked as if no shadow of care or of sorrow had ever flitted momentarily across them, while they lived in a state of animated felicity, hearing much, talking much, enjoying much, and thinking very little. O'Hara had once more fitted up his cottage with renewed comfort, and the two rooms in- tended for his wards were furnished almost with elegance ; yet when the lively girls expressed the most rapturous joy at being welcomed to so happy a home, O'Hara turned away with a look of sorrowful compunction, saying, " I wish it were more like what you are entitled to from me." Susan gained by degrees the beneficial influence of affection over these spirited young girls to such an extreme, that O'Hara, seeing the anxiety of Theresa and Fanny always to please his good excellent wife, laughingly said, "This is always the way with you quiet, mouse-like people, Susan, that you slily manage, at last, invariably to get your own way without seeming to wish it/' Theresa and Fanny both evidently were of an affectionate and grateful nature, but so unac- customed to such tender, refined, and judicious 238 CROSS PURPOSES. kindness as Mrs. O'Hara's, that they at once bestowed upon her the whole enthusiaism of their girlish affections, and finding her all that a mother could be, as well as more than many are, they even proposed, in a tone of frolicsome kindness, that they should call her " mother." It became the solace of Susan's days to converse with these girls, in her own natural vein of high principle and of simple good sense, while they were happy in delightful association, from day to day, from hour to hour, with so cheerful a companion, so sympathizing a friend, and so trustworthy a confidant. Months passed on, and the mere presence of these girls, with their merry ways and fresh blooming countenances, worked like a talisman in reforming O'Hara. He avoided the most distant approach to intoxication, became again devoted to Susan's happiness, and with a sort of melancholy firmness, that touched his attached wife to the very heart, while it delighted her, he resisted even Lord Tipperary's hospitable efforts to make him once more a jovial companion. Susan became again and again convinced that some painful mystery was attached to the origin of these girls, so graceful in manner, in gesture, CROSS PURPOSES. 239 in expression, and in form. So every way superior to all others. There was evidently some subject of deep self-reproach in the mind of O'Hara, whenever he had to deny Theresa or Fanny any comfort, or even any luxury, for which they expressed the most transient wish. But Theresa and Fanny's own taste in dress was simple to excess, and their habits so perfectly unexpensive, that their adopted mother had no difficulty in doing all that seemed essential to their happiness. It would have been difficult to find a more noble, cordial-hearted nature than Theresa's, for though often carried away by impulse, those impulses were all elevated and generous. The keen susceptibility of her affections was testified by the glowing warmth of her manner, by the dazzling light that glittered in her eyes, as well as by the flitting colour in her cheek, when any- thing occurred to call forth emotion. All her pursuits amounted to a perfect passion, and for those friends like Mr. and Mrs. O'Hara, who were kind to her, there seemed no limits to what she would have willingly sacrificed. To love and be loved were necessities of Theresa's nature, and her whole earthly destiny seemed comprised in her affections. She fancied every mortal happy 240 CROSS PURPOSES. as herself, and believed life one scene of sun- shine and joy, if people would only make it so by enjoying themselves. Theresa's laugh was like no other laugh, so clear and ringing with animation, while her voice was music itself even when she merely said a passing word of joyous good humour to the country-people, who very soon loved her very shadow as she passed them on the road. Fanny's faults were still fewer than Theresa^ s, and there was a subdued strength in her cha- racter not so demonstrative as her sister's, but deeper in thought and in feeling, though its whole worth and beauty could only be appre- ciated by an observer as acute, as kind, and as vigilant as Mrs. O'Hara. Susan felt her affec- tions so divided between the two, that each seemed in a short time to have her whole heart, though still her husband, erring and passionate as he had too often been of late, was first in all her thoughts and affections, first in her attention to his bodily and spiritual welfare. "With him she pray'd— to him the Bible read, Sooth'd the faint heart, and held the aching head ; She came with smiles the power of pain to cheer ; Apart she sigh'd, alone she shed the tear." Cbabbe. CROSS PURPOSES. 241 CHAPTER YIII. " Quand on aime, rien n'est frivole, Un rien afiiige, un rien console, Tout est rien pour rindifference, Uu rien est tout pour I'amitie." Lord Tipperary's daughter, Lady Dora, who had cultivated as much pride as any empress would have known what to do with, took a vehement whimsical fancy to O'Hara's beautiful young wards, saying, in a tone of immense patronage, tliat they had a " well-born look." She invited them so constantly to become her guests, that it would have been difficult at last for Theresa and Fanny to say, whether they were most at home in the cottage or in the castle. As no question on the origin and history of these two young inmates ever seemed in any shape acceptable to O'Hara, very few were asked by Lord Tip- perary, or his dignified, well-bred daughter; but it became a new era in the life of Lady Dora, while away from the gaieties of London, and VOL. I. M 242 CROSS PURPOSES. buried in the wilds of Ireland, to have, besides her hypochondriacal old father, two merry, frank - hearted, unsophisticated girls as companions, whom she could astonish and amuse by relating facts, traits, and incidents of Belgravian life, its man- ners, habits, and customs. Susan delighted to witness all the happiness of their innocent girlhood, remembering the time during her own father's very short life, when she had herself been as careless and merry as they; yet, in summoning them with conscientious regu- larity to their lessons, she often reminded her young favourites that labour of some kind is indis- pensable to happiness, because toil is the destiny of all mankind. '"Who would not tire of mere eating, drinking, dressing and sleeping, without some intellectual and moral excitement ? therefore let all who would enjoy life find a vocation of usefulness," she said one day. "Theresa and i'anny, you will always feel restless and unsatis- fied, unless you have some good and noble end in view, especially the benefiting of others, and the improvement of your own heart and under- standinsT." O'Hara delio-hted to exercise his own remark- CROSS PURPOSES. 243 able talents In teachins; these two interestino- young wards whatever he knew of music, drawing, or foreign languages, but, above all, his greatest enjoyment was in keeping up a continual sparring — a battledore and shuttlecock of raillery and repartee. His own wit was quick as lightning itself, rather quicker sometimes, and O'Hara liked to see his two juvenile guests in convulsions of merriment, while nothing they chose to say in return was ever checked or resented. He bandied retorts with them day after day, and felt always charmed if one of his favourite young antagonists came off best. Theresa was always ready, and Fanny would have been equally so, but hers was a deeper sensibility, which feared to give pain or to receive a check ; therefore the younger sister often remained silent, with the very repartee hovering on her lips, which Theresa fearlessly uttered. O^Hara had a remarkable dramatic talent for reading the plays of Shakspeare, or the poetry of Milton, which he often did to his delighted wards, and in so far as it was suitaljle for these girls to learn, all that O'Hara and Susan had read or knew of the world and its ways, they most indefa- m2 244 CROSS PURPOSES. tigably explained, while many an interesting tale their untiring guardian related of persons, places, and things, which it seemed desirable they should know. Even politics he discussed before them, with the vigour and clearness so peculiar to him- self, and, above all, the whole power of O'Hara's great eloquence was exerted in pointing out to his pupils every warning that might preserve them from the horrors of Popish superstition. That was the one supreme subject of his apprehensions on their account, and in the way O'Hara represented the danger there was most intense interest, for it seemed continually to excite his fears on their account, involving, as he often remarked, every interest of time and of eternity, every principle of morality, and every gleam of well-founded hap- piness. CROSS PURPOSES. 245 CHAPTER IX. " It may be a sound, A note of music, summer's eve or spring, -^^\ A flower, the -wind, tlie ocean, -wliicli shall wound. Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound." Br RON. EiCHARD Browxlow, in the excitement of navi- gating the Black Sea, the Sea of Azof, and the wild, unexplored countries of the neighbourhood, delighted in hardships, privations, and fatigues, which blotted for a time from his memory the sorrows and disappointments of civilized society, while Emily Plantagenet at home occupied her time and her large fortune by exercising a con- stant system of energetic and judicious benevo- lence. The General had bequeathed his estate and a handsome income to his only child, and with his dying breath had retracted his opposition to her attachment for the only lover whom she ever could have accepted. But what availed it all now, when years had passed away, and Richard 246 CROSS PURPOSES. Brownlow seemed likely to be heard of no more ? His name was never heard, and Emily could not even advertise for him in that mysterious column of the " Times," which carries on so much romantic correspondence between the Harrys and Marians who are cruelly separated. After so long an absence, Emily could not be certain that Richard would really consider it '' something to his advan- tage," if told that she still continued unalterably constant. She little knew that, through the machinations of O' Grady, he believed her married to another, and that the impossibility of enduring to see her so utterly lost to him was the chief reason of his absence. Daniel felt every year more comfortably as- sured, as he drew in his chair by the fireside at Torchester Abbey, that he never would be un- seated there, and the total cessation of all corre- spondence on Richard's part, after he had gone up the valley of the Tchernaya, led him to fear — it must not be said to hope — that Richard, in the wild untrodden countries where he was hunting with a savage retinue, had fallen a victim to his own mania for adventure, or to that climate pecu- liarly unsuited to an English constitution. Any CEOSS PUEPOSES. 247 attempts to find out O'Hara which were made by- Daniel having proved utterly fruitless, he left the Papists and the world in general ignorant that any doubt hung over the fate of his two young nieces ; and, in short, trusting to fate and fortune for continuing him in possession of Torchester Abbey, he and Mrs. Brownlow meanwhile admi- nistered its affairs and enjoyed all its comforts, bringing up their daughter with all the disadvan- tages of excessive and overdone education which money could purchase — that is to say, a perpetual cram of the memory on every imaginable subject, to the total extinction of intellect, sensibility, imagination, or judgment. Meanwhile Theresa and Fanny attained the age of seventeen, matured in thought and in prin- ciple., under the affectionate companionship of their adopted mother, and enlivened by the bril- liant conversation of O'Hara, who had few equals in the world for buoyant fancy and ready repartee, gifts kept in full exercise by the fearless, quick- witted young wards, who amused and tormented him like little imps of mischief. They had no greater enjoyment on earth than to have a mock fight of merry nonsense with the most good- 248 CROSS PUEPOSES. humoured of guardians, while Theresa's healthful vivacity of thought, and droll caprice of manner, kept the attention of all who saw her very wide awake indeed, and very much amused. With Lady Dora they had acquired, likewise, the tone and ideas of good society, so that in the most exclusive London drawing-room they would at once have felt quite at home. On the seventeenth birthday of the lovely twins, O'Hara, having been detained all morning on business with Lord Tipperary, entered his little cockle-shell of a boat, and ferried himself over as usual to his pretty little peninsular home. There Theresa and Fanny had been promised a little rural festival in the summer-house, where he had left them in the morning, hanging up wreaths of flowers to adorn their favourite arbour. O'Hara found the merry animated girls now in a flutter of ecstacy over some very marvellous bargains in ribbons, dresses, gloves, and even books, which they had purchased a few minutes before from a travelling pedlar, and the thrifty Susan herself acknowledged that she never before had made purchases half so cheap. The hawker, in shortj was praised by Theresa in an ecstacy of CROSS PURPOSES. 249 sparkling delight, of exclamatory pleasure, as a perfect gem of disinterestedness, who really did sell off his goods at " an immense sacrifice ; " and it amused their o;uardian to notice the difference between his two young wards in this moment of excitement — Fanny looking quietly on, while Theresa exclaimed and demonstrated with the most fascinating animation, turning to her com- posed-looking sister with an hundred eager exple- tives, saying, " What do you think of that ! Would you believe it ! Are you not amazed ! are you not petrified! are you not completely overwhelmed!" It astonished O'Hara^s not very weak mind, when he saw the articles which had been disposed of to these happy girls, evidently very much "below cost price," and Theresa laughingly de- clared that the worthy pedlar seemed as if he would rather have given away his miscellaneous articles of merchandise gratis, than not have disposed of them at once." "Yes,^^ added Mrs. O'Hara, admiringly con- templating her bargains ; " he was a most excel- lent, respectable man.^^ " Wig, spectacles, and all ! " added Theresa, with M 3 250 CEOSS PUEPOSES. increasing vivacity. "He looked so long and straight that one might use him for a poker. The interest our new friend felt in me, particularly, was quite flattering. He started visibly when I entered the room, and grew quite red in the face, giving me a glance of most unaccountable asto- nishment; and his questions from time to time became so numerous, that I thought at last he must have swallowed one of Pinnock's volumes, and that he meant to put me through the whole catechism, beginning with my god-fathers and god-mothers." " When I think of it, his curiosity was certainly rather more than civil," resumed Mrs. O'Hara, carefully rolling up her ribbons. " His eye flashed upon you, Theresa, with most marvellous interest. The strange creature then asked quite abruptly if the girls were my own children, and whether they were twins. In short, he put more questions to me than I knew how to answer, particularly about some family of Brownlows in England, that he fancied our girls resembled." During all the time that Susan, unobservant of her husband's agitation, was speaking to O'Hara, his face became paler and paler, till at length it CROSS PURPOSES. 251 assumed a hue like death itself. His lips became compressed, his eye flashed with excitement, and he watched her every word with unwinking ear- nestness, while he clenched the knuckles of his hand fiercely on the table, and angrily ground his teeth. To conceal his own excitement, he began absently turning over some pages of those hand- somely bound books recently purchased trom the wandering pedlar, and one of them which had been sold for half-nothing, or less, to Theresa, bore on its back the very respectable name of *'The Pilgrim^s Progress." On opening the leaves, however, O'Hara perceived, with amaze- ment, that its pages were those of " The Glories of Mary." Another, in the possession of Fanny, handsomely bound, and ticketed as ^' The Memoirs of Dr. Chalmers," turned out, on inspecting the inside, to be " The Life of St. Alphonso Liguori." O'Hara stooped over these unwelcome volumes for several minutes with agitated astonishment, while a black cloud of consternation and dismay swept across liis face. Hurriedly recovering him- self, he asked in a tone of impetuosity, in what direction the pedlar had gone, saying that he must follow and find him without a moment's 252 CROSS PUEPOSES. delay. Susan replied that tlie reason he gave for wishing so impatiently to empty his pack had been^ that he might start by the next train for Dublin. *•' Wretch and rascal as he is I " exclaimed O'Hara, in a tone that startled and dismayed all present, while he snatched up his hat, and rushed towards the door with almost frantic vehemence, " my enemy has found me out ! I must and shall ascertain if this be the man. Yes ! I conjecture and greatly fear it can be no other. It seems as if the very birds of the air must have whispered the secret to him of where we are." Mrs. O'Hara, with astonishment amounting to actual consternation, looked hurriedly from the window after her husband, as he shot like light- nino; out of the room. He was runninsj with dis- tracted haste towards his own boat, into which he sprang, and instantly paddled himself with a four- oar power across the bay. She then saw him fly rapidly towards the railway-station and disappear. There O'Hara rushed breathlessly on the plat- form, eagerly inquiring whether a pedlar with his pack had entered either of the carriages on that train. A porter pointed towards the nearest CROSS PURPOSES. 253 second-class truck, very much crowded with pas- sengers, on the roof of which stood a large con- spicuous-looking box. At this moment the whistle sounded, the bell rang, the train moved on, and O'Hara eagerly stared — such a stare I — into the passing train. For a moment his eyes seemed to glare like those of a wild beast on the spring. Then, in the furthest seat, he distinctly saw Terence O'Grady I The traveller shrunk hastily back in his seat, endeavouring to conceal from O'Hara his well-known face, and the train whirled past like lightning on its way towards Dublin. O'Hara, now that his retreat had been dis- covered, and the existence of his wards had become known to his dreaded enemy, stood for some moments benumbed and helplessly transfixed to the spot with consternation. His heart beat against his ribs, his breast heaved with suppressed rage, he actually gasped and panted for breath; but what could the angry man do? Even were he to overtake his malicious enemy, what was there to complain of? O'Grady, coming to his house as a pedlar, had sold to Mrs. O'Hara and the girls most marvellous bargains ! He had be- haved with perfect civility, cai'ried off neither 254 CEOSS PURPOSES. plate nor valuables^ and paid for his place in a railway train to depart. If O'Hara, then, had followed his first impulse to telegraph a notice of arrest against O' Grady, there was nothing actionable of which to accuse him. As O'Hara continued in bitter, angry musings, he could not but think how amazingly altered in aspect his former enemy was, during the lapse of years. Was then O'Grady so changed, so com- pletely transformed with age and apparent suf- fering ! Yes ! conscience must have been at work to make O'Grady the wreck he was. His thin face scored, or rather ploughed up with wrinkles, his emaciated figure bending almost double as he sat, and the little hair left on his head already white as snow. It looked more like spun-glass than hair. Fierce, indeed, must have been the internal fire of suffering that had burned O'Grady down into such a wreck. His eyes only preserved that vigorous magnetic power for which they had always been remarkable, and during one brief moment now they had gleamed out upon O'Hara like those of a serpent, bright and sharp, but cold as ice. CROSS PURPOSES. 255 " What a storm has blown over that mind since last we met !" thought O'Hara. '^Fear, hatred, remorse ! all shrouded beneath an exterior of wooden immovability! Yes! already I am in part revenged ! but he will, if he can, bury me to save himself, and I must frustrate all his evil plans." Full of bitter musings and vague apprehensions, O'Hara turned homewards, haunted all the way by nervous apprehensions, in which the image of O'Grady pursued him like an evil spirit. Subject in recent years to the excitements of a temper depraved by mortification, and, truth to say, irri- tated by former intoxication, O'Hara met Susan that day in very obvious ill-humour. His shoul- ders were gathered high, his eyes gleaming, his brow knitted, and his bloated face the colour of burnt sienna. O'Hara was, no doubt, in a state of dark, drizzling, foggy sulkiness, when Susan welcomed him home, saying timidly, as she looked at his forbidding expression, — '^ Ah, Patrick ! can this be you returned already?" " I rather fancy it is," answered he, throwing himself with a look of despondency on the nearest 256 CROSS PURPOSES. seat. '^ Here I am, if any one cares to see me!" " Do you doubt that, Patrick, any more than you doubt your own identity ?" " Well ! I would rather be anybody else than myself, now that I am betrayed to my worst enemy — the worst that any man ever had! Wherever he appears, the shadow of ill-omen is upon me; but," added O'Hara, conscientiously, " I am doing all in my power for years past to be revenged on him, and I shall at last hurl him body and soul to destruction." Susan stood gasping with terror, becoming pale and red twenty times in a minute, when she saw her husband's almost maniacal state of excitement. She tried to look as if he must be in jest, as he seemed, from want of any other object, to turn his anger entirely on herself, because she had received the stranger, and because nothing is so irritating to the irritable as to see perfect calmness. "These poor girls, too!'' he exclaimed, with rising and still rising fury ; *^ ruin awaits them and me, through this calamitous visit. Had you neither common sense, common prudence, nor common anything else, to prevent your taking CROSS PURPOSES. 257 that man, Susan, into my very house ! It is only by having a wife that we can learn what fools women are. A hundred years ago, that man would have been burned for magic! Nothing escapes his cunning ! I could tear all the hair out of my head with vexation, that he has escaped me this time, but if he hide in a thunder-cloud now, I must find him. You are one of those blundering people, Susan, always said to be well-meaning ; but I hate being plunged headlong into such absolute ruin as this, even by a good, worthy idiot, who believes every travel- ler's tale, and trusts everybody." "Patrick!" exclaimed Mrs. O'Hara, who had been dismayed into silence by her husband's un- accountable and most unjust vehemence, " if your own Susan has done wrong, tell her so, but not harshly. One word from you, Patrick — and it need not be an angry one — shall always be obeyed, if I only understand your wishes." " I hate all cold, mechanical yes-and-no people, who get me into scrapes, and then wonder that I am irritated," answered O'Hara, lashing himself into fiercer ill temper, as he felt himself in the wrong. With a dark frown of suppressed anger, he set his teeth hard tosrether, to restrain a curse. 258 CEOSS PUEPOSES. while Susan gazed at him, pale and terror-struck, her hands clasped tightly together, her head in- clined forward, and her eyes brimming with tears she dare not shed. Mrs. O'Hara's expression was so mild and almost seraphic, that an artist might have desired to take her portrait for that of a saint ; but her expression changed to one of dumb agony, when she saw the look of livid grief stamped on her husband's features. At this moment Theresa, her face perfectly scarlet, and her large eyes in a blaze of agitation, at witnessing so much injustice to her best of friends, Mrs. O'Hara, advanced in an irrepressible burst of girlish wrath, saying, while her voice trembled at its own boldness in speaking at all, " If that pedlar had been some bad kind of ogre, how could we know that he was not a friend of youi-s, Mr. O'Hara? You look very like one yourself now. Be kinder to our kind mother, so good to us — so good to you and everybody. You must have a heart of ice, or no heart at all, when you speak in this cat-and- doggish kind of way to our dearest of friends. Neither she, nor I, nor a host of us, could have prevented that inconvenient man from calling ; here therefore why do you make mamma responsible for everything that goes CEOSS PUEPOSES. 259 wrong in this troublesome, blundering world? I am leaving this room, Mr. Gruardian, that you may- take the opportunity to make her an apology ; and I hope it will be a very humble one." Theresa's voice and look always succeeded in taming O'Hara's wildest bursts of excitement. His looks wandered from Theresa's glowing coun- tenance to those favourite portraits which hung on the wall ; large heavy tears fell from his eyes like rain-drops before thunder ; and the powerful mind of O'Hara was evidently shaken to its very centre with emotion ; yet in a moment afterwards, by a vehement effort, he recovered himself, and turned with a smile to Theresa, who was endea- vouring to look as much like a determined little virago as possible, though half-frightened never- theless, and more than half-inclined to nm away. " Well done, my young monitor ! You are a perfect Xantippe l'^ he exclaimed, laughingly, observing how she trembled with anger and fright. *' I wonder in how many previous states of existence you lived, before being born into your present position ; for you always seem accustomed to act and think in every imaginable person's cir- cumstances, and are always ready with your 260 CEOSS PURPOSES. opinion in the ' if-I-were-in-your-place' style. You must have been married a dozen times at least, and broke in all your husbands to obedience." For some days afterwards, O'Hara, though restored to perfect good humour, became unable to eat or sleep for thinking of 0' Grady ; and as he wasted away with evident anxiety, his deeply- attached wife could endure no longer to witness the increasing depression of his health and spirits ; therefore she at last broke all bounds of reserve, saying, with a look of kindness that seemed to read his very soul, — " My dear Patrick ! of what use is a wife, if not to carry safely all your secrets, and to bear the burden of at least half your anxieties. Ever since that pedlar intruded here, you have looked like your own ghost, yet never once has my husband vouchsafed a hint to his trustworthy wife, about who or what you suspect that man to be." " My dearest and best of Susans," answered O'Hara, touched for the moment by her tone of earnest and even of courageous kindness, " your io^norance is bliss ! Be a better wife than Blue- beard's, or your curiosity may be as sadly rewarded. By no fault of mine, there is a black CROSS PURPOSES. 261 and death-like secret aiFecting the life and cha- racter of many in the darkest closet of my mind, planted there by that man. Should he ever dare to appear in my house again, send instantly for me. Even if I had broken both my legs, I should come at once. Hold no intercourse whatever with him, nor answer a single question ; and let the girls, should O' Grady arrive, consider themselves close prisoners in their rooms as long as he remains." *' You may trust me/' replied Susan, earnestly. ** But surely, Patrick, he dare not return to your house ? " " He dare do whatever his superiors dictate, and who can tell in what disguise a Jesuit may appear next ? I describe that man from old and perfect knowledge. He is the servant of those to w4iom life is a mere masquerade, and he would cheat his own mother, if desired,^' exclaimed O'Hara, fero- ciously. " Whether as a bricklayer, a dissenting clergyman, a quack doctor, or a little boy in buttons, he will attempt yet to impose upon you, Susan ; but beware. Beware of the man who has crossed your miserable husband at every step in life, pierced my very heart with his arrows, 262 CROSS PURPOSES. laughed at my tortures ; and now, when I seemed to have struck a new root in life, pursues me still. As you love me, Susan, be not hoodwinked." " No," replied she, her eyes beaming with kindness; " I shall be very wide awake indeed, Patrick, where your happiness is concerned. The moment Theresa and I see any person about our little island home that we are not accustomed to, we shall set man-traps or spring-guns." " And send for me," added O'Hara, impres- sively. " I shall now be continually haunted by the O'Grady nightmare ; and we must all prepare for the worst." " But what is the worst ? You make one feel as if shudderinsj on the vers^e of some frightful o o o discovery. It would be more merciful to tell me all ! I do not understand " ** So much the better for yourself," replied O'Hara, taking several rapid strides across the room, and then dashing his hair off his forehead, with a look of angry perplexity. " You and the girls may one day have to swear in a court of justice that you do not know their parentage! And could you keep my secret then ? No I Let us then foro-et all ; only, Susan, observe, if that CROSS PURPOSES. 263 man appear in this house again, either he or I shall not leave it alive." When O'Hara departed, Susan listened breath- lessly, and with a slight shudder, to his retreating footstep. A dull sense of apprehension on O'Hara's account weighed down to the deepest depression her spirit ; and from that day her cheerful smile became scarcerj her step less elastic, her gay words less joyous. O'Hara seemed always now in a state of nervous, fidgeting, anxious excite- ment, too often increased by intoxication, and the least thing irritated, the smallest trifle startled Mm ; while Susan's heart, like a faithful thermO" meter, indicated or followed every variation in her husband's feelings. " Strange world ! ^' thought Susan one day, as in deep dejection she watched O'Hara staggering towards home. " Here even the happiest are not happy, and the wise providence of God is seen in this, that for some good reason not one mortal for one day escapes affliction. There is always a hand placed between us and perfect felicity. I was in danger of makino; Patrick an eai'thly idol, but it must not and shall not be, or this life would shut out eternity from my thoughts. We must hourly be taught that this world is not heaven, that every 264 CEOSS PUKPOSES. hope has its shadow. The brighter these hopes, the darker the shadow which follows. In becom- ing Patrick's wife I was too happy, happier than the limits put to earthly joy could allow. It was a pleasant dream, but, oh ! how sad the awakening ! I had only my heart to bestow, the undying affection of which even he can never fully measure ; but he shall yet have a cheerful, attrac- tive home, if my endeavours can make it so. I must put on a mask of hopeful, good-humoured smiles over all. If his happiness and that of the dear girls could be secured, at the total sacrifice of my own, how gladly should it be done ! " O^Hara was next day lazily glancing over the newspaper, when suddenly a paragraph caught his wandering, listless eye, which startled him into attention. He sprang up from his reclining posi- tion, placed the paper so close to the candle as nearly to set it on fire, crushed the unoffending "Times" vehemently in his hand, spread it out again, panted with excitement, and then once more devoured the following passage from a police report : — *' O'Connell, alias O'Eouke, alias O'Grady, who has of late been personating various characters throughout London and the country, is now in custody, on a charge of receiving stolen plate and jewellery. His defence is, that the family diamonds and CEOSS PURPOSES. 2G5 racing-cups, so long in the Earl of Courtland's possession, had been given to him by the Countess for religious purposes, and that, therefore, her husband cannot reclaim them, the whole gift being already consecrated." O'Hara seemed half-crazy with joy ; it was a terrible joy to witness as he exclaimed, with a trembling finger pointed to the paragraph, " Let me but hang O'Grady, and I shall die in peace ! This accounts for his not yet having taken any steps against me and the girls." VOL. I. N 266 CEOSS PUKPOSES. CHAPTER X. " The beef of to-morrow will succeed to the mtitton of to-day, as the mutton of to-day succeeded to the veal of yesterday ; but when once the heart has been occupied by a beloved object, in vain would we attempt to supply the chasm by another." Canning. Lady Dora Fitzalan Lad been educated at a first-rate, most expensive, finishing — very finishing — boarding-school, where she was instructed in all things except how to think, feel, and act in every-day life, what were the real objects of exist- ence, how to fulfil its relative duties, and how to prepare for its end. Her sister. Lady Frances, died of grammars and music before she was ten, as evidently as her mother died of palsy at fifty. But, as Mademoiselle Argentin, the governess, observed in a tone of panegyric, " There was no holding Lady Frances back ! She became a won- derful girl, and could do almost without food or sleep in order to get on/^ *' There never, certainly, was such a school as CROSS PURPOSES. 267 ours for pushiag the pupils forward," said Lady- Dora one day to Mrs. O'Hara. " But something in the air disagreed with us all, — for only nine of my contemporaries out of twenty lived to grow up, and three of these have spine complaints ; the others all endure headaches, neuralgia, and other annoyances, that make their lives a burden to themselves and their friends. But it is a great pity, for they are all such accomplished creatures ; I never saw their equals. Never ! Poor Lady Mary Jones, however, has no brains or ideas of her own, and such weak nerves, she cannot bear to hear her own music ; and Anne Brownlow, the attorney's daughter I told you of, has overstrained her eyes, so that though she can read six languages, she dare not open a book. Mademoiselle Argen- tin told papa that she thought I had a softening of the brain myself, but he said that it could never become softer than nature made it." " Certainly women were not intended to have a tower of Babel in their heads," answered Susan, smiling ; " and if they had, that would be very apt to give them a headache. I think it is almost as bad to read or learn too much as to eat too much; for in both cases we exceed the powers n2' 26S CEOSS PURPOSES. which God has limited of mortal exertion, and we indulge a passion at the expense of rational obedience." Lady Dora at the age of twenty had seen, done, and enjoyed all that life could offer ; and she found some amusement in the country now from telling Theresa and Fanny how immensely her music, her dancing, her dress, and her beauty had been admired in London, where she had reduced several of the most distinguished of her partners to utter despair for life. In Ireland, she declared, that no one was worthy to be named as a victim, or could be entitled to the honour of being flirted with, or of dying for her. One was too old, another too young, one smoked cigars, another wore hideous mustachios, the next V70re none ; they danced ill, they rode ill, or they had a brogue ; and they were all too florid or too pale, too tall or too short. As Ireland is so famous for its fortune-hunters, it would have been marvellous, indeed, if none had contrived, in spite of herself, to surround Lady Dora. She believed herself particularly discou- ras^ina' to one of these, who would not be discou- raged. He was the brother of a favourite school companion, who had told him, within a ten-pound CROSS PURPOSES. 269 note, exactly the fortune and expectations of Lady Dora, which were so considerable, that, being only a young captain, on leave from his regiment in India (9th Bombay Cavalry), Alfred O'Rouke thought the enterprise worth attempting. He had taken the opportunity of the long passage home to plant out nearly his whole face w^ith a long, Indian-sepoy beard, and formidable mus- tachios, but the very little that could still be seen of his face was handsome in the vulgar style. He had a swaggering, second-rate officer's manner, which Lord Tipperary particularly detested and loudly criticised, saying, that " Captain O'Eouke looked like something between a captain of banditti and an old clothes man.'' Lord Tipperary 's Irish hospitality now and then conquered his antipathy so far, that he occasionally asked the young officer to take " tiffin ' ' at the Castle ; and as Lady Dora soon detected in Captain O'Eouke a respectful though perfectly hopeless attachment for herself, she felt some curiosity to see how such a detrimental would conduct himself in the circumstances. Lady Dora did not feel obliged to become aware of Captain O'Eouke's admiration till he declared it. When the enamoured captain. 270 CROSS PUEPOSES. with love and money in his heart, protested one day that he felt elevated in the scale of creation since he had known Lady Dora Fitzalan, she amused herself in an idle hour afterwards by ima- gining how he would probably propose, how very absurd he would look, and with what dignity she would reject him ! What else could be expected by a mere Irish captain of native cavalry, come home on leave from India ? Captain O'Rouke seemed to know, by intu- ition, or perhaps by bribing the groom daily, at what hour and in what direction Lady Dora intended to ride ; for, well mounted himself, he invariably intercepted her; and if she en- tered the garden at her usual hour, he was as certainly there as the violets. Such surprises became at last no surprises whatever ; and though she intended at first that her father should be told of these rather forward, free-and-easy intrusions. Lady Dora thought it might become a great annoyance afterwards if she were guarded, guided, and watched by Lord Tipperary, who was very fond of meddling, and might take from her the liberty to think, feel, or speak of her ridiculous but certainly amusing and very devoted admirer, CROSS ruRPOSES. 271 as she pleased or did not please. Thus a riding- and-sketching intimacy became clandestinely esta- blished with Captain O'Rouke, which amused Lady Dora, who enjoyed this little romantic romance, arising as it did in a place where hitherto the want of agreeable companions, during many long months in the country, had made her so hopelessly indolent that she could scarcely take the trouble even to eat, talk, or think. Theresa and Fanny, with all the glowing, fear- less happiness of early girlhood, had at the same time, under the instructions of Susan, fast ripened into graceful and well-informed maturity. In the lively companionship of Lady Dora, especially when accompanied now by Captain O'Rouke, they heard all the nonsense of fashionable persi- flage, and with her, high-born and well-bred, they also learned insensibly to acquire the tone and manners of refined society. Lady Dora was gifted naturally with much humour, therefore her descriptions of London life were amusing beyond expression to her unsophisticated com- panions, as well as to Captain O'Rouke ; and her talent for repeating conversations was so singu- larly dramatic that her two young friends, in such 272 CROSS PURPOSES. lively association, acquired a tone of repartee and humour suited to such gay, aristocratic circles as they never expected themselves to enter. The heedless, rattling tone of banter which Lady Dora indulged herself in, had exercised both Theresa and Fanny in a quickness of perception and readi- ness of reply beyond their juvenile years, and Lord Tipperary laughed often till the tears were in his eyes, at their merry, pert, good-humoured malice, when parrying the jests of Lady Dora, and holding their own against her or Captain O'Rouke in a mock fight of wit or argument. After Lady Dora had flashed upon London in all the brilliancy of early girlhood, she thought it hard to be shut up during the most beautiful years of her youth in the wilds of Ire- land, though allowed more of her own way there than is good for any one. She complained that her father, in shutting her up from all suit- able society, talked very sensibly upon the duty owing by children to their parents, but she thought as much might be said also of the duty parents incurred by giving existence to those whose existence they should feel bound to render a real blessing. While Lord Tipperary, there- CROSS PURPOSES. 273 fore, considered every hour of his daughter's time, and every thought of her heart, no more than his own due, in dutiful attention on his infirmities, she "was pining in the dull imprisonment of a tumble- down old castle, blushing unseen, and feeling that "where none admire, 'tis useless to excel." Meanwhile, even Captain O'Rouke, as a jpis alter, rather improved than otherwise upon ac- quaintance ; and though Lady Dora persevered in callino; him "that horror!" — "that tis^er from Bengal, my favourite aversion,'' — and otlier young lady-like appellatives symptomatic of utter ab- horrence, her manner to him became gradually less repulsive. As he professed to be a million times overpaid for waiting all day by a glimpse of her parasol, &he felt disappointed and rather piqued at last if he were not in ambuscade somewhere every morning to escort her along the road ; and at last, w^hen the presumptuous captain of Bombay cavalry proposed that he should escort her round the Cape as his wife. Lady Dora, after a short strusrorle between her weariness of home and her desire for any change whatever, even if it were for the worse, consented to an elopement, quite on the Lydia Languish model. n3 274 CROSS PURPOSES. Great was the indignant consternation of Lord Tipperary, when he one morning discovered that his only child, Lady Dora, had behaved with such inconceivable ingratitude ; that actually, though he had taught her no particular principles, she had acted in an unprincipled way; that though he had done nothing to make her home happy, she had chosen another for herself; and that though he had allowed her no companions or admirers at the Castle of suitable rank, she had married so greatly beneath his expectations. Not an O'Rouke since the creation had ever before appeared in the peerage ! The aged peer was much to be pitied ; for, in his own selfish, indolent way, he believed himself to have been the very best of fathers ; and soon after, when Lady Dora, in a state of unforgiven banishment, sailed with her husband to join his regiment in India, Lord Tipperary fretted and fumed himself into an actual fever. He had always been one of those never-ill persons, who scouted at all doctors, and believed that medical men, like rat-catchers, invariably let loose the very evils they pretend to cure ; therefore, from day to day and from week to week, he now refused to CKOSS PUEPOSES. 275 see a physician, till at length the case became so serious that O'Hara insisted on going himself to Dublin for the far-famed Dr. Fitzroy. Tliis gentleman had got into great practice by allow- ing his patients, as Lord Tipperary remarked when at last he sent for him, to be killed in any way they preferred, as the Doctor practised homoeopathy, hydropathy, allopathy, and all the modern Avhims or vasiaries of modern science indiscriminately. When O'Hara returned with Dr. Fitzroy from Dublin, Susan met him at the entrance to Castle Elan, saying that Lord Tipperary had become worse and worse, till his danger seemed so immi- nent that she had prevailed on him to let her send for Dr. Harvey, the Episcopal clergyman of the parish. " But," added j\Irs. O'Hara, " our worthy rector being absent, it happened quite providen- tially that a scripture-reader called here by accident, some hours ago. He is travelling the country to distribute Bibles and tracts. Such a good, worthy, simple-hearted Christian ! Hearing he could be useful to Lord Tipperary, this pious and devoted missionary came from the village immediately. He gave the girls and me an hour's most edifying 276 CROSS PURPOSES. conversation, and seems very hopeful of doing immense 2:ood in convertino; those iscnorant and deluded Papists who swarm in this unhappy- neighbourhood." " Why did you not keep him to dinner ?" asked O'Hara^ who was always as hospitable as an Arab. '' You never think of doing the right thing at the riojht time." "But I did, so there is a triumph for me I" exclaimed Susan, with a charming smile of perfect good humour. '' You would have been fascinated with jNIr. Maclaine, and he expressed the most excessive anxiety to see you ; but somehow, from the moment I said you would be returning home immediately, he seemed in a perfect fidget to be off, saying that if you and he once began to talk, there would be no end of it. j\Ir. Maclaine told me that Lord Tipperary, after their first interview an hour since, wished now to see him quite alone, having some religious difficulties to solve. I did not hear the desire expressed by Lord Tipperary, though I was in his room during the whole of Mr. Maclaine's visit ; but it is very natural, of course, that a dying person should have things to say which none but a clergyman may CROSS PURPOSES. 277 hear. They are together now, and have been for some time." An hour elapsed — two hours, and more — still Lord Tipperary's door remained not only closed, but bolted. At length O'Hara, seeing Dr. Fitz- roy's carriage from Dublin driving along the approach, hurried up-stairs, and gave a loud knock of irresistible urgency, and requested admission. The sound of a voice then met his ear, speaking in low, measured, confidential accents ; and when, after a long interval, the door was opened to admit Dr. Fitzroy, accompanied by O'Hara, the scrip- ture-reader said to Lord Tipperary, in a strange, nasal, and very fanatical voice, — *' While human remedies are tried by mere human physicians, let me try the far surer remedy of my own prayers to the greatest Physician of all." Before O'Hara could look round or speak, the devest scripture-reader was invisibly withdrawn in a distant corner of the room, prostrate on his knees, where he remained with his face burled in his outspread hands, solemn and silent as a marble tombstone, till Dr. Fitzroy called O'Hara out of the room to receive his opinion, and to hear his 278 CROSS PUEPOSES. directions respecting the treatment of Lord Tip- perary's case^ when Mr. Maclaine, as soon as they had withdrawn, instantly rose and hastily with- drew, after speaking a very few words in a confi- dential tone to the patient. Never was there a more indefatigable missionary than the newly-arrived stranger. He ministered unceasino'ly throu2:hout the followins: week amons: several neighbouring cottages, or remained shut up in the darkened apartment of the evidently dying peer, who seemed as if he never could see or hear enough of him. AYhen beside Lord Tip- perary, Mr. Maclaine spoke continually in a low, murmuring, almost inaudible voice ; and the few times in which O'Hara could now gain admission, he found the missionary praying in a fervent tone, with his face devoutly buried in the counterpane. In vain did the busy, overworked factor spare half-an-hour from his account-books and farming operations occasionally, to watch for an inter^ew with this excellent stranger ; for it so happened — of course by accident — that Lord Tipperary had always now some special business on which to send O'Hara away far from home, some commission to the village, or some tenant^s business several miles CROSS PURPOSES. 279 oflP to be settled immediately ; till, in great per- plexity, O'Hara found himself at last almost entirely excluded from the sick-room, and evi- dently far from welcome when he entered it, — very unwelcome indeed ! O'Hara, at the expiration of a week, began to feel surprised at such a succession of coincidences. It suddenly occurred to him, like a flash of light, that they could scarcely all have occurred by acci- dent ; and he said rather anxiously, one morning, to his wife, — " I do not know whether there is anything in this, but only it seems odd, Susan, that I have never yet encountered your paragon the missionary face to face, even by accident, except in Lord Tipperary's darkened room, where I am so seldom now admitted. He certainly has a hypocritical, methodistical voice, that strikes me as very false ; and that long, straight-combed hair, with the long, straight-cut coat, is a mere religious livery rather easily assumed." " Poor good Mr. Maclaine ! he is the best of men, — the very best ! '^ exclaimed Mrs. O'Hara, with more decision of tone than she often ventured to assume. " Think how he ministers day and 280 CEOSS PURPOSES. night, with unwinking watchfulness, at poor Lord Tipperary's dying-bed ! I never saw so devoted a pastor ; and when I meet him, which is but rarely, as he remains so constantly in the sick-room now, his words of advice and comfort are beautiful — quite beautiful ! " "Indeed!" answered O'Hara, doubtfully, while a dark and gloomy expression gathered over his brow. *' You are quite enthusiastic to-day, Susan!" " No wonder ! Our girls are equally so ; and they are more fortunate than you or I, as they seem to meet I\Ir. Maclaine at every turn, every day. They tell me he is so very agreeable, so full of information ! If they ask him a million of questions on a million of subjects, he can answer them all as if he had studied nothing else all his life. Theresa says this marvellous missionary knows more than all the rest of mankind put together, and she is sure he could with equal ease count the number of the fixed stars, or trim her bonnet." '^I know but one man on earth to suit that description ! Why did you not tell me all this sooner?" exclaimed OHara, .'starting as if CROSS PURPOSES. 281 suddenly awakened from a dream. " I must see this invisible man immediately. AYhere is he? "Where are the girls ? ^^ " Most likely all three are gone somewhere together/^ answered Mrs. O'Hara, quite unaware of lier husband's vehement excitement. "Mr. Maclaine seems always teaching them something, and they are very apt scholars. It is astonishing how the minds of those girls, almost children, have expanded since Mr. Maclaine arrived, and how very clever, acute, and rapid Theresa is in arorument with him. He was inveia^hino- asiainst Romanism to-day, and explaining some of the Popish absurdities about relics and canonized sinners. It was most interesting, and the girls are gone, I think, with the good missionary to visit that poor victim, Mary Jackson, — or St. Ignatia, as she now calls herself. Mr. Maclaine "wished them to hear all he would say this morn- ing, in order to reconvert her back to Protes- tantism." O'Hara rose hurriedly from his seat, and dashed out of the room, clenching his hand in a frenzy of agitation, and muttering an exclama- tion of rage between his teeth, while Susan, quite 282 CROSS PURPOSES. unaware of his unusual excitement, sat com- posedly down to her work-table, wondering why O'Hara slammed the door with such unpleasant vehemence, and quietly wishing that he had more of Mr. Maclaine's composed, deliberate manner. The girls returned, unaccompanied by their escort, but charmed with their walk, as well as with Mr. Maclaine ; while O'Hara, having missed the whole party, continued all day fidgeting, restless, and anxious, being quite unable to obtain a glimpse of the missionary, though resolved that nothing on earth should prevent his having an interview, if possible, that very day. It turned out impossible! All the factor's manoeuvres were frustrated. Therefore, next morning, the impatient O'Hara rose to prosecute his intention of confronting Mr. Maclaine, determined that nothing should prevent him. At the door, as he entered Elan Castle, O'Hara was met by the startling intelligence that Lord Tipperary, after a second attack of apoplexy during the night, had died in half-an-hour. O'Hara felt for a moment as if he had grown blind and deaf with the shock, and he lost no time in at once entering the Castle to take an CROSS PURPOSES. 283 official charge, where all was consternation, grief, and confusion. How mysterious is the narrow line that divides life from death ! But yesterday Lord Tipperary was full of energy, authority, and power; to-day he lay helpless and uncon- scious, an appalling spectacle in that very house so long his own, a loathsome incumbrance, where so lately he had ruled as master. "Alas!" thought O Hara, with a sigh of angry impatience as well as of sorrow, " my best, almost my only friend is no more I What will become of me now? I have lost a good master and a very good position too; yet the world smiles as formerly, insensible to my misery." Lord Tipperary, for many years, seemed unable to act or even to think without the dictation of O'Hara; but of late, since his factor had occa- sionally been accused of appearing in a state of " elevation,*' scarcely amounting to drunkenness, the aged peer, now almost in his dotage, had seemed ready to take the opinion of any one else who oflfered it, no matter who, scarcely caring to weigh the worth of advice when decidedly given, from whatever quarter it came. This had greatly annoyed O'Hara, who considered the old earl 284 GROSS PURPOSES. his own private property, and who had long kept a sort of turnkey-watch over all his actions. Lord Tipperary, some wrecks before his death, could scarcely have written a private memo- randum in his own private pocket-book, without O'Hara, as if by clairvoyance, knowing what the pencil recorded; but of late he had never even been told by his patron whether Lord Tipperary had executed his often-repeated threat of cutting off Lady Dora with an angry shilling, and whether the extensive estates over which he was a really conscientious factor descended to her or to the heir-at-law. That young heir was a nephew to the recently deceased peer, somewhat of the Verdant Green species, now completing his classical education at Oxford, where four-in- hand drags, boating, and pic-nics occupied the greater part of his time. The confusion at Elan Castle became extreme on the sudden demise of its old lord and master ; but no sooner had the first shock subsided, than Mr, Maclaine assembled all the w^eeping, inconsolable servants together, and pronounced in their pre- sence a most edifying panegyric on their deceased master, saying, in his usual slow, nasal, very CROSS PURPOSES. 285 methodistical tone, while the audience listened with " rapt enthusiasm/' " Yesterday, that best of masters was vivid with thou£:lit, feelins:, and intel- lect ; to-day, no more life is left in him than in an old guitar-case." Mr. Maclaine had scarcely concluded his mourn- ful address, before O'Hara, understanding that the missionary was giving a religious service in the housekeeper's room, hurriedly descended the stair- case, and very unceremoniously entered. When O'Hara's heavy rapid tread was heard approaching, Mr. Maclaine solemnly covered his face with his hankerchief, overwhelmed by emotion at the panegyric he had himself pronounced on the much-to-be-lamented Lord Tipperary. While the preacher paused, unable apparently to articulate another word, O'Hara planted himself resolutely at the door, in impatient expectation of what was to follow, but he waited long and not a sound could be heard. The servants were all drowned in tears, and the eloquent missionary, unable further to control the tempest of his feelings, kept his face buried in a large pocket-handkerchief, and hurriedly strode towards an opposite door, unable so much 286 CROSS PUEPOSES. as to lift his head. O'Hara gazed eagerly at the retreating figure and gait of this agitated mourner and by an irresistible impulse not to be controlled, he suddenly, to the consternation of all present, rushed upon the stranger, grasped him like a vice in both arms, tore his hands down, and found himself, as he more than half-expected, face to face, eye to eye with Terence O' Grady. Suppressing with difficulty an exclamation of angry exultation at this discovery, O'Hara gazed almost in a stupor of excitement at his detected enemy, who stood unwillingly before him now. Both parties were completely at bay, while O'Grady was a very picture of calm, awe-creating, lofty humility, his pale face unmoved in a single muscle, and that eye — that dark, stern eye, which never willingly met the eye of any other man — was now fixed on the floor. "Wretch! Impostor!" exclaimed O'Hara, in a tone of reckless fury, " have I found you out at last? That is, at all events, a satisfaction !" " The pleasure, if there be any, is all on your side," replied the missionary, drily. *' You mis- take me. Sir, for another." " Impossible — quite impossible !" answered CROSS PURPOSES. 287 O'Hara, becoming more and more excited by the coobiess of his adversary. " Your name is Terence O'Grady!" *' Not that my godfathers ever heard of ! Your dram has been rather of the strongest this morn- ing, Mr. O'Hara ; therefore let me advise you, as a friend, as a well-wisher, to keep out of sight, and to sleep it off, rather than be seen any longer in this disreputable state." " Seen ! Who is the man who should shun the light of day but yourself?" cried O'Hara, in an accent shrill with rage. " But, at last, I have found you ' " Or, rather, you have lost your senses, Mr. O'Hara! Find them again, if you can; but I fear they had been drowned in ten years' pota- tions, when we parted last," said O^Grady, with a cold and sneering composure, which was almost maddening to his excited adversary. " Your life has long been laid waste by the two worst of enemies, gin and brandy ; therefore, let me be the best of friends in advising you to forsake them." The crowd of startled and observant domestics now gathered closely round the belligerent parties. 2SS CEOSS PUEPOSES. feeling that a scene of most exciting interest was about to ensue ; for it became obvious that some very strange discovery had this moment taken place. O'Hara's features grew distorted with fury; he turned from red to pale, from pale to red. He ground his teeth, and was about to burst forth in such a vehement torrent of invective as was always at his command, when Terence O' Grady's ever-ready tact, as usual, prevailed. Before O'Hara, almost delirious with rage, could articulate another of the thousand sentences crowding to his lips, O'Grady had turned slowly round to the circle of breathless listeners beside him. saying, in a bland, plausible, and particularly composed voice, — '' ^ly good friends ! protect me from this un- happy man, who is subject to paroxysms of in- sanity ! You see how excitable he is, and it seems quite providential my being here at present ! I have now detected a criminal in your presence, who was tried some years ago for murdering his late master. Let us hope it was done in a fit of madness. Let him deny that if he can ! Xo wonder that Mr. O'Hara's eyes seem blasted on beholding one like me, who knows the worst, and CllOSS PURPOSES. 289 could bring him into condemnation. My mission on earth, however, is one of mercy ; and for Mr. O'Hara^s sake, little as he deserves impunity, let me instantly withdraw. Keep him in custody, my good friends, till I am safely beyond a mad- man's vengeance. He often believes me during his insane fits to be, not Donald Maclaine, a faith- ful Protestant missionary, as you all know me to be, but he will now and then actually rave at me as if I were a Popish priest — a fire-and-faggot Papist!" Before O'Hara could recover breath or utter- ance, Mr. Maclaine, under the zealous protection of several admiring servants, had calmly glided, with an imperceptible, serpent-like movement, out of the room, and disappeared, while the factor struggled in vain, with frantic violence, to pursue his now victorious enemy, exclaiming, in accents of the wildest excitement, which might well be mistaken for insanity, or for the intoxication of which he was already suspected, — " Stop him ! stop him ! oh, stop O'Grady ! That man is himself the murderer ! He is a Papist ! — a cheat ! — a swindler ! — a hypocrite !— stop him !" The servants slily exchanged looks of incredu- YOL. I. 290 CROSS PURPOSES. lity at the idea that good, worthy Mr. Maclaine, the best of scripture-readers, loaded with Bibles and tracts, could, even by a mere madman, be accused of Komanism. None but a maniac or a drunkard could have imagined so outrageous an impossibility. All present now looked at O'Hara with pity, contempt, and abhorrence, as a madman strongly suspected of murder, who had so far lost his reason as to misrepresent the best of missionaries, Mr. Maclaine, an old friend of his own, but too lenient now in not delivering up so malignant a maniac into custody. The excellent scripture-reader carried his mer- cifal consideration for O'Hara so far, that he was never seen or heard of more at Elan Castle ! Not a track of him, not a foot-print could ever again be traced ; and Mr. Maclaine had, in his haste to go, even left behind all the Bibles and tracts strewed about on the floor of his room, which he had been so very zealously distributing among the grateful villagers. A most extraordinary and miscellaneous collection it was ! Certainly that most intelligent, worthy Protestant traveller, Mr. Maclaine, must, as O'Hara declared, have been sadly cheated by his bookseller, seeing that these copies of Holy CROSS PURPOSES. 291 Scripture were most daringly mutilated and gar- bled; but nevertheless, when O'Hara pointed this out. Lord Tipperary's servants still maintained that the good man had been deceived, as that pious missionary was himself perfection, and evidently in their estimation rather beyond it. Mr. Maclaine's disappearance they attributed to his apprehensions from O'Hara's insanity ; and thought, from what they had seen, that there was fury enough in the angry factor to intimidate ten men at least, as well as to confirm every accusation against him of criminal violence. o2 292 CROSS PURPOSES. CHAPTER XL "All gentlemen That love society, lore me." Fletcher The new Lord Tipperaiy, a juvenile relative of his worthy predecessor, had been a very impatient heir to the deceased peer. He thought it a most unprincipled intrusion of the old lord to have monopolized his title and estates so long ; and being precisely at the age now for tandems, drags, and cigars, he disdained to make any semblance of old- fashioned grief or regret, but set out forthwith to act as chief mourner, in a state of buoyancy and animation which might have done honour to the race-course at Doncaster. He was no hypocrite, certainly, on this occasion ; and though young Lord Tipperary, in compliment to his predecessor, left off, when about to perform the duty of attending the funeral in Ireland, his most startling waistcoats and incredible ties, he privately told his confiden- tial friends that he should slide into them again as CROSS PURPOSES. 293 soon as the melancholy festivities at Elan Castle were concluded. *' There should be an interdict against doctors prolonging the lives of old people," observed the young lord, carefully picking a walnut and sipping his claret with a party of gay companions, who had consented to accompany him in a drag to Ire- land. '• It was perfectly shameful how often that old cousin of mine recovered. As Charles the Second apologised to his courtiers for taking so long a time to die, old Tipperary should really have left a few lines of apology to me. Better late than never." "• I thought the old gentleman had been rather kind to you, in the apple and ginger-bread days of your boyhood," observed Captain Clifford, a man of feeling as well as of fashion, not a little shocked at his Mend's undisguised hilarity. *' I remember hearing he had been very fond of you, and did his duty most handsomely sometimes, when calling to see his not very grateful cousin at Eton. Tlie very skies are weeping to-day, for here comes a heavy shower ; and you should drop a tear, also, before you blot out for ever that rather kind old relative." *' Tears ! AVith all my heart, if I had a heart ; but the fact is, between friends, I never mean to 294 CROSS PURPOSES. shed, a tear for ^^y one, and I do not expect any one to weep for me. We must each stand upon the stage of life for any number of hours appointed us, and I mean to make mine as merry and free from care as possible. Few pleasures in life are equal to the pleasure of having property, and my enjoy- ment will be much increased now, since you are all to accompany me when I take possession of mine. Depend on always finding with me the best house, the best opera-box, the best dogs, and the best horses of any man living. " And," interposed Captain Clifford, smiling, ^' the best wife, I hope, at last." " Mine shall be a life of starry brightness, un- dimmed by any clouds of care ; therefore," added Lord Tipperary, "it will be a fortunate young lady who may hereafter share it with me." Lord Brentford, another of Lord Tipperary's friends, who was of the party to Ireland, besides Captain Clifford, certainly was in some respects superior to his cousin, Lord Tipperary; though, after being the miracle of his nursery, the wonder of his school, and the triple first-class man of his college, he had, like most prematurely over-edu- cated youths of the present day, suffered a collapse CEOSS PURPOSES. 295 of all liis energies, and sat down, apparently for life, "v^dth a cigar in his mouth and very few ideas in his head. Lord Brentford knew the classics by rote, and could run off as many hundred lines of Virgil or Sallust as any reasonable don at Oxford could desire. He did this as easily and with as little reflection as the ploughboy whistling for want of thought, but no grand ideas of human duty or of human destiny had yet been instilled into his mind. No leisure had ever been allowed him to originate such thoughts for himself. He was one vast me- mory, crammed from infancy to manhood, from morning till night ; and now, unaccustomed to the use of leism-e, he had already tried to kill ennui by gambling his whole income away, and much more. Already he owed a perfect national debt to black-leg companions, who despised while they pillaged him. Lord Brentford, at his house in Belgrave-square, kept a sort of railway refresh- ment-room, where all who arrived at any hour during the day found luncheon on the table, and a carte setting forth a list of soups ready to appear hot-and-hot on table. There the young peer jested with one friend, betted with another, and lost his fortune to all ; though, having enough of his own money, and not caring to win other 296 CEOSS PURPOSES. people's, gambling scarcely gave him all the excite- ment he wanted. There are two classes in this world who have but little incentive to exertion, those who are so destitute that they have nothing to lose, and those so prosperous, they seem to have nothing to gain. Lord Brentford was of the latter more fortunate class, and as he daily lounged or gossipped in dressing-gown and slippers over a late breakfast, it might have been difficult to name any earthly object for which it would seem worth his while to rise. Politics never troubled his head, as he took it for granted that whatever ministry ruled, he would still be Earl of Brentford ; and as for foreign wars or strikes at home, he thought people all great bores who talked of such tiresome subjects, and dis- couraged them by weary glances, or by suppressed yawns. Lord Brentford, now in the full bloom of his idlest imbecility, had no notion of caring about either ancestors or posterity. He thought those old- world notions perfectly absurd where people wished their names " handed down to future centuries." It was a mere superstition of the dark ages to care for such posthumous celebrity ; but the present mo- ment was all in all to him, as he cared very little what became of to-morrow. Not one word did he know of the charters by which his liberty and CROSS PURPOSES. 297 property were secured to himself, nor of the his- tory belonging to that ancient family which he now represented. Somehow or other there had always been Earls of Brentford ; and he was aware that his mother was sister to that very old Lord Burton who, like a dutiful uncle, gave him grouse-shooting in Northumberland ; but who or what any of his other ancestors had been, he neither knew nor very much cared. They had left a set of absurd-looking portraits in wigs and armour, hanging on the walls at Torchester Abbey, which he remembered once as a boy seeing there, and he hoped none of those old quizzes were like himself. They might, per- haps, have returned the compliment ! The morning before Lord Tipperary's funeral, O'Hara, partly to dispel the fever of anxiety he was in, respecting the continuance of his appoint- ment as factor, and partly to accelerate the prepa- rations for his late patron's interment, set off on a long walk to the nearest market-town. He had proceeded about a mile along a romantic glen by the road-side, overhung with wild roses and wood- bine, when a laughing ambuscade of Theresa and Fanny burst out upon him from behind a large oak- tree, and gi-asped his arm. They eagerly entreated 03 298 CROSS PURPOSES. permission, then, of their astonished guardian to accompany him in his walk, protesting that having already obtained Mrs. O'Hara's willing consent ; they felt able this morning to walk as fast and as far as a couple of gamekeepers. Who could look in those two bright young faces, glittering with smiles, and say "no" to any request, even had it been less welcome ? The beautiful but very exacting Theresa, from that moment, kept O'Hara in perpetual occupation during their exceed- ingly long expedition, the extent of which was redoubled by her running up the banks in search of wild flowers, or pausing to hear some lively bird, gay as herself, practising the difficult passages of its songs. Evening had almost closed in, therefore, and darkness begun, before O'Hara could complete all the business he found it necessary to transact ; and the three pedestrians had scarcely chatted their way homewards above a mile, ere a drizzle of most persevering rain began to fall, evidently not intend- ing to stop, all night. "A pretty adventure you have brought upon yourselves, young ladies!" exclaimed O'Hara, in great vexation and perplexity, as he saw them laughingly dash off small cascades of water from CROSS PURPOSES. 299 their large bonnets, and most immistakeablj enjoy- ing the whole adventure. *' What earthly business had you to come so far upon ? ^' '•' We came to look after our guardian, and to see that he got into no mischief," replied Theresa, in her usual tone of lively frolic. " You are half- killed with care of late, Mr. Guardian, and our society is absolutely necessary now to keep off wrinkles. You look ten years older since poor Lord Tipperary died!" " No wonder, if you knew the enemy I have to fear. But my chief care is now to prepare for GUI* new lord's arrival ; his first impression of me as a factor will make or mar my fortunes for life. It is of immeasurable importance how we meet. My dear girls ! every acre of this old place is dear to me ! dearer than tongue can tell ; there- fore, to leave it would break my heart, if anything can break a heart that has already suffered so much, and still lives." " Positively, here comes the Highflyer coach an horn* before its time ! I hear the crack of that well- known whip and the four horses pattering along the road !" exclaimed Theresa, with girlish ecstasy. *' How often I have wished for a drive in that old 300 CROSS PURPOSES. vehicle ! and now, instead of walking home in this drenching mud, as deep as Balaklava, we can all drive to the village, still a few miles off, in perfect luxury.'-' The horn sounded loudly as the heavy carriage came thundering down-hill, piled high with boxes ! While the eager Theresa was still speaking, she held up her parasol as a signal for the coachman to stop, and before O'Hara could collect his wandering senses, the conveyance had drawn up beside him, covered with outside passengers ; but there were only two travellers inside. The driver, respectfully touching his hat to Theresa's uplifted parasol, made signals to a man on the dickey, who hurriedly got down and threw open the door. As Theresa was about to spring in, she observed with surprise that the pannels were handsomely painted, that the inside was w^ell stuffed, that the steps resembled those of a private carriage, and that there were coronets on the harness. *' Never mind !" said the coachman, who seemed evidently the principal person, and was obviously amused at Theresa's start of surprise. " We have set up an opposition to the old Highflyer. I shall charge only sixpence each for your places, and a CEOSS PURPOSES. 301 trifle to the driver. Here, old gentleman ! get up behind me, and your daughters will meet with very- good respectable company inside.'^ After a great deal of good-humoured laughter on all hands, the whole party crowded into seats outside and in, and Theresa was astonished to meet with the most Chesterfieldian politeness from the two passengers in a common coach, for certainly nothing could be more respect- fully well-bred than the reception accorded to Fanny and herself. The lively girls, with the graceful animation of children, delighted to have an adventure, and quite heedless of being noticed, ensconsed themselves now in opposite corners ot the carriage, while Theresa, who never could resist a joke, wrung out the dripping ends of her shawl, saying, half-aside to Fanny, that she hoped two damp strangers coming into the coach would not give any of the company cold, or they must present the sufferer with a box of jujube lozenges next day. "I am a hydropathist, and like everything damp; even my newspaper," replied one of the gentlemen, smiling. " But it is a very alarming symptom in me, that nothing can ever damp my spirits. Nothing ! particularly now, when 302 CROSS PUEPOSES. we have the pleasure of tliis introduction to you!" *' An introduction!" said Theresa, unable to repress a smile, though she had intended to be very distantly civil among strangers. " It might certainly be a convenience if we all knew each other's names ; but who ever heard of its being an introduction, to meet travellers in a public con- veyance ? I thought people were only taken into a mail-coach like band-boxes or paper parcels, marked ' Glass, with care,' and we merely ex- pected, for the short distance, to pack ourselves into any back seat that might be vacant." " But my besetting sin is talking, and through- out the long turnpike journey of life, I never lose such an opportunity as this to make a new ac- quaintance. Besides, are you siu'e that this carriage is quite of the genus 'public?'" asked the gentleman, glancing humorously roimd at the splendid lining and at several coronets on the lace. " Certainly, for mere blmidering Irishmen, they do get up the Tipperary omnibus in very good style. I am going on a visit in this neigh- bourhood, and we shall soon see the old Castle, where we intend to stay. I shall be welcomed CROSS PURPOSES. 303 there only by the factor, tice the owner deceased ; but Tve met a very intelligent Irishman at the last stage, named O'Grady, who told me that. the said Mr. O'Hara, who pretends to a character of the most beautiful respectability, is, in fact, a drimken old rascal." '' He is neither old nor drunken, nor a rascal, but very good and kind to everybody, the best of factors, and the best of men ! '* exclaimed The- resa, colouring scarlet, while her voice became tre- mulous with excitement. '• You should remember a saying in our French grammars, ' les on dits sont la gazette des ' foux.' Look at Mr. O'Hara there, now on the box, talking like the pleasantest of companions, as he always is, to your coachman, jesting in his usual droll, entertaining way !" " Unlucky mortal that I am ! always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time ! Is that O^Hara, and are you his daughters ? Pardon my inadvertence." " We shall be begging each other's pardon all the way home ! " replied Theresa, laughing -vvith heart-felt glee. " I mistake your private carnage for the mail, and you mistake my guardian for an old rascal ! We had better agree not to hazard 304 CEOSS PURPOSES. another word to-night, being both so very Irish in making blunders." " On the contrary, I wish to be corrected ; I delight in being snubbed and set right," replied the conversible stranger. *' You must electrotype the base metal of my conversation to-day, and teach me to think aright on every subject." *' I must learn first myself," answered Theresa, demurely ; '' ' Live and Learn.' " " I trust you have a long time to live.^' ^' Yes," observed Theresa, " for I have a great deal to learn, and I do hope " "So do I," interrupted her lively neighbour, eagerly. " My mind is as full as my carpet-bSig of hopes and ideas that I do not know what to do with, for sometimes I cannot get so much as a dog to listen ; therefore, only think what a relief this meeting is to me, after a silence of two mortal hours ! How on earth I am ever to get through the task of spending a fortnight in this wild country, unless you '^vill teach me your experience, is past guessing ! Such a herculean task of killing time is really too much for human nature !" *' Console yourself," answered Theresa, archly. " I have sm'vived ten or a dozen years of such CROSS PURPOSES. 305 penance, and the doctors think I may outlive as much more." There was something in the stranger's manner and address very prepossessing. His frank, manly air, his quickness of perception, his evident genius for adapting himself to every one ; and during a long conversation that followed, Theresa thought her new acquaintance, without being what Sydney Smith called '• too resolutely witty," yet very diverting, being evidently one who could suit himself to any society, whether it were Lord This, or Professor That, Captain So-and-so, or the Kev. Dr. Anybody ; for he took up every subject so keenly, and would have argued that black was white, had there been any one to advocate the opposite side. But his chief delight was in rally- ing the more silent traveller, who sat observantly listening to the dialogue, while his eyes often wandered to the beautiful countenance of Fanny, dimly \'isible in the moonlight, as she sat evi- dently wondering at her more lively sister's teme- rity in replying to a stranger, though that stranger was evidently a perfect gentleman, and one of no ordinary good breeding. His waving nut-bro"\vn hair hung gracefully around a countenance of most 306 CROSS PURPOSES. engaging vivacity, and his slightly formed figure indicated surpassing grace and activity, while he had an air of frank, free, courageous daring which commanded instant deference, and he was evi- dently accustomed to receive it. Such was the aspect of Captain Clifford, as he appeared in what Theresa had gradually discovered, to her conster- nation and amusement, was Lord Tipperary's drag, driven by the young peer himself upon the box, and occupied within by his two friends, who were greatly diverted by the speechless horror of Fanny on ascertaining this incredible fact, and at the laughing girlish astonishment of her more lively sister. Theresa coloured perfectly scarlet at first, with the shock of this unexpected denouement about the Tipperary omnibus, and had now subsided into a state of extreme diversion in observing the paroxysm of shyness that had seized her sister, who looked as scared as if she had suddenly found herself shut up in the Bastile. " How I envy that ploughboy whistling at his work, and happy on a shilling a-day 1" exclaimed Lord Brentford, looking out of the window, that the young ladies might have time to recover their CROSS PURPOSES. 307 panic. " All tlie mines in California would hardly make me feel I had enough to squander, and the more money people acquire, the more they grudge to part with any. How did it happen, Clifford, that you never married Lady Dora, who admired you so immensely last season ? she would have had 2,000Z. a-year and her father's consent!" " Neither Lady Dora nor I ever exchanged any admiration at all," replied Captain Clifford, indif- ferently. " As for fortunes, really 2,000?. a-year would be a very awkward, unmeaning sort of income to begin life upon ; it is neither one thing nor t'other. What could you do on 2,000?. a-year? With a wife it would be positive beggary ! Having a pittance of 300?. per annum on which to find myself, I am a better-off man than I should be with a wife and a miserable 2,000?. a-year \'' " Surely you could rough it on that. The little income could not, of course, give yourself and part- ner a box at the opera," replied Lord Brentford. " No, nor ten thousand other necessaries of existence. It would be a life of the most con- temptible economy. I should hate myself, if I saw any wife of mine stoop to look after the pounds, shillings, and pence of such a pittance." 308 CKOSS PUEPOSES. " In short, you say of 2,000Z. a-year, as we used to do of a roast goose, ' too much for one, and not enough for two/ " " i^ot a farthing too much for one," answered Captain CliiFord, '' and very scanty means for two. I shall either enjoy the romance of marrying on a really romantic nothing, or, like Tij)perary, throw myself at the feet of some City fortune, equal at least to Miss Brownlow, the attorney's daughter, with unguessable thousands/^ " As somebody said once, ' Conceit is the first of human blessings,' Clifford ; and you must be pretty well endowed with it to expect a fortmie like Anne Brownlow's, and such a girl too ! " Theresa was secretly so much diverted by over- hearing this absurd dialogue, that she felt quite sorry when the carriage stopped, and their guar- dian silently made a hurried signal for his two young wards to alight. When Theresa glanced at O'Hara as he de- scended the steps, she almost screamed with the shock of observing him, for his face looked so ghastly and almost spectral in the moonlight, while his white lips quivered as if he were in an ague. O'Hara was evidently in a state of the CROSS PURPOSES. 309 fiercest excitement, of the most angry despair, wliicii was not diminished by the coachman say- ing to O'Hara, as he was about with the girls to move on, " Tell no one in the neighbourhood what I mentioned to you of that rascally factor. It might be actionable, and if he can carry away any tolerable character, why not ? but depend upon the tmth of all I told you ! I had it from the best authority, the very best — an old friend of his own who was cognizant of all the facts, and who says O'Hara has a hang-dog look ever since that fatal day, as if he had a crime on his con- science/^ The coachman cracked his whip, the carnage whirled on, and O'Hara proceeded homewards in total silence, while even Theresa felt overawed by the look of intense suffering that gleamed in his eye, that trembled on his lip, and that was testified by the rushing pace at which he hurried to Isle Elan, while muttering between his clenched teeth, — " O'Grady again ! There is no name in human language for the feelings with which I detest and abhor that cruel, dangerous, and most successful enemy!" The new Lord Tipperary was a dashing, reck- 310 CROSS PURPOSES. less, extravagant young man of tlie fast species, ■with a brilliant, picturesque style of conversation, and a marvellous originality in expressing his thoughts, for certainly his very small proficiency in literature proceeded from no want of intellect. He professed a misanthropical scepticism as to all that is amiable and honest in private life, or dignifying to human nature generally, as his sole object was to please his senses through every department of life. Though Lord Tipperary's frequent companions were grooms or gamekeepers, he excelled them all in the science of horse-flesh, as well as in fishing, shooting, driving, and hunt- ing. His stature narrowly escaped being gigantic, so that one of liis admirers in the stable was heard once to say, " His lordship is one who could fell an ox with his fist, or devour one at a single sitting;" and he had the most utter con- tempt for everything but mere animal enjoyment. "I will have no melancholy escutcheons of thought on the edifice of my felicity!" he exclaimed, when preparing for his journey to Elan Castle. " I can now afford to hunt like a perfect Nimrod, to drink like Bacchus, and to gamble like that Popish saint, Vincent de Paul. I shall have a box at CROSS PURPOSES. 311 every theatre, a bill at every tailor^s, a horse in every race, and I mean to imitate that old Lord Muskerry, who said, when dying, that he had nothing to reproach himself with, as he had never denied himself a single pleasure in life." Lord Tipperary's further good resolutions, with which he was beginning his new career of pomp, magni- ficence, luxury, and folly, were cut short by a yawn of most overwhelming ennui, and his mind fell back once more into its usual state of elegant imbecility. Almost everybody at the outset of life has one person in his eye whom he would wish to resemble, and the model man with both Lord Tipperary and Lord Brentford was Frederick Clifford, now a cap- tain in the Kifles, who completed the trio proceed- ing on their road in the Oxford drag to Elan Castle. This younger son of a younger son had the good fortune, as his friend Lord Brentford remarked, to have been, during early boyhood, neglected in his education. Thus his intellect had not been narrowed or cramped to mere classical studies only, as if he were about to keep a gram- mar-school, but his mind had been allowed leisure to expand over the wide field of literature, and he 312 CEOSS PUEPOSES. had by nature a powerful mind, immense decision of character, great penetration into that of others, and a noble independence of spirit, which, with his cheerful buoyancy, tided him over all impedi- ments into one of the best of all positions in public and private esteem. Like a skilful per- former on the piano, who runs over all the keys to ascertain its powers, he tried the tone of every one's mind before giving out the full force of his own, the lively exuberance of which was only restrained by the good taste of a highly accom- plished judgment. Captain Clifford heard and noticed as much as he read, and never forgot any- thing which interested his mind, or touched his feelings. Most of his lessons were taken from observation or experience, and these, like enamel paintings, are burned in. As a boy, Frederick Clifford was sometimes dux of his class — quite as often booby — and equally happy either way, but always the leader in every exploit of amusement — often, truth to say, of mischief — while his hearty, joyous, almost boisterous laugh, made even the sufferers by his frolics smile with good-humoured indulgence. His manner was his own, unlike any other mortal's; but who can describe the » CROSS PURPOSES. 313 indescribable grace, ease, and goodliumoured con- ceit which characterised it? All common every-day knowledge was familiar to Frederick Clifford, who kept his eyes and ears continually open to drink in whatever was a sub- ject of interest to those around, while all he said was energetic, perspicuous, and unexpected. All topics connected with sport, all the habits of birds and animals, all modem travels and biography, and even a great many of the last new novels, had established their places in his capacious memory, never to be eradicated. Poets of all periods were his familiar friends ; modem history and ancient pedigrees were mingled in his very miscellaneous recollection; and he talked with rattling good- humoured audacity of every subject he knew, as well as of many that he did not know. Frederick Clifford's gi-eat amusement was to rack out the ignorance of Lords Brentford and Tipperary, who affected not to have a thought beyond the tie of their neckcloths, and he laugh- ingly drew out all their secret abhorrence of their old intimates, Horace or Virgil, as well as com- bated their misanthropical views of human natui-e, while making them ashamed, if he could, of those VOL. I. p 314 CPtOSS PURPOSES. idle courses in which they gloried. Lord Brent- ford, crammed to suffocation with Greek and Latin, might have advei-tised in vain for any one more ignorant than himself in any subject but the classics. Of science, mechanics, or the fine arts, modem history, poetry, or politics, he was totally uninformed; though entitled to a seat in the House of Lords, he never attended; he knew nothing of the charters by which the liberties of his country were preserved, of the means by which its government was carried on, or ever dreamed of assisting at the helm of its affairs. His own groom knew more about horses than he; his ploughboy distinguished wheat from oats, which he did not ; his gardener knew more of plants ; and his forester discriminated one tree from another, which Lord Brentford sometimes failed to do. The young peer was, in short, a careless, easy, good-tempered, rattling man of pleasure, who had never yet seen the serious side of life, who wished the whole world as merry as himself, and thought it partly their own faults if they were not. Frederick Clifford, the best of cricketers, who always took the stroke-oar in a rowing-match, was CROSS PUKPOSES. olo illustrious in sinQ:le-stick, and could hit a flv in the ring -with his pistol ; had picked up. in his own chance-medley way, some notions of human duty, some conception of the gi*eatness of human natm*e when elevated by principle, some idea that it might be pleasant to do good, some ambition to become a benefactor of his suffering fellow-crea- tures, some idea of serving his country, some understanding of its institutions, some idea that it might be pleasant to have ties of affection, as well as to fulfil the requirements of rational friendship and of Christian benevolence. He ^vished, in short, to make the most of human life, but all the good in him was hitherto mere vague, undirected impulse. He had a commanding power of mind and will when called out by circumstances. He had recently returned to England, after a brilliant campaign against the Kaffirs, where he headed his regiment, and led it on to a brilliant chai'ge, while the odds were ten to one against his men, and nothing in his favom* but English, headlong, luicon- querable valour. He was mentioned with distin- guished honom- in the general's despatches, which the daring audacity of his exploits had thoroughly merited; and thus Frederick C^lifford gained p2 316 CROSS PURPOSES. among ladies all the favouritism of hero-worship- pers, and had obtained the gratitude of many among his companions in arms, whom his gene- rous nature had enabled him to serve. Frederick Clifford was, in many respects, an admirable model for other young men of his age, had they possessed judgment to adopt the habits of one who united genuine hilarity with a bril- liancy of thought and expression which rendered him the delight of all society, while his vivacity was that of a scholar as well as of a hero, embel- lished, by reflection and sensibility, as well as by good taste and refinement. " The will to do, the soul to dare, The sparkling glance, soon blown to fire. Of lasting love or headlong ire. His limbs were cast in manly mould. For hardy sports, or contest bold ; His ready speech flow'd fair and free, In phrase of gentlest courtesy ; Yet seem'd that tone and gesture bland Less used to sue than to command/' Scott, At Elan Castle, every hint of business now connected itself in the mind of Lord Tipperary, after his an-ival there, with black velvet and scutcheons, red tape and parchment ; therefore he resolved to do nothins:. and, moreover, to do that CROSS PURPOSES. 317 nothing as pleasantly as possible. Still, after yawning and cigaring as long as possible over the breakfast-table, what could be done by himself and partners in an old Irish Castle, where a very second-rate billiard-table only existed, no pack of cards, no pack of hounds, no racket-court, no ladies, no opera, no park, no nothing ! The case was very desperate, and, to crown all. Lord Tipperary had the folly and misfortune to sprain his ancle, by attempting an impossible leap over a double hedge with a ditch between. "Well ! " exclaimed the new peer, with a bottom- less yawn, as he lay next morning stretched on the sofa, " behold me, happy man that I am, chained by the leg here for a week, at least I As the poet said, probably looking at such a dreary scene as this, ' How slowly does time his feathers move !^ " " What a yawn, Tipperary ! But you know the oysters get their pearls by gaping, — so much good may it do you ! We seem all ennuyte, within an inch of our lives ; but one must make the best of existence as it comes," replied Captain Clifford, cheerily. " That window is not so bad, after all ! I saw a cart, an Irish car, and a donkey pass tliis morning. What more amusement could you 318 CEOSS PURPOSES. desire ? I am quite disgusted at you for not enjoy- ing rural felicity more ! " " People are always immensely admired who can enjoy a solitary life in the country, but I have sur- vived the delusion about mountain streams and primroses. It is, after all, but a lazy, slip-shod, self-sufficient style of thing, to live alone," observed Lord Brentford. " The society, in remote places like this, may show what people degenerate into who stagnate from day to day without sharpening their intellects by the friction of other minds. One can hope to see no living mortal here but boors, bears, and bores." " Go and hang yourself, Brentford, for you canhot otherwise escape your promise to stay with me an entire week," said Lord Tipperary, laughing. " I acknowledge, however, that we shall all be ennuyee ; for you might as well attempt to draw the spots out of the moon as find anything to do here worth doing at all.^^ " Well, if we have nothing to do, let us do it to perfection," answered Captain Clifford. " We shall get on very well yet — very well indeed ! You know a discontented man always thinks every spot of turf greener than the one he stands on ; but I never saw the corner yet, not even at the bottom CROSS PURPOSES. 319 of a coal-pit, where I could not find a sunbeam. If those two beautiful girls, the factor's daughters or nieces, were but to pass this window once a-day, it would be only too much happiness. I never belield, and never expect to behold again, their equals. I saw them but a moment, yet methinks I see them yet." " If you wish to see those rural beauties that you have both been raving about, and whom I have not yet beheld, let me now put on my thinking-cap, and consider how it can be manoeuvered," said Lord Tipperary, musingly. " My factor, who has care- fully avoided me ever since my arrival, lives on an island in the lake, so you might try the water in ray pleasure-boat. It has not been launched for ages, and perhaps you might both have the good fortune to be drowned." " * Tis doing nothing is my curse : Is there a vice can plague me worse ? The wretch who digs the earth for bread. Or ploughs that others may be fed, Feels less fatigue than that decreed To him who cannot think or read." END OF VOL. I. R. CLAY, PRIXTEJR, BREAD STREET HILL. ^*^t^^;" ;■ , .^, .3 01 12 04205571