CHAPTER XIII
.
CAUGHT IN THE TOILS.
Francis Tredethlyn spent the bright summer Sunday afternoon and evening at the Cedars. Mr. Hillary generally filled his house with company on the day of rest; and hard-working commercial magnates, and lazy West-end loungers, were alike glad to spend their Sabbath amongst the flower-beds and trellised walks, under the shadow of black spreading cedars, or on the terrace by the river. The merchant’s house was only another Star-and-Garter, where the _menu_ was always irreproachable, and where one escaped that little bugbear so common to the close of all social entertainments, and known by the vulgar name of “Bill.” Mr. Tredethlyn found the house full of strangers, and Miss Hillary very difficult of approach. He was not allowed to feel embarrassed, however; for Julia Desmond always happened to be in his neighbourhood, and he found her society as charming as on the previous occasion. She was so very handsome, and there was really something so bewildering about her dark eyes, and white teeth, and fluent talk upon every possible subject, that the young man--who had never been accustomed to the society of well-educated women--may be forgiven if he admired her. He admired her, but not as he admired Maude Hillary. No thrill of half-fearful rapture stirred his pulses as he stood by Julia’s side upon the moonlit terrace, looking down at the rippling water, darkened by the tremulous shadows of the trees; but the faintest flutter of Maude’s airy flounces stirred his soul like a burst of music.
But she was only a beautiful, far-away creature, who never could have any part in his destiny. He acknowledged this in a half-despairing way; and then resigned himself to look at her only now and then from a distance, and to behold her always surrounded by those elegant amber-whiskered loungers, whose admiration of her loveliness never made them awkward in her presence; who could approach her without suffering from a sudden determination of blood to the head; who could hover near her without trampling half-a-yard of her lace flounce to destruction under the savage tread of a clumsy foot.
“Those fellows are fit to talk to her,” he thought; “they’ve been brought up to it, I suppose: but I’m better out of her way; for even if she speaks to me, I make a fool of myself somehow, and feel as if I couldn’t answer her. I get on better with Miss Desmond; she’s so kind, and she doesn’t seem to mind my being awkward and stupid.”
Yes, Miss Desmond was very kind to the simple-hearted Cornishman. So kind is Madame Arachne to a big blundering blue-bottle fly that hovers ignorantly about the net she has spread for him. Julia had angled very patiently for the last two years in the great matrimonial fisheries, and had brought several fish to land, only to lose her hook and leave them to gasp and perish on the bank when she discovered their quality. But now, for the first time, she knew she had a prey worthy her skill and patience. She had taken good care to ascertain that Francis Tredethlyn’s thirty thousand a year was no mere figment of a gossip’s brain, and she set herself deliberately to work to win this prize so newly offered for competition in the matrimonial market. Mr. Hillary interested himself in the young man’s fortunes, and gave him some advice about the management of some of his Uncle Oliver’s numerous investments. This, of course, necessitated interviews at the merchant’s offices in Moorgate Street; and no interview ever came to a close until Francis had received hospitable Mr. Hillary’s invitation to “run down” to Twickenham.
The young man seemed always running down to the Cedars. He slept there sometimes, in a pretty chintz-curtained chamber, all rosebuds and maplewood, and from whose jasmine-festooned windows he looked out upon the river--the perpetual river, now shimmering in the moonlight, now twinkling and glancing in the sunshine, but always “a thing of beauty and a joy” for the people who dwell upon its banks.
Yes, he was always riding down to the Cedars. He had departed very little from his simple habits; but he had bought a couple of horses at Tattersall’s--such horses as a man who has been used to ride across wild moorland districts without saddle or stirrups from his earliest boyhood knows how to choose. He kept the horses at livery near his hotel, and he hired a smart young groom to attend to them, and even to ride behind him on occasions.
Miss Hillary grew accustomed to the young man’s presence, and greeted him kindly when he came; but then she had so many friends, such enthusiastic female adorers in crisp muslins, who found the millionaire’s daughter the dearest darling in the world, and were always eager to pour some new confidence into her willing ears. She had so many friends, so many admirers, that Francis Tredethlyn always found her more or less difficult of approach. And in the meanwhile there was Miss Desmond perpetually smiling upon him, and talking to him, and listening to him.
So things went on very pleasantly for Mr. Tredethlyn, until one day his eyes were very suddenly opened to a fact that well-nigh overpowered him. He was lounging on the terrace one sunny afternoon, and, for a wonder, Julia Desmond was not by his side. She had been summoned into the midst of a conclave of pretty girls holding solemn discussion with Maude Hillary on the lawn. Francis was looking down at the water, as it was his habit to do, and thinking. He was leaning against the balustrade of the terrace, all amongst the foliage which had been so bright when he had first come to the Cedars, but which was brown and withered now: he was watching the dead leaves slowly drifting in the wind, and dropping one by one into the water; and he was thinking of his cousin Susan. Nothing had yet come of his search for her. Perhaps he had left the matter too much in the hands of his lawyers, trusting to their legal acumen for the unravelment of the tangled skein. It may be that he had been a little too much at the Cedars, absorbed in the delights of a new existence. This afternoon, watching the drifting leaves upon the river, the gold and crimson tints of autumn on the woodland and on the hill-side, Francis Tredethlyn remembered how the time had slipped by him, and how little nearer he was to the discovery of Susan Tredethlyn’s fate than when he had listened to Martha’s story in the dreary Cornish grange, and had sworn to go to the end of the world in search of his cousin. There was some feeling of remorse in his mind as he thought of the past three months, the idle days in that luxurious river-side retreat, the billiard-playing and cigar-smoking, the pleasant rides to and fro in the dewy evenings, with genial gentlemanlike companions, who thought him a good fellow, and very rarely laughed at his ignorant simplicity.
He was roused from his reverie now by one of these young men, Mr. Montagu Somerset, of the War-Office, the scion of a noble house, the presumptive heir to nothing a-year, and one of the most hopelessly devoted of Maude Hillary’s adorers.
“Why, Tredethlyn,” exclaimed the young man, without removing a gigantic cigar from between his lips, “how dismally you’re staring at that water! It looks as if you were contemplating _felo de se_, b’ Jove. What’s the row, old boy? and how do you happen to be alone? Where’s the _fiancée_?”
“I--I was thinking of some family matters, not very pleasant ones,” Mr. Tredethlyn answered, simply.
“But where’s the _future_?”
“The what?”
“The _future_--Mrs. Francis Tredethlyn that is to be--the Desmond. Why, has the lovely Julia deserted her Frank? Why, you dear, simple old baby, how you blush! Is it a crime to be in love with a handsome girl? I only wish your young affections had fixed themselves on one of my five sisters--all most amiable girls, but without so much as a spoonful of what our lively neighbours call _potage_.”
Francis Tredethlyn stared aghast at the young official.
“Why, you don’t suppose--you don’t think that I--that Miss Desmond--that----”
“You know those silversmiths on the Boulevards--no, you don’t know Paris, by the bye. Well, dear boy, there are Parisian silversmiths who make a great display in their shop windows by means of a concatenation of table-spoons and a strong flare of gas; but I doubt if in all Paris there was ever such a notorious case of spoons as the present; and I don’t blame you, my dear Tredethlyn. If I were not Alexander, I would be the other person. If I were not madly and hopelessly in love with blue-eyed Maude, I should fling myself at the feet of dark-eyed Julia: such teeth, and such a generally regal _tournure_, with thirty-thousand a-year, ought to make a sensation. Frank, I congratulate you! Bless you, my boy, and be happy!” Mr. Somerset wrung his friend’s hand with effusion.
“But, my dear Somerset--but, upon my word and honour,” cried Mr. Tredethlyn, in extreme terror and perplexity, “Miss Desmond has been very kind to me; and feeling myself out of place here, I’ve been grateful for her kindness; but, as I am an honest man, not one word has ever passed between us upon any but the commonest subjects; and I am sure that neither she nor I have the slightest idea of----”
“Oh, you haven’t, eh?” asked Montagu Somerset, taking his cigar from his mouth, and staring at it in a contemplative manner, as he knocked away the ash; “never mind about Miss Desmond; _you_ haven’t any idea of making her mistress of yourself and your property, real and personal, eh? You admire her very much, and are very grateful to her for being civil to you, and so on, but you have no idea of making her an offer of marriage?”
“No more than I have of making you such an offer.”
“Then in that case,” replied Mr. Somerset deliberately, “all I have to say is to this effect: look out for squalls; when you are coasting on a shore renowned for its quicksands, you’d better beware of any strange light you may see ahead, for the illumination generally means danger. When you meet with such a girl as the Desmond, don’t trifle with her. Of course it’s very pleasant to ride, and drive, and play billiards, and loiter through a summer month or so with a handsome girl, meaning nothing serious all the time; and it _is_ to be done with impunity, if you are careful in your selection of the young lady. But I don’t think Julia Desmond is exactly the sort of girl you should try it on with. There are men in our place, apoplectic old fogies in starched neckcloths and no end of waistcoat, who knew the Desmond’s father; he was a south-of-Ireland man and a notorious duellist. They say that Julia inherits his eyes and teeth.”
“But you don’t mean to say that I’ve done Miss Desmond any wrong?” cried Francis. “How should I be otherwise than grateful to her when she was kind to me, and set me at my ease somehow, and made me feel a little less like an Ojibbeway Indian suddenly let loose amongst fashionable people? How should I imagine that she would think of me except as--as Miss Hillary thinks of me?” His voice grew low, and an inexpressible change came over his whole manner as he mentioned Maude Hillary’s name. “They know my history, and that this time last year I was a private in a foot regiment, with nothing higher to hope for than an extra stripe upon my sleeve.”
“Miss Hillary is one person and Miss Desmond is another,” Mr. Somerset replied, with just the least suspicion of _hauteur_. “The lovely Julia’s face is her fortune, you know, dear boy. You ask me if you’ve been wrong; and I tell you frankly, as a gentleman, that I think you have. A man can’t be exclusive in his attentions to a woman without other people perceiving the fact, and forming their own conclusions thereupon. I know everyone who comes here regards the matter as settled, and I heard Maude say the other day that she thought you a very good fellow--_she_ didn’t say fellow,--and would be delighted to see her dear Julia so pleasantly established.”
“Did she say that?” cried Francis, with a dusky blush kindling under his dark skin; “did she speak well of me? And if--if she should think I have done Miss Desmond some kind of wrong by usurping her society and setting people talking about us--if _she_ should think me mean or base----”
Montagu Somerset interrupted Mr. Tredethlyn by a long whistle.
“Oh! the wind’s in that quarter, is it?” he exclaimed; “you’re down in that list; then in that case I’ve nothing more to say. The river flows at your feet, my dear friend; and I dare say there’s a rope for sale somewhere in the villages of Twickenham or Isleworth.”
The young man sauntered away, leaving Francis with his arms folded on the balustrade, and his face darker than it had been, even when he had thought remorsefully of his missing cousin.
Miss Desmond had not made such very bad use of her time. With consummate tact she had contrived to detain Francis Tredethlyn at her side in all those pleasant walks, and drives, and boating excursions, which made up a great part of life at the Cedars; and it had seemed that the young man, of his own option, devoted himself to Colonel Desmond’s daughter. Julia had been clever enough to set the simple Cornishman entirely at his ease in her presence, and having done that, all the rest followed naturally enough. It was to Miss Desmond that Francis Tredethlyn confided his opinions upon every subject; it was to Miss Desmond that he applied for enlightenment when his ignorance fenced him about with cloud and darkness, and seemed to shut him out from the people round him. When the visitors at the Cedars were busy in the animated discussion of some new book whose name Francis had never heard, and whose contents would have been utterly beyond his untrained understanding, Julia would explain to him the nature of the volume, simplifying the subject with a dexterity that was all her own, but never humiliating her companion by any display of her own superiority. If art was the subject of discussion, Julia insidiously demonstrated to the Cornishman the merits and demerits of any given picture. So Francis Tredethlyn had been considerably benefited by three months of intimacy with a handsome and accomplished woman, and he began to feel something like a well-disposed Maori who had been admitted into familiar intercourse with a family of friendly settlers.
But all this time, in spite of handsome, dark-eyed Julia’s kindness, in spite of all the benefits to be derived from intimate relations with such agreeable people as the guests who were always to be found at Twickenham, the one charm that had held the young man constant to the Cedars,--like some spell-bound knight in a fairy story, who cannot leave an enchanted castle, though he knows that peril and ruin lurk within its walls,--the one supreme influence that had taken possession of Francis Tredethlyn had been the presence of Maude Hillary. From first to last his faith had never wavered, but his devotion had been the servile worship of an idolater, who was prepared to find his divinity hard and merciless. No thought of ever being anything nearer to Maude Hillary than he now was entered the young man’s mind. She was beautiful, amiable, loving,--for had he not seen her with her father? She was all that is most lovely and adorable in womankind: but she was not for him. In her presence his ignorance and awkwardness seemed to weigh him down to the very dust; and yet she was never unkind to him, or supercilious, or insolent. She was only indifferent: but Oh, the bitterness of her indifference! the anguish of the slavish worshipper who prostrates himself before his idol, and knows all the while that it is stone, and cannot have pity upon him! Again and again Francis Tredethlyn had determined that he would come no more to the Cedars. He would call on Mr. Hillary in the City some morning, and thank him for his hospitable kindness; and then he would buy a commission in a cavalry regiment newly ordered for Indian service.
“Why should I be always coming here?” he thought. “They’re all very good to me, the young swells. But I feel awkward amongst them still; and even if I could fall into their ways, and make myself like them, which I can’t, where would be the good? I don’t want to be a ‘swell;’ I should like to be a soldier, with a regiment of glorious fellows to call me captain; or a farmer, with half a county to ride over, and a thousand sturdy labourers to take wages from me on a Saturday night; or a merchant, like Mr. Hillary, with a small fleet of ships on the high seas. That sort of thing would be life. But to dawdle in a billiard-room; or lounge at Tattersall’s, and buy a horse one doesn’t want, out of sheer idleness, and sell him at a loss three weeks afterwards; or to go for a yachting excursion off the Isle of Wight, with men to do all the work, and nothing to do one’s self except lie on one’s back and smoke and drink pale ale all day long: I can’t fancy such a life as that. So, why should I come here any more? I can’t fall naturally into these people’s habits. I think sometimes that I was happier out yonder, brushing the captain’s clothes and talking to the convicts. What a fellow that Surly Bill was! By Jove, that man _had_ seen life!”
Mr. Tredethlyn, lounging perpetually in the gardens by the river, conscious of his incapability of breaking the spell that bound him, thought, with some touch of envy, of the brilliant career of his late acquaintance, Surly Bill the burglar. But now the Cornishman had been all at once aroused from the pleasant torpor which had crept upon him in this modern Castle of Indolence. All that was most generous in the young man’s nature arose in revolt against the thought that he had wronged Julia Desmond. “It seems so hard that she should have set these people talking about her by her kindness to an ignorant fellow like me. It must do a girl harm to have her name bandied about by an idle young fellow like Somerset. And she stands alone in the world, too, with no father or brother to take her part. I ought to have told that fellow to hold his tongue, and I will, too, before I leave this house to-night. But _this_ decides me, at any rate. I’ve been here too much; I’ll buy a commission and go out to India, and the lawyers must look after poor little Susy.”
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