Evan Harrington -- Volume 5

st representative, termed them, poor as rats, they were justified in considering it a marketable stuff; and when they married

Sir Franks, no doubt, came better off than the others; her ladyship brought him twenty thousand pounds, and Harry had ten in the past tense, and Rose ten in the future; but living, as he had done, a score of years anticipating the demise of an incurable invalid, he, though an excellent husband and father, could scarcely be taught to imagine that the Jocelyn object of his bargain was attained. He had the semblance of wealth, without the personal glow which absolute possession brings. It was his habit to call himself a poor man, and it was his dream that Rose should marry a rich one. Harry was hopeless. He had been his Grandmother's pet up to the years of adolescence: he was getting too old for any prospect of a mi

fe, and hated one thing alone-which was 'bother.' A smooth world was his delight. Rose knew this, and her instruction to Evan was: 'You cannot give me up-you will go, but you cannot give me up while I am faithful to you: tell him that.' She knew that to impress this fact at once on the mind of Sir Franks would be a great gain; for in his detestation of bother he would soon grow reconciled to things monstrous: and hearing the same on both sides, the matter would assume an inevitable shape to him. Mr. Second Fiddle had no difficulty in declaring the eternity of his sentiments; but he toned them with a despair Rose did not contemplate, and added also his readiness to repair, in any way possible,

d thrown back, as in a distant survey of the lively people screening her from a troubled world. Her ladyship read him a piquant story, and Sir Franks capped it with another from memory; whereupon her ladyship held him wrong in one turn of the story, and Sir Frank

ere was no bother in the world, 'here's a pret

d if she keeps her mind a couple

ort of thing-talked abou

d was jus

rains an absolute requisite,' said Lady Jocelyn,

em was varied by quotations and choice bits from the authors they had recourse

o write to her m

l and prope

orrible hubbub,

hall get the blame;

fter to-morrow. Thought it bette

-nic; no, certainly. I s

o get rid of

find Menage rather dull. The Countess? what an accomplished liar that woman is! She seems to have ste

his young Harrington g

of a not

's no sign of t

ffspring. That is to say in this one. 'Pour les autres, je ne dis pas'. Well, the young man will go; and if Rose chooses to become a monument of constancy, we can do nothing. I shall give my advice; but as she has not deceived me, and

groaned at

offer to settle

e same amount to the first child. I daresa

with one eye-brow pitiably eleva

r!' he exclaimed pres

man, Franks, wasn't it his father?-no, his grandfather. "Mon pauvre et humble grand-pyre," I think, was a tail

about a thousand,' said

ore till he comes to the t

ir Franks, 'it's

y agreed with him, and

the weight of brain, was manoeuvred by the wonderful dash of General Rose Jocelyn. For her ladyship, thinking, 'I shall get the blame of all this,' rather sided insensibly with the offenders against those who condemned them jointly; and seeing that Rose had been s

hose of a gentleman, and one of their own rank, that, after an allusion to the origin of his breeding, not

r upon his usual negociations with an unpleasantness: that is to say, to forget it, joined them in the library, bringing with her Sir John

you done, Franks?

man. 'What is there to be done?

sewhipping! Have you not told h

t wouldn't do, I think, to kick him out. I

-the commonest, low, vil

t 's better not to let a lunatic see that you think him stark mad, and the same holds with young women afflicted with the love-mania. The sound

, 'you speak almost, one would sa

m,' replied her ladyship, who had once, and once only, de

show the total differenc

'An utterly penniles

s money,' remar

?' quoth Hamilt

Sir John, 'if he has ha

Hamilton chimed in;

, eg

im to resemble his sis

edge she's

not rest in the house with such a person, knowing her what she is. A vile adventuress, as I firmly believe.

asked Lady Joc

notion of Rose casting herself away on Evan. Lady Jocelyn agreed with Mrs. Shorne; Sir Franks with his brother, and Sir John. But as to

e world more. She will be presented at Court, and if it's necessary to give her a dose or two to counteract her vanity, I don

e had condescended to listen to the pla

that they should run away with footmen, riding- masters, chance curates, as they occasionally do, and wouldn't if they had points of comparison. My opinion is that Prospero was just saved by the Prince of Naples being wrecked on his isl

take part in the conference, which gradually swelled to a family one, was equally unable to make Lady

en his blood,-never have had her spirit hurried out of all shows and forms and habits of thought, up to the gates of existence, as it were, where she took him simply as God created him and her, and clave to him. Again, had Rose been secret, when this turn in her nature came, she would have forfeited the strange power she received from it, and which endowed her with decision to say what was in her heart, and stamp it lastingly there. The two Generals were

ial present for herself, of a kind not perhaps so fit for exhibition; at least they both thought so, for it was given in the shades. Harry then went to pay his respects to his mother, who received him with her customary ironical tolerance. His father, to whom he was an incarnation of bother, likewise nodded to him and gave him a finger. Duty done, Harry looked round him for pleasure, and observed nothing but glum faces. Even the face of John Ra

d unamused. From the fact, too, that Harry was known to be the Countess's slave, his presence produced the same effect in the different circles about th

iana sent him a message th

ot going to be blowing hot

a. The moment they were alone she

his head a

as engaged herself to Mr. Harr

aid Harry. 'But I'm sorry for old Ferdy. H

believe m

new posture of affairs, his friend Ferdinand

said. 'Harrington has

m. It was a toss-up betw

this accus

he has caught her, he tells her. And his mother is now at one of the village inns, waiting to see him. Go to Mr. George Uplift; he knows

l her eyes in a spa

extraordinary weakness at the sight of feminine tears. 'I say! Ju

scenes were not foreign to the youth. Her fits of crying, from which she would burst in a frenzy of contempt at him, had made Ha

s longer in coming to it this time, and he had a horrid fear, that instead of dismissing him fiercely, and so annulling his wor

upon my honour, yes-there, don

etly disengaged her waist, and looking at him, said,

astonishment, t

you.' And for an instant he thou

emotions. Nevertheless, his vanity was hurt when he saw she was sincere, and he listened to her, a moody being. This

went about asking everybody he met. The initiated were discreet; those who had the whispers were open. A bar

eans if you can,'

l with Rose,' s

son of a tailor, who's had the impudence to make love to my sister

due?' Lady Jocelyn inquired, probably suspecting th

fly from her cruel shafts. He found comfort with his Aunt Shorne, and she as much as told Harry that he was the head of

ink of but one

and had to explain that his Grandmama Bonner would n

e-treat her with a high hand, as becomes you. Your mother is incorrigible, and as for your fat

pride within him, for which he had hitherto not found an agreeable vent. He vowed to his aunt that he would not suffer the disgrace, and while still tha

id she. 'No s

y, manfully. 'How am I to do it, then?' he

champion replied that it was very well for her to tell him to say this and that, but-and she

hoed the la

she learnt that he had borrowed a sum

plight, for Mrs. S

nand Laxley as

already,' said Harry,

re of a trifling incongruity in her sentiments. 'You must speak to him without-pay

ellow he's a blackguard when I owe him, and I can't speak any

' murmure

sk her,

y believed that he had exhausted Juliana's treasury. Reproaching him further for his wast

-night, Harry? No allusion to the loan till y

sion to Fallow field, with Andrew Cogglesby. The truth being that he had finally taken Andrew into his confidence concerning the letter,

s I am, if it wasn't for his crotchets. We'll hand him back the cash, and that's ended. And-eh? what a dear girl she is! Not

t I say she's a wonde

eemed scarcely human. Almost as noble to him were the gentlemanly plainspeaking of Sir Franks and Lady Jocelyn's kind commonsense. But the more he esteemed them, the more unbounded and miraculous

to endure in sitting at table with the presumptuous fellow. The Countess signalled him to come within the presence

unt nod, to which s

untess, after he pressed

rought back

tailor, was a little too much, and what Harry felt his ingenuous countenance was accustomed to exhibit. The Countess saw it. She turned her head from him to the diplomatist, and

lf known. She was therefore sensitive tenfold to appearances; savage if one failed to keep up her lie to her, and was guilty of a shadow of difference of behaviour. The pic-nic over, our General would evacuate Beckley Court, and shake the du

of others as well as

she?' he

ant to make her humbl

e Harrington,

for him. You won't have such another chance of humbling them both-both! I told you his mother is at an inn here. The Cou

y. 'By Jove, Juley! talk about plotter

y, to get this woman to come-you could do it so easily! while they are at the pie-nic tomo

shing into the scheme, inspired by Juliana's fiery eyes

r son is here, in som

explosion!' pursued

arry. You won't be treated as you were this evening after that, if you br

p, Juley!' exclaimed h

take it. I must

kisses had left a red waxen stamp; sh

I advise you to-

the olive-hued visage flitted faintly in

nd make Harrington cut.

noble natures cannot tolerate disease, and are mystified by its ebullitions. It was very sad to see the slight thin frame grasped by those wan hands to contain the violence of the frenzy that possessed her! the pale, hapless face rigid above the torment in her bosom! She had prayed to be loved like

murmured. 'Oh, my God! I w

she approached the glass, and first brushing back the masses of black hair from her brow, looked as for some new revelation. Long and anxiously she perused her features: the wide bony forehead; the eyes deep-set and rounded with the

said, and sighed. 'How c