Evan Harrington -- Volume 6

hing to have been noticed by any one save a dreamy youth in love. Conning remained in the room, keeping distinctly aloof. Her duties absorbed her, but a presi

s beyond suspicion, when the Countess appeared, and hurling at the maid one of t

not come to me, as

rmed with her eyes a lofty rejection of the volume cast at her,

he was implying 'You know I object

please to say what

justified in punishing her by being explicit. 'Your irregularities are not of y

ning. 'I am obliged to you. If your ladyship is to be believed, my

in a sharp, brief undertone; and then Evan, wakin

our ladyship to gi

th pathos: 'It would, ind

s when Conning had departed, and yet more so that his effo

I could beat her. They know it: all the servants know it: I can see it in their faces. I feel it when I pass them. The insolent wretches treat us as impostors; and

dding, foolishly: 'Do you really care,

inned! Your mother from top to toe! It is too dreadf

ht upon to declare that, whether or not he was to blame for his mother's intrusion that afternoon, he was ready to do what he could to make up to the Countess

I to desire you to do aught for your

er that she

l see,'

ce, I have run coun

ng her ears like a child. 'Do not excruciate me s

smile, and, takin

day. You may notice a change in the manners of the servants and some of the country sq

too fine for you to per

nte

ther, and her father!'

celyn!' the Cou

she will" or "she won't" sort of little person. No criterion! Henceforth the

reason to your ears. The tattle we shall hear we shall outlive. I care extremely for the go

he Countess struck in, and watched him severely from

o increase the effect, 'on

t-is it not better that a son should blush,

ous boy-

ulgar and narrow-headed people, and cowards who never forego mean adv

ction of the world left to yo

ner to a winning

really romantic, and most generous and noble; only the shop

not,' sa

on of gentlemen's legs! think of that! Think of yourself sculptured in tha

London to-morrow, and when there I expect to hear that I have an appointment

o-morrow,' remarked the Countess

ay, Andrew will take cha

w will not-a nonent

who imagines he is uttering a thing of

ou would abdicate and ret

ade no

stay with

he said in his pre

n,' cried the Cou

a child. Or, no-' she stopped her mouth; 'it is enough if I tell you, dear, that poor Mrs. Bonner is dying, and that she desires my atten

tay,' sa

the midst of e

Lady Jocelyn an enemy, you must re

n be no friend. She is therefore the reverse. Her opinions embitter her m

responded to the urge

rsion, 'did you know of a girl st

untess's eyes and mouth

d Raikes for

Brazilian ape-he resembles, if he is not truly one -what contrast is he to an English g

whereat she exclaimed: 'One would really think you h

. You remain. My venerable. friend cannot last three days. She is on the brink of a better world! I will confide to you that it is of the utmost import

e that, and I did. Young Jocelyn thought you were what you are I could spit the word at you! and I dazzled him to give you time to win this minx, who will spin you like a top if you get her. That Mr. Forth knew it as well, and that vile young Laxley. They are gone! Why are they gone? Because they thwarted me-they crossed your interests-I said they should go. George Uplift is going to-day. The house is left to us; and I believe firmly that Mrs. Bonner's will contains a memento of the effect of our frequent religious conversations. So you would leave now? I suspect nobody, but we are all human, and Wills would not have been tampered with for the first time. Besides, and the Countess's imaginatio

he door, and still eyeing her fixedly, led her to a chair, she fancied from his silence that she had subdued and convinced him. A delicious sense of her power, succeeded by a weary

ve done for me,

ll!' she fell

ey's going? Did you know anyth

ith grateful affection, as

ttle,' her conceit p

ou wri

r delusion waned; she took fright, but it was too late; he had struck the truth out of her before she could speak. Her spirit

e answere

er new to her, dismal, and alarming, she felt that she could not lie. Like a creature forsaken of her staunchest friend, sh

. I

and she was strong, a

erly devoted to you, Evan. This Mr. Forth, this Laxley, I said, should go, because they were resolved to ruin you, and make

k sombrely: 'Is your han

onscience is clear. Why did you come here? Why did you stay? You have your free will,-do you deny that? Oh, I will take the entire blame, but you must not be a hypocrite, Van. You know you were aware. We

disproportionate to the end to be gamed! It was the unconnected action of his brain that thus advised him. No thoroughly-fashioned, clear-spirited man conceives wickedness impossible to him: but wickedness so largely mixed with folly, the best of us may reject as not among our temptati

e in their conceptions of excellence, and the most finished Puritan cannot out-do their demands upon frail humanity. Evan's momentar

iately his affectionate, only too-zealous, sister; dearly to be loved, to be forgiven, to be prized: and on condition of inserting a special p

ure that the Countess was l

a murmur should de

e Countess, burs

f, as if plucking the words, one by one, out of her reluctan

' said Evan, eyeing the floo

mad-idiotic! There, pray go away, Evan. Come i

plead with her. She rejected the first motion, and repe

dare say we shan't me

stice continue a single

siness of arrangeing a

ease,' she

f I go, it will be str

amped

t agitation were observable under her eyes. There, looking at herself, her heart dropped heavily

e you goi

dy Joc

im of her devoti

to fear her brother. 'I will!' she reiterated wildly, without moving him at all. And the quiet inflexibility of his face forbade the ultimate hope which lies in giving men a dose of hys

fidence in you-I need not have told yo

was her fate; for, with any other save a brother, she had arts at her disposal to melt the manliest resolutions. The glass showed her that her face was pathetically pale;

felt it, without realizing it. The first blows of an immense grief are dull, and strike the heart through wool, as it were. The belief of the young in their sorrow has to be flogged into them, on the good old educational

rds about Laxley, and nothing else. The words were so sweet and so bitter; every now and then

not till after she had displayed many graces, and, as one or two ladies presumed to consider, marked effrontery, that she rose and drew Caroline aw

ight the better peruse his features, saying, in her mellow caressing voic

Louisa

hat you are going to expose us? What further exposure do we need

s passionate outcries of justification, necessity, and innocence in

g! of what use -now! Whether right or wrong, why should y

another suffer under an

v

your family first. Have we not been afflicted enou

o bear all now than a l

v

him; he has behaved so insolently

just to him, and after her kindness-apart from the righ

saved her from being a convicted liar this very day. Worse! for what would have been talked of the morals of the house, supposing the scandal. Oh! indeed I was tempted to bring that horrid mad Captain into the house face to face with his flighty doll of a wife, a

ver him. His sister's plots, her untruth, her coarseness, clung to him and seemed part of his blood. He now

ing?' Caroline exclaimed,

red the Countess, still imagining that

t manly for a brother to go and tell

s you unhappy? Louisa's name will

traightened: 'Good Heaven, Evan! you are not going

e!' he crie

his hand. 'It is worse for us that you should suffer, dearest! Think of

and his eyes, in his ex

s repro

ll have to speak an untruth. Your ideas are wrong-wrong, I know they are. You will have to lie. But if you are silen

young man groaned for some pure certain light to guide him: the question whether he was about to do right made him weak. He took Caroline's head between his

. I go to Lady Jocelyn tonight. To-morrow we leave, and there's the end. Lou

ected from a Dawley!'

'kneel to him with me: stop him: Rose loves

d the Countess, more like the Dawley she spra

g him, she looked so hopelessly beautiful, that Evan was agitated, and caressed her, whil

ife-my destiny!'

a saving this sacrifice of his was to accomplish, he would n

as he went forth. Carolin