Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

dered at your keeping so aloof in the same room, but supposed you had grown fine at Oxford. She owned, however, you were the cleverest man in the world at saving a lady from a fall in a ball-room."

Granville having thus unconsciously set fire to a train, the mischief or extent of which he could not foresee, left me in a sort of trance, from which for very many minutes I did not recover.

When I awoke, it is astonishing what a confusion I felt in my brain. Surprise, pleasure, uncertainty, hope, timidity, doubt, fluctuation, resolution-in short, like the booby Silvius* (who seems no booby either as to his own case), I was "all made of passion, wishes, adoration, duty, observance, humbleness, patience, and impatience."

My thoughts of flight were alternately renewed and suspended. The lover, as well as the drowning man, catches at a straw. From Granville's account it was plain I had a portion of-I was going to say her favour-but no! even the Lover's Hope could not fabricate that so I contented myself with calling it good-will; and did not her cheerful, kind nature bestow good-will on every one, even Mansell?

[ocr errors]

But then, what could I expect by remaining? To be looked down upon! to be told to keep my distance! not by her, but by her brother, perhaps her father! Forbid it pride! Forbid it prudence! Forbid it the noble name of Clifford, however decayed!

Yet to fly, to lose all mastery over myself! to live a coward in my own esteem! a slave! an exile! forbid

* As You Like It.

it the same pride and noble name! forbid it everything that was manly, firm, or independent !

Unable to decide, or even to think; unnerved by Granville's information, though only of a very common-place matter, meaning at best little, perhaps nothing, I again sought my dear brook, sure, at least, of there finding solitude and leisure for my deliberations.

--

But I was disappointed; it was solitude no longer. And how was it broken in upon? The romantic Granville had found it out as well as myself, though he had not, like myself, wooed it for the sake of retirement. In fact, upon his discovering its pleasantness, he had tempted the very persons I was striving to avoid to recreate themselves in its shade and seclusion, while their more busy relatives, the sheriff and Mr. Hastings, were moiling in the service of their country, in a hot court of justice. Accordingly, he had persuaded Bertha, chaperoned by her aunt, Mrs. Mansell, and accompanied by both her cousins, to pass half an hour in that cool retreat.

What a rencontre was here! No escaping if I would! Unwilling if I could.

Bertha, in a simple flowered gown, and that most becoming of all the parts of female attire, a walking bonnet, was more attracting than ever, because more like one of my own degree. This perhaps I could have withstood; but her pleased look, and the manner in which she ejaculated, as if they had escaped unintentionally, the words, "O! Mr. De Clifford, this is quite unexpected, and very apropos"-put all thought but of unmixed devotion to flight.

[ocr errors]

She soon explained what her exclamation meant, by saying, "Do you know there has been a great dispute between my aunt and cousin, Mrs. and Miss Mansell, and Mr. Granville, on the effect which his stanzas (for we all say they are his), which so pleased us yesterday, might, or ought to have on the lady addressed ; and, to be sure, there never was such an appropriate place for such a discussion as this. It is a poem itself; and if I were to stay here, I think I could make verses too."

My suspicions were all up in arms at this speech, for the place, as I have said, had generated the verses in question but two days before.

"But first," continued Bertha, "let me introduce you to my aunt, Mrs. Mansell, and my cousin, Lucinda, and then they will go on with their argument with Mr. Granville."

So saying, and the introduction having passed, Granville, who quite laughed at the interest which the ladies seemed to take in it, returned to the subject. "Mrs. Mansell and her daughter, my cousin there," said he, "have the cruelty and injustice to say that the man who could secretly nurse his love, without encouragement or hope, must be a very simple or poorspirited wretch, not worth thinking about. I, on the contrary, applaud and like him for his modesty, and think that to have loved in secret, and persevered at humble distance, with no other ground for his hope than his wishes, denotes both a stronger and a purer devotion. Anybody can love whose love is returned; but his must be attachment indeed, who, like Petrarch,

can cherish it without even declaring it, much less knowing whether, if declared, it would ever be accepted. What say you?"

"May I ask," said I, with some hesitation, "which side Miss Hastings has taken ?"

66

Perhaps she will tell you," cried Granville, rather mischievously; "but neither I nor these ladies can get her to declare her opinion, which she pretends to be on account of her inexperience, and the difficulty and delicacy of the question; and yet in a month more she will be seventeen, and is to come out."

"If I were to be twenty," observed Bertha, "I ought rather to be a listener than an arguer upon such a subject."

"Your modesty ought not to let you off," said Granville, "particularly as it is a question for the ladies alone to decide. The men can know nothing of it. Indeed, for that we have our cousin Mansell's authority there (pointing to him), who says he knows nothing about the matter."

66

"And I don't wish to know," said Mansell, gruffly; nay, I think the whole thing stuff and nonsense." "There I believe you," observed Bertha ; "but I do also wish that I knew the author of the stanzas, and that we had him here; he would at least tell us what he meant himself, and whether, as Lucinda says, the supposition of mere gratuitous hope is impossible because unnatural. But I still think that Mr. Granville, who we all know is so romantic, is the author himself, though he tells us he got the lines from a friend. Who is that friend? Do we know him?"

Granville laughed, and answered, "What if I were to say you do?"

Luckily he did not look at me, but without that I felt all over in consternation. I was hot and cold, and ready to run off, but was saved by the persuasion of Bertha, and indeed of all present, that Granville was the author, notwithstanding his disavowal; so that they did not observe my emotion.

"Ah!" said Miss Hastings, "it is mere affectation in you, cousin Granville, and not like a friend and relation, to deny it so uncandidly; and I dare say your friend, Mr. De Clifford, thinks so too."

"Ask him," said Granville roguishly, "what he thinks was the author's own opinion upon the question-for he knows him too-indeed, they are sworn friends, and it was through him that I procured the stanzas."

He uttered this, as I said, roguishly, and, not knowing where he would stop, I again began to be alarmed.

Bertha seemed surprised, and looked doubtingly at me, when Mrs. Mansell said, "Perhaps, as Mr. De Clifford is a friend of the author, he may think as he does; and if he will not inform us who he is, he may, at least, tell us what was his real opinion."

Granville smiled again. I was more and more embarrassed, but thought I could best recover myself by adopting the character assigned me.

66

Certainly," said I, " I know the author, and think with him on most points, but particularly on this." "And your common opinion," said Mrs. Mansell,

[blocks in formation]
« ПредишнаНапред »