"I believe it was the frost killed them: I don't know what else it could have been. You may remember those bitter days we had in January: they died then." "You are very good to take care of them, all this while. How is East Lynne looking? Dear East Lynne! Is it occupied ?" "Not yet. I have spent some money upon it, and it repays the outlay." The excitement of his arrival had worn off, and she was looking herself again, pale and sad: he could not help observing that she was changed. "I cannot expect to look so well at Castle Marling as I did at East Lynne," she answered. "I trust it is a happy home to you?" said Mr. Carlyle, speaking upon impulse. She glanced up at him, a look that he would never forget: it certainly told of despair. "No," she said, shaking her head, "it is a miserable home, and I cannot remain in it. I have been awake all night, thinking where I can go, but I cannot tell. I have not a friend in the wide world." Never let people talk secrets before children, for be assured that they comprehend a vast deal more than is expedient: the saying that "Little pitchers have great ears" is wonderfully true. Lord Vane held up his head to Mr. Carlyle : "Isabel told me this Shall I tell you why? angry." morning that she should go away from us. Mamma beat her yesterday when she was But "Be quiet, William !" interrupted Lady Isabel, her face in a flame, "Two great slaps upon her cheeks," continued the young viscount ; "and Isabel cried so, and I screamed, and then mamma hit me. boys are made to be hit: nurse says so. Marvel came into the nursery when we were at tea, and told nurse about it. She says Isabel's too good-looking, and that's why mamma Isabel stopped the child's tongue, rang a peal on the bell, and marshalled him to the door: despatching him to the nursery by the servant who answered it. “You do, Mr. Carlyle's eyes were full of indignant sympathy. "Can this be true ?" he asked, in a low tone, when she returned to him. indeed, want a friend." "I must bear my lot," she replied, obeying the impulse which prompted her to confide in Mr. Carlyle. Severn returns." "And then ?" "At least till Lord Mount "I really do not know," she said, the rebellious tears rising faster than she could choke them down. "He has no other home to offer me;' but with Lady Mount Severn I cannot and will not remain. She would break my heart, as she has already well-nigh broken my spirit. I have not deserved it of her, Mr. Carlyle." "No, I am sure you have not," he warmly answered. "I wish I could help you! What can I do?" "You can do nothing," she said. "What can any one do ?" "I wish, I wish I could help you!" he repeated. "East Lynne was not, take it for all in all, a pleasant home to you, but it seems you changed for the worse when you left it." "Not a pleasant home!" she echoed, its reminiscences appearing delightful in that moment, for it must be remembered that all things are estimated by comparison. "Indeed it was: I may never have so pleasant a one again. Oh, Mr. Carlyle, do not disparage East Lynne to me! Would I could awake, and find the last few months but a hideous dream!--that I could find my dear father alive again!—that we were still living peacefully at East Lynne! It would be a very Eden to me now." What was Mr. Carlyle about to say? What emotion was it that agitated his countenance, impeded his breath, and dyed his face bloodred? His better genius was surely not watching over him, or those words had never been spoken. "There is but one way," he began, taking her hand and nervously playing with it, probably unconscious that he did so; "only one way in which you could return to East Lynne. And that way-I may not presume, perhaps, to point it out." She looked at him, and waited for an explanation. "If my words offend you, Lady Isabel, check them, as their presumption deserves, and pardon me. May I-dare I-offer you to return to East Lynne as its mistress?" She did not comprehend him in the slightest degree; the drift of his meaning never dawned upon her. "Return to East Lynne as its mistress?" she repeated, in bewilderment. "And as my wife." No possibility of misunderstanding him now, and the shock and surprise were great. She had stood there by Mr. Carlyle's side, conversing confidentially with him, esteeming him greatly, feeling as if he were her truest friend on earth, clinging to him in her heart as to a powerful haven of refuge, loving him almost as she would love a brother, suffering her hand to remain in his. But to be his wife!-the idea had never presented itself to her in any shape until this moment, and her mind's first emotion was one of entire opposition, her first movement to express it, as she essayed to withdraw herself and her hand away from him. But not so; Mr. Carlyle did not suffer it. He not only retained that hand, but took the other also, and spoke, now the ice was broken, eloquent words of love. Not unmeaning phrases of rhapsody, about hearts and darts and dying for her, like somebody else might have given utterance to, but earnest-hearted words of deep tenderness, calculated to win the mind's good sense, as well as upon the ear and heart: and, it may be, that had her imagination not been filled up with that "somebody else," she would have said Yes there and then. upon They were suddenly interrupted. Lady Mount Severn entered, and took in the scene at a glance: Mr. Carlyle's bent attitude of devotion, his imprisonment of the hands, and Isabel's perplexed and blushing countenance. She threw up her head and her little inquisitive nose, and stopped short on the carpet: her freezing looks demanding an explanation, as plainly as looks can do it. Mr. Carlyle turned to her, and, by way of sparing Isabel, proceeded to introduce himself. Isabel had just presence of mind left to name her : Lady Mount Severn." "I am sorry that Lord Mount Severn should be absent, to whom I have the honour of being known," he said. "I am Mr. Carlyle." "I have heard of you," replied her ladyship, scanning his good looks, and feeling cross that his homage should be given where she saw it was given, "but I had not heard that you and Lady Isabel Vane were on the extraordinary terms of intimacy that-that-" "Madam," he interrupted, as he handed a chair to her ladyship and took another himself, "we have never yet been on terms of extraordinary intimacy. I was begging the Lady Isabel to grant that we might be: I was asking her to become my wife." The avowal was as a shower of incense to the countess, and her ill humour melted into sunshine. It was a solution to her great difficulty, a loophole by which she might get rid of her bête noire, the hated Isabel. A flush of gratification lighted her face, and she became full of graciousness to Mr. Carlyle. "How very grateful Isabel must feel to you," quoth she. "I speak openly, Mr. Carlyle, because I know that you were cognisant of the unprotected state in which she was left by the earl's improvidence, putting marriage for her, at any rate a high marriage, nearly out of the question. East Lynne is a beautiful place, I have heard." "For its size: it is not large," replied Mr. Carlyle, as he rose : for Isabel had also risen and was coming forward. "And pray what is Lady Isabel's answer?" quickly asked the countess, turning to her. Not to her did Isabel condescend to give an answer, but she approached Mr. Carlyle, and spoke in a low tone. "Will you give me a few hours for consideration ?” "I am only too happy that you should accord it consideration, for it speaks to me of hope," was his reply, as he opened the door for her to pass out. "I will be here again this afternoon." It was a perplexing debate that Lady Isabel held with herself in the solitude of her chamber, whilst Mr. Carlyle touched upon ways and means to Lady Mount Severn. Isabel was little more than a child, and as a child she reasoned, looking neither far nor deep: the shallow, palpable aspect of affairs alone presenting itself to her view. That Mr. Carlyle was not of rank equal to her own, she scarcely remembered: East Lynne seemed a very fair settlement in life, and in point of size, beauty, and importance, it was superior to the home she was now in. She forgot that her position at East Lynne as Mr. Carlyle's wife, would not be what it had been as Lord Mount Severn's daughter; she forgot that she would be tied to a quiet home, shut out from the great world, the pomps and vanities to which she was born. She liked Mr. Carlyle much, she liked to be with him, she experienced pleasure in conversing with him; in short, but for that other ill-omened fancy which had crept over her, there would have been a danger of her falling in love with Mr. Carlyle. oh! to be removed for ever from the bitter dependence on Lady Mount Severn-East Lynne would in truth, after that, seem what she had called it, Eden. And "So far it looks favourable," mentally exclaimed poor Isabel, "but May-VOL. CXIX. NO. CCCCLXXIII. H there is the other side of the question. It is not only that I do not love Mr. Carlyle, but I fear I do love, or very nearly love, Francis Levison. I wish he would ask me to be his wife!-or that I had never seen him." Isabel's soliloquy was interrupted by the entrance of Mrs. Levison and the countess. What the latter had said to the old lady to win her to the cause, was best known to herself, but she was eloquent in it. They both used every possible argument to induce her to accept Mr. Carlyle: the old lady declaring she had never been introduced to any one she was so much taken with (and Mrs. Levison was incapable of asserting what was not true); that he was worth a dozen empty-headed men of the great world. Isabel listened, now swayed one way, now the other, and when afternoon came, her head was aching with perplexity. The stumbling-block that she could not get over was Francis Levison. She saw Mr. Carlyle's approach from her window, and went down to the drawing-room, not in the least knowing what her answer was to be: a shadowy idea was presenting itself that she would ask him for longer time, and write her answer. In the drawing-room was Francis Levison, and her heart beat wildly: which said beating might have convinced her that she ought not to marry another. "Where have you been hiding yourself ?" cried he. of our mishap with the pony carriage ?" "No," was her answer. "Did you hear "I was driving Emma into town. The pony took fright, kicked, plunged, and went down upon his knees: she took fright in her turn, got out, and walked back. So I gave the brute some chastisement and a race, and brought him to the stables, getting home in time to be introduced to Mr. Carlyle. He seems an out-and-out good fellow, Isabel, and I congratulate you." "What!" she uttered. "Don't start. We are all in the family, and my lady told me: I won't betray it abroad. She says East Lynne is a place to be coveted: I wish you happiness, Isabel." "Thank you," she returned, in a sarcastic tone, though her throat beat and her lips quivered. "You are premature in your congratulations, Captain Levison." I "Am I? Keep my good wishes, then, till the right man comes. am beyond the pale myself, and dare not think of entering the happy state," he added, in a pointed tone. "I have indulged dreams of it, like others, but I cannot afford to indulge them seriously: a poor man, with uncertain prospects, can only play the butterfly, perhaps to his life's end." He quitted the room as he spoke. It was impossible for Isabel to misunderstand him, but a feeling shot across her mind, for the first time, that he was false and heartless. One of the servants appeared, showing in Mr. Carlyle: nothing false or heartless about him. He closed the door, and approached her, but she did not speak, and her lips were white and trembling. Mr. Carlyle waited. "Well ?" he said, at length, in a gentle tone. grant my prayer ?" "Have you decided to "Yes. But" She could not go on. What with one agitation and another, she had difficulty in conquering her emotion. "But-I was going to tell you "Presently," he whispered, leading her to a sofa; "we can both afford to wait now. Oh, Isabel, you have made me very happy!" "I ought to tell you, I must tell you," she began again, in the midst of hysterical tears. "Though I have said yes to your proposal, I do not-yet-It has come upon me by surprise," she stammered. "I like you very much; I esteem and respect you: but I do not yet love you.' 22 "I should wonder if you did. But you will let me earn your love, Isabel." "Oh yes,' He drew her closer to him, bent his face, and took from her lips his first kiss. Isabel was passive: she supposed he had gained the right to "My dearest! it is all I ask." do so. Mr. Carlyle stayed over the following day, and before he departed in the evening, arrangements had been discussed. The marriage was to take place immediately: all concerned had a motive for hurrying it on. Mr. Carlyle was anxious that the fair flower should be his; Isabel was sick of Castle Marling, sick of some of the people in it; my lady was sick of Isabel. In less than a month it was to be, and Francis Levison sneered over the "indecent haste." Mr. Carlyle wrote to the earl, and Lady Mount Severn announced that she should present Isabel with the trousseau, and wrote to London to order it. It is a positive fact that when he was taking leave of her she clung to him. "I wish I could take you now, my darling!" he uttered. "I cannot bear to leave you here." "I wish you could!" she sighed. "You have seen only the sunny side of Lady Mount Severn." II. MR. DILL'S SHAKING. He THE sensations of Mr. Carlyle when he returned to West Lynne were very much like those of an Eton boy, who knows he has been in mischief, and dreads detection. Always open as to his own affairs, for he had nothing to conceal, he yet deemed it expedient to dissemble now. felt that his sister would be bitter at the prospect of his marrying; instinct had taught him that, years past; and he believed that, of all women, the most objectionable to her would be Lady Isabel, for Miss Carlyle looked to the useful, and had neither sympathy nor admiration for the beautiful. He was not sure but she might be capable of endeavouring to frustrate the marriage, should news of it reach her ears, and her indomitable will had carried many strange things in her life: therefore you will not blame Mr. Carlyle for observing entire reticence as to his future plans. A family of the name of Carew had been about taking East Lynne: they wished to rent it, furnished, for three years. Upon some of the |
