quiet and reserved. None of her children of fifteen, or rather more, looked into the resembled her but Viscount Sale. She was room, and then sprang in. It was the Honorwrapped in a thick shawl, though the day able Harry Seaford. was hot, and looked ill. One day, in that first week, I think it was on the Wednesday, Lady Georgina came into the room while the little girl was reading to me, and I rose up and curtseyed. "Don't let me disturb you," she said, in a pleasant careless tone. "Miss Halliwell, I presume. Has my sister nearly finished reading?" Ellen, shutting "I have read a The words are "Yes," interrupted Lady the book of her own accord. page, and that's enough. hard, and I don't like it." The child had not read half enough, but I doubted whether it was my place to differ from her; and, at that early stage, did not presume to do so. I stood in hesitation. "Miss Halliwell," said Lady Georgina, bringing forward a huge portfolio, "do you know how to mount handscreens? Look at this pair I have begun. I am not making a good job of them. Can you help me? Mademoiselle knows no more about it than this child. Ellen, let my paintings alone." As it happened, I did know something about mounting drawings on cardboard, ornamenting screens with gilt flowers, and such like, though I did not pretend to draw, never having been taught. But I must have had some taste for it; for, when a child, I would . spend hours copying the landscapes on an old china tea-set, and any other pretty view that fell in my way. George Archer once found one of my old drawings, and kept it, saying he should keep it forever. me! Ah I told Lady Georgina I thought I could assist her, but that the little girl had only just begun her studies. "O, her studies are of no consequence for one day," she remarked, in a peremptory tone. "Nelly, dear, go to Mademoiselle my compliments, and I am monopolizing Miss Halli well this afternoon." The child went out of the room, glad to be dismissed. She disliked learning English, and had told me her French was less difficult to her. "Do you cut the gilt paper out on a trencher or with scissors?" asked Lady Georgina. "For the flowers, I mean." Before I could answer, a merry-looking boy "I say, Georgy, are you in this place? I have been all over the house after you. Who was to think you had turned schoolgirl again? What are you up to here?" "Why do you ask?" inquired Lady Georgina, without raising her head from the screens. "O, I don't know; in the library, or somewhere." The lad vaulted from the room and down the stairs as he spoke, and I saw him tearing after Wells, the gamekeeper. Truly these young scions spoke and acted as freely as common people. Lady Georgina left the room, I supposed to find the earl. When she came in again, she halted before a mirror that was let into the panel between the windows, and turned some of the flowing curls round her fingers. She caught my earnest gaze of admiration. Her sylph-like form, her fair neck and arms for it was not the custom then for young ladies to have these covered — her bright hair, her patrician features, their damask bloom, and the flash of conscious triumph lighting her eye. Very conscious of her fascinations was the Lady Georgina Seaford: I saw it in that moment. She turned sharply round to me: "What are you thinking of, Miss Halliwell? " The question startled me. I was timid and ignorant, and thought I must confess the truth when a noble lady demanded it. So I stammered out my thoughts-that until I saw her I had not deemed it possible for any one to be so lovely. "You must be given to flattery in this part of the world," she said, with a conscious blush and a laugh of triumph. "Another, here, has avowed the same to me, and I advised him not to come to the castle too often, if there were a danger that I should turn his head." Who was that other? A painful conviction shot over me that it was Mr. Archer. She seemed quite a creature of impulse, indulged and wilful. Before she had sat twenty minutes, she pushed the drawings together, said it was stupid, and we would go on with it another day. So the little girl came back to me. It was five o'clock, and I was putting on my bonnet to leave, when Lady Georgina came into the room again in full dress. They were going out to dinner. An India muslin frock, with blue floss trimming, a blue band round her slender waist, with a pearl buckle, pearl side-combs in her hair, a pearl necklace, and long white gloves. 66 Nelly," she said to her sister, “I want you to give a message to the boys." And she bent down, and whispered the child. "William or Harry?" asked the little girl, aloud. "O, Harry," replied Lady Georgina. "William would not trouble himself to remember." I bent forward over the head of the child. The bright curls of Lady Georgina were just flitting into the carriage, and something yellow gleamed from her shoulders. It was the Indian shawl. The earl stepped in after her, and following him, in his black evening suit and white cravat, went My betrothed husband, George Archer. My heart stood still. "I wish dear mamma was well enough to go out again," sighed the little girl. "Georgy has all the visiting now." She remained looking after the carriage, and I with her. We saw it sweep round to gain the broad drive of the park. Lord Seaford was seated by the side of his daughter, and he opposite to her. II. AUTUMN and winter passed away, and it became very close to the anniversary of the period when Mr. Archer first came as curate. There was no outward change in our position: to those around, the Reverend George Archer was still the engaged lover of Miss Halliwell. But a change had come, and we both knew it. It seemed that a barrier had been gradualShe left the room again. What the pur-ly, almost imperceptibly, growing up between port of her whisper was I of course never knew. Mademoiselle Berri, the Swiss governess, was with us then, writing, and when Lady Ellen ran to the window and got upon a chair to lean out of it, she quitted the table, pulled the child back, and said something very fast in French, to which the child replied equally fast. I could not understand their language, but it seemed to me they were disputing. "Miss Halliwell will hold me, then," said the little girl, in English, "for I will look. I want to see Georgy get into the carriage. Please hold me by my frock, Miss Halliwell." I laid hold of the child by the gathers of her buff gingham dress, and the governess began to talk to me. I laughed, and shook my head. "What does Mademoiselle say?" I asked of Lady Ellen. "O, it's about a little girl she knew falling out of a window and breaking her reins. It is all a conte, you know; she says it to frighten me. What do you call reins in English? There's Georgy: she's got on mamma's Indian shawl." us. He was cold and absent in manner, when with me, and his visits to our house were not now frequent. He appeared to be rising above his position, leaving me far beneath. Mr. Coomes had latterly been ailing: it was rarely that he could accept the dinner. or evening invitations sent to him, and since the earl's return to Seaford there had been much visiting going on. So the county gentlemen would say, "Then you will come and say grace for us, Mr. Archer," and he always went. It would sometimes happen, when they were going a distance, as on the above day, that Lord Seaford invited him to a seat in his carriage: and he was often, now, a guest at the castle. I have said he was a handsome man: he was more, he was wellinformed, elegant and refined; as a clergyman, he was regarded as, in some degree, an equal, by the society so much above him, and he was courted and caressed from many sides. Thus it was that he acquired a false estimation of his own position, and ambitious pride obtained rule in his heart. But not for all this was he neglecting me. No, no; there was another and a deeper cause. Easter was later this spring than the last, and, on its turn, the Seafords were to depart | put on clothes, Miss Halliwell, but de French for town. My duties at the castle would women." conclude on the Thursday in Passion week; "Lady Georgina always looks well," I and, I may mention, that over and above the sighed. Was it a sigh of jealousy? remuneration paid me, which was handsome, "For de fashions here, she do," answered her ladyship the countess pressed upon me a Mademoiselle, shrugging her shoulders at the bracelet of enamel, which my mother said" fashions here." "But she has got de vanmust have cost six or seven pounds. I have ity! And not no mercy. She has turned it still but it is not fashioned like those that de head of dat poor young minister, and—” A great spasm took my throat. Do you mean Mr. Archer?" I interrupted. "To be sure. One can see that his heart And she leads him on are worn now. Thursday came, the last day of my attendance; and after our early dinner I set off to walk to the castle. A rumor was afloat that afternoon-one had been to our house and said it-that Mr. Archer had thrown up his curacy. His year had been out three weeks, but he had then agreed to remain on, waiting for something better, at a stipend of £100 a year. It was impossible for Mr. Coomes now, in his failing health, to do the duty unassisted. I had been looking forward, with eager hope, to the departure of the Seafords, thinking that perhaps our old loving, confidential days might return; and now this rumor! It seemed as if there was to be no hope for me in this cruel world, and I sat down to the lessons of little Ellen Seaford, like one in a troubled maze. Before they were over, Mademoiselle Berri came in, and told the child to go to her mamma; some visitors were there, who wished to see her. "You will stay to take de thé wid me dis afternoon," said Mademoiselle, who had now made progress in English. "No, thank you," I answered. "My head aches, and I want to get home." "You cannot go till madame la comtesse has seen you; she did say so. Ah mon Dieu, but it is triste in dis campagne! I have de headache too, wid it. I shall have de glad heart next week to quit it." "You have always found it dull, mademoiselle." "As if anybody was capable to find it anyting else! Except it is de Lady Georgina. And perhaps de earl, wid his steward, and his shooting, and his af-fairs. But, for de Lady Georgina, she does keep herself alive wid flirting; as she would anywhere. She is de regular flirt." "But then she is so very beautiful.” "Eh bien, oui, if she would dress like one Christian. But de English don't know how; wid deir bare necks, and deir curled hair. There is no race in de world who ought to is breaking for her. "Is My heart leaped into my mouth. Lady Georgina Seaford engaged?" I burst forth. "You do seem surprised," cried the French woman. "She is to have Mr. Caudour. He is my Lord Caudour's eldest son, and is now abroad wid some of de embassies. Dat is why he has never been here. He is some years older dan she, but it is de good parti for her, and they will be married this summer." Mademoiselle talked on, and thought I listened, but I heard no more. A weight was taken from my heart. And yet, with what reason? For to couple a lowly curate with the Lady Georgina Seaford, was ridiculously absurd. I had to wait to see the countess it was that evening she gave me the bracelet- and it was near six when I left the castle. It The evening is in my memory now. was still and balmy, and the sun was drawing towards its setting. I took the slanting cut through the park, it was the shortest way, and as I hastened along the narrow path, over which the trees hung thickly, I came face to face with Mr. Archer. He was going there to dinner: I saw it by his dress. He shook hands, in a constrained manner, and then there was a silence between us, as there often had been of late. Some powerit was surely not my own- nerved me to speak. "I wanted to see you: I am glad we have met. We heard this afternoon that you had given up your curacy. Is it true?" "Yes," he answered, breaking off a switch from one of the trees, and beginning to strip it, with his face turned from me. "Then have you heard of another?" "I have accepted what may lead to something better than a curacy," he said, tearing away at the stick. "The post of resident tutor to the young Seafords." Was it a spasm now that fell on my heart? Ay, one of ice. "Then you leave hereyou go with them?" I faltered. "When they leave next week, I shall have to accompany them. We must temporarily part, Hester." "Temporarily!" Calm as is my general nature, there are moments in my life when it has been goaded to vehemence it was so then. "Let us not part to-night without an explanation, Mr. Archer," I poured forth. "Is it me you love, or is it Lady Georgina Seaford ?" The red light from the setting sun was upon us, for, in talking, we had moved restlessly to the opening in the trees, and the landscape lay full around, but the warm color did not equal the glow upon his face. I saw he loved her far more passionately than he had ever loved me. He stood in hesitation, like a guilty coward, as if no words would arise at his bidding. "I give you back your freedom," I uttered. "I see we can no longer be anything to each other. I wish, from my heart, we never had been." 66 Hester," he exclaimed, suddenly turning, and taking both my hands, "you are well quit of me. A man with the unstable heart that mine has proved, could never bring you happiness. Curse my memory, in future, as you will: I well deserve it." "But what do you promise yourself, to have become enthralled with her, so immeasurably above you?" was wrung from me, in my emotion. "I promise myself nothing. I only know that I can live but in her presence, that she is to me in the light of an angel from heaven. God forgive my infatuation!" "You need forgiveness. To indulge a passion for one who will soon be the wife of another." "Of whom?" he fiercely asked. The glow on his face had faded, and his lips were so strained that the teeth were seen - he who never showed them. - "She is to marry Lord Caudour's son." "Ah, that's nothing, if you mean him," he answered, drawing his breath again. "She has told me she dislikes him And though her father desires the match, he will not force her inclinations." "Then you wish your freedom back from me?" And my lips, as I asked it, were as white as his own. I could feel they were. "Pardon my fickleness, Hester! I cannot marry you, loving another." "Then I give it you," I said, in a sort of wild desperation. "May the wife you choose never cause you to regret me." "Thanks from me would be like a mockery," he whispered; "I can only hope that you will find your reward. Let us shake hands, Hester, for the last time." I held out my right hand. And he took it in his, and bent down his forehead upon it, and kept it there. I saw his lips move. I do believe he was praying for my welfare. He pray! We walked away in opposite directions: soon, I stopped and looked after him. He was striding on. He never turned; and as he approached the bend in the path, which would hide him from my sight, he flung the little switch away, with a sharp, determined gesture. Like he had just flung away my love. O, the misery that overwhelmed me! the fearful blank that had fallen on me! I cast myself down upon the grass, where no eye could see me, and sobbed aloud in my storm of despair. That a sober old woman of fifty should have to confess to anything so unseemly! I did not heed how long I lay. When I got up, the sun had set, it was dusk, and, as I walked forward, I staggered like one in drink. As I passed the rectory, a sudden idea came over me, and I went in. Mr. Coomes was drinking his tea, by firelight. Why, my dear," he said, "is it you! 66 I sat down with my back to the fire: I did not care that he should see my face, even by that faint light. And I told him what I came for to beg that he would take my brother as his curate. "My dear, it is true that Mr. Archer is going to leave me; but who told you of it?" "He told me so himself." "He is a changeable fellow, then! He said he did not wish it immediately known, and requested me not to speak of it. I have been thinking of your brother." his sister and Mr. Archer, and had joked her about it before his father. The earl snapped "O, Mr. Coomes," I said, "you know at the matter, and Mr. Archer was so infatuit was through me he was driven away from ated as to confess to him that he loved the here to give place to Mr. Archer. Since his Lady Georgina. The earl poohed him down illness, that thought has rested, like a weight, contemptuously, paid him what was due, and on my conscience. He has been ill again civilly dismissed him from the house that this winter, the bleak air there tries him. If same hour. He saw the Lady Georgina beyou would but receive him as curate now! "fore he left, and she treated it lightly said "We will see about it," said Mr. Coomes. And I rose to go. ever." she could not help him, that it was no fault of hers, but she should ever retain a pleasant "Hester," he whispered, in a kind voice, reminiscence of his flattering sentiments as he followed me to the door, "how is it towards her. "You should have seen his between you and George Archer! Serene?" poor wan face, Miss Halliwell, when he left "That is over," I said, striving indiffer- de house," whispered Mademoiselle to me, ently. "We have bid each other adieu for- confidentially. "I was coming in from a walk wid de littel girl, and met him in de hall: he held out his hand to me to say good-by, and I looked up at his face — it was one tableau of miserie. And de Lady Georgina, she went, all gay, to a soirée at de Duchess of Gloucester's dat same evening, and I do not tink she did care one pin for de killed heart of dat poor young clergyman.'' "If I did not think this! He is losing himself like an idiot. God's peace be with you, my child!" III. Ir all came out to the Earl of Seaford. We heard of it when they came down to the castle in autumn. But there was a fresh So my brother became curate of Seaford, tutor then, and the Lady Georgina was not and, in time, our mother died, and I grew with them, she was just married to the Hon-into an old maid. And never more at Seaorable Mr. Caudour. One day, in London, ford did news come to us of the Reverend Lord Sale overheard a conversation between George Archer. POLYGAMY.-"Is it lawful for a Jew to have more than one wife?" was the first of the twelve questions which, on the 29th of July, 1806, were laid before the great Sanhedrim assembled in Paris by order of Napoleon. The answer was: "It is by no means lawful for Jews to have more than one wife; in the states of Europe they conform to the general custom. Moses does not expressly command polygamy, yet he by no means forbids it; he seems inclined tacitly to admit it, since he determines the hereditary portions of children, the issue of several wives. Though this custom prevails in the East, yet their old teachers forbid it, unless there be property to provide abundantly for several wives. Not so in the West; the wish to conform to the customs of the people, among whom they were dispersed, led them to determine the abolition of polygamy; yet, as some refused to submit, an assembly at Worms, in 1070, composed of a hundred rabbis, decided the question. They pronounced excommunication against any Israelite who should henceforth take more than one wife." Notes and Queries. |
