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 1.
 
 THE 
 
 CONTRAST, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "MATILDA," "YES AND NO," 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 M i^^-u-^xxM-k J C //- /^ 
 
 Take but degree away — untune that string, 
 And hark ! what discord follows. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, 
 
 NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1832.
 
 S//Z 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 " What 's in a name ?" is a question to 
 which, perhaps, a bookseller would be apt to 
 reply — "More than meets the eye." With some 
 suspicion of this kind, I have hesitated much 
 what Title to prefix to the following pages. 
 
 I might, it is true, have been satisfied with 
 the safe expedient of any two or three mel- 
 lifluous, though unmeaning syllables, in the 
 shape of a proper name ; but I was anxious, 
 if possible, rather to explain the character than 
 
 ENGLISH
 
 VI ADVERTISEMKNT. 
 
 to record the family appellation of my hero — 
 if hero that person must be called whose fail- 
 ings and whose errors occupy most of these 
 pages. 
 
 If I had been writing in French, " L'Homme 
 Difficile" would most nearly have defined the 
 character I meant to pourtray ; but there is no 
 synonymous phrase in English. " The Fasti- 
 dious Man" did not quite please me. I am 
 myself fastidious as to the use of the term, 
 " the Man," in a title explanatory of character. 
 " Fastidiousness" is not euphonious, still less 
 " Fastidiosity," which Johnson passes current. 
 
 Under these difficulties I have left my hero 
 to speak for himself, without introduction ; and 
 taking what would, perhaps, at first have been 
 the more gallant course, I have attempted to 
 draw the attention of the reader to the diversity
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. VU 
 
 of female character arising, in great part, from 
 difference of situation, under the form, and 
 with the title, of " The Contrast." 
 
 One word more, kind Reader, in the shape 
 of an humble petition for that general indul- 
 gence which no one can feel more than myself 
 how much I require.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Will Fortune never come with both hands full. 
 But write her fair words still in foulest letters ? 
 She either gives a stomach and no food 
 (Such are the poor in health), or else a feast 
 And takes away the stomach : such are the rich 
 That have abundance and enjoy it not. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Your servant and ;;, our friend ; 
 
 One that attends your ladyship's commands. 
 
 Ibid. 
 She was not old, nor young, nor at the years 
 Which certain people call a certain age, 
 Which yet the most uncertain age appears. 
 
 By HON. 
 
 In that iron age when Frenchmen marched 
 " en masse" from Madrid to Moscow ; when 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 Continental travelling was effected by drawing 
 not bills, but swords ; when cannon, not credit, 
 gave to strangers the comforts of home in 
 foreign lands, then were the locomotive pro- 
 pensities of the peaceable portion of our coun- 
 trymen necessarily confined within the narrow 
 limits of our sea-girt island. Impatient at 
 being thus temporarily dammed up, the stream 
 of society annually flowed outwards from the 
 metropolis down to the extrem.est low- water 
 mark of the different bathing-places. 
 
 It was during this period, that a large party 
 had assembled, at the conclusion of the London 
 season, at the hospitable mansion of Sir North 
 Saunders. Sir North'*s father had been a great 
 contractor in those days when contracts were 
 worth something ; and, having realized an im- 
 mense sum in the course of the American war, 
 he, in gratitude, christened his son and heir 
 after that minister, to whose persevering pro-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 3 
 
 fusion he owed all to which he would be heir. 
 When the almost unanimous voice of an indig- 
 nant nation had closed the disastrous struggle, 
 Sir Simon Saunders (as the contractor and first 
 baronet was called) was, after a time, com- 
 pletely puzzled how to act. 
 
 During the first rapid succession of short 
 and inconsistent administrations, he stuck by 
 the Treasury, with a tenacity as to place, and 
 versatility as to persons, worthy of that re- 
 nowned vicar, whose peculiar talents in that 
 line have become proverbial. Yet, as upon 
 the permanent ascendancy of the Pitt party of 
 that day, he found that retrenchment and re- 
 form were the watch-words at head-quarters, 
 he, in disgust, threw up the whole concern, laid 
 out some of his previously-acquired spoil in the 
 purchase of Hornscliff Abbey, and retired to 
 that beautiful retreat, thinking that, at any 
 rate, a country gentleman contractor was not a 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 greater contradiction in terms, than a patriot 
 minister. 
 
 He was not, however, long condemned to 
 pretend to enjoy a state of existence so uncon- 
 genial to all his tastes and habits ; and his son 
 and heir, Sir North, not only succeeded in full 
 to all the acquirements of his father's later 
 years, but also inherited, in all its original 
 freshness, that turn of mind which had in 
 youth raised Sir Simon from nobody. 
 
 It was not therefore to be expected that he 
 would long bury himself in the solitudes of 
 HornsclifF Abbey, more especially as, coming of 
 age soon after the breaking out of the revolu- 
 tionary war, and having a great deal of par- 
 liamentary interest, the same minister who 
 had disappointed the expectations of the father, 
 now acting upon a different system, granted 
 upon many occasions the utmost demands of 
 the son.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 5 
 
 From this time for nearly twenty years, Sir 
 North continued in heart and soul nothing 
 more nor less than a thorough-paced trading 
 politician ; most anxious, nevertheless, to veil 
 that character under the reputation of a bon 
 vivant, bel esprit, and connoisseur-. To these 
 pretensions, since the last audit-day had given 
 him a glimpse of his beautiful property at 
 Hornscliff, he had added an eager desire to be 
 thought an enthusiast in the picturesque. He 
 had, in imitation of some of his acquaintance, a 
 service of china painted with views of the ro- 
 mantic environs of his place : the beauties 
 which the plates and dishes thus displayed, 
 were, during the season, the constant theme of 
 his conversation, coupled with pressing invita- 
 tions to his various acquaintance, that as his 
 boasted property was upon the coast, they 
 would make Hornscliff Abbey their sojourning 
 place during the ensuing summer.
 
 6 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 This many of them seemed nothing loth to 
 do, particularly as they ascertained that the 
 other artiste, whose labours, in their opinion, 
 no less profitably adorned the plates and dishes, 
 was to continue his successful attempts to eclipse 
 the performance of the painter. 
 
 " What a beautiful place it must be !" said 
 Lady Madelina Manfred to her neighbour, 
 young Lord Castleton, as she pensively drop- 
 ped her beautiful eyes on her plate, and conti- 
 nued in a sentimental tone, " I hope that you 
 are as passionately fond of the sea as I am. 
 How sublime its eternal sameness ! How grand 
 its boundless limits ! Oh, I could look on it for 
 ever!" she added, as she completely covered 
 the German ocean with half a spoonful of bread 
 sauce. " Shall we adjourn there at the end of 
 the season ?" continued the lady, with a pecu- 
 liar emphasis on that comprehensive monosyl- 
 lable we.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 7 
 
 It was, indeed, to establish such an identity 
 of interest between her and young Lord Cas- 
 tleton, as would give her a common property 
 in the use of the first person plural, that she 
 had been labouring all through the season. 
 Lady Madelina Manfred was born a fool, but 
 had through life cultivated that species of cun- 
 ning which fools so often display in the pursuit 
 of an object, if they have one. The object 
 which she had been — I will not say for how 
 many years, successfully pursuing, was admira- 
 tion. To be sure, nature had assisted her with 
 a pair of eyes which looked as if they could not 
 but mean something, and a voice, whose seduc- 
 tive tones could give a charm even to folly. 
 Her husband was one of those good, easy men, 
 who seem as if only born to give their wives a 
 name, inasmuch as their own is never by any 
 chance heard after they have once accomplished 
 that purpose. Seasons had rolled on ; and if
 
 8 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 Lady Madelina Manfred's eye had lost some 
 of its brilliancy, her complexion some of its 
 bloom, and her form some of its freshness, 
 there were still many who were wilfully blind 
 to such changes. As Lord Castleton will, in 
 the course of these pages, have much to say 
 for himself, it is unnecessary to say any more 
 for him at present, than that he was but just 
 nineteen ; and whatever opinion might then be 
 entertained of the liaison lately formed between 
 him and Lady Madelina, it was no scandal, 
 when gossips said that there was a time when 
 she had held him in her arms. 
 
 To the attractions of the invitation to Horns- 
 clifF Abbey, often urged by Sir North, and so 
 sweetly echoed by Lady Madelina, Lord Cas- 
 tleton was not then in a frame of mind to be in- 
 sensible, particularly as, in addition to all other 
 reasons for accepting it, his guardians were 
 very anxious that he should )iot ; and he there-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 9 
 
 fore longed to show he was his own master, by 
 putting himself completely at the disposal of 
 Sir North and Lady Madelina, who had both 
 the most deliberate designs, the one personal, 
 the other political, upon his future indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 To HornsclifF Abbey, therefore, he trans- 
 ported himself, as soon as he found that the 
 waiters at the clubs monopolized the newspa- 
 pers, and sauntering hackney-coachmen elbow- 
 ed him as they lounged along the foot-pave- 
 ment. 
 
 Lord Castleton was not by nature at all 
 that sort of being which the acquired habits of 
 the last few months had made him appear, to 
 all who had never known him before. The 
 parting jolt of his carriage moving off the Lon- 
 don pavement, seemed to shake from his na- 
 ture much of that affectation with which the 
 season had encrusted it ; and the first breath of 
 
 B 5
 
 10 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 pure country air, as he cleared the last Cockney 
 villa, seemed to revive in their springy fresh- 
 ness, many of those early feelings and tastes, 
 which, however faded for a time, can at nine- 
 teen hardly be irrecoverably seared and wi- 
 thered. 
 
 As he approached his destination, his spirit 
 seemed to expand with the bolder features 
 of the mountain-scenery by which he found 
 himself surrounded. Though within the im- 
 mediate limits of Sir North's domain, the 
 effect was almost ludicrous of the attempts 
 which had evidently been hastily and recently 
 made to cripple and confine the bold and gigan- 
 tic shapes which nature here displayed, in the 
 scanty and servile livery of a dress place. The 
 contrasts thus produced were quite comical. 
 Rugged rocks were encircled by invisible rail- 
 ings ; cast-iron bridges swung across the wildest 
 glens ; Chinese pagodas rose out of mountain
 
 THE CONTRAST. 11 
 
 heather ; gilt wire aviaries were dotted about in 
 solitudes, where eagles might have stooped, or 
 black game brooded; and Thames wherries 
 were moored by silken cords along the banks 
 of the shallow, but rapid torrent, which rushed 
 over a rocky bed down to the sea. 
 
 At the Abbey itself, these contradictions 
 were more various and more numerous, though 
 perhaps not more striking. It requires no- 
 thing else but an unlimited command of money 
 to transport, in an incredibly short space of 
 time, all the contents of a London uphol- 
 sterer''s shop to the remotest and most uncivil- 
 ized corner of the kingdom ; and due activity 
 had been shown in attending to Sir North's 
 order, that HornsclifF Abbey should, without 
 delay, be furnished from cellar to attic. The 
 building itself, situated in one of those snugly- 
 sheltered, but romantic glens, where in former 
 times the monks had generally the good taste
 
 12 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 to fix, remained one of the best preserved and 
 most perfect specimens of the abbey-gothic 
 style of architecture : it was not to be expected 
 that any furniture, thus hastily huddled toge- 
 ther, should be in perfect keeping with the 
 walls by which it was surrounded ; less care 
 was therefore taken that one part should tally 
 with the rest, and articles of every description 
 were crammed into all the rooms, with the 
 same ill-assorted propinquity in which they 
 stood in the warehouses, whence they had 
 been removed wholesale. 
 
 But neither French paper on cedar panels, 
 nor fragile wherries on mountain torrents, 
 seemed so much misplaced, as did some of the 
 company M-hom Sir North had collected to wit- 
 ness his installation as a country gentleman. 
 Many men, whose utmost previous pedestrian 
 feat had been daily gliding from their offices 
 along the smooth flags of Parliament-street to 
 make a House, and ladies, who thought it an
 
 THE CONTRAST. 13 
 
 exertion to step from their carriage across a 
 broad trottoir on a morning visit, were now ex- 
 pected to thread tangled brakes, and to climb 
 over rugged rocks, in search of the picturesque. 
 Sir North was determined, however, to play 
 what is called the whole game ; and the very 
 day after the arrival of Lord Castleton, had been 
 fixed on for a distant excursion, to a romantic 
 bay on the coast ; the beauties of which had 
 been much vaunted by the Rev. Mr. Turner, the 
 picturesque-loving Rector of the adjoining pa- 
 rish ; who, upon these occasions, acted as guide, 
 and wasted a great deal of intelligence, taste, 
 and enthusiasm, upon parties generally both 
 indifferent and ignorant ; and took a consider- 
 able deal of useless trouble in endeavouring to 
 cultivate a mutual spirit of good-will between 
 the wild scenes he loved, and their present 
 super-refined visitors, by smoothing rugged in- 
 hospitalities on one side, and endeavouring to 
 cultivate a feeling of admiration on the other.
 
 14 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 There is a cliff whose high and beetling head 
 
 Looks fearfully in tlie confined deep: 
 
 Bring me to it. Shakspeare. 
 
 They were trained together in their childhood, 
 And there rooted between them such an 
 Affection as cannot choose but branch now. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 Lord Castleton, in accordance with the 
 claim which we have seen Lady Madelina had 
 established to a common property with him in 
 the use of the monosyllable " we," had passed 
 the evening in hanging over the sofa, on which 
 she gracefully reclined, apart from the rest of 
 the world, within the recess of a roseate-dra- 
 peried tent, into which a ci-devant oriel window 
 had been converted. 
 
 On the next eventful morning the ladies
 
 THE CONTRAST. 15 
 
 were to perform the first part of the expedition 
 in open carriages, the gentlemen on horseback ; 
 when the road no longer admitted of such civi- 
 lized modes of conveyance, the ladies were to 
 be transferred to donkeys, and the men to try 
 their pedestrian powers. Lord Castleton had 
 escorted Lady Madelina to her carriage, and 
 had started, with one hand on the barouche 
 door, and the other promoting, through the 
 medium of his horse's mouth, that sort of cur- 
 veting canter which made conversation during 
 progress easy ; but before they were even out 
 of sight of the abbey his attention was di- 
 verted by the oft-repeated cry, just behind him, 
 in his host's voice, of " Soho ! soho ! quiet 
 there !'"' and looking back he caught occasional 
 glimpses even of the highest guerite of Horns- 
 cliff, in short of the whole of poor Sir North's 
 country seat, between his equestrian seat and 
 his saddle. The fact was that Sir North's
 
 16 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 Stable, like his house, had been furnished 
 wholesale and indiscriminately ; but as a sofa 
 is easier to sit than a horse, and as Sir North's 
 figure and habits were much more adapted to 
 the one than the other, the want of proper 
 selection was here infinitely more inconvenient. 
 Lord Castleton, seeing the imminent danger in 
 which his host was, could do no other than 
 offer to change with him. This proposal Sir 
 North received without the slightest scruple, 
 which, considering that at the time he thought 
 he was consigning his young friend to the 
 merciless power of the most terrific animal in 
 creation, w^as a conduct which nothing but an 
 extreme case of self-preservation could justify. 
 Thouffh his new rider did not find much diffi- 
 culty in managing the unruly beast, yet as 
 Lady Madelina's nerves no longer allowed 
 Lord Castleton to ride by the side of the car- 
 riage, he was left, up to the time of quitting
 
 THE CONTRAST. 17 
 
 these vehicles, more unoccupied than he other- 
 wise would have been, to admire the increasing 
 beauty of the surrounding scenery. 
 
 A train of thoughts long neglected, and a 
 tone of feeling of late untouched, seemed to 
 revive within him, under the impression of 
 outward objects, to which his eye had been 
 now for some time a stranger. The medita- 
 tions into which he was thus insensibly led 
 were only occasionally interrupted by the bung- 
 ling explanations attempted by Sir North of 
 the different objects they passed, as he mistook 
 in attempting to re-state the information he had 
 received from the Rev. INIr. Turner. These 
 explanatory observations of Sir North be- 
 came more frequent, as his equanimity was 
 by degrees revived by the confidence he felt, 
 after the change of steeds, in his restored 
 safety : as he himself technically expressed it, 
 " His seat was now as secure as Old Sarum."
 
 18 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 " Pray observe," said Sir North, " the se- 
 cluded situation of these Druidical remains, 
 which have withstood the changes of centuries, 
 there to your right." 
 
 " The Druidical remains I showed you," 
 said Mr. Turner in an under-tone, and as much 
 in Sir North's ear as the height of the little 
 white pony he was riding would enable him to 
 reach, " are half a mile farther to the left."" 
 
 " Pardon me, my good Sir," said Sir North, 
 " what is that which I see to the right ?" 
 
 " The remains of a windmill, pulled down by 
 order of the magistrates, for its neighbourhood 
 to the high road," replied the reverend Cice- 
 rone. 
 
 This little mistake of Sir North's rather 
 checked the torrent of his information, till, 
 after passing a beautiful variety of highland 
 and lowland, in crossing a succession of ridges, 
 they at length arrived at the entrance of the
 
 THE CONTRAST. 19 
 
 rocky glen, through which they were to wind 
 their way down to the sea. Here they were 
 obliged to leave carriages and horses, as there 
 was no longer any better road than the timber- 
 track by which the produce of Sir North's 
 woods was annually taken to be shipped. 
 
 Lord Castleton, still in close attendance on 
 Lady Madelina, after smoothing many little 
 difficulties, and soothing many affected alarms 
 in settling her upon her donkey, prepared to 
 lead the animal down the path, into the wild 
 and romantic scene whose bold features at 
 every step became more striking. 
 
 He looked up on one side at the fantastic 
 forms of the venerable trunks whose roots had 
 for centuries been entwined in the rocky crags 
 from which they grew, but whose wide- spread- 
 ing branches then luxuriated in the green 
 vigour of a summer foliage ; and he looked 
 down on the other at the clear unruffled sur-
 
 20 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 face of the brook, which ran murmuring below 
 them. He scented the freshness of the hitherto 
 untrodden fern, as his feet passed over it, and 
 he then cast his eyes upon the fascinating but 
 fane beauty by his side, and felt that there 
 was something uncongenial in visiting such a 
 scene under the protection of such a guardian 
 genius, one certainly better adapted to the ar- 
 tificial state in which he had been lately living 
 than to the freshness and nature of the present. 
 Her personal charms, too, no longer in their 
 first bloom, suited better the softened light of 
 the shaded boudoir than the searching glance 
 of the evening sun, to which they were now 
 exposed, as upon approaching the sea the wood 
 no longer afforded the same shelter from its 
 rays, and against the effect of which the utmost 
 skill in the management of the pink parasol 
 could not always guard its mistress, thwarted 
 as her efforts were by the constant windings of 
 the steep path by which they descended, and
 
 THE CONTRAST. 21 
 
 the rough motions of the humble donkey on 
 which she was mounted ; and even those grace- 
 ful limbs, whose slightest movement had had its 
 charm when stretched with studied ease upon 
 the luxurious sofa, were now necessarily cramp- 
 ed into angles on an awkward side-saddle. 
 
 All these circumstances, though not embo- 
 died in the shape of distinct doses towards 
 effecting Lord Castleton's cure, had not been 
 without their effect upon him. They had both 
 been for some time silent, when, just before the 
 last angle in the glen was to open to them that 
 sea-view which was the object of their expe- 
 dition. Lord Castleton stopping to re-arrange 
 some part of Lady Madelina's dress, which the 
 uneasy motion of the donkey had discomposed, 
 his ear caught for the first time the soothing 
 sound of the measured breaking of the waters 
 in their regular rise and fall against a sloping 
 shore. 
 
 The very idea of eternal sameness with which
 
 22 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 this sound never fails to impress a romantic 
 fancy when unexpectedly heard, has in itself a 
 tendency to recall the different circumstances, 
 to revive the faded feelings, and to connect the 
 distant spots in which its unvaried monotony 
 has met the ear. 
 
 It may already have been seen that Lord 
 Castleton was by nature sufficiently romantic, 
 and therefore he was immediately involved in 
 a labyrinth of thick-coming recollections, which 
 completely took off his attention from the occu- 
 pation which would lately not have been with- 
 out its interest, when all his pleasing reveries 
 were dispelled by that voice, whose tones he 
 so much admired, jarring upon his ear in mal- 
 apropos inquiry. " So, after aH, Lady Wait- 
 fort could not get asked to Lady Delacour's 
 ball ?" 
 
 The disgust that he felt at this ill-timed turn 
 to his thoughts, he was not obliged to express ;
 
 THE CONTRAST. 23 
 
 for just then they came within sight of the 
 beautiful Bay to which they had been destined, 
 and even Lady Madelina could not help ex- 
 claiming, " What a sweet spot !" 
 
 Now a sweet spot was not exactly the most 
 appropriate expression for admiration of such 
 a scene ; but Lord Castleton was too gratefid 
 to her at the time for showing any feeling on 
 the subject, to object to the aptness of the 
 terms in which she vented it. 
 
 The " sweet spot" was a deeply indented 
 bay, surrounded with perpendicular cliffs of a 
 o-reat heisrht, which towards the two extremities 
 of the inlet, cut the water in the shape of bold- 
 ly jutting crags. In the centre they were in- 
 tersected by the deep glen through which the 
 party had descended ; at the bottom of which 
 the mountain-stream found its way to the sea ; 
 and even down to the beach, the sides of this 
 glen were covered with fine trees and thriving
 
 24 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 shrubs ; a rare circumstance in our northern 
 latitudes. 
 
 There was in the solitude of the scene itself, 
 and the grandeur of the outlines by which it 
 was enclosed, that which seemed to mark it as a 
 spot where, in one of her angry moods, Nature 
 might choose to threaten some of those more 
 awful and sublime appearances which she some- 
 times assumes; but at present, the gaiety of 
 the season, the mildness of the air, the splen- 
 dour of the setting-sun, and the calmness of the 
 sea, the sameness of whose measured splash 
 against the shore was not broken by the slight- 
 est swell from without, produced no more than 
 
 ^leasing sensation of repose. There was no 
 human habitation visible from the sea-shore; 
 but on one of the banks which formed the sides 
 of the glen, about half way from the summit to 
 the shore, just on the single spot where the 
 slope was more gradual, some smoke was seen
 
 THE CONTRAST. 25 
 
 curling from behind a grove of dwarf oaks ; 
 and still higher, taking advantage of a southern 
 exposure, there appeared a garden, which ran 
 upwards, till the cliff again becoming too per- 
 pendicular, it only communicated with the top 
 by means of some steps cut in the rock, evi- 
 dently with great attention to safety and even 
 convenience. Judging by the little that could 
 be seen of the environs of this dwelling, it 
 might either be the residence of some retired 
 mariner, who chose to pass his latter days upon 
 an acquired competence, still within sight, 
 though safe from the attacks of that element 
 which had been the scene of his earlier adven- 
 tures ; or it might, on the other hand, beqtliE 
 dwelling of some opulent farmer, who had 
 sought the shelter of this southern slope, from 
 that exposure to which the upper land must 
 there be subject. 
 
 At first, the party imagined that they were 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 26- THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the only living creatures that at present tenant- 
 ed the semicircular shores of the bay ; but 
 upon passing the angle of a rock which project- 
 ed almost to the water*'s edge, Lord Castleton 
 and Lady Madelina discovered two youthful 
 figures leaning against the gunwale of a soli- 
 tary fishing-boat, which was moored close up 
 to the cliff. The eldest of these two seemed a 
 stout, healthy-looking lad of about sixteen, 
 with a well-made figure and rather a handsome 
 head, though, for the age which his general 
 appearance indicated, his person was strong set 
 and square, and his countenance marked and 
 decided. His dress evidently bespoke a nauti- 
 cal calling, though it was of that indefinite de- 
 scription which might belong to any rank in 
 the service of the sea; his dark-blue jacket 
 and trowsers were, however, quite new, and 
 apparently put on with some attention to effect; 
 in his right hand he held by the middle a
 
 THE CONTRAST. 27 
 
 fresh-cut oaken staff, of that description which, 
 among the lower orders, generally indicates an 
 impending pedestrian journey, and which seem- 
 ed equally well calculated to lend its assistance 
 to the legs in their regular labours, and upon 
 any extraordinary occasion, to give additional 
 powers to the hand that held it. The top of 
 this staff he leaned against his mouth, his eyes 
 were intently fixed on the regular rise and fall 
 of the waters before him, whilst the fingers of 
 his left hand, which hung by his side, ner- 
 vously grasped something, of which, as they 
 half closed upon it, only the end of a blue rib- 
 bon appeared. By his side stood one of those 
 figures, which occasionally and unexpectedly 
 cross our path, to put us again in good hu- 
 mour with human nature, and prevent our 
 being entirely disgusted with the endless va- 
 rieties of ugliness of which the mortal machine 
 is capable, by showing, on the other hand, the 
 
 c 2
 
 28 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 perfection of which the same conformation is 
 sometimes susceptible in every rank and all 
 situations. Here, a form, which among the 
 nobly-born would have been said to bear the 
 stamp of high birth — which, in the land of 
 ancient tradition and sculptured authority, 
 would have been said to show the signs of 
 pure classical extraction, was found lowly born 
 in an obscure corner of a rugged clime. Even 
 the delicacy, which gave an unlooked-for charm 
 to the appearance of one in that situation, was 
 enhanced by her extreme youth. She was two 
 years younger than her companion ; and, though 
 tall of her age, slight, and still childish in her 
 form : the natural cheerfulness of her innocent 
 countenance was then clouded by some present 
 sorrow, which added to the interest she was cal- 
 culated to inspire. Her right arm leaned lightly 
 on the shoulders of her companion, and her 
 eye, in which a tear still trembled, was fixed 
 upon the hand which held the ribbon.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 29 
 
 " What a perfect study for Gainsborough !" 
 said Lord Castleton, as he and Lady Madelina 
 stopped to gaze on the youthful couple, of 
 whom, the angle of the rock had given them, 
 unobserved, so near a view. 
 
 " Gainsborough !"" said Lady Madelina, " I 
 thought he made people with waspish waists 
 and powdered hair ; I am sure I never saw 
 such a figure as he has made of Aunt Theo- 
 dosia, in the picture-gallery at Lumberhead- 
 hall." 
 
 " Alas, poor Gainsborough ! the native off- 
 spring of his tasteful imagination are no more 
 like my aunt Theodosia, than that beautiful 
 
 girl is like ." He did not finish the 
 
 sentence, but the look he gave might have said 
 more than was either civil or welcome, had not 
 the horizontal sun at that moment fortunately 
 caused the interposition of the pink parasol.
 
 30 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 One of those forms which flit by us when we 
 Are young, and fix our eyes on every face ; 
 And oh the loveliness at times we see 
 In momentary gliding ! Byron. 
 
 My love to Hermia 
 
 Melted as doth the snow ; seems to me now 
 As the remembrance of an idle gaud 
 Which in my childhood I did dote upon. 
 
 Shakspeare 
 
 "1 THINK this would be a good place to 
 pick a bit," gasped Sir North, as he came up 
 with Castleton and Lady Madelina, puffing in 
 such a manner, as showed that his fat sides 
 felt the difference between the smooth flags of 
 Downing Street and the shingles of the sea 
 beach. " I advise no one," he added, turning
 
 THE CONTRAST. 31 
 
 to the rest of the party, " to spare the cold 
 meat, for we have not the least chance of being 
 back for dinner. I told you last night, Lady 
 Madelina, if we did not breakfast before twelve, 
 we could not do it ; and Mr. Turner says, 
 that the lane where the carriages are to meet 
 us, at the top of the cliff, is fourteen miles from 
 home. " Here, my lad," said he, to the sea- 
 faring youth, " run and call those servants with 
 the baskets, and your sister can get us some 
 water from the brook." 
 
 " She is not my sister," said the lad, with- 
 out stirring a step. 
 
 " Not his sister !" exclaimed Lady Madelina ; 
 " then upon my word, my pretty girl, you 
 begin in time ; and, I declare, we interrupted a 
 flirtation." 
 
 "But I am his cousin," eagerly added the 
 girl, as if instinctively claiming the relation- 
 ship, as a justification of what she could not
 
 32 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 have known. For flirtation, that sickly crea- 
 tion of crowded idleness, was equally unknown 
 in name and in nature, on the silent and soli- 
 tary shores of Morden Bay. 
 
 The rest of the party having now come up, 
 the servants also arrived with the provisions, 
 though the lad had disregarded Sir North's 
 authoritative address to him to summon them. 
 The guests, hardly casting a glance around, 
 certainly not wasting an inquiry about the 
 beautiful scene, where they found themselves, 
 proceeded at once to what appeared the real ob- 
 ject of the expedition — the cold collation which 
 they had brought so many miles to eat in a 
 peculiarly uncomfortable manner. They might, 
 perhaps, in the intervals of this important 
 occupation, have vented a few common-place 
 expressions of admiration ; but, unfortunately 
 for Mr. Turner's feelings, who endeavoured 
 several times to lead the conversation that way,
 
 THE CONTRAST. 33 
 
 they had met the post on the road, and as the 
 newspapers of that day contained the account 
 of the long-expected demise of one of the 
 oldest supporters of the party to which they 
 belonged, they found ample food for con- 
 versation, not in lamenting his loss, but in 
 discussing the various pretensions of the pro- 
 bable claimants for his Government, his Garter, 
 his Regiment, and his Sinecure. At length, 
 after this had continued some time, a "risinor 
 young man," on the ministerial side of the 
 house, who had many years to look forward, 
 before he could hope to put in a claim for 
 any thing of the sort they were discussing, 
 took advantage of a pauee to make an abrupt 
 turn in the conversation, by saying, " Capital 
 shooting, I should think, in the covers up that 
 glen, Sir North ?" 
 
 " Yes, Sir," interposed the lad, who had 
 been still leaning against the boat behind the 
 
 (J 5
 
 34 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 party, and until now, a silent spectator of their 
 proceedings ; " the surest place in all the 
 country side, to find the first woodcock, and 
 so uncle says, before my time."" 
 
 " What do you know about woodcocks, my 
 young friend ?" said Sir North : " do you know, 
 I am afraid that you and your uncle are little 
 better than poachers ?" 
 
 " Uncle rents the Bankside farm, as did his 
 father afore him ; and when our south intack is 
 in stubble, when I am staying with uncle, we 
 go out coursing sometimes, and of a fine after- 
 noon, he takes his gun with him up the glen, 
 to look for birds." 
 
 " Very wrong, very wrong, all this,"' said Sir 
 North. " Who is your landlord ?" 
 
 *' I never seen him, but the Baronet Saun- 
 ders, Esquire, I think they call him."" 
 
 " Ay, ay, I was afraid so," said Sir North. 
 " This comes of neglecting to give these poor
 
 THE CONTRAST. 35 
 
 creatures the blessing of a country gentleman's 
 residence on his estate — totally disorganizes 
 society, — turns the farmers into poachers ; this 
 must not be so in future: no my friends, I must 
 do my duty in the country as well as in town. 
 So, my lad, you say, you never saw your uncle's 
 landlord, Sir North Saunders ?" 
 
 " No; but once I saw lawyer Drainem, 
 when he came to collect half-year's rent, and I 
 suppose that be much the same thing." 
 
 " Well, now you may tell your uncle that 
 you have seen me, Sir North Saunders ; and 
 tell him, that I mean to give my tenants the 
 benefit of my presence, to arrange all this upon 
 the proper footing." 
 
 " And you, my pretty girl," said Lord 
 Castleton, approaching the object which, dur- 
 ing this conversation, had been engrossing 
 most of his attention, " do you accompany 
 your cousin on his sporting excursions ?"
 
 36 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 " No, Sir,"' said she. " I have seen much 
 less of George since he has taken to coursing, 
 and now we are going to lose him entirely." 
 
 " How so ?" 
 
 " To-morrow he leaves us to serve his time 
 in the seafaring line, with another uncle, who 
 is captain and part owner of a vessel in the 
 transport service." 
 
 " And you are afraid that he will forget 
 Morden Bay, and his favourite cousin, and 
 would therefore like to follow him ?^'' 
 
 " If he forgets me, I should not so forget 
 myself as to recollect him," said the little girl 
 with a dignity which, from one of her age and 
 station, surprised Lord Castleton. She then 
 continued, in a more childish tone : " Nor would 
 I leave my only home, my flowers, my daisies, 
 my daily occupations, and ni}' sliells, for to 
 follow any one friend."" 
 
 " Then I am sure, if I were your friend
 
 THE CONTRAST. 37 
 
 George, I would not leave Morden Bay and 
 the pretty prize which for him it contains, for 
 all the rest of the world." 
 
 The language of flattery fell for the first 
 time on the unpractised ear to which it was 
 addressed ; for it never had been cousin 
 George's way to say soft things. She knew 
 not what the words meant, or indeed that they 
 meant any thing ; but there is an instinct in 
 every female breast, which returns a responsive 
 echo to tones, such as those in which this 
 otherwise common-place expression was utter- 
 ed. One moment she cast her eyes upwards 
 on the face of him who unexpectedly address- 
 ed her thus, then as suddenly withdrawing 
 them, and striving to hide the first conscious 
 blush that had ever tinged her pure and inno- 
 cent countenance, she drew upwards the 
 summer-bonnet, which had slung across her 
 shoulders, and pointing to the path by which
 
 38 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 most of the party had already begun to ascend, 
 she motioned Lord Castleton to follow. 
 
 As they ascended the cliff, he made com- 
 mon-place inquiries as to what her family con- 
 sisted of, and learned that she was the only 
 child of a father, whom she named in a tone of 
 true affection, and a mother, whom she men- 
 tioned respectfully, but apparently with some 
 degree of restraint ; beyond them her kin 
 (and as she would have said her ken,) was con- 
 fined to her aunt, a single woman, who lived 
 in a lone house round the next point, and 
 of whom she spoke warmly, and " Cousin 
 George,"" of whom her present questioner did 
 not ask much, and she answered less. 
 
 Whilst he still kept multiplying unnecessary 
 inquiries, and giving by his manner to the 
 most trifling an air of interest, he purposely 
 lingered by the way, till his fair guide at 
 length suggested that they should either mend
 
 THE CONTRAST. 39 
 
 their pace, or lessen their distance, by taking 
 a short but steep cut, which in a direct line 
 joined the regular path again, after that, by an 
 easy rise, had traversed two long sides of an 
 acute angle ; " for," said she, " if we do not 
 mind, Sir, the rest of your party will have 
 passed our gate before we reach it ; and though 
 mother is not much given to seeing company, I 
 am sure she would not like those ladies to go 
 by her door, without biding a bit to rest ; and 
 that poor lady looks as if she needed it, and 
 the lusty gentleman isn't fit to help one so 
 weak as her," pointing to Lady Madelina, who 
 liad been obliged to accept Sir North as Lord 
 Castleton's substitute, in ascending the cliff, — 
 an affair for which he was peculiarly disquali- 
 fied, the action of his liuigs being so much 
 greater tlian that of his limbs. He had stop- 
 ped at the corner, really to recover breath, 
 but under pretence of venting his admiration
 
 40 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 of the prospect, of which he was gasping forth 
 an encomium, in most wheezy interjections. 
 Lady Madelina's eye, whilst affecting to follow 
 the different directions in which his cane was 
 pointed, had dropped upon the figure of Lord 
 Castleton ascending from below, and she was 
 puzzlhig how to get up an attitude of interest- 
 ing languor, whilst leaning on Sir North, who 
 was unfortunately some inches shorter than 
 herself, and of a figure which did not lend 
 itself readily to group into the line of grace. 
 
 " She seems dreadfully tired, that poor lady," 
 continued Lucy, (such had Lord C. found his 
 companion's name to be,) " and no wonder she 
 should be ; 'tis well enough for a young girl 
 like me to run up and down ten times a 
 day, but 'tis rather a fasheous step this, 
 and I've known mother be almost as bad as 
 she is." 
 
 This casual comparison to her mother did
 
 THE CONTRAST. 41 
 
 not give to Lord Castleton's imagination a 
 turn calculated to assist Lady Madelina's at- 
 tempts to excite his admiration at her present 
 would-be interesting exhaustion ; and seeing 
 that two more angles of the path would again 
 bring him where the irksome duties of a " pa- 
 tito " would be exacted from him, he was dis- 
 posed to remonstrate against his companion's 
 anxiety to hurry upwards and do the honours 
 of her humble roof, when a loud voice ex- 
 claimed — 
 
 " Sir North ! — Castleton ! Where are you ? 
 make haste, pray ; only think, it wants but fifty 
 minutes to the half-hour bell." 
 
 This admonition came from a celebrated 
 " diner-out," who, except once when he had 
 passed a September on the " pave " in London, 
 never remembered the day when his dinner 
 had been in such danger. 
 
 " And are you really going so soon .^" said
 
 42 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 Lucy to Lord Castleton, observing that the 
 above warning had accelerated the motion of 
 every one of the various groups on the sides 
 of the cliiF, and even induced Sir North to 
 give something like one effective tug to the 
 arm of Lady Madelina. 
 
 " You see it does not depend upon me,"" 
 said Lord Castleton, " I am under orders, but 
 shall certainly linger till the last." 
 
 " I should like much to know why you came 
 at all," said Lucy, with an archness which 
 surprised her hearer. " 1 thought it had been 
 to see the Bubbling Well, or the Black Glen, 
 or the Dead-man's Crag ; but merely to walk 
 down that burn side, to climb up this cliff, 
 and bring all that fine food, when there was 
 not even a table to eat it off ! 'Tis seldom we 
 have seen a stranger here, but when some came 
 once before, they were two gentlemen painters." 
 
 " Yes, yes, artists, I suppose," said Lord
 
 THE CONTRAST 43 
 
 Castleton ; " and they were the only strangers 
 you have ever seen before ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but they stayed some days, and lodg- 
 ed at father's ; and when they went away, they 
 left him in return the likeness of the bay, not 
 as it is now, but all in a storm, done all over 
 on a bit of the finest mahogany wood, and it 's 
 now at aunt Alice's, for mother said she did 
 not like such vanities, much more to have, 
 summer and winter, to look on the sea in that 
 dreadful state; 'twas bad enough when it really 
 came so." 
 
 " Why any of us came, I can hardly tell, 
 my pretty little friend ; but for myself, though 
 I have not seen the Bubbling Well, or the 
 Black Glen, the walk up this cliff has been so 
 pleasant, that I should be glad to come again." 
 
 " But you have been a long time about it,"" 
 said Lucy : " I wish you could see cousin 
 George, how he climbs the side of yonder crag
 
 44 
 
 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 above our heads ! when I call him, he is at 
 the top before you can count fifty; I don't 
 think, for all you like the cliff so much, you 
 could do that, Sir." 
 
 There was something in this invidious com- 
 parison which did not please Lord Castleton, 
 though he ought to have been no more hurt at 
 the imputation of inferiority in such an accom- 
 plishment, than if he had found six months 
 afterwards, that he could not reef a main-top- 
 sail as well as cousin George. He replied, how- 
 ever, " I believe I ouglit to try that now, to 
 have any chance of rejoining my party ; but 
 before I go, though I have not stayed long 
 enough to paint a picture like your last visitors, 
 may this," said he, unslinging a small French 
 watch, which hung by a light gold chain round 
 his neck, " may this serve to remind you of 
 these fleeting moments, and may it record for 
 you many hours, as happy as the few last 
 minutes it has marked for me."
 
 THE CONTRAST. 45 
 
 '' I am sure aunt Alice would say I ought 
 not to take this," said Lucy, hesitatingly ; "yet, 
 perhaps, if you would not object, cousin George 
 will want a watch now he is going to leave us, 
 and it had better serve to remind him of me, 
 tlian me of you; for I am afraid it is not like 
 I should see a gentleman like you again, Sir." 
 
 " To you I give it," said Lord Castleton, 
 " 'tis for you to dispose of it as pleases you," 
 and throwing it round her neck, he rushed up 
 the cliff, with an activity, which she could not 
 have denied would have done credit to cousin 
 George himself. Near the top he met that 
 individual descending from escorting the rest 
 of the party ; a mutual " good evening!" varied 
 only by *' Sir !" on one side, and " my lad !" on 
 the other, and not in a very cordial tone on 
 either, was all that passed between them. 
 
 Lord Castleton found his horse left in the 
 care of a groom at the top of the cliff, with a 
 request that he would follow the rest of the
 
 46 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 party as soon as possible, their return having 
 been much hurried by the imminent danger to 
 which they foresaw the various entrees would 
 be exposed by their flagrant unpunctuality, for 
 they were still fourteen hilly miles from Horns- 
 cliff Abbey. Lord Castleton, in his present 
 frame of mind, was not very anxious to rejoin 
 the party, and therefore, regulating his pace 
 so as just to keep them in sight at the opposite 
 side of the various alternate ridges and dales 
 they had to pass, resigned himself to his reflec- 
 tions, which it would be puzzling to present to 
 the reader, in that connected form which they 
 never assumed. They began with a sigh to 
 the charms of unsophisticated nature, which 
 nature immediately assumed the form, and 
 recalled the smile of Lucy Darnell. He then 
 dwelt on the rare union of beautj'^ and of inno- 
 cence, which brought up for a moment an un- 
 pleasant recollection of how he first saw her.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 47 
 
 sitting on the boat with cousin George ; this 
 he hastened to obliterate by imagining past 
 habits of childish familiarity, and then by fan- 
 cying cousin George tossing about for years to 
 come in his transport-ship. 
 
 He then thought of the soothing sensation 
 of repose which he had embodied from the 
 beautiful scenery of Morden Bay, and he in- 
 vested the residence of farmer Darnell with the 
 character of the last chosen retreat of peaceful 
 content in this troubled world. 
 
 From that, as he caught a glimpse on the 
 summit of the opposite hill of Lady Madelina's 
 Sol-pleurants, fluttering in the evening breeze, 
 he recurred to his late ' liaison' with her ; and 
 his memory immediately collected with asto- 
 nishing fidelity, every incident which had hap- 
 pened in its progress, which, at the time, rather 
 degoutt'd him, but which he had, till then, 
 almost forgotten. As he urged on his horse
 
 48 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 to join some of the party, who he saw had per- 
 ceived him, and were waiting in consequence, 
 he concluded with the determination, that the 
 first spare day he would again ride over alone 
 to Morden Bay. But " a spare day" is not so 
 easily found in the midst of such a party, by 
 one whose actions none imagined to be at his 
 own disposal, and who, as the passive half of 
 Lady Madelina's constantly-repeated we, was 
 supposed, of course, included in every arrange- 
 ment she suggested. 
 
 A country-house is the most unfavourable 
 opportunity for attempting to break chains 
 which habit has riveted. The party conse- 
 quently broke up, new prospects opened upon 
 Lord Castleton, and new pursuits were under- 
 taken, without his having a second opportunity 
 of visiting Morden Bay.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Are not these woods 
 
 More free from peril than the envious court ? 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 At one kind word their arms extending 
 
 To clasp the neck of him who blest 
 
 His child, caressing and carest. Bvron. 
 
 In the romantic charm with which the fancy 
 of the enthusiastic, though casual admirer of 
 Morden Bay, had invested all it contained, he 
 had considered the retired residence of the 
 Darnell family as the chosen abode of content. 
 He judged hastily ; and yet he might have 
 inquired farther, and reasoned more deeply 
 without being undeceived. His opinion was 
 founded on the tranquil beauty of the scene; 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 and here he ran into the common error of 
 attributing the same effect from surrounding 
 objects on those to " the manner born," as had 
 just been awakened in himself, by recent com- 
 parison and contrast. It operated as a tonic 
 on his feelings, just then palled with dissi- 
 pation. 'Twas " medicine to a mind dis- 
 eased ;" but only daily food to those who 
 had never known any other: innocent and 
 salubrious no doubt, but producing no ex- 
 citement, and having no other effect on the 
 moral system than regularly excluding many 
 temptations to vice. He would have thought, 
 however, his hypothesis farther confirmed, if 
 he had learned that those who dwelt there were 
 in most comfortable worldly circumstances, 
 removed alike from the fears of want and the 
 desire of ostentation ; that they had not even 
 a neighbour to envy ; that, human cares and 
 ailings excepted, they were healthy alike in
 
 THE CONTRAST. 51 
 
 mind and body. And yet was it not the 
 abode of content. 
 
 That it was not so, arose entirely from one 
 circumstance, which would have been supposed 
 incapable of having so much effect upon the 
 happiness of those around, by persons unac- 
 customed to observe by what trivial causes the 
 peace of families is sometimes disturbed. 
 Mrs. Darnell was a most worthy woman, 
 correct in all her intentions, exemplary in the 
 discharge of all her duties, from the religious 
 down to the domestic ; but she was a person of 
 an unfortunately minute mind, with a sort of 
 clock-work regularity of sensations : with her, 
 each duty, of every degree, was, in its allotted 
 succession, of equal importance; and, undis- 
 turbed by any deviation into feeling, she not 
 only observed them herself, but, like the dial, 
 pointed them out to all about her. Any omis- 
 sion of the due decorum of any rule, she trea- 
 
 D 2
 
 52 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 sured up, not till it had been obliterated by 
 subsequent punctuality, but till it was suc- 
 ceeded by some fresh deficiency ; by which 
 means she contrived that she should never be 
 without a grievance : not that she was ever in 
 consequence loud or angry ; this she would 
 have thought wrong; but she put on a most 
 provoking appearance of patient endurance, 
 which was exactly the sort of look her husband 
 could least bear, and which inducing, in conse- 
 quence, occasional violent ebullitions on his 
 part, gave her the reputation amongst those 
 who knew little of both, of suffering meekly 
 under his violence, whilst the many more fre- 
 quent occasions in which he had yielded at 
 length, for the sake of repurchasing a smiling 
 face at his domestic hearth, were unnoticed, 
 because unknown. 
 
 Dick Darnell, as he was familiarly called by 
 those who had known him in his younger days,
 
 THE CONTRAST. 53 
 
 though now turned forty, had in character 
 much of the simplicity of a child, with warm 
 affections, a cheerful temper, and a disposition 
 all whose natural bias was good, though never 
 much disciplined in the school of self-denial. 
 It was lucky, perhaps, that he was born in a 
 situation where temptations did not too much 
 abound ; for there were moments in which he 
 was supposed not to have been particularly suc- 
 cessful in resisting those that had occasionally 
 crossed his path. Now that he was no longer 
 very young, his appearance would be best 
 described by the epithet hearty. His person 
 had been handsome, and if its bulk had now 
 increased beyond the proper proportion, it had 
 rather become portly than unwieldy ; and the 
 good-humoured and cheerful expression of his 
 laughing eye, seemed to inspire sympathy at 
 first sight. 
 
 He had become acquainted with his pre-
 
 54 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 sent wife at the county town, during assize 
 time. She was the daughter of a respectable 
 tradesman, who was known as one of that 
 peculiarly strict class, who put forth ex- 
 clusive pretensions to monopolise righteous- 
 ness ; she had therefore received a very serious 
 and unexceptionable education. Richard Dar- 
 nell had done his best for many years to try to 
 love her, and would at that very hour have 
 been very much surprised if anybody had told 
 him that he had not succeeded, for he always 
 assured his acquaintance at the market-town, 
 to which he went once a week, " that for six- 
 teen years he had been married to his Missus, 
 and he never had had so much as one occasion 
 to find fault with her." He dropped at these 
 times all mention of those many occasions on 
 which she had found fault with him, which 
 liad led to those altercations mentioned above. 
 But there were few of his friends who had not
 
 THE CONTRAST. 55 
 
 remarked, that of late years he never found the 
 weather so bad as it used to be when it fre- 
 quently prevented his coming at all to market ; 
 but that, on the contrary, he often found the 
 distance in returning so much longer than 
 formerly, that when dark and wet, he could 
 not possibly reach home over night, but stayed 
 till the next morning. His daughter he loved 
 better than all the rest of the world put toge- 
 ther; and when he returned from these ex- 
 cursions, and had not seen her for four-and- 
 twenty hours, he would like to sit in the chim- 
 ney-corner, with her slight form resting on 
 his capacious knee, and picking out those of 
 his adventures by the way best suited to meet 
 her ear, would chat on for ever and ever, and 
 ask no other reply than to see the expression of 
 his own laughing eye reflected in the softened 
 likeness of his daughter's delicate features. 
 But these were, in Mrs. Darnell's idea, mo-
 
 56 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 nients of time most completely wasted, and she 
 would generally interrupt them by demanding, 
 — " why Richard would not stir himself, and 
 look after his men, whom he had left a whole 
 day without a master's eye," and by informing 
 Lucy, she thought " her hands might be more 
 profitably employed at her needle, than in 
 hanging idly about her father's neck." 
 
 Next to hanging about her father's neck, 
 her mother thought that the most useless way 
 in which Lucy's hands were sometimes em- 
 ployed, was holding a book. That is, to do 
 her justice, she drew the distinction between the 
 use of a book as an amusement, or as a duty ; 
 as the latter she not only very properly en- 
 joined the lecture of the Psalms and Lessons 
 of the day, but enforced it so regularly, that 
 one of Lucy''s delinquencies, to which most 
 frequent plaintive allusion was made, was, that 
 once she had inadvertently read the Evening
 
 THE CONTRAST. 57 
 
 Lesson in the morning, a fault which it was 
 impossible to undo, but by. doubling it, and 
 reading the Morning in the Evening. All 
 reading beyond this, whether history or fiction, 
 she treated alike as vanity. 
 
 The duty of letters she did not consider as 
 that of a standing army to be sent abroad on 
 the sea of knowledge, to extend the empire of 
 the mind ; but merely as a sort of local militia, 
 to be called out at stated times on this one 
 home service. 
 
 Such limitations as in this respect she put 
 upon herself, she would have exacted from 
 Lucy, had not the latter been taught differently 
 in the course of the frequent visits she made to 
 the aunt, mentioned above. This aunt was an 
 unmarried sister of Dick Darnell's : some years 
 his junior, she had come to establish herself, 
 within the memory of Lucy, at a small but 
 neat cottage round the next point, which had 
 
 D 5
 
 58 THE CONTRA.ST. 
 
 originally been built as a house of occasional 
 call in bad weather, by a gentleman who had 
 been sailing about in a yacht on that coast. 
 
 She was a lone woman, who had evidently 
 had her sorrows, not yet forgotten by herself, 
 though never obtruding their chilling conta- 
 gion on the spirits of her young visitors, who 
 always found her anxious to participate in 
 their cheerfulness, though even at their 
 thoughtless years they sometimes noticed the 
 effort that it required to enable her to assume 
 an appearance contradicted by the care-worn 
 character of her beauty, which, striking as 
 that beauty still was, did not give the idea of 
 a person so much younger than her brother 
 as she really was. 
 
 It was curious to trace what is called a 
 family likeness in two persons so totally unlike. 
 Her form was altogether of another mould, 
 and different habits had given the deportment
 
 THE CONTRAST. 59 
 
 of a different rank in life. If the resemblance 
 could be traced to any definite feature, it 
 lurked in the benevolent smile of the mouth, 
 of which her's was the miniature copy of his, 
 though that which gave to his its joyous cha- 
 racter, the sparkle of his laughing eye, if it 
 ever had existed in her's, was now prematurely 
 obscured. She lived entirely alone, with the at- 
 tendance only of one maid servant, and depend- 
 ant for society, (if she could be called dependant 
 on that which she did not seem to require) upon 
 the frequent visits of her niece, the occasional 
 calls of her brother, or his nephew George, and 
 those, luckily, more rare occasions on which 
 Mrs. Darnell found her way as far as her 
 cottage, mildly to murmur over her grievances. 
 Though always cheerfully receiving these se- 
 parate visitors, the same disposition which, 
 when she first came into the neighbourhood, 
 made her decline her brother Richard's hos-
 
 60 ^ THE CONTRAST. 
 
 pitable offer, to lodge her under his roof, 
 seemed still to induce her to avoid the full 
 family reunion at their own house ; and the 
 only place where she met them altogether, (and 
 this she rarely missed,) was weekly in their 
 common pew, at the Parish Church, three 
 miles off. It is impossible to conceive two 
 persons more different in the detail of their 
 dispositions, than Mrs. Darnell and this sister- 
 in-law. The one with every thing to make a 
 home happy and comfortable, yet (one could 
 almost as little tell how, as why,) contriving to 
 turn every thing into a grievance : the other, 
 to whom the world seemed to have done its 
 worst, to have separated as an isolated being 
 from its interests, yet the chosen confidant 
 even of the changeful fancies of children, and 
 occasionally sought as the depositary of the 
 complaints of her whom she so little resem- 
 bled.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 61 
 
 The fact was, that Alice Darnell had uncon- 
 sciously assumed over her sister-in-law that in- 
 fluence which a strong mind can hardly fail of 
 exerting over a weak one. This prevented her 
 mother from objecting, as she otherwise might 
 have done, to the loss of time occasioned by the 
 frequent visits of Lucy to her aunt. There 
 might, perhaps, be another reason for this. 
 Alice Darnell, though still young, was in a 
 precarious state of health, which had indeed 
 been given by Richard as the reason for his 
 sister's wishing to retire there; and, as curi- 
 osity was not one of the flaws of his wife's 
 character, she had always believed this to be 
 the only cause of that measure ; but Miss 
 DarnelPs fortune, for her rank in life, seemed 
 considerable, and whom was she to leave it 
 to.'' This was a consideration which often cross- 
 ed Mrs. Darnell's mind, as she had been edu- 
 cated in a school in which, in the midst of
 
 62 THE CONTRAST, 
 
 pious contempt for the vanities of this world, a 
 beneficial distinction was always taken between 
 its empty pleasures and its solid advantages. 
 
 Alice Darnell had not what, in the enlarged 
 sense, would have been called a library, but 
 she had some shelves well-stored with the 
 common editions of the English classics. Lucy 
 generally found her aunt occupied among 
 these, but one thick octavo, she remarked, was 
 a constant favourite. It was a compendious 
 volume, for it contained all Shakspeare. In 
 answer to her niece's question, " Why she read 
 it so often .^" she said, "This is the world in 
 which alone I wish to live. As long as this 
 little book is left me, I am less alone, more in 
 the midst of human nature, than in the most 
 crowded city." 
 
 For once she spoke more according to her 
 own feelings than to the capacity of her she was 
 addressing : she perceived her mistake. The
 
 THE CONTRAST. 63 
 
 little girl could not understand her, but her 
 curiosity was roused ; she anxiously listened 
 to her aunt, who commenced reading to her 
 selected passages, in a manner which added all 
 the charm of voice and delivery to what was 
 in itself so well calculated to interest ; and 
 from that time forward one of the most eagerly 
 anticipated pleasures of her visits to her aunt 
 was to cry with " Constance," or to tremble at 
 " Lady Macbeth ;" she never saw a storm with- 
 out thinking of poor " King Lear;" cultivated 
 her red roses, out of sympathy for the " House 
 of Lancaster,"" and neglected the white ones, 
 out of mere spite to " Richard IIL"
 
 64 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Adieu! I have too grieved a heart 
 
 To take a tedious leave. Shakspeare. 
 
 What other can she seek to see 
 
 Than thee, companion of her bosom, 
 
 Tlie partner of her infancy? Byron. 
 
 Lucy Darnell was found by her cousin 
 George, when he returned from escorting the 
 strangers to the top of the chff, still leaning 
 over the little gate which led through the 
 garden to the house, and still curiously ex- 
 amining what she thought the extraordinarily 
 small watch the gentleman had given her : as 
 soon as she perceived him she cried out, 
 "What do you think, cousin George.^"
 
 THE CONTRAST. 65 
 
 " What do I think ?" said he a little out 
 of humour, he hardly knew why ; " what do I 
 think ? why, that you made that gentleman 
 loiter so in coming up the cliff that he has 
 missed his party." 
 
 •'Why, I did not make him loiter; he 
 would not walk any faster ; he did not seem 
 used to it, though I told him how quick you 
 could climb to the top." 
 
 " I am sure he was going fast enough when 
 I met him," said George doggedly. 
 
 " Well, it is very odd ; to be sure he did 
 jump along limber enough as soon as he left 
 me, but I could not make him try before. But 
 what do you think I have got for you ?'''' added 
 she, showing the watch. 
 
 " And how did you come by that thing ?''' 
 demanded George. 
 
 " That gentleman gave it me ; but I only 
 took it for you, George," observing that he 
 looked displeased.
 
 66 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 " Thank you all the same, Lucy, but let it 
 bide where it was meant it should. He would 
 never have given it to the like of me ; there 
 was over many reasons why he might have 
 done so to you." 
 
 " I thought,"" said Lucy, " it would serve 
 to remember you of me whenever you looked 
 at it." 
 
 " But I had rather not remember you and 
 him both together, as that thing would always 
 be making me do." 
 
 " I don't know what 's come over you, 
 George," said Lucy puzzled, " but it ""s hard, 
 when I hoped but to please you, you should 
 speak so cross, and this your last night too." 
 
 " I did not mean to be cross," answered 
 George in an altered tone ; " but I can't take 
 that watch for another reason, for see, I 've 
 already got one just like it," fumbling in his fob, 
 and tugging out with some difficulty, at the end
 
 THE CONTRAST. 67 
 
 of a long stout steel chain, which appeared as 
 if it might have served for fetters, an immense 
 pinchbeck turnip-like time-piece, the recent gift 
 of his uncle. As this capacious and ponderous 
 concern was displayed by the side of the dimi- 
 nutive Brequetf Lucy, though unaware of the 
 relative value of their different dimensions, 
 could not help smiling at the comparison, 
 and, with restored cheerfulness, said, "Just 
 like it, George! yes, just as like it as you 
 are to the stranger gentleman." 
 
 They were here interrupted by her mother's 
 voice calling Lucy from the house. 
 
 The various additional avocations which the 
 approaching departure of her nephew, in Mrs. 
 Darnell's opinion, entailed on her daughter 
 during this evening, prevented the cousins 
 again speaking together that night. But Lucy 
 was aware that her cousin would before break- 
 fast in the morning go over to take leave of his
 
 68 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 aunt ; she had therefore risen earlier than 
 usual, and carefully executed, as she thought, 
 all the morning duties which maternal autho- 
 rity could exact before any one was stirring, 
 when George, having just come down as she 
 was preparing to cross the flower-garden with 
 him, her mother's window opened, and in a 
 precise tone, which indicated a succession of 
 questions, she asked, — 
 
 " Lucy, my dear, have you skimmed the 
 milk ?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Have you looked to the bread ?" 
 
 " Yes, mother." 
 
 " Have you fed the poultry ?" 
 
 " Yes, mother." 
 
 " That 's right ; then you'll have time to hem 
 your father's new shirts before breakfast, so 
 I '11 brino^ them down." 
 
 This was known by both who heard it, how-
 
 THE CONTRAST, 69 
 
 ever mildly expressed, to be a command from 
 which there was no appeal ; so George only 
 said, "Before I come back, Lucy, they'll all 
 be down at breakfast, so I only wanted to 
 say that last night you called me cross, and 
 as I lay awake in bed afterwards, I thought 
 of many more times I had been so, though 
 you had not told me so ; and what I wished 
 to say is this: you know I've been to sea once 
 before now, though only to try it, but enough 
 to know it 's another sort of thing to think over 
 the like of these in one's warm bed here, when 
 one has only but to come and say, Lucy, I ask 
 your pardon, and see your sweet smile in re- 
 turn, than to have it come across one*'s mind 
 when one's far away, walking the deck on a 
 dark night, thinking of oner's distant home, 
 that lies just in the wind's eye, and a hurricane 
 blowing one the Lord knows where another 
 way, perhaps never to return. Nay, I did not
 
 70 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 mean to distress you, Lucy ; only just say that 
 if I Ve ever been kind to you you '11 think only 
 of that, and not of t'other sort of conduct, 
 whilst I am gone and away — "" 
 
 " I never do — never can — never will, think 
 of you but as my kind good cousin George," 
 hastily answered Lucy, hearing her mother's 
 measured tread descending the stairs, shirts in 
 hand. 
 
 After George's return, and the somewhat 
 silent breakfast had been nearly despatched, 
 Mrs. Darnell started up from the top of the 
 table where she had been sitting, and enquired 
 " And what will Jackie Pattison be doing 
 there? sure, if he isn't driving up the old mare 
 and the pony from the low pasture." 
 
 " And where *s Jackie Pattison? I don't see 
 him," said the fiu-mer, anxious to get a little 
 time to prepare his defence for the attack which 
 he foresaw.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 71 
 
 " And will it be your bidding then, Richard, 
 that he is doing ?" who now guessed it all. 
 
 *' I told him my mare and the pony would 
 both be wanted ; so if they were in the low pas- 
 ture, it's like he 's been to fetch them," answer- 
 ed Richard, with a determination for once to 
 face it boldly out ; " I mean to see the lad 
 as far as IMayton, where he takes coach ; 
 it would have been over far for him to have 
 walked, and the pony will follow me back again 
 like a dog."'' 
 
 " But he meant to walk. He said so when I 
 told him not to cut yon stick out of the oak- 
 copse ; and you to go away, Richard, and leave 
 me lonely, to fret at George's going, and to 
 spend your silver idly by the way ; and then 
 to take away the mare that's wanted in the 
 draught, now we're so throng in the hay-time ; 
 it's just of a piece with a' the rest. 
 
 " It's just of a piece with a' the rest,"
 
 72 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 was, as her husband had learned to his cost, a 
 comprehensive allusion to all her former griev- 
 ances, some of which were to be ready to rein- 
 force the present attack, provided it was not in 
 itself effective ; but in this instance he knew 
 that all these names were rather put forward as 
 heads of chapters for future complaints on his 
 return, than expected to prevent his departure. 
 He therefore thought it would be useless to 
 subject himself to have them twice repeated by 
 answering them now ; so drawing his wife aside, 
 he suggested, " that he only went in order to 
 keep the lad out of harm's way at May ton, 
 till he saw him into the coach which was to 
 take him to the port where his other uncle's 
 ship lay." 
 
 " Well, if you must go, mind you do that,"' 
 said Mrs. Darnell, " and do for once speak 
 serious to the lad, and counsel him how he falls 
 into evil courses."
 
 THE CONTRAST. 73 
 
 The parting between George and Lucy, 
 though public, was affectionate, as indeed their 
 near relationship in itself authorised. 
 
 Farmer Darnell, hardly believing as yet, 
 that he could have got off so easily, started at 
 first at the steady pounding jog-trot of his cart- 
 mare; a pace which required unequal alterna- 
 tions of shambling, walk, and canter, on the 
 part of George's pony, to keep up with. At 
 length the uncle thinking it was time to at- 
 tempt to execute his wife's injunctions of a 
 lecture to his nephew, pulled his mare up to 
 the pace she was used to go in draught, and 
 began — 
 
 " It's a bad world this you're going into, 
 George." 
 
 " Is it indeed, uncle .^■" quaintly inquired 
 George. 
 
 This abrupt questioning of what, witiiout 
 feeling its truth himself, he had always consi- 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 dered an incontrovertible position, rather dis- 
 turbed the course of the uncle's intended lec- 
 ture, as he replied, " Why, to be sure, it 
 must be. Doesn't the parson tell us so every 
 seventh day ; and doesn't my Missus, who is 
 as good every bit as he is, and therefore 
 ought to ken as well, repeat it to us all 
 the other six ? For my part, to be sure, I 
 can't say I find much fault with it. 'Tisn't 
 all made up of Sundays — that 's certain — 
 but that one couldn't expect ; and if there 
 were but two market-days in a week, I 'd 
 be content with one Sunday in each." 
 
 " And yet aunt says if you went to 
 market once a fortnight only, 'twould be 
 better." 
 
 " Your aunt is the best woman in the 
 
 world," continued the uncle after a dubious 
 pause; "how she'll stay at home herself to 
 save me money I But between ourselves," added
 
 THE CONTRAST. 75 
 
 he, lowering his tone, and approaching his 
 mare to the pony, "she's a little apt to take 
 it out in fashing one. As youVe going to 
 leave us, I may say to you, but mind you 
 don't repeat it, that when she does get hold 
 of a bone of contention, she'll never leave 
 hold no more than my bull-bitch Bess would. 
 She certainly is," he added, casting a look 
 instinctively behind him, though two ridges 
 had interposed between his dwelling and the 
 part of the road where they then were, — " she 
 certainly is enough sometimes to worry one 
 out of soul and body, and there's truths out. 
 But what I wanted to tell you, George, is, 
 — have a care of the women ; if they been't 
 over good, they 're over bad, and they 're a 
 main deal of dead weight for a man to carry 
 either way." 
 
 " I don't think cousin Lucy would ever be a 
 dead weight to any one," said George. 
 
 E 2
 
 76 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 a 
 
 She ! bless her lightsome heart ! no !" 
 cried her father in a burst of parental affection ; 
 " she'd be but a feather weight in the longest 
 course, and yet as good as gold too. But I 
 didn't think of her, and was talking of you, 
 and the nonsense of sweethearting a lad like 
 you might fall into when you may be ganging 
 with some painted Jesabels, who would pick 
 jour pocket first, and box your ears after- 
 wards : have nothing to say to the likes of 
 them, George ; show "em your stern at once ; 
 no one is safe from their arts : remember King 
 Solomon, — not that I mean that all women 
 are alike, or that a man shouldn't say thank 
 3'ou, because she's a woman, to a buxom kind- 
 hearted person, like our landlady, Widow 
 Westbury, when she tries to make him wel- 
 come all in a friendly way." 
 
 As George had never before accompanied 
 his uncle to Mayton, and had always come
 
 THE CONTRAST. 77 
 
 the other road himself, he had never heard 
 of the Widow Westbury, and was puzzled 
 to connect his uncle's two cases of the hos- 
 tess and Solomon. But the honest farmer 
 continued what he thought his useful in- 
 structions. 
 
 " Another thing, — beware of drink, boy ; it's 
 a filthy trick, and the drunkard, after all, 
 has but a sad time of it, for the reproaches 
 of wine, on the morrow, are worse than — 
 than — my wife's : not but that it's a hard 
 thing to help taking another glass or two 
 sometimes, when one meets an old friend, 
 and one feels to like him better and better 
 every sup, and each draught makes one's stories 
 tell the merrier, and oner's laugh come the 
 heartier." 
 
 In this alternation of strict advice to be 
 correct in conduct, and over-ready excuses 
 for being otherwise, in which, unintentionally,
 
 78 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the honest farmer followed the example of 
 many soidisant moral works, wherein a good 
 word is given to virtue, whilst sympathy is 
 excited for error, they arrived at May ton. 
 It was a neat little country-town ; its broad, 
 open, well-paved market-place, with ancient 
 cross in the middle, was surrounded by many 
 tidy-looking dwellings of various dimensions, 
 beyond which the town extended in the shape of 
 streets, but a little way down the different roads 
 which here united. From the circumstance 
 of the market-place being evidently the centre 
 of attraction, it appeared that Mayton de- 
 rived its principal consequence from being 
 the mart of the surrounding country ; which 
 might also be inferred from the number of 
 second-rate houses of public entertainment 
 with which it abounded. Passing by one of 
 these, which boasted on its board the exclusive 
 dignity of " neat post-chaises," Farmer Dar-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 79 
 
 nell made straight up to the smartest of the 
 others, before whose door swung the head of 
 a most formidable-looking female, with a little 
 crown stuck on the top of her head, and 
 underneath was written, in gold letters, " Ann 
 Westbury;" an apparent appropriation of 
 the portrait by the hostess, whicli gave her the 
 name of " Queen Anne " among many of her 
 customers ; a dignity with which, coupled 
 with the resemblance implied, she was by no 
 means flattered.
 
 80 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I'll ne'er be drunk again but in honest and godly com- 
 pany, for this trick. Shakspeare. 
 
 There was not the usual market-day bustle 
 outside the Queen's Head, and Farmer Darnell 
 dismounting, followed his old mare, who well 
 knew her way to her usual stable in the back- 
 yard through the passage, which was so narrow 
 as to limit its accommodation to equestrians. 
 
 " Call the hostler, lad,"" said the farmer from 
 the stable to George, who had followed him 
 into the yard ; an injunction which George 
 vociferously complied with, thinking that now 
 the sooner he and his pony were separated the
 
 THE CONTRAST. 81 
 
 better for the indulgence of their mutual 
 appetites. 
 
 " Eh, Sally, and who will that be calling 
 about him ? — run and see," said a voice from the 
 back of one of the outhouses, at the window 
 of which the person who had thus spoken im- 
 mediately appeared, and seeing George, con- 
 tinued, " And is it only you, my lad, making 
 all that clatter ? who taught you to call about 
 you like a lord ? They say patience saves 
 many a pennyworth of lungs — what may you 
 want, pray ?" 
 
 " Uncle and I want our horses fed."" 
 
 " And who is your uncle ?" inquired the 
 landlady. 
 
 When, Richard Darnell presenting himself 
 at the door of the stable, his appearance an- 
 swered the question. 
 
 " And is it indeed you, Mr. Darnell — and this 
 not market-day ? — and of all days in the week 
 
 E i)
 
 82 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 that you should just look in upon me at wash- 
 ing-up, and I a shame to be seen," she added, 
 half raising her soap-suddy hands to pull her 
 cap over her papillotes, till recollecting that 
 such a contact would not be advantageous. 
 
 However, no one of her time of life could 
 better bear to be seen at disadvantage than 
 the Widow Westbury, for upon the whole sur- 
 face of the fair fresh skin which the papillotes 
 left unshaded, forty winters had failed to leave 
 a furrow, and during as many summers her 
 indoor avocations had saved her even from a 
 freckle ; whilst an active disposition had pre- 
 vented her full form swelling into corpulency. 
 On this occasion, the sleeves tucked-up almost 
 to her shoulders, displayed a well-rounded arm, 
 and tidy habits had prevented the rest of her 
 dress from being discomposed, or even her 
 apron splashed. " And if that idle fellow Joe 
 Hostler won''t be gone to the ' leatherplating
 
 THE CONTRAST. 83 
 
 sporting on the Wold ! but yovi know where 
 the corn is kept, Richard, and here is the key 
 of the bin," (throwing it to him,) " and I'll go 
 and see after your dinner and the lad's." 
 
 Now, though this was a part of the establish- 
 ment upon which she much prided herself, 
 yet, upon this occasion, with a special injunc- 
 tion to be careful, she consigned it exclusively 
 to Sally, preferring to spend the next few mi- 
 nutes herself rather before the looking-glass 
 than the kitchen-fire ; and when George, having 
 fed his pony, was seeking his room up-stairs, 
 he found her coming out of hers, with the cap 
 changed, and the papillotes removed. By the 
 excessive care she immediately took of all his 
 comforts, she soon removed the unfavourable 
 impression at first made on his mind by the 
 rebuke he had received from her for his sten- 
 torian bellowing after the hostler. 
 
 During the savoury and substantial meal,
 
 84 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 George could not help remarking, how all his 
 uncle''s tastes were consulted, with a delicate 
 attention, which combined the zealous activity 
 of the hostess with the acquired tact of com- 
 panionship ; and as he observed the exhilarating 
 effect it had upon his spirits, and as he con- 
 trasted it with the state of subjection he suffer- 
 ed under at home, he no longer wondered at 
 the fervent wish he had expressed, " that there 
 were two market-days in every week." 
 
 Soon after dinner, which their long ride had 
 made rather late, the snug trio was swelled by 
 the dropping in of two of the natives of May- 
 ton, upon whose hands, in consequence of 
 their fellow townsmen being more healthy than 
 wealthy, time occasionally hung a little heavy. 
 These were an extra apothecary, and a supernu- 
 merary attorney, articles in which the market 
 of May ton had been overstocked. 
 
 They were both of them jovial companions
 
 THE CONTRAST. 85 
 
 over a bottle ; an accomplishment which they 
 had the more opportunities of cultivating, as, 
 before their arrival, the supply of both physic 
 and parchment had in Mayton been fully 
 equal to the demand ; and whilst there was 
 another doctor or druggist in the neighbour- 
 hood, everybody was convinced that the apo- 
 thecary had neither skill enough to write pre- 
 scriptions, nor shop enough to make them up ; 
 and unless there should be some third party to 
 lawsuit beside plaintiff and defendant, no one 
 would leave either of the two established prac- 
 titioners for the new attorney. 
 
 The consequence of all this was, that they had 
 frequently met Farmer Darnell at the Widow 
 Westbury"'s ; one of which occasions had pro- 
 duced almost the only case in which either had 
 been employed ; having, as they walked home 
 together late at night, literally thrown into 
 their hands a common joint job, in the shape of
 
 86 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 a sleepy " outsider," who, swinging round the 
 corner on the top of the very night-coach by 
 which George was going, was chucked off at 
 the moment they were passing by. The doctor 
 bled the passenger, and the lawyer bled the 
 coachmaster, in the shape of an action for da- 
 mages, and the jury being more inflammable 
 than the patient, they both succeeded beyond 
 what tlieir professional merits fairly earned. 
 Having soon heard, (as what is not soon heard 
 in a country town ?) that Farmer Darnell was 
 stopping at the Queen's Head with his nephew, 
 who was to go that night by the one o'clock 
 coach, they stepped in to learn the why, and 
 the where ; and upon hearing that he was 
 about to commence his career afloat, insist- 
 ed upon drinking his future success in life in 
 a bottle of port, or a bowl of punch. This, 
 at first, the farmer declined, probably from 
 not liking to exceed before his nephew, and
 
 THE CONTRAST. 87 
 
 mistrusting liimself enough to know that the 
 first was the most favourable moment for 
 resistance, and that abstinence was easier than 
 temperance. The hostess, though profession- 
 ally interested in the affirmative of the pro- 
 posal, seemed to regret, that by the interrup- 
 tion of her chat with her friendly guest, and her 
 own necessary withdrawal from the drinking 
 bout, she should pay in person what she re- 
 ceived in purse. 
 
 The question, when a decided negative was 
 no longer possible, having been put to Dick 
 Darnell, in the amended form, " whether it 
 should be port or punch ?"" with the zeal of a 
 convert he voted for both. 
 
 George Darnell, in whose exclusive honour 
 they were undertaken, seemed not to partici- 
 pate in the pleasure the others took in these 
 mingled potations. In fact, there were many 
 things he regretted in the home he was leaving
 
 88 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 behind him, and it did not please him that the 
 image of " cousin Lucy," on which his fancy 
 liked to dwell, should be whisked away in the 
 rotatory evolutions of the apothecary's red 
 nose, and the attorney's bushy brow, which 
 both seemed soon to dance round him, as the 
 mixture of old wine and tieto rum took a speedy 
 effect upon liis unseasoned head. The last 
 thing he recollected distinctly was his kind 
 hostess smootliing his pillow, and assuring him 
 that he should not be too late for the coach. 
 
 When he awoke from his heavy slumber, it 
 might have heenjive hours, or ov\y five minutes 
 afterwards, all Avas perfectly stilled around, 
 and instead of his uncle's mellow voice sing- 
 ing a hunting song, and his two companions 
 croaking in untuneful chorus, nothing met his 
 ear but the loud ticking of the kitchen clock. 
 
 He had an indistinct recollection of old Sally 
 having been sent on some such celestial cm-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 89 
 
 bassy as " up to the Angel to let him know 
 when the Star stopped.*" He still dreaded 
 being too late, and the ship sailing without 
 him, when he found that, in spite of the wine, 
 he had, as is often the case, waked instinctively 
 just at the proper time, for the piercing notes 
 of the guard's horn were first heard in the 
 distance, and then, as it reached the pavement, 
 the rattling clatter of the coach echoing through 
 the empty streets. 
 
 George hurried on his clothes, thinking, as 
 he was left undisturbed to do so, it was lucky 
 that he did not trust to his hostess's promise 
 to call him. He hastily huddled on his things, 
 and making his way down-stairs, by the first 
 glimmer of dawn he perceived that the door of 
 the hostess's room, through which he had seen 
 her come the day before, was open ; he con- 
 cluded that she had just then stepped into his 
 uncle's to call him in time to take leave of him ;
 
 90 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 as was probably the case, for they very soon 
 descended together, the hostess ostensibly to let 
 them out, and Darnell to escort his nephew to 
 the coach. George took a short farewell of the 
 kind hostess, who, being only hastily half dress- 
 ed, ensconced herself behind the door she held 
 open. 
 
 The uncle's faculties seemed still a little 
 offuscated with the eifects of the last night's 
 debauch, as, after walking most of the way to 
 the Angel in silence, he said, " You '11 not 
 forget, George, to tell your aunt all the good 
 advice I gave you yesterday."' 
 
 " You forget. Sir, that I am not going home, 
 and that it will be long before I see my aunt 
 or any of you again." 
 
 " True, true ; and perhaps, when you do, it 
 may be as well to have clean forgotten all about 
 this last night. Good bye, George ; afore you 
 see your old uncle Richard again, you will
 
 THE CONTRAST. 91 
 
 have seen many more men who preach better 
 than they practise." 
 
 Helping George up with one arm, and 
 shaking his hand heartily with the other, he 
 did not relinquish his friendly gripe till the 
 horses began tugging hardly more powerfully 
 the other. George soon lost sight of his uncle's 
 portly figure in the indistinctness of the misty 
 dawn, and it was long before he again caught 
 a glimpse of any of the previously familiar 
 forms of his early youth.
 
 92 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER yil. 
 
 The villain ! I believe a man to cozen somebody. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Give me any clothes ; 
 
 I will some other be — some Florentine, 
 Some Neapolitan, or some mean man of Pisa. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 It was a little more than four years after 
 the events of the last chapter, that one evening 
 the apothecary, mentioned above, was saun- 
 tering listlessly along the smooth flags of the 
 market-place at Mayton. He had been lately 
 more than ever puzzled how to pass his time, 
 for he had lost his former boon companion, 
 the attorney. The fact was, that, in one of
 
 THE CONTRAST. 93 
 
 their jovial bouts, in despair at the world's 
 continued blindness to their respective merits, 
 they had, in an affectionate fit of inebriety, 
 mutually sworn professionally to employ each 
 \)ther. This was a bargain, of which the ad- 
 vantage was clearly on the side of the doctor. 
 He was not a rich man, and therefore was 
 no food for the lawyer, who, after he had 
 drawn his will, and had recorded in the most 
 technical manner his medical friend's bequest 
 of a few empty phials to himself, had done 
 his worst. But the attorney was not a healthy 
 man, and, therefore, he afforded at least prac- 
 tice for his friend. At last the lawyer took 
 to his bed, where his physical Pylades still 
 followed him : and, whether in consequence 
 of the effects of the many draughts of which 
 they had previously partaken together, or of 
 the last which the doctor only prescribed,— 
 the attorney died, and his medical friend
 
 94 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 was left alone to wander up and down the 
 streets of Mayton, and watch the regular ar- 
 rival and departure of the public conveyances, 
 in the vain hope of some such other lucky 
 accident as once happened in the lifetime of 
 his companion. 
 
 On this evening, as he strolled by the 
 " Queen's Head," he was surprised to see a 
 hack chaise, without horses, drawn up before 
 the door. Now, as it has been stated above, 
 that the " Queen's Head " was not an inn of 
 rank enough to reciprocate such modes of 
 conveyance, it was an unusual act of conde- 
 scension for a vehicle of that kind to be upon 
 visiting terms with it. 
 
 This was, therefore, quite event enough to 
 make the apothecary inquisitive, and, as he strut- 
 ted back again by the Avindows of the little 
 ground-floor parlour, where it was recorded in 
 the last chapter he had met Farmer Darnell, he 
 peeped through an hiatus in the blind, which
 
 THE CONTRAST. 95 
 
 he well knew of, and saw a youn^ man sitting 
 by himself at the table, writing, with his back 
 rather turned towards him. 
 
 " That 's the person it brought, and it's 
 not a wedding after all," thought he, obhged 
 to give up the idea of the merry-making which 
 his first speculations had included. He, how- 
 ever, strolled into the kitchen to inquire, and 
 there finding the hostess said, 
 
 " So you've got some post-chaise company 
 to-day, Mrs. Westbury : I thought at first it 
 had been a wedding ? Perhaps it's a husband 
 for yourself at last, widow. I often wonder 
 whom you 've been waiting so long for." 
 
 " For your first patient, doctor ; only then 
 I'm afraid you 'd soon make me a widow 
 
 again." 
 
 " Quite the contrary, perhaps, widow. I 
 I might promote population, * in utrumque pa- 
 
 ratusj " 
 
 The pedantic conclusion of this rejoinder on
 
 96 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the part of the doctor, who had been originally 
 a man of grammar-school education, prevented 
 its being understood, or in consequence resent- 
 ed by the widow. 
 
 " And the person who came in the chaise 
 is—.?" 
 
 " A very civil-spoken sort of a decent young 
 man," interrupted the widow. " I should at 
 first almost have taken him for a great gentle- 
 man, by the whiteness of his hands and the 
 fineness of his linen, for all his clothes were not 
 over new or smart, and I might have bustled 
 about and made a to-do for him ; but he told 
 me at once, without making believe to be what 
 he was not, to take care of a large book tied 
 round with strings, full of drawings and paint- 
 ings, for that he lived by the sale of them, and 
 he wanted to take some more likenesses of the 
 coast not far off from here."" 
 
 *' And Jack brought him from the Cock at
 
 THE CONTRAST. 97 
 
 Moreby ? — How d'ye do, Jack ?" turning to a 
 post-boy whom Sally had just been supplying 
 with a beefsteak and a mug of ale. " What, 
 I suppose with little blood chesnut mare and 
 bay gelding, 1 saw at the Angel, when you and 
 Joe Simmons brought Sir North in an hour 
 and a quarter from Moreby. But how come you 
 at this house ; the widow's beefsteaks good, eh?"" 
 
 " Why he said himsen, that he wouldn't 
 gang tift first inn, and when he'd be gettin 
 here he'd dun wi' posting ; and so I told un, if 
 he'd loike to bide a bit, the widow would keep 
 in well, thof she couldn't forward un." 
 
 " And he came in the same way to your 
 house in which he left it .'"' 
 
 " He come'd in't same way, but soa did 
 another wid un, a much smarter nor he, and 
 yet the tother put all this'uns things in't chaise 
 for him, and stood at door looking after him, 
 till I driv off." 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 98 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 11 
 
 " He ""s been asking me about Morden Bay 
 interrupted the widow, " and I'm sure I didn't 
 know much about it myself; but I told him 
 to-morrow was market-day, and Richard Dar- 
 nell would be sure to be here, and he'd hear all 
 about it from him ; and he said that would just 
 do, and he would wait till then." 
 
 " Let me go and talk to him," said the Doc- 
 tor, " I dare say I shall do just as well as the 
 farmer ; and have a bottle of your oldest port 
 ready, in case I ask for it. You're out of 
 lemons, I'm afraid .?" 
 
 The Doctor went, but returned sooner than 
 he expected, evidently disappointed, though at 
 first he said nothing, but walked about, took 
 up the anticipated bottle of port, which had 
 already at his desire mounted thus far from the 
 cellar, and was waiting at this half-way-house, 
 with the decanter by its side, in which it was 
 to pursue its journey to the parlour. He
 
 THE CONTRAST. 99 
 
 brushed off the sawdust, held it wistfully to 
 the light, and then told the landlady she might 
 carry it back again ; but, " One word first, 
 widow," said the Doctor : " You know I've a 
 regard for you ; look to your spoons, that 's 
 all. A very suspicious-looking person, believe 
 me. When a man shuns good company, it ""s a 
 very bad sign. I introduced myself in the 
 civilest way, saying that I understood he 
 wanted to dispose of some drawings, and that 
 I might have an opportunity of recommending 
 them in the course of my professional practice. 
 And when I was undoinoj the strings to look at 
 them, he took them from me, and said that 
 they were already disposed of. I then talked 
 of Morden Bay, and began describing it at 
 random, like any other bay ; and then he in- 
 terrupted me by asking if I had ever been 
 there; and when I said, not that I could re- 
 member, he said he thought as much ; and 
 
 F 2
 
 100 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 just as I was chatting on about something else, 
 he told me that he was writing, and that if I 
 considered that a public room, he would ask 
 for a private one. Depend upon it, when a 
 chap of that kind comes Captain Grand over 
 one, and wants to be as dull as a lord, he has 
 some reason for it. It 's a very suspicious 
 story altogether. Who was that swell con- 
 fidant Jack says he left at Moreby .'' Who 
 knows ? they may be French spies, taking a 
 survey of the coast, and the portfolio he was 
 so afraid I should see, may be chuck full of 
 treason." 
 
 " But you forget, Doctor, we are at peace 
 now, and have been for some time; and I 
 don't know, whether he be French or English, 
 that there is any harm in his painting a 
 few trees, whether they grow near the sea 
 or not." 
 
 " I have it," said the Doctor, but appa-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 101 
 
 rently the last suspicion was too weighty to 
 drop lightly, and, buttoning up his coat, he 
 only added, " A few days will show whether 
 I am right," muttering to himself as he went 
 out, " General Ludd, General Ludd, General 
 Ludd !^^ 
 
 But few years have passed since the Doctor 
 pronounced that then awful name, and many 
 of my readers have never heard of " General 
 Ludd," at that time the dreaded object of 
 the ephemeral fears of every loyal English- 
 man. His fame, too recent for the stores of 
 history, too obsolete for the currency of con- 
 versation, is now less alive than that of many 
 a brother general, who swells the half-pay 
 list under the grateful denomination of " dead 
 weight." 
 
 Whatever suspicions the Doctor had at 
 that moment instilled into the mind of the 
 Widow Westbury, they appeared to have been
 
 102 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 obliterated, in a long conversation which she 
 had the next morning with the stranger ; for 
 when her friend the Farmer arrived, she told 
 him there was a nice young man, who was 
 very anxious to board at his house for a few 
 weeks, whilst he sketched the surrounding 
 scenery. She told the Farmer he must not be 
 hard upon him for terms, for that he said 
 he was as poor as need be, though just able 
 to earn a decent subsistence by the labours 
 of his pencil. 
 
 The Farmer, who had no objection to the 
 daily pi'esence of a stranger, who he hoped 
 would rather restrain his family discomforts, 
 did not anticipate much objection on the part 
 of his wife, who, as she had every year be- 
 come more fond of money, and liked the 
 coin itself, rather than the comfort it could 
 purchase, would welcome the pittance of the 
 stranger, however small; determined, at the
 
 THE CONTRAST. 103 
 
 same time, not to augment, in any respect, 
 the expenses on his account. One difficulty 
 only occurred to the Faimer: what in days 
 of yore had been called the " spare room," 
 was now tenanted by the hams hung up to 
 dry. But there was George's room vacant, 
 which had been empty ever since he left it ; 
 he therefore made acquaintance with the 
 stranger, and the bargain was concluded be- 
 tween them with the facility which might be 
 expected from two easy people, mutually eager 
 to be accommodating. One thing only kept 
 alive a sort of suspense in the hostess's mind 
 against the stranger ; whilst talking with her, 
 he had folded up and directed the letter he 
 had been so long writing, and which she ob- 
 served to be a bulky packet. She had offered 
 to put it in the post for him herself, and, 
 approaching it for that purpose with rather 
 a curious feminine eye, he had hastily turned
 
 104 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the direction downwards, and declined her 
 services, saying, that he would put it in him- 
 self, which, accordingly, he had stopped to 
 do, whilst riding out of the town with Farmer 
 Darnell.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 105 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Ay, mine own fortune is my misery. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 Go thither, and with unattainted eye 
 Compare her face with some that I shall show. 
 
 Ibid. 
 His letters bear his mind. 
 
 Ibid. 
 'Tis hatched and shall be so. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 The letter, which had been thus carefully 
 forwarded by the stranger, had by no means a 
 treasonable exterior ; it was directed to " The 
 
 Right Honourable — , &c. &c. &c. &c. 
 
 one of H. M. Principal Secretaries of State," 
 and contained an inner envelope to " Wni. 
 St. Clair, Esq." It began as follows : — 
 
 F 5 
 
 »
 
 106 the contrast. 
 
 " My Dear St. Clair : 
 
 " When I consider the official atmosphere in 
 which this will be opened, and that it is to be 
 read by a person now filling a situation with 
 such a dry unromantic name as precis writer, I 
 can hardly hope for that sympathy in some of 
 the feelings it will describe, which, even in 
 earlier days, your more worldly mind was 
 sometimes inclined either to withhold, or to mix 
 up with a little unwelcome ' persiflage.' You 
 have often told me, that with every kind dispo- 
 sition to pity the peculiar hardships of high 
 rank, and the severe burthen of a large fortune, 
 still I was the friend whose misfortunes you 
 would the most readily share. But the very 
 circumstance of your quizzing me a little on 
 this head, by showing me that you cannot flatter, 
 makes me believe that you may feel for me, 
 when I complain of those irksome advantages 
 of wealth and situation which have prevented
 
 THE CONTRAST. 107 
 
 my being ever convinced that any one really 
 cared for me for myself alone. With men, I 
 do not so much mind that : the sterlins; ore 
 of friendship is too weighty for the exchange of 
 every-day intercourse, and the paper-currency 
 of popularity passes just as well. But with 
 women, from my earliest acquaintance with 
 them, I have always been haunted with the con- 
 sciousness that true love is not to be bought, and 
 by the constant idea that I could not be loved 
 for myself ; a distrustful suspicion that, I grieve 
 to say, experience has hitherto only tended to 
 confirm. In every situation, wherever I have 
 been known, I have always had the same fear, 
 but too often the same conviction of its justice. 
 I have fancied I could trace the same expres- 
 sion in every female face, from the hacknied 
 smiles of venal beauty, in whose profusion one 
 could plainly read ' he pays well,' up to the 
 would-be attractive simper of the shy debutante,
 
 108 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 which had been already tutored^ to follow the 
 maternal whisper. I have tried in foreign 
 countries to escape the unfortunate fame of my 
 wealth and liberality, but in vain : many half- 
 formed illusions of the ' grand passion' have 
 been dispelled by the exclamation, ' Milor qui 
 est si riche.' 
 
 " The first severe lesson of this kind I re- 
 ceived, you will have heard in the world told in 
 different ways. During my minority, I was 
 induced to raise money to pay the debts of 
 Lady Madelina Manfred, — 1 don't like trusting 
 the post with names, but about her there can 
 be no scandal. The demand staggered me. I 
 believe I was half cured before; however, I 
 paid the money, and dropped the connexion. 
 She affected indignation at my fickleness and 
 desertion, which at her time of life was rather 
 a blow, but secured at the same time the whole 
 sum, (ten thousand pounds, I think it was,)
 
 THE CONTRAST. 109 
 
 and then eloped to spend it with a Captain 
 O'Connor, in Connaught, and poor Manfred is 
 still in the rules for her debts. 
 
 " I did not think so much of this at the time ; 
 I was then very young, and attributed it to my 
 own folly in having allowed myself to be in- 
 veigled by a woman old enough to be my 
 mother, all whose better feelings had been 
 hardened by an habitual disregard of her mar- 
 riage vow. 
 
 " The next year I was very much in love with 
 
 you may, perhaps, have heard the story in 
 
 the scandal of the world, but I will not here 
 publish the name, because still unchanged, for 
 she is yet unmarried. 
 
 " My guardians asserted, which was the only 
 reason why I doubted it, that I was then 
 much too young to marry. But I was at that 
 time sick of intrigue ; I thought it would 
 be a glorious thing to monopolize for ever
 
 110 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the first affections of one then so universally 
 admired. 
 
 " Her mother, Lady , was always talking 
 
 to me of her daughter's youth and innocence, 
 to which I attributed the reserve with which 
 my attentions had been at first received, pleased 
 as I Avas to find it gradually lessening during 
 their continuance. 
 
 " The newspapers had already hinted, in un- 
 mistakable initials, at a marriage in high life ; I 
 had as yet said nothing, but was determined, 
 as I knew the paragraph must have been seen, 
 to observe first what effect that had produced. 
 The paragraph went the round of the papers 
 uncontradicted : perhaps I ought to have con- 
 tradicted it ; but as I observed no diminution 
 of cordiality in consequence, I believe I should 
 instead have declared myself, but that just 
 at this time a mihtary cousin of mine re- 
 turned with despatches from the Peninsula.
 
 THE CONTRAST. Ill 
 
 He was a verify very younger brother, that is, 
 one of a very large family, with very little 
 fortune to divide. I had not seen much of 
 him lately, but as we had been together as 
 children, and I was one of his nearest collateral 
 relations, he came to consult me on an engage- 
 ment which he said he liad formed previous to 
 his joining the army in Spain, and upon the 
 possibility of procuring the consent of the 
 family of the young lady, at whose house it 
 appears he had visited from country quarters. 
 
 " He owned that he had nothing but his pro- 
 fession, in which, however, his hope of pro- 
 motion was now great. But the young lady 
 had herself some money, and to prove that her 
 affections were sufficiently engaged to justify 
 him in venturing, he showed me some letters 
 he had received, full of assurances and unutter- 
 able attachment from the nameless beauty, 
 who had since been receiving my addresses !
 
 112 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 The letters, it is true, were not of a very recent 
 date, but this the time occupied in his voyage 
 homewards had prevented his remembering. 
 
 " Here, then, was a more complete explanation 
 of the coldness with which I had been at first 
 received, than the mother's palliations of youth 
 and innocence, and an utter extinction of my 
 own dream of monopolizing the first affections 
 of a virgin heart. I would willingly have per- 
 suaded myself that it was sensibility to my own 
 superior merits which had sufficed to obscure 
 a former transient impression ; but when I 
 looked at my cousin''s handsome, sunburnt fea- 
 tures, and thought of his honourable distinc- 
 tions obtained in the field-of-battle, and com- 
 pared it with my own useless, lounging life, 
 I could not deny that the real nature of the 
 change must have been the worldly advan- 
 tages of one " parti,'''' as compared with the 
 imprudence of the other connexion ; for in no
 
 THE CONTRAST. 113 
 
 personal attractions could I flatter myself that 
 I surpassed my cousin. 
 
 " This conviction operated as a summary cure 
 of my passion, and left in its stead mingled 
 feelings of disgust, at the deceit which had 
 been practised on myself, and pity for my 
 cousin. 
 
 " Poor fellow ! when I saw how deeply his 
 happiness was involved, I could not bear to 
 take on myself the task of destroying his hopes ; 
 I therefore, without explaining my motives to 
 him, hastened that departure for the Continent, 
 which my guardians had long been anxious I 
 should not delay, and left him master of the 
 field to try his chance. I heard afterwards, 
 that his suit was rejected by her friends, with 
 an abruptness, probably increased by his being- 
 supposed to have prevented my proposals. I 
 have reason to believe also, that he was more 
 regretted by the girl herself than would
 
 114 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 have been expected from one whose actions 
 were so much those of an automaton ; but 
 however that may be, the first rejection was 
 final, for the next year my poor cousin was 
 killed at Waterloo, where he was supposed un- 
 necessarily to have sought danger, not unwill- 
 ing to close an irksome existence with a glo- 
 rious death. 
 
 " The whole of these events made a deep im- 
 pression on me ; and, confirming preconceived 
 opinions, gave me a decided distaste for a 
 London-bred wife, and extended my distrust 
 of the disinterestedness of the affections of 
 women in the world in general ; which last 
 feeling you have occasionally remarked upon 
 at some of the many places abroad, when in 
 the course of your professional attache-ship, 
 during the last few years, we have so often met. 
 You will say, perhaps, that it arose from a de_ 
 termination to judge motives with a jaundiced
 
 THE CONTRAST. 11 
 
 b 
 
 eye ; but I am every day more convinced, that 
 worldliness is at the bottom of every woman's 
 heart v/hom T have known, of every country, 
 and in all states, whether maid, wife, or widow 
 — ay ! widow worse than any. Since your re- 
 turn home, I have met on the Continent one of 
 that class, perhaps at first one of the most 
 fascinating creatures in the world. I think it 
 very probable you may have met her. Young 
 Lady Gayland, married at seventeen to an 
 old man, a friend of her father's ; a widow at 
 nineteen ; and now, at one-and-twenty, her own 
 mistress, with the vivacity of a child, and the 
 wit of a woman of the world. 
 
 " I did hope that her's was a situation where 
 the affections might have fair play. Neither 
 perverted by vicious habits, like Lady Made- 
 lina — for Lady Gayland made an excellent wife 
 to old Sir Joseph ; nor warped by maternal 
 manoeuvring — for she had no one to please but
 
 116 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 herself, and was left with a large fortune, 
 which put her above prudential considerations, 
 — I was in hopes that she might at once merit 
 and appreciate that admiration which her 
 beauty excited ; but I was deceived again. I 
 will not enter into particulars, as I have, I 
 trust, completely escaped from her fascinations ; 
 though even at this distance I think too often 
 of her to feel quite confident on that head. If 
 you had seen the sudden jerk with which I 
 dashed away my pen, which had been the in- 
 strument of conveying to you in the last sen- 
 tence that profession of indifference, you might 
 have been sceptical as to its sincerity ; but a 
 few paces up and down the smallest of country- 
 inn parlours have brought me to ray senses. 
 It is sufficient to say she deceived me. I was 
 fool enough to think that I had inspired her 
 with a feeling pure and fervent as my own, 
 when, in the midst of this vain dream, I was
 
 THE CONTRAST. 117 
 
 suddenly awakened. Within a week after the 
 arrival of that confident coxcomb, Frank 
 Melmoth, who only courted her for her for- 
 tune, the melodious tones of her musical laugh 
 chiming in with all his flippant nonsense, rang 
 on my ears as the knell of all my hopes. Per- 
 haps, after all, I was too hasty ; she might not 
 really care for him ; but I had every reason 
 at the time to think so, and now it is all 
 over. It is sufficient to say, that she is spoilt by 
 the world, and can have no real feeling, for she 
 is disposed to laugh at every thing, and to re- 
 ceive even sentiment with a smile. Upon one 
 occasion— but I said I would not particularize, 
 nor will I, because among other reasons, at this 
 distance of time, I do not feel quite sure but 
 that you might smile likewise. Suffice it to 
 say, I am at length convinced, that in our rank 
 in life, the feelings are too early perverted by 
 the world, to hold out to a person, who thinks 
 like me, any real prospect of happiness.
 
 118 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 " No ; I will seek something as different as 
 possible from all that I have hitherto described. 
 No bad second-rate copy of Lady Gayland 
 could I tolerate ; and if I am to be sustained in 
 my fixed resolution of forgetting her, it must 
 be by seeking contrast, and not imitation, that 
 I must hope to succeed. 
 
 " What my present plan exactly is, I will 
 not say ; but once in my earlier days a vision 
 crossed my path, of a simple child of nature, 
 fresh and beauteous as the morn. Think of 
 the dehght of first winning her pure affections, 
 as one not elevated above her own rank in life, 
 (the case is certainly not without precedent,) 
 and then the pleasure of declaring myself after- 
 wards, and the consciousness thus derived, that 
 whatever additional gratification may arise 
 from the advantages of rank and fortune, they 
 could not be the cause of the connexion, 
 but from their subsequent disclosure were 
 matter of surprise, not speculation. Now, will
 
 THE CONTRAST. 119 
 
 you be anxious to find out the scene of this 
 plot ; but even if you get hold of the cover 
 directed to your ' chef,"* you will be only mis- 
 led by the postmark, as that is intended pur- 
 posely to deceive. 
 
 " But be satisfied with a degree of confidence, 
 such as it is — ^quite unusual in these close and 
 uncommunicative days — and pardon the length 
 to which it is fine-spun ; for bulky as the packet 
 is, the privilege of your place will prevent 
 your paying for it, and the duties of your office 
 will, I am sure, leave you complete leisure to 
 read it. 
 
 " Your's, 
 
 " Castlrton."
 
 120 THE CONTRAST 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 You are welcome, Sir; 
 
 But not so well apparelled as I could 
 
 Wish you were. Shakspeare. 
 
 Go to ray chamber; put on clothes of mine. 
 
 Ibid. 
 All impediments in fancy's course 
 Are motions of more fancy. Ibidi 
 
 Lord Castleton, or rather Mr. Churchill, 
 as we must in future call the " soi-disanC iti- 
 nerant limner, felt a little awkwardness at the 
 publicity of his first appearance in his assumed 
 character, as he rode out of Mayton by the 
 side of Farmer Darnell, — a mode of transfer- 
 ring; himself to his new residence which he had
 
 THE CONTRAST. 121 
 
 preferred to the alternative of being consigned 
 to one of the farmer's return teams, which had 
 that morning brought there, as he assured his 
 new acquaintance, " the finest load of upland 
 meadow hay which had come to market that 
 season." Mr. Churchill had therefore hired 
 for the purpose, at the Queen's Head, the 
 hostler's own pony, which besides the advan- 
 tage of his paces, a low straight shoulder, and 
 somewhat of a string-halt, had a mouth with 
 about as much feeling as a well-worn pulley, 
 through which a smooth snaffle ran without the 
 least effect : added to these qualifications, be- 
 ing of a domestic turn, he had an invincible 
 dislike to wander far from home, which he did 
 not show by violent resistance, but by the 
 patient endurance with which he reluctantly 
 yielded, step by step, to the incessant hints of 
 Churchill's unarmed heel. 
 
 As Richard Darnell was in consequence 
 ' VOL. I. G
 
 122 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 obliged frequently to pull up for him, during 
 the first mile or two, it could not be concealed, 
 that the painter did not look very comfortable, 
 or much at his ease, and Darnell addressed him 
 with : 
 
 " More used to handle the brush than the 
 whip, I take it. Master Painter. Pretty nearly 
 the first time you were a horseback, maybe.'' 
 Lord, man, I hope that aVt the way you would 
 paint St. George, as I suppose you have done 
 afore now ; the dragon wouldn't have much ado 
 to pull you off." 
 
 And the farmer chuckled good-humouredly 
 at what he conceived a harmless joke upon a 
 subject on which he could not imagine that his 
 companion could have any vanity. 
 
 But it may be recollected that Lord Castle- 
 ton had very early been rather proud of any 
 opportunity for the display of his horseman- 
 ship ; he had indeed for two seasons been a
 
 THE CONTRAST. 123 
 
 crack-rider in Leicestershire ; but for all that 
 it is very true, that no tailor could have looked 
 more out of his element on Joe Hostler's rough 
 ill-broken pony. 
 
 During the greater part of their way the 
 dialogue was confined to the qualities of dif- 
 ferent soils, the prices of different years, the 
 proper succession of crops, and the measures 
 of various markets; — if, indeed, that could 
 be called a dialogue, which consisted in a 
 profusion of unasked information on the one 
 side, and exclamations of mechanical assent 
 on the other. 
 
 As they approached the coast, the afternoon, 
 which had hitherto been fine, became gradually 
 overcast; a creeping mist, by degrees, enve- 
 loped the surrounding country, and, thick- 
 ening as it advanced, was accompanied by a 
 mizzling rain. Lord Castleton, completely 
 wet to the skin, arrived at the top of the 
 
 G 2
 
 124* THE CONTRAST. 
 
 cHfF, which they were to descend to Farmer 
 DarnelFs dwelling, without being able to dis- 
 tinofuish a feature of the scene which had so 
 enchanted him the last time he had seen it. 
 Churchill was received at the door of the 
 house, not by her he longed to see, but by 
 her mother. Mrs. Darnell greeted him cour- 
 teously, for now that he was again separated 
 from the pony there was something in his air 
 and appearance which, until his story con- 
 tradicted it, rather betrayed his real rank in 
 life. Supposing him to be a gentleman, to 
 whom her husband had offered shelter, the 
 hostess expressed great solicitude about his 
 catching cold, and begged him to put on some 
 of her Richard's clothes whilst his own were 
 drying. 
 
 To this, as his own things were not yet come 
 over from Mayton by the waggon, he at once 
 consented, and was escorted to what Avas to be
 
 THE CONTRAST. 125 
 
 hisj and which had been, George*'s room, to effect 
 the change. He was aware that it had not yet 
 been explained to Mrs. Darnell who he was, and 
 his intended temporary residence in her house- 
 hold ; and, as he could overhear, without distin- 
 guishing the words, the alternate tones of a gruff 
 and a sharp voice in the room beneath, he con- 
 cluded the explanation was then going on, and, 
 by the increasing preponderance of the " Alto " 
 over the " Basso " notes of the duet, he was 
 afraid it was not taking a favourable turn. 
 
 His toilet was the sooner concluded, as the 
 difficulty consisted, in his case, not so much 
 in getting into Farmer Darnell's clothes, 
 as in keeping them on afterwards. He 
 could not help thinking that his appearance 
 must be rather ludicrous, though there was 
 no looking-glass in the room by which to as- 
 certain the fact. He had, previously to adopt- 
 ing his assumed character, cut short his own
 
 126 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 lighter hair, and superinduced a black wig as a 
 sort of disguise ; but, as personal disfigurement 
 was no part of his plan, the wig was not of 
 that homely make which would suit the cut 
 of the borrowed garments he now had on. 
 
 As he entered the room down-stairs he heard 
 the female voice end the argument with, " It 's 
 just of a piece with a' the rest ;" and then, 
 turning to him, she said, " So, young man, I 
 hear Richard has been settling with you to 
 stay and board with us a bit : there's not ano- 
 ther man in the country, but him, would bring 
 a stranger at once into a decent family ; no 
 offence to you, who, I dare say, are a quiet 
 Avell-behaved body, that won't give us any 
 fash ; but it was so like Richard, that 's all. 
 However, I have no doubt you wouldn't have 
 come if you hadn't the money to pay for your 
 board, for, after all, 'tis but an idlish uncertain 
 sort of calling your's." 
 
 " I've no objection to pay the first week in
 
 THE CONTRAST. 127 
 
 advance, and, though far from rich, have no 
 doubt that I shall be able to continue to do so, 
 therefore make yourself easy on that head, my 
 good woman."" 
 
 *' Good woman, indeed !" muttered she ; 
 " Mrs. Darnell's my name, Mr. Churchill, as I 
 hear that's yours. And what may you get by 
 this vagabond sort of life ? 'tis a pity you 
 didn't fix in some town and stick to painting 
 houses and signs." 
 
 " The different ranks in our profession are 
 as various as the colours in which we deal, 
 from those whose genius elevates them to the 
 society of the great, to the hacknied drudge, 
 to whose wholesale daubing you would confine 
 me : but though I can never aspire to emulate 
 the first, yet I find that by indulging my fancy 
 in sketching on the coast in summer, and 
 making drawings for cheap engravings in the 
 winter, I can maintain myself, with care and 
 economy, above all dread of want."
 
 128 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 Churchill meant by this last speech accu- 
 rately to describe the sort of indefinite situation 
 in society which he intended to assume. But 
 much of it was unintelligible to Mrs, Darnell, 
 who, satisfied by his offering to pay his board 
 and lodging in advance, that he was not a swin- 
 dler, turned to answer her husband's inquiry, 
 " Why he had not seen his dear Lucy ?'"' by 
 telling him that the girl had been over to see 
 her aunt, where she had probably been detained 
 by the weather, and might not come home that 
 night. Churchill therefore made up his mind 
 that he should not be gratified with the sight 
 of the object which had brought him there 
 till the next morning, which, considering his 
 present grotesque appearance in her father's 
 clothes, he did not much regret ; and, having 
 sufficient topic for reflection as to his future 
 conduct in the situation he had so abruptly 
 assumed, he remained comparatively silent,
 
 THE CONTRAST. 129 
 
 whilst Darnell and his wife so far made him 
 at home as to discuss together domestic details, 
 without the least regard to his presence. 
 
 But just as they were about to separate for 
 the night, the latch of the garden-gate was heard 
 to click, and a light step quickly to cross the 
 gravel without. The imagination of Churchill 
 had already anticipated what it was to produce, 
 when almost at the same instant the door has- 
 tily opened, and Lucy rushed in. The first 
 impression on the mind of the stranger was, 
 upon the door opening, that her figure appeared 
 some inches higher whilst standing in the 
 threshold than his recollection had led him to 
 expect. His next remark, however, was the 
 perfect symmetry of her form, which the last 
 few years' progress towards maturity had con- 
 firmed ; and as she threw off her bonnet, and 
 shook back the locks of her rich brown hair, 
 which had been disordered by the storm she 
 
 G 5
 
 130 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 had just braved, Churchill thought he had 
 never seen a countenance in which innocence 
 and intelligence were so happily combined. 
 
 " And what do you come back for in this 
 gait, spoiling all your clothes.?'" said her 
 mother. 
 
 " Nay, mother, I''ra sure youVe glad to see 
 me safe at home," said Lucy in a deprecating 
 tone, at the same time kissing her : " I never 
 slept from under this roof in my life before, 
 and I did not like to begin now, for all aunt 
 wanted me to bide with her all night." 
 
 The tone in which this was said disarmed 
 even Mrs. Darnell's fault-finding disposition, — 
 Churchill would have wondered if it had not, — 
 and Lucy threw herself into her father's arms, 
 whom she had not seen before to-day, and 
 then drew back upon observing the stranger. 
 He had risen upon her entrance, but felt an 
 awkwardness, which was visible in his deport-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 131 
 
 ment, as to how to present himself: this was 
 increased by the unfitness of his present cos- 
 tume : he felt that to attempt a pretty speech 
 or courteous greeting would be absurd, and 
 he was not sufficiently assured what sort of 
 deportment would be befitting his present 
 appearance. The consequence was, that he 
 stood sheepish and abashed ; and he, who had 
 scattered his smiles with a feeling of conde- 
 scension round the most brilliant ball-rooms, 
 and had dropped unasked, with a certainty of 
 welcome, into the choicest " boudoirs," blushed 
 with a sense of shame beneath the enquiring 
 gaze of a simple country girl. So easily does 
 disguise or deceit entail with it a consciousness 
 of inferiority. 
 
 " 'Tis a young man in the painting line,'' 
 said her father, seeing he would not answer 
 for himself, " who is going to stay here a bit, 
 and paint the country : you must show him
 
 132 THE CONTRAST, 
 
 the Black Glen and Deadman's Crag, and some 
 of your favourite spots."*' 
 
 Lucy gave him, in answer, a smile of wel- 
 come, which Churchill fancied was changed 
 to one of a more satirical character, as she 
 examined his dress and figure : this, however, 
 was checked by her mother, who insisted 
 upon her no longer remaining in her wet 
 clothes, but retiring to bed. The whole party 
 then separated for the night. 
 
 Lord Castleton was left alone in the occu- 
 pation of George's garret. The first thing 
 he did, as he walked along the floor by the 
 dim light of his farthing candle, was to knock 
 his head against the beam which ran across 
 its low ceiling ; the next M'as to sit himself 
 down in the only chair in the room, and reflect 
 upon the novelty of his present situation, when, 
 spite of his efforts to resist it, a general 
 sense of discomfort stole across him. Planned 
 at a distance, his scheme had comprised only
 
 THE CONTRAST. 133 
 
 the great outlines of " disinterested attach- 
 ment," " simplicity of nature,*" " unconscious 
 beauty," and " freedom from the trammels 
 of rank ;" but the details had either escaped 
 him altogether, or had worn a different shape, 
 when fancied from afar, than that which they 
 now assumed in practice. He had expected 
 to receive from the cordiality of hearty hos- 
 pitality, all those attentions which he scorned 
 to accept as the servile offerings of dependent 
 inferiors; and he had not been at all prepared 
 for the occasional contemptuous jocularity, and 
 generally protecting tone of the farmer; or 
 for the half-hinted suspicions, and cautious 
 bargaining of his wife ; both which were car- 
 rying the absence of undue deference to him, 
 farther than he had anticipated. 
 
 On one subject only he had not been dis- 
 appointed, — that was, in the appearance of 
 Lucy. 
 
 " And, after all," thought he, " what does
 
 134- THE CONTRAST. 
 
 any thing else signify ? I ought rather to be 
 pleased with the rest, however disagreeable 
 in itself, as the best proof that my scheme 
 works well, and that if I should, as the un- 
 suspected Churchill, treated in this uncere- 
 monious manner, succeed in winning her af- 
 fections, I need, through all my after-life, 
 never have a moment's mistrust that I was 
 loved for myself alone." 
 
 Consoled with this reflection, he proceeded 
 with less dissatisfaction to make a survey of 
 the various " desagremens " of his present 
 confined chamber, which was as uncomfort- 
 able as possible consistent with perfect clean- 
 liness. An inventory of the furniture might 
 have been contained in one line, and the walls 
 presented one unbroken surface of whitewash, 
 except where, over the chest of drawers, three 
 bits of paper were pinned up for ornament : 
 the centre a wood-cut of Lord Nelson's fu-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 135 
 
 neral car ; on one side of it a roaring sea sonff, 
 and on the other a sentimental ballad, whose 
 only possible merit was that the heroine's name 
 was Lucy. These relics of George's fairings 
 had remained here undisturbed ever since 
 his departure. 
 
 The bed on which its present tenant pre- 
 pared to stretch himself, was not very well cal- 
 culated for the literal fulfilment of that opera- 
 ation, being in length better adapted for the 
 then height of its last owner than that of its 
 present occupier. 
 
 It was upon this uncomfortable couch that 
 Lord Castleton now fell asleep, lulled by the 
 wind whistling through the low casement, and 
 the rain pattering on the roof; and dreamed 
 confusedly, that he broke to Lucy his real 
 rank, and that she first burst into tears, and 
 then changed suddenly to Lady Gayland and 
 began laughing at him. When he awoke in
 
 136 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the morning, with a sort of indistinct doubt 
 as to where he was, the first object which met 
 his half-open eyes was, tlie initials G. and L. D., 
 combined in a sort of cipher, and cut in the 
 soft deal-board just by his head ; no doubt by 
 the last occupier of that bed. This he did not 
 think a good omen, and hastily rising, he gave 
 way to a momentary feeling of discomfort, at 
 finding his clothes still in the confusion in 
 which he had last night left them, and not 
 carefully arranged for his toilet, as the habits 
 of his life accustomed him to expect ; but 
 banishing this as unworthy consideration, he 
 was restored, by the contemplation of the bril- 
 liant prospect which the fine morning showed 
 him from his window, to that state of mind 
 which made him enjoy the happiness of his 
 first meeting with Lucy, whom he found alone 
 in the breakfast-room.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 137 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 It were all one 
 
 That I sliould love a bright, particular star 
 
 And think to wed it, he is so above me. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 But several years elapsed since they had met ; 
 Some people thought the ship was lost. 
 
 Byron. 
 
 About a week had elapsed since Churchiirs 
 arrival at Morden Bay, an interval which he 
 had not failed to improve, by availing himself 
 upon all occasions, whenever Mrs. Darnell 
 permitted, of Lucy's company, as a guide to the 
 many picturesque scenes with which she was so 
 well acquainted ; and, as the principal maternal
 
 138 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 objection was the interference this caused with 
 domestic avocations, the evening was generally 
 chosen as the hour left most free for these ro- 
 mantic rambles. 
 
 Lucy's taste for the beauties of nature had 
 till now lain dormant, for want of any one to 
 sympathize in her admiration. Her aunt, to 
 whose disposition it would have seemed conge- 
 nial, never wandered far from home ; and of 
 all the various picturesque spots with which 
 the neighbourhood abounded, those only had 
 hitherto been interesting to Lucy which she 
 could animate as the mental scenery of those 
 parts of Shakspeare which, as read to her by 
 her aunt, she most admired. But since she had 
 attended Churchill in his sketching expeditions, 
 she had discovered new beauties in every spot 
 they had together visited. From admiring his 
 power of recording effects and imitating ob- 
 jects, she had become anxious to emulate the
 
 THE CONTRAST. 139 
 
 same herself, and upon the two last occasions, 
 she likewise had attempted the powers of the 
 pencil. 
 
 It was quite an afternoon for a painter, with 
 broad effects of light and shadow. Churchill 
 and Lucy had perched themselves on a small 
 ledge of rock, just above the shore, commanding 
 a well- wooded bank of the Black Glen, with some 
 bold and jutting crags rising out of the surface 
 of the waters beyond, when Lucy, after a 
 time, first looking over her shoulder at her 
 companion's work, and then comparing it with 
 her own, said : 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Churchill ! I shall never be able 
 to do it like you. I can't make two trees, which 
 really touch on the paper, seem so far apart , 
 and 1 meant this like your's for the sea, with 
 a ship on the horizon, but it looks much more 
 like a wall, with a weed growing on the top ; 
 and then my paper is just as big as your's,
 
 140 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 but I never shall be able to get half so much 
 into it." 
 
 " Because, my pretty pupil," said Churchill, 
 examining it, "you have made that distant 
 cliff higher than this old boat-house." 
 
 " And so it is, a hundred times higher,'" 
 said Lucy in a justificatory tone ; "and if you 
 were there, you would soon see the difference." 
 
 " But now we are not there, and we are 
 here," answered Churchill smiling; "and in 
 this world, objects, like events, appear to us, not 
 according to their intrinsic importance, but in 
 proportion to our own situation, and the man- 
 ner in which they affect ourselves. For in- 
 stance, dwelling in this retired spot, and in our 
 humble rank of life, events that might convulse 
 the country, and affright the great ones of the 
 land, would be less observed by us, than the 
 blight which injured your father's com; and 
 battles might be won and lost, which we should
 
 THE CONTRAST. 141 
 
 feel less than the attack of a single fox upon 
 your poultry-yard." 
 
 ** It is a very stupid and confused attempt 
 this of mine," said Lucy, tearing it in two ; 
 " and yet, separately, this is like the boat-house, 
 and that is like the rock," holding up the di- 
 vided parts of her drawing. 
 
 " Yes, and may you learn to combine the 
 simplicity of an humble foreground with the 
 softened outline of greatness in the distance !" 
 
 " That is a little like some of aunt Alice's 
 speeches, which I do not always understand," 
 said Lucy : " perhaps it is, that you have both 
 mixed in that world of which I had only pre- 
 viously heard from her how anxious she had 
 been to leave it." 
 
 " This aunt, of whom you so often speak, is 
 it because she is unhappy that she lives so 
 retired .?" 
 
 " She never complains."
 
 142 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 " And shall I never see her ?"'"' 
 
 '* I never knew her see a stranger, but she 
 asked me about you, when I told her that I 
 should have come to her before, but that I had 
 been to show you up the burn side : and she 
 wanted to know why you were staying at our 
 house ; and when I said I could not exactly 
 tell, she begged me to bring you to visit her 
 some day.'' 
 
 " And why not now ?" said Churchill, whose 
 curiosity was roused. 
 
 " It is rather late," Lucy replied ; " and 
 mother 's particular about tea-time," looking at 
 a little watch which her companion once well 
 knew. 
 
 " And where did you get that little French 
 watch ?" asked he. 
 
 " And is it French ? then I dare say that 's 
 the reason George couldn't abide it, for he 
 hates every thing French, as it is right he
 
 THE CONTRAST. 143 
 
 should, seeing he 's a sailor. It was given me 
 by a strange gentleman who came to see the 
 bay, — and George tiffed about it, and thought 
 some harm would come of it. But I don't see 
 how it's to be, for I've never seen the gentle- 
 man since, as it wasn't like I should," 
 
 " But what sort of gentleman was this ?" 
 asked Churchill. 
 
 " Why, from the little I can recollect of 
 him, not so very unlike yourself, only that he 
 had light curly hair, a more fresh florid cheek, 
 and a more easy-like look, as it was natural, you 
 know, he should ; for I dare say he was a great 
 gentleman, and had none of those cares about 
 the coming day which mother says must always 
 be felt by one with such an uncertain calling 
 as yours ; though, I'm sure, I think your draw- 
 ings so pretty that, as long as there is money 
 to throw away in the world, I should guess 
 they would always be sure to fetch something."
 
 144 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 They had, in accordance with Lucy's hint as 
 to the time, concluded their sketching for that 
 evening, and had begun to wind their way 
 homewards, when Churchill, recurring to that 
 part of their late conversation which had made 
 the least pleasant impression on him, said, 
 
 " And this cousin George, to whose opinion, 
 as to that watch, you seem to attach no little 
 value, you have not seen much of him since?" 
 
 " He has not been at home again ; that 
 was the last evening he spent here, which is the 
 reason, perhaps, that it made the more im- 
 pression on me." 
 
 " But you have heard continually of him, of 
 course ?" 
 
 " Not very often ; when he left us, he was 
 no very handy penman ; he used to say that it 
 took him less time to sail round the bay than to 
 write its name, and that there was no such 
 difficult navigation, as tacking through all the
 
 THE CONTRAST. 145 
 
 ins and outs of a capital B. But I hope he is 
 improved in all that ; though absent, he hasn't 
 thought any the less about us ; in that, at least, 
 he used to be apt enough." 
 
 They had ascended the cliff by a different 
 path from the one mentioned before, and were 
 pursuing their way homewards through a shady 
 lane, and had just reached as far in it as the 
 point where, at right angles, a stile led to a 
 footpath through a copse, known only to those 
 acquainted with the country, as a short cut from 
 the main road to Morden Bay. Upon coming 
 in sight of this turn, they beheld two men in 
 sailors' dresses, who were threading the narrow 
 path through the wood, at a brisk pace, the 
 foremost of whom, looking up and seeing them, 
 made a run at the stile, bounded over it, and 
 almost at the same moment folded Lucy in his 
 arras in an embrace, whose ardour was mixed a 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 146 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 little with that alloy of roughness which is pro- 
 verbially nautical. 
 
 The scream with which Lucy shrank from 
 this unexpected salutation, though it partook 
 more of the character of surprise than positive 
 alarm, was sufficient to justify the ready inter- 
 position of Clmrchill, who, seizing the intruder 
 by the collar of his jacket, pulled him with a 
 sudden jerk away. 
 
 " Hands off, messmate !" said he in his turn, 
 surprised, but good humouredly ; " who the 
 devil mav you be ? let 's see what colours you 
 mean to hoist before you interpose between me 
 and my pretty cousin here." 
 
 " And is it indeed you, dear, dear Cousin 
 George .?" said Lucy, as she rushed again of her 
 own accord into his arms, and kissed him 
 affectionately ; then drawing back abruptly and 
 blushing deeply, she added, " But what a beard 
 you have got, George, and how you'i-e grown
 
 THE CONTRAST. 147 
 
 and altered ! I declare you Ve quite a man 
 
 now !" 
 
 " Such things will happen in four years, be- 
 tween sixteen and twenty, Lucy : you yourself 
 are shot up wonderfully ; why, you 'd carry 
 twice as much sail as formerly : — Lord love her 
 sweet face !" he added, again kissing her now- 
 averted cheek : in shrinking from which second 
 salute she met Churchill's eye, and blushing- 
 more deeply, said in a confused manner, 
 
 " We were going home, you know, Mr. 
 Churchill : you'd better come, George, and see 
 father and mother. — This young man," she 
 added in a low tone, " is staying here a bit, 
 painting the country, like those other two you 
 remember once, George, some time before you 
 left us." 
 
 " Oh, that 's what he is, is it ? To be sure, 
 I remember the others well enough, and how 
 you used to be sent out with one, and I with 
 
 H 2
 
 148 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the other, and how I frightened my man one 
 day, by stealing his own red paint, and smear- 
 ing myself with it : I made believe to fall off a 
 rock he was drawing ; he took it for blood, and 
 thought I lay there for dead. My friend here 
 seemed to have had a mind to shed my blood in 
 real earnest ; however, as ye took me for a rude 
 stranger, it was all right, and respectful like, 
 interfering to protect a woman when she cried 
 out ; so here 's my hand, my man, and now 
 just take my friend Captain Collett under your 
 convoy, for you may guess I 've many a thing 
 to say to Lucy here, which won''t concern either 
 of you two." 
 
 Churchill, still bewildered at the unexpected 
 turn which events seemed to have taken, looked 
 round mechanically, to examine the stranger thus 
 unceremoniously introduced to him. He was 
 standing on the other side of the stile, leaning 
 his elbows upon it. He had remained in this
 
 THE CONTRAST. 149 
 
 attitude during the whole of the preceding 
 scene, an amused, though uninterested specta- 
 tor of its incidents. He had chuckled aloud at 
 the momentary scuffle between George and 
 Churchill, but had not stirred a step to take 
 part with either ; and now as his eye met 
 Lucy's, just as she and George were about to 
 move on, he assented to the arrangement pro- 
 posed, by a familiar nod and grin, without, 
 however, removing his elbows from the stile, or 
 his hands from his chin. He was a short 
 thick-set man, with that fresh, though not 
 youthful appearance, which the eye generally 
 registers at about five-and-forty, unless the pa- 
 rish annals give some more precise date as to 
 age. The expression of his countenance was 
 the reverse of serious ; but a physiognomist 
 would have said that the lines were rather the 
 joint production of cunning and conviviality, 
 than the impression of natural, quiet cheerful-
 
 150 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 ness. His dress, like George's, consisted of a 
 sailor's blue jacket and trowsers ; but his 
 waistcoat, which was ornamented Avith many 
 little buttons and some lace, had rather a 
 foreign appearance, and was not unlike those 
 usually worn by couriers. He eyed Churchill 
 curiously, as the latter looked first at him and 
 then after Lucy, feeling not the less disgusted 
 at the turn things had unexpectedly taken, that 
 he did not know of what to complain, or why 
 to resent it. Nothing could be more natural 
 tlian that Lucy should be glad to welcome 
 home her cousin, the favourite companion of 
 her childhood ; or, upon his sudden return, that 
 she should neglect at the moment one, to whom 
 she was bound by no ties ; an itinerant painter 
 — the acquaintance of a week. 
 
 Yet during that week, Churchill had thought 
 he was every day making great progress in her 
 regard ; she had appeared to take a new sort
 
 THE CONTRAST. 151 
 
 of pleasure in his society, — had been delighted 
 either to hear him talk, or see him draw ; and 
 even now, he thought, when her cousin had 
 attempted a second time to kiss her, her eye 
 had sought his, and upon meeting it she had 
 blushed, and avoided the kindred embrace. 
 Yet now, as they walked away, George's arm 
 was round her waist, and his profile looked 
 offensively happy. " Come, Sir, if you please,"' 
 said Churchill, rather hastily to his new com- 
 panion, thinking that the others had already 
 got sufficiently far in advance. 
 
 " No hurry," said Captain Collett, as George 
 called him, getting even more deliberately over 
 the stile than the square cut of his figure re- 
 quired ; " we are only to keep within hail, you 
 know. I 'm sorry for you ; it is but a poor 
 exchange to have only Kit Collett for your 
 consort, instead of yon gay pinnace. But 
 it can't be helped ; you 're clean cut out, tliat
 
 152 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 I can see. A nice tight little prize too. Is it 
 that you've been over slow in making her your 
 own, or have you stayed long enough for her to 
 get tired of you .?" 
 
 " Come, Sir,"" repeated Churchill again, loud 
 and angrily, his attention having been a little 
 taken off from the last speech by watching 
 George and Lucy, who had now disappeared 
 round a corner in the lane : " I desire you 
 won't talk to me in that manner. As that young 
 lady seemed to wish me to show you the way 
 to her father's, I am ready to do it, provided 
 you don't take advantage of that circumstance 
 to speak impertinently of her ; if you do, I 
 shall consider that you would be an improper 
 guest, and take the liberty of leaving you 
 behind." 
 
 " Well, no offence, man ; I meant none. 
 Young lady ! Lord, how grand all that is !" 
 still speaking with a half suppressed chuckle ;
 
 THE CONTRAST. 153 
 
 " however, move on, my friend ; it's all one to 
 Kit Collett what he talks about, or indeed 
 whether he talks at all, as long as he has one 
 of these to stop his mouth," taking a cigar out 
 of a case and deliberately lighting it. 
 
 This being satisfactorily deposited in his 
 mouth, and his two hands in the side pockets 
 of his jacket, he, without attempting any far- 
 ther conversation, rolled on, following Churchill 
 as fast as he could, whose impatient strides 
 soon brought them inconveniently near to the 
 couple in advance. However much Churchill 
 might have wished to join company with them, 
 he did not feel authorized to do so, un- 
 less he had been mere sure that such an in- 
 trusion would be welcome; and of this he 
 could see no symptoms ; for though once 
 Lucy looked round, and, upon seeing him, ap- 
 peared to wish to stop, and to require urgino- 
 on by her companion, yet, except at that one 
 
 H 5
 
 154 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 moment, she seemed completely and satisfac- 
 torily occupied with her newly restored cousin, 
 and Churchill felt therefore unwillingly obliged 
 to slacken his pace, much to the relief of Kit 
 Collett ; and it was in two separate detachments 
 that they arrived at home.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 155 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 He was a man as dusky as a Spaniard, 
 Sunburnt with travel, yet a portly figure ; 
 
 Though colour'd, as it were, within a tanyard, 
 He was a person both of sense and vigour — 
 
 A better seaman never yet did man yard. 
 
 Byron. 
 
 George's unexpected arrival that night, 
 produced in all the family that sort of in- 
 toxicating exhilaration of spirits, which, when- 
 ever the natural feelings are allowed to show 
 themselves, is the effect of the restored pre- 
 sence of a long-lost inmate. 
 
 Even Mrs. Darnell suppressed, for the mo- 
 ment, her desire to complain of his protracted
 
 156 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 silence, and of the ignorance in which he 
 had left them as to how he had spent his 
 time since his engagement in his uncle"'s ship 
 liad been out — which was now twelve months 
 (since. 
 
 As for the farmer, he was so delighted to 
 see his favourite, that he hardly knew what 
 he did, and went about shaking hands with 
 everybody, and even asked the painter, with 
 
 a cordial gripe, wliether he wasn't d d 
 
 happy : a question, the repetition of which 
 Churchill contrived to evade, as it would have 
 puzzled him to answer it heartily in the affirma- 
 tive. Captain Collett, the farmer pronounced, 
 after they had had two glasses together, to be a 
 man after his own heart, and was rather disap- 
 pointed when, in answer to his enquiry whether 
 he had been George's last Captain, George 
 replied, " that he had sometime sailed with 
 him, and added, that he was known to be
 
 THE CONTRAST. 157 
 
 the best seaman between the Thames and the 
 Tweed." 
 
 *' And, as my voyages are not now very 
 distant, George will have more opportunities of 
 seeing his friends here, as he is about to engage 
 with me." 
 
 " I am not quite sure about that," an- 
 swered George gravely, and a cloud, for a 
 moment, came over his brow, which was, how- 
 ever, as soon dispelled by the eager attentions 
 of all around, by which he was overwhelmed. 
 George was soon much excited by finding him- 
 self the great man of the party. Thus en- 
 couraged, he rattled away merrily, sometimes 
 boisterously, stringing one story on another 
 with much humour, not always confined within 
 the narrow limits of fact, nor scrupulously 
 restrained by the bounds of decorum ; once 
 or twice, even on this night of licence, he 
 incurred the displeasure of his aunt, and
 
 158 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 raised a blush on the cheek of Lucy, who was 
 seated at the supper board between him and 
 Churchill. 
 
 During this time it would be difficult to 
 analyze the conflicting feelings of Lucy. Cer- 
 tain it is, that she did not attempt to do so 
 herself. If she had, she would have been aware 
 that the sensations with which she had wel- 
 comed the return of George were of a warmer 
 nature than would have sprung from the mere 
 renewal of childish companionship ; and in the 
 course of their walk homewards, whilst listen- 
 ing to his passionate expressions of delight at 
 his return, she had admired more than it was 
 necessary for a mere cousin to do, the improve- 
 ment the interval of absence had made in his 
 fine manly figure ; and during that time, if her 
 thoughts wandered from the happiness of the 
 present moment, it was to distant days, and 
 not to recent scenes. But now, when an inad-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 159 
 
 vertent coarseness in one of George's expres- 
 sions made her avert, a moment, her head, and 
 she beheld the displeased but enduring charac- 
 ter of Churchill's countenance, and then, as her 
 eye met his, she read in it, more plainly ex- 
 pressed than it had yet been, that feeling to- 
 wards herself which woman cannot long mis- 
 take ; and as she combined with that her re- 
 collections of his many gentle and delicate 
 attentions to her in the course of their recent 
 rambles, her wishes became rather confused 
 and bewildered ; but perhaps the predominant 
 one was, that George should be rather different 
 from what he was. She could not, at the same 
 time, but be aware that Churchill had been 
 much neglected during the evening ; and it was 
 as much regret at this, springing from that con- 
 siderate good-nature which in her rank of life 
 supplies with the interest of sincerity the place 
 of good breeding, which made her say to him
 
 160 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 in a tone and with an expression which amply 
 compensated for the previous neglect which it 
 acknowledged : 
 
 " I am afraid all this must have been very 
 tiresome to you.'"" 
 
 As the breaking up of the supper-party at 
 that moment prevented other answer, he took 
 advantage of that circumstance to reply to her 
 by a gentle squeeze of the hand. 
 
 Immediately after supper was finished, Cap- 
 tain Collett signified his intention to depart, 
 resisting the entreaties with which he was 
 pressed to share with his friend George the 
 best spare room, from which, for their reception, 
 the hams, Sec. had just been unceremoniously 
 rejected, as it was not thought hospitable to 
 disturb the stranger, and his drawings and 
 portfolios, from the room formerly George's, 
 which he at present occupied. 
 
 " But, Captain," said the farmer, " it 's a 
 double-bedded room, and you'd better bide to-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 101 
 
 night with your friend George, for the night 's 
 dark and murky, and if it had been as light as 
 day, one''s way is never somehow so canny to 
 find after supper as afore." 
 
 " Thank'ee the same, but I can't stay," re- 
 plied the Captain. "As for the night, I'm 
 rather partial to dark nights ; a'n't I, George ?'* 
 chuckling : " and as for supper, if it's along of 
 the grog you mean. Kit CoUett would drink as 
 much again, and walk as steady as on the 
 quarter-deck in a calm." 
 
 " But it's rather an awkwardish road to the 
 Lobster near Placeden Point, for a stranger, 
 if that's where you're going." 
 
 " Stranger ! why nothing comes strange to 
 me, that 's within three miles of the coast from 
 Beechy Head to Berwick Ness." 
 
 ** But," said Mrs. Darnell, " you know it 
 must depend on the time of the tide whether 
 you can cross Newland Creek." 
 
 " It's just now half-ebb, and by the time I'm
 
 162 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 down there, there won't be half- fathom water 
 within a quarter of a league of the shore of 
 Newland Creek, and be hang'd to it." 
 
 " That friend of your's is a man that knows 
 his business well, I should say, George,"" said 
 Farmer Darnell, as he bolted the door after 
 him. 
 
 " Good reason he should," answered George 
 rather gravely.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 163 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Oh, Childhood — blessed time of hope and love, 
 When all we knew was Nature's simple law, — 
 How may we yearn again that time to prove 
 When we looked round, and loved whate'er we saw. 
 
 When Churchill retired to bed, he in vain 
 attempted to think of the events of the day as 
 of no importance to him, — merely the return of 
 a relation of the family, whom it was natural 
 that warm-hearted amiable people should be 
 very glad to see again, and who would soon 
 again depart to follow his precarious profession, 
 perhaps only to return after another such long 
 interval, to be once more received in the same
 
 164 THK CONTRAST, 
 
 manner. But still, whenever lie thought he had 
 succeeded in closing his eyes upon this idea, 
 the image of George walking away with his 
 arm round Lucy''s waist would disagreeably 
 intrude itself: true, she considered him as a 
 near relation, — had been educated as a sister ; 
 but was that the way he considered the matter, 
 and was it likely that this innocent illusion 
 would Ions: continue if he chose to enlighten 
 her ? He could not at the same time help flat- 
 tering himself that he had made a favourable 
 impression on her ; and, confirmed as this hope 
 was by her deportment towards him, at the 
 conclusion of the supper, he believed that if he 
 made up his mind then to press his suit he 
 might bear off the prize. Yet there was some- 
 thing in this manner of effecting that object 
 which did not altogether satisfy him. In his 
 project of being loved for himself alone, he had 
 always anticipated that, whilst abandoning the
 
 THE CONTRAST. 165 
 
 outward advantages of rank and fortune, he 
 presented himself as an equal to a person like 
 Lucy ; still he would retain the power of in- 
 spiring her with a decided passion, and he 
 had never looked forward to any thing like 
 competition with such a rival as George 
 Darnell. 
 
 I am afraid it must also be allowed that 
 there were some things in Lucy's deportment 
 that evening which, desperately in love as he 
 found himself, charmed as he was with her 
 beauty, fascinated with her simplicity, had not 
 quite pleased him. In their fete-a-tele rambles, 
 there had never any thing occurred to weaken 
 the illusion of her perfections ; on the contrary 
 her soft and gentle manners, animated only by 
 an attractive freshness of character, which was 
 brought into play by the workings of natural 
 good sense, were constantly strengthening his 
 attachment. But the unrestrained ebullition
 
 166 THE CONTRAST, 
 
 of liigh spirits is a terrible touchstone by which 
 to try the want of conventional refinement, either 
 of mind or manners ; and there were many mo- 
 ments in the course of the evening, whilst she 
 was enjoying to the utmost some of her " cou- 
 sin George"'s" nautical jokes, when her lover 
 could not help thinking " Is that exactly the 
 way in which I should like Lady Castleton to 
 behave ?" 
 
 Churchill rose the next morning with one 
 conviction impressed strongly on his mind, as 
 the result of the contradictory reflections with 
 which he had been perplexed during the night, 
 and this was that at anv rate he had no longer 
 any time to lose in inaction ; that either his visit 
 to Bankside Farm must now draw to a con- 
 clusion, or it must assume the more decided 
 and permanent character with which he had 
 meant before long to invest it. 
 
 As a mere itinerant artist, his stav had now
 
 THE CONTRAST. 167 
 
 been prolonged enough for any assumed object 
 Avhich in that character he could put forward. 
 And if as such only, he meant to be recollected 
 by the inmates of farmer DarneU's, it was now 
 high time that he should pack up his port- 
 folios, already superabundantly stored with 
 sketches, in every variety of light, close stu- 
 dies, and distant effects, of every object worth 
 commemorating, within the reach of a Avalk 
 with Lucy. 
 
 He had his misgivings too, that even if this 
 did not occur to himself as a reason for short- 
 ening his stay, it would, ere long, be hint- 
 ed to him in no very indirect terms by INIrs. 
 Darnell, with whom he had never been a great 
 favourite, as being, as she said, " at best, but a 
 bit of a vagabond, only better than a stroller 
 or a mountebank, inasmuch as he daubed his 
 nasty paint on paper, instead of on his own 
 person.*" His taking Lucy gadding about with
 
 168 THE CONTRAST 
 
 hiin, was also a great waste of time : but his 
 worst offence in the eyes of this orderly house- 
 wife was, that by occupying George's room, he 
 had caused the ejection of the hams from the 
 spare bed-room. All these reasons made it evi- 
 dent that it would not be entirely optional to 
 himself to prolong his stay indefinitely. On 
 the other hand, he could not but be aware that 
 if he had, as he flattered himself, already made 
 a favourable impression on Lucy, it was very 
 desirable now, that he should confirm and 
 strengthen that, without allowing time for any 
 retour of her earlier partiality for her cousin 
 and playmate to arise and occupy even a corner 
 of that heart which was to love him exclusively 
 and for himself alone. Still that it should be 
 necessary, in regulating his future conduct, to 
 fTuard against such a possibility, grated un- 
 pleasantly against his feelings, and gave a dis- 
 satisfied and undecided turn to his thoughts,
 
 THE CONTRAST. 169 
 
 and when he had slowly descended the stairs 
 to breakfast, even whilst he had the latch of 
 the parlour-door in his hand, the question 
 rose unbidden in his mind, " Am I really in 
 love?" 
 
 The next moment, however, the effect of the 
 first sight of Lucy answered that question be- 
 yond a shadow of doubt, as he thought, in 
 the affirmative. It was Sunday morning, and 
 Lucy was dressed for church. There is, per- 
 haps, no costume, however studied, so attrac- 
 tive as the unaffected assumption, in simplicity 
 and good taste, of their best attire on this day 
 of rest, by persons in that rank of life to whom 
 Sunday really makes a distinction of dress ; ut- 
 terly perverted and lost as that effect is, when 
 it causes an awkward and exaggerated imita- 
 tion of the already outre fashions of their bet- 
 ters. But Lucy was simplicity itself, and fresh 
 and radiant and lovely as she looked in the 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 170 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 maiden purity of her snowy robe, so did she 
 always present herself on this day of thanks- 
 giving, coming out with as little alloy of co- 
 quetry as the flowers of nature, which greet 
 in their gayest and most brilliant colouring 
 the spring which gives them birth. 
 
 So dilatory had ChurchilPs complicated re- 
 flections made his toilet, that the breakfast was 
 far advanced when he entered, and the conver- 
 sation, which he only for a moment interrupt- 
 ed, was one not calculated to please him ; for he 
 found George arranging, apparently very much 
 to his satisfaction, a ttte-a-tete walk with Lucy 
 to church ; whilst it was suggested that Church- 
 ill should go bodkin between Mr. and Mrs. 
 Darnell in the taxed-cart. 
 
 From this uninviting mode of conveyance 
 he was, hoAvever, opportunely reheved by a 
 declaration on the part of Farmer Darnell, that 
 he was unfitted for service by a touch of lum-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 171 
 
 bago, which he had caught riding home that 
 stormy evening from INIayton, instead of stay- 
 ing there quietly till morning. The excuse 
 having been admitted by Mrs. Darnell, with 
 the qualification, that this was the first she had 
 heard of it, and the prospective consolation 
 that he certainly ought not to go to Mayton at 
 all next week, it became necessary to arrange 
 some other division of march, as, luckily for 
 Churchill, Mrs. Darnell decidedly objected to 
 trusting her precious person to his charioteer- 
 ing powers. " How should he know how to 
 drive ? he was never like to have had a chay, 
 a poor predistinarian painter !" as she called 
 him : " No ; her dear George must come with 
 her in the cart." George, however little he 
 liked the change, did not make any decided 
 objection, probably recollecting enough of ear- 
 lier days to know that, if his aunt chose it, 
 objection would be of no use ; and also a little 
 
 I 2
 
 172 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 tickled by the decided superiority over Church- 
 ill, which this preference marked, as he already 
 began to entertain an indefinite feeling of jea- 
 lous}' of the other's position in the family. 
 
 He therefore undertook with confidence to 
 '^ pilot" his aunt to church, though he pro- 
 fessed that of late his hands had been more 
 used to manage the " rudder" than the " rib- 
 bons." It was impossible for the most prac- 
 tised woman of the world to have shown less 
 by her manner than Lucy did whether this 
 ultimate arrangement was or was not agreeable 
 to her. "After all," thought Churchill, as 
 they started together from the front door, 
 " her natural manner is easy and unembar- 
 rassed, and it is only while in actual collision 
 with what is coarse and uncongenial around 
 her, that a momentary taint is breathed upon 
 its purity ; when I shall have removed her 
 from the reach of contagion, that innocent sim-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 17? 
 
 plicity will alone remain, upon which I may 
 engraft what impression I like, and I shall 
 learn to think of her only as a being whose 
 whole existence is comprised in my happiness." 
 
 " Lucy," screamed Mrs. Darnell at the ex- 
 tent of her voice, just as they had cleared the 
 garden-gate, and Churchill had closed the fore- 
 going reflections, " Lucy, have you minded 
 that the crust to George's pie is made of short 
 paste, as he used to like it ?" 
 
 " Oh yes, mother, I wasn't like to forget 
 that," answered Lucy, with an eagerness which 
 Lord Castleton thought was not very appro- 
 priately applied to another's pie-crust, by a 
 being whose whole existence he had just settled 
 was to be devoted to his happiness.
 
 174 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 If ever been where bells liave knolled to church. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 All things are well digested for the purpose; 
 Then, throwing off the title of a duke, I will 
 Appear to her a low-born peasant. 
 
 TOBIN. 
 
 This unfortunate episode rather deranged 
 the train of ideas by which Churchill had de- 
 termined to probe the real state of Lucy's feel- 
 ings. Instead of availing himself, as he had 
 intended, of the whole of this two-mile walk 
 artfully to ascertain her real sentiments, and 
 attempt to regulate his own accordingly, he
 
 THE CONTRAST. 175 
 
 spoke not at all at first, then asked her three 
 times abstractedly the different lengths of the 
 footpath by which they were going, and the 
 carriage-road, to church ; and at last blurted 
 out the question point-blank, " Whether she 
 thought her cousin George improved ?" 
 
 " Oh, so much ! that is, in some respects," 
 she answered, the first words eagerly, then 
 checking herself, added, " I am sorry to see 
 you didn't like him, Mr. Churchill ; I think I 
 should have liked him much better if you had."' 
 
 " Why, my dear Miss Darnell, should you 
 fancy I do not like him ? It is true, that our 
 different modes of life may prevent my perfect- 
 ly understanding all his stories. The poor 
 painter, who has nothing but daubing colours 
 on canvass to show as the labour of a lifetime, 
 can never compete in interest with him who has 
 soul-stirring adventures by sea and land to 
 boast."
 
 176 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 " And fearful dangers he has had, poor 
 dear George ! has he not ? The embarking 
 the troops there — at what 's the name of the 
 place, among the Yankees — Old Orleans ? 
 New Orleans was it ? and that frightful hur- 
 ricane in latitude — ; he told us what lati- 
 tude it was in. But it wasn't that I was going 
 to say. Do you know, Mr. Churchill, you 
 sometimes made me ashamed of cousin George.?"" 
 
 " How ? Explain yourself, I pray you, 
 Lucy," said Churchill eagerly. 
 
 " Why, for all what you say about a poor 
 painter, and having nothing to tell of, I like so 
 much to hear you talk, whatever it is about, 
 and you speak to one so soft and kind, just 
 like one of the gentlefolk ; and I have been 
 always trying to answer you the same, and 
 somehow, I Ve got used to your ways lately ; 
 but last night, when cousin George talked
 
 THE CONTRAST. 177 
 
 rather rude like, I looked at you, and I saw 
 by your face that you were fashed, and 
 then I felt so uncomfortable — and, don't be 
 angry!" 
 
 " Angry ! no— why ?'' asked Churchill. 
 " And then I wished you away with all 
 my heart." 
 
 This was not exactly the conclusion to which 
 Churchill had hoped to hurry Lucy ; but still 
 there were many circumstances in the foregoing 
 conversation favourable to him. In the first 
 place, it was evident that she cared for his 
 opinion, and also that he had awakened in her 
 mind a sense of what was, or was not offensive 
 in manner. Yet, from the tone in which she 
 had spoken the last sentence, he could not but 
 draw the conclusion, that situated as she was 
 last night, it was his presence that she had felt 
 as a restraint— it was to his absence she would 
 
 I 5
 
 178 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 have looked as a relief. He would have liked 
 to ascertain whether this merely arose from 
 considering George's return — a return as of 
 right to the home of his childhood, which 
 would have prevented her imagining it pos- 
 sible that he could be removed from thence, 
 though he might be superseded in her affec- 
 tions. But just as, intending to pursue this 
 inquiry, he approached his companion with 
 a tender earnestness in his manner, which was 
 certainly not intended to meet the comments of 
 a third person ; he was interrupted by the un- 
 welcome apparition of Captain Collett, who 
 meeting them at the narrowest part of the 
 path, Churchill was obliged to draw back in 
 order to let him pass by Lucy, which as he 
 did, he said with a leer, meant to be full of 
 meaning, " Sorry to separate you !" and as he 
 brushed by Churchill, he hummed the burthen 
 of a nautical ballad then in vogue.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 179 
 
 " From our night-caps so clean, 
 Our fresh laurel was torn, 
 And the prize of the e'en 
 Was recaptur'd at morn." 
 
 Ere they could recover the thread of their 
 discourse, thus disagreeably broken in upon, 
 they had come within sight of the parisfi 
 church, and as the last loitering groups gra- 
 dually disappeared within the porch, whilst 
 the lingering tones of the slowly-stopping bell 
 died away upon the ear, they felt that they 
 were late, and Lucy quickened her steps, and 
 led the way to their family seats. 
 
 The sacred building was one of the humblest 
 of its kind ; for centuries (necessary repairs 
 excepted) it had remained much in its present 
 state, the weekly resort of the simple and 
 secluded neighbourhood : there never had been 
 any opulent landed proprietors within the pa- 
 rish ; no squirearchial elevation broke the regu- 
 lar equality of the divided aisle, or claimed
 
 180 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 distinction or superiority from the height of 
 its railing or the colour of its lining. 
 
 There was here no appearances at variance 
 with those professions of equality in the sight 
 of Him they came to address, which the ser- 
 vice they came jointly to engage in, alike 
 places in the mouths of the rich and of the 
 poor, of the high-born noble and the humble 
 peasant, sentiments which the unadorned sim- 
 plicity of the sacred edifice was so well calcu- 
 lated to awaken in every mind. Hence, as Lord 
 Castleton cast a look around upon the simple 
 single-hearted groups who came there, without 
 disguise or reservation, to confess their errors, 
 the falsity of his own position struck him more 
 forcibly than it had ever done before, accompa- 
 nied with a sense of shame at the deception he 
 had been practising. True, there was no un- 
 worthy motive at the bottom of that deception ; 
 those upon whose credulity he was imposing, it
 
 THE CONTRAST. 181 
 
 could not be denied, would in every worldly 
 consideration gain immensely by his being other 
 than he seemed. But still no candid mind, 
 and such was Lord Castleton's naturally, can 
 satisfy itself with the practice of deceit or 
 artifice in any serious affair. Was it so cer- 
 tain, after all, that the splendid elevation he 
 designed for Lucy must necessarily insure her 
 happiness.? He had found her satisfied with 
 herself, contented with all around her — the cen- 
 tre of a little world, which knew no other. 
 What had been the effect which his society 
 had already produced upon this tranquil state 
 of mind ? It was evident that it had lowered 
 cousin George in her estimation ; this was an 
 effect, which, if it had stood alone, perhaps he 
 might not so much have regretted ; but was it 
 not accompanied by a feeling of dissatisfaction 
 at herself, at her involuntary participation in 
 many former sources of pleasure ? and if this
 
 182 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 was produced merely as the consequence of 
 adopting his views when listening to him only 
 as the poor painter Churchill, how much would 
 such a painful sense of unfitness be aggravated, 
 when bewildered with the strangeness of that 
 world to which he meant to transplant her ; 
 and what could he offer in compensation, for 
 inflicting that constantly-corroding sense of 
 self-inferiority, where all had previously been 
 peace and content ? Not only her gentleness 
 would prevent her braving the difficulties of 
 such a situation, but her very sensibility, which 
 she possessed in a degree unusual in her rank 
 of life, would make her more alive to painful 
 sensations. 
 
 All these reflections, vague and half-formed, 
 but generally unsatisfactory, floated through 
 Castleton''s mind in the intervals of the service, 
 and gave to his deportment a restless air, as if 
 he feared impending discovery. This vague con- 
 sciousness of insecurity arose principally from
 
 THE CONTRAST. 183 
 
 the disorder of his own mind, but was not a 
 little increased by the anxiously inquiring ex- 
 pression on the face of the person immediately 
 opposite to him, whose penetrating eyes he 
 found at intervals fixed intently upon him with 
 a searching, though not an unkind gaze : this 
 he rightly imagined to be Alice Darnell. It 
 was a countenance which, though it had al- 
 ready lost the freshness of youth, none could 
 have beheld without interest, even if she had 
 not appeared in some degree to reciprocate that 
 interest, as was the case in the present instance. 
 He could not conceal from himself, that though 
 this must have been the first time she had 
 seen her nephew George since his long absence, 
 most of her attention was bestowed upon 
 himself, the stranger. Yet, though her ex- 
 pression was rather that of melancholy interest 
 than of reproof, the feeling it excited in his 
 mind was principally dread of her penetration,
 
 184 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 which caused him instinctively to drop his eyes 
 beneath her gaze. 
 
 When the service was concluded, and the 
 family party left the church together, Alice 
 Darnell addressed a few words to him, in which 
 he could not help fancying that some feeling 
 of interest lurked beneath a form of studied 
 coldness, and through the guise of common- 
 place inquiry ; and when the tones of his voice 
 in reply first struck her ear, the arm which 
 held Lucy trembled violently ; and, turning 
 away, she addressed him no more, but draw- 
 ing Lucy closely towards her, after some 
 lengthened whispering between the two, the 
 niece begged that he would announce to her 
 family, that in consequence of her aunt not 
 feeling well, she had returned home with her, 
 and they were not to expect her back to din- 
 ner ; and turning together down one path, they 
 left him to pursue his solitary way by that 
 which he had come.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 185 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air, 
 Show scarce so gross as beetles. 
 
 Shakspeare. . 
 
 For many fathoms doth the beetling rock 
 Rise o'er the breaker's surge. 
 
 Maturin. 
 
 Churchill found that George and his aunt 
 had already returned some time, as the young 
 sailor's anxiety to rejoin his fair cousin had 
 induced him to apply repeated hints, as to the 
 rate of progress, upon the fat quarters of the 
 cumbrous quadruped before him, which were 
 the more readily attended to, as that experi-
 
 186 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 enced beast knew that his head was now turned 
 homewards. 
 
 The announcement with w^hich Churchill 
 was charged of Lucy''s absence, made him 
 very ill received by all the party. Farmer 
 Darnell always missed his daughter's affec- 
 tionate attentions most when labouring under 
 a fit of lumbago ; Mrs. Darnell liked particu- 
 larly to be assisted in the arrangement of the 
 Sunday's repast by some one more handy than 
 big Betsey, as George always called the Pata- 
 gonian maid-of-all-work. And as for George 
 himself, he had been thinking all the way home 
 how very agreeable he was going to make him- 
 self, and how he meant to show off and amuse his 
 cousin after her dull walk with that prig of a 
 painter. He therefore looked upon this inter- 
 loper, when he appeared alone, as a bird of ill 
 omen to him, and he began to owe him a 
 grudge for this second separation, though it
 
 THE CONTRAST. 187 
 
 was not like the first one, by which the object 
 of his increasing antipathy liad himself profited. 
 With such a state of feeling shared amongst 
 the party assembled, the substantial meal of 
 which they were about to partake was not 
 likely to be a very lively one, and contrasted 
 singularly with the heartfelt merriment of the 
 supper of the night before. Indeed, as the 
 majority of those assembled were not of a rank 
 in life who make conversation for civility sake, 
 but who, strange as it may appear, literally 
 say nothing when they have nothing to say, 
 not a word would have been spoken, had not 
 habit rendered this inveterate silence so irk- 
 some to Lord Castleton, that he could not help 
 hazarding a trite observation or two on the 
 weather, which, if dropped elsewhere, would 
 have been taken up, and handed back, and led 
 to reply and rejoinder, but which were here 
 considered such undeniable truisms, that they
 
 188 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 were only received with an unencouraging 
 " humph," and all again relapsed into silence, 
 broken only by the clattering of the knives on 
 the plates ; and even this was muffled, when, 
 instead of tearing asunder slices of beef, they 
 dived in smoother intersections through thick 
 portions of plum-pudding. 
 
 After dinner the society, if such it could be 
 called, seemed mutually anxious to separate, — 
 Farmer Darnell to his easy-chair and pipe, 
 Mrs. Darnell to her household avocations ; and 
 as to George and Churchill, though they pro- 
 bably had the same object and destination in 
 view, one went out at the back-door merely 
 because the other went out at the front. 
 
 Churchill bent his way towards the part of the 
 cHff by which he knew Lucy must return, with 
 no other pretence for lingering there till her ap- 
 pearance, than that furnished by his small pocket 
 sketch-book ; having got into a great scrape with
 
 THE CONTRAST. 189 
 
 Mrs.Darnellj on that day week, by sallying forth, 
 portfolio in hand, as he was considered so com- 
 pletely as a professional person, that it was 
 reckoned a profanation of the Lord's day for 
 him thus to labour in his vocation on it. The 
 ledge upon the side of the cliff, from which he 
 could best command the prospect of Lucy's 
 return, was, however, too much of a bird's-eye 
 point of view to be advantageous to a drafts- 
 man : this circumstance, joined to the imper- 
 fect implements with which he was upon this 
 occasion provided, induced him soon to relin- 
 quish even the attempt to exercise his assumed 
 " metier," and abandon himself to those re- 
 flections which the singularity of the situation 
 in which he had placed himself, and the events 
 of the last four-and-twenty hours, had rendered 
 more than ever striking. 
 
 Though sitting with his book open before 
 him, and his pencil in his hand, so completely
 
 190 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 had the inward bent of his thoughts shut out 
 the consciousness of any external objects, that 
 he felt startled when he heard a voice some 
 paces above him, exclaim, " There she is at 
 last " Instinctively, his eyes followed the path 
 by which Lucy must return ; the more natu- 
 ral was this direction, as he recognised the voice 
 above to be George''s. But he could discern no 
 moving object in the whole length of the track. 
 Another voice from above, which reminded 
 him of the harsh tones of Captain Collett, now 
 rejoined, 
 
 " Yes ; there, that '11 do ; I see you, that 's 
 near enough to show her to us; now, about 
 with her, you lubbers, there she goes, that 's 
 right." 
 
 ChurchilFs eye dropping from the path on 
 which it had been fixed, to find out what else 
 these remarks could apply to, he now observed, 
 for the first time, what under other circum- 
 
 i
 
 THE CONTRAST. I9I 
 
 stances would have struck him merely from its 
 picturesque appearance. Unnoticed by him, a 
 lugger had neared the point of the cliff, the sun 
 shining gaily on its light sails, and sparkling 
 in the foam which was dashed back from its 
 side as it was pressed close up against the 
 wind. Now, however, even whilst these words 
 were spoken from above, confirming him in the 
 idea that it was to this vessel the allusion was 
 made, she was on the sudden put about, more 
 sails were set, and with a fresh breeze from the 
 land, she dashed rapidly out into the open sea. 
 The projecting ledge of rock, which formed 
 rather an awful sort of canopy to the niche 
 within which Churchill was sitting, effectually 
 prevented his being seen by those who might 
 be leaning against the stone-wall at the top of 
 the cliff; as he rightly conjectured the two 
 persons whose observations he had just heard 
 now were. Provided with so unsuspicious an
 
 192 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 excuse as his sketch-book for continuing where 
 he was, he determined to take his chance for 
 overhearing some more communications which 
 (he hardly knew why) powerfully excited his 
 curiosity. 
 
 But though only separated by a few paces 
 from those who spoke, in spite of straining his 
 attention, which the more he listened the more 
 he felt inclined to do, he could but very im- 
 perfectly catch the purport of what was said ; 
 sometimes, in the middle of a sentence, a louder 
 and a longer wave would break, roaring on the 
 shingle beneath ; sometimes a screaming sea- 
 bird would hover round his head, as if on pur- 
 pose to baulk him. 
 
 " Well, Darnell, my lad," said Captain Col- 
 lett, "so all's right. Jack Dawkins has not 
 mistaken the land-marks. And you were not 
 more glad to see again your friends of last 
 night, not even the tight little Lucy, than I 
 
 i
 
 THE CONTRAST. 193 
 
 am to see heave in sight my first of favourites, 
 ' La Pie voleiise.'' " 
 
 " And I should see her with much more 
 pleasure if she were not so near my friends of 
 last night. She's not the right sort of com- 
 pany for them ; and between ourselves, Cap- 
 tain, now it's come to the point, I dread their 
 becoming better acquainted with each other." 
 
 " And since when has the wind set in that 
 quarter, lad ? Didn't you, yourself, remind 
 me, who know the whole line of coast, what a 
 snug place to land " 
 
 Here the screaming- of the sea-<julls above 
 Churchill's head, and the roar of the breakers 
 beneath his feet, combined to prevent his catch- 
 ing the remainder of Collett's answer ; and 
 when these noises were again comparatively 
 calmed, he heard George protesting — " Nay, 
 never say I 'm ungrateful^ or that I can forget 
 the ugly scrape you helped me out of this time 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 194 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 three years ; or that I repent the merry period 
 of adventure we passed together the last months 
 of the war in our privateering cruises ; but 
 that was other-guess work, when, if one did 
 chance to get knocked of the head, no one knew 
 or cared whether the venture we were engaged 
 in cliimed in witli the exact letter of the law. 
 Who thought of George Darnell then ? and 
 whether he was washed overboard with a bul- 
 let in his body or witliout, no one would grieve 
 about his death more or less for the manner 
 of it. But somehow, coming back here amongst 
 kith and kin, and finding them all the same, I 
 can't help wishing I was so myself." 
 
 " Oh, certainly !" rejoined Captain Collett 
 with a sneer, " they must seem all the same to 
 you : above all, Lucy ; she has thought of no 
 one else since you first left home, and she's 
 (mly had that painter chap here on purpose to 
 meet you, that he may paint her your picture 
 
 i
 
 THE CONTRAST. 195 
 
 against your next cruise. He was a studying 
 her face pretty closely, you '11 be glad to hear, 
 when I met them going to church this morn- 
 
 ing.- 
 
 Churchill could only hear, in reply to this, 
 the immortal part of himself condemned to 
 everlasting perdition in the emphatic mono- 
 syllable usually applied to such a purpose. 
 Whether the very vehemence with which this 
 was uttered warned the speaker himself after- 
 wards to drop liis voice, or the surrounding 
 noises again conspired to drown it, but it was 
 some time before the listener could aeain make 
 out what was said ; when he did, George w^as 
 saying, apparently in answer to some remon- 
 strance of the other, " Never fear, you have 
 my word, and you shall find me as faithful 
 here as if I was still on the smooth white sands 
 of Cherbourg or the shingles of Sussex ; all I 
 meant was, that when this morning I paced 
 
 K 2
 
 196 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 along the churchyard amongst the tombstones, 
 that told of those who had borne the name of 
 Darnell in peace and good-will to all around 
 them, and now seemed to meet my eye on all 
 sides as if to remind me of that with honest 
 
 pride, I felt But what signifies explaining to 
 
 you feelings which are not at all in your line ; 
 they may be between me and my rest, but they 
 shall not come between my word and you." 
 
 The conference seemed here to be inter- 
 rupted, for George halloed out suddenly in a 
 louder voice, " Avast, Mary ! whither away so 
 
 fast r 
 
 " To Bankside, to say that mistress is but 
 poorly, and Miss Lucy will stay with her aunt 
 to-night." 
 
 " All goes contrary," muttered George in 
 
 reply. 
 
 " Well, Mary, say you spoke me by the 
 way, and I bore the message for you ;" and
 
 THE CONTRAST. 197 
 
 George and his companion upon this prepared 
 to return homewards. 
 
 Churchill remained a few minutes behind, 
 absorbed in reflections upon what he had so 
 imperfectly collected. It appeared, though he 
 could not exactl}^ make out in what enterprise 
 they were at present engaged, that Captain 
 Collett was a very dangerous companion for 
 his young friend, and that he had, perhaps, 
 already involved him in some scrape which 
 would effect his future respectability in life. 
 There was nothing which he could distinctly 
 gather in the shape of an accusation from the 
 conversation he had just heard ; but he deter- 
 mined to be upon the watch, and, should any 
 thing further happen to confirm his suspicions, 
 to communicate them to Farmer Darnell, and 
 in the mean time to watch the next apparition 
 on the coast of the " Pie Voleuse," which he 
 now saw, after having run about a mile before
 
 198 
 
 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 the wind straight out from the land, was stand- 
 ing to the southward : he felt, at the same time, 
 much disappointed at the protracted absence of 
 Lucy ; and, anticipating nothing but discomfort 
 in the present state of the Darnell family, re- 
 turned to Bank side Farm. 
 
 4 
 
 
 A' I
 
 THE CONTRAST. 199 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Out of thy long experienced time 
 
 Give me some counsel. Shakspeare. 
 
 A faint, but faithful, portraiture of one 
 Most dearly loved, and now for ever lost. 
 
 The agitation of Alice Darnell, which had 
 struck Churchill as remarkable, was not seen 
 without surprise by her niece, who had never 
 previously, in all their intercourse, observed 
 any break in her usually composed demeanour, 
 or a ruffle in her equable manners. She said 
 no more in the course of their hurried return 
 to her cottage, but occasionally pressed affec- 
 tionately Lucy"'s arm, on which she leaned, and
 
 200 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 gazed earnestly in her face with an expression 
 of anxious tenderness. 
 
 Upon reaching home, she drew her niece into 
 her snug little neatly-furnished parlour, and 
 throwing herself upon the sofa, covered her 
 face for some minutes with her hands, seeming 
 not to hear Lucy"'s repeated requests to know 
 what she could do to comfort her. At last, 
 raising herself, as if with an effort, and looking 
 up in Lucy's face with a countenance strongly 
 marked with the expression of inward suffering, 
 she asked abruptly — " And you say his name 
 is Churchill ?"" Her niece answering in the 
 affirmative, she continued — " But what can the 
 name tell, which may easily be an assumed one? 
 It is not that the features, or even the counte- 
 nance, are the same ; but there is something in 
 
 the air and manner w hich too strongly recall 
 
 And oh, above every thing, the expression of 
 those eyes, when he looked tenderly on her —
 
 THE CONTRAST. 201 
 
 I had hoped that I had forgotten that of which 
 they renevv the recollection with the fresh- 
 ness of yesterday. In the last few minutes 1 
 have lived over again months of suffering, 
 which I had hoped, in vain, subsequent years 
 of repose and resignation had almost effaced 
 from my too vivid recollection. It is but one 
 effort more, and for your sake I will make the 
 attempt. Those events, which, by constantly 
 refusing to dwell upon, I had hoped the obli- 
 terating hand of time was gradually glossing 
 over, I now find as distinctly scarred as ever in 
 the deeply-cut tablets of my memory. It will 
 but cost me one more pang, that they should 
 assume the tangible shape of words, and operate 
 as a warning to my beloved niece, in the danger 
 which I think at present threatens her. Lucy, 
 Churchill loves you, and you must cease to 
 love him."" 
 
 The poor girl, whose youth, innocence, and 
 
 K 5
 
 202 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 ignorance of the world would have prevented 
 her being able to define the nature of her own 
 feelings towards Churchill, had that habitual 
 deference for her aunt''s judgment, that she 
 would never have supposed that she could 
 be mistaken in any opinion so oracular- 
 ly delivered, and, therefore, never thought 
 of disputing what she seemed to take for 
 granted, that she had already begun to love 
 Churchill ; though she could not account why, 
 if this was the case, the idea of George should 
 rise at the same moment in her mind. She 
 made no reply, but seating herself at her aunt's 
 feet, and hiding her face on her knees, waited 
 some explanation of the last sentence. 
 
 " I feel assured," continued Alice Darnell, 
 " as of my own existence, that he is elevated 
 far above your rank in life; and trust me, I 
 speak from my own experience, when I say 
 there are no sufferings at all to compare with
 
 THE CONTRAST. 203 
 
 those which arise from unequal attachments. 
 Whether the resemblance which so stronelv 
 struck my imagination is other than a strange 
 coincidence, I have no means of judging; but 
 that Churchill is other than that which he here 
 passes himself to be, I feel I cannot be mis- 
 taken. — Lucy, it is necessary that, in what I 
 am about to say, I should speak to you much 
 of myself; that I should disclose many parts 
 of my early life, which have been hitherto con- 
 cealed, not only from you, but from those of 
 your relations nearer my own age, with whom 
 you have been living. jNIy brother is only par- 
 tially informed of much of what I am going, 
 without reserve, to lay before you. Much I 
 shall have to speak of feelings which neither 
 his habits nor his disposition would have en- 
 abled him to understand. The principal facts 
 I felt it my duty to confide to him, and it 
 was at his desire that no mention whatever was
 
 204 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 made of them to your mother; for though 
 blame might not be attachable to me, there 
 were circumstances which, he said, her pecu- 
 liar mode of thinking might make subject of 
 reproach. If now I speak more openly to you 
 than I have ever done to any one, it is be- 
 cause, in spite of that complete ignorance of 
 the world, which your position has implanted, 
 I have always observed in you a fund of natu- 
 ral good sense, which will induce you to make 
 the right use of that practical warning which I 
 am urged to try as an experiment, from the 
 similarity, in many respects, of the position in 
 which you at present are, to that whence 1 
 derived every misery except disgrace. 
 
 " Your father and I were early left orphans. 
 George"'s father had already been some time at 
 sea when our parents died, therefore the loss to 
 him was not so great as to myself and my elder 
 brother. An old bachelor, relative of ours,
 
 THE CONTRAST. 205 
 
 undertook the management of the farm, and 
 the instruction of your father in the art by 
 which he was to live. It was more difficult to 
 decide what was to become of me. But it was 
 at length determined nominally, upon the au- 
 thority of our guardian, but in reality by the 
 advice of the gossips in the neighbourhood, and 
 ray own wish, that I should be placed at what 
 was called a finishing-establishment for young 
 ladies, at a small sea-bathing place thirty miles 
 from hence. I had not, however, long been 
 there, before, at one of the exhibitions for 
 which this school was celebrated, 1 attracted 
 the attention of an excellent and talented, but 
 eccentric elderly lady of the name of Nesbit, 
 
 who happened to be staying at for the 
 
 season. Mrs. Nesbit had long been left a 
 widow with a large fortune, the greater part 
 of which she spent in the encouragement of the 
 fine arts. In most of these, in her younger
 
 206 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 days, she had herself been no indifferent pro- 
 ficient ; but latterly, her increasing infirmities 
 had confined the exercise of her taste to admi- 
 ration of the skill of others. Frequent attacks 
 of gout in the hand had prevented her con- 
 tinuing her pencil, of the previous success of 
 which her boudoir still showed some favour- 
 able specimens ; and the same cause deprived 
 the world of many records of her playful ima- 
 gination, in which she had formerly indulged, 
 when still able to write as quickly as she could 
 think. Perhaps, of all the trials to which the 
 progress of physical infirmities subject us, 
 there is none so melancholy as when they pro- 
 duce the forced inaction of previously well 
 exercised faculties. 
 
 '* Yet, though my acquaintance with Mrs. 
 Nesbit only commenced after she was already 
 suffering in a cruel degree from manifold pri- 
 vations of this nature, I never saw her temper
 
 THE CONTRAST, 207 
 
 the least ruffled by any feeling of envy at the 
 happier state of others; her kind disposition, 
 and her still fresh feelings, enabled her to 
 derive unalloyed pleasure from the success of 
 others. When in London, her house was 
 always full of those who had most recently 
 exerted themselves in any line with distinction ; 
 and even when I have known her to have been 
 suffering acute bodily pain, I have seen her 
 benevolent countenance light up, as if the tri- 
 umph was her own, when any new aspirant for 
 fame has been brought to one of her choice little 
 evening reunions, to hear from her own lips 
 the acknowledgment of the pleasure she had 
 derived from his successful efforts. At the pe- 
 riod when I first became an inmate in her 
 house, she had just acquired the afflicting con- 
 sciousness that she could not, without risking 
 the total loss of eyesight, indulge as formerly 
 in reading for any time together to herself.
 
 208 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 This was, to a person of her tastes, the most 
 cruel privation with which she had as yet been 
 threatened, and one which it required all her 
 resignation to bear with equanimity. 
 
 " It was to alleviate her loss in this respect, 
 that having been pleased with something she 
 observed in my voice and elocution at one of 
 our school exhibitions, she easily persuaded 
 me to accompany her to London as a com- 
 panion, whose principal duty was to be reading 
 aloud to my benefactress, — most sincerely may 
 I so style her. For though 1 know that gene- 
 rally there is no fate more deplored than that 
 of a dependant companion, yet, whilst I was 
 in that much stigmatized situation, I expe- 
 rienced nothing but kindness, and I derived 
 nothing but pleasure from the occupation 
 which it entailed on me. 
 
 "Our readings generally consisted of the best 
 works of the day, and when not satisfactorily
 
 THE CONTRAST. 209 
 
 supplied with those, selections from the first 
 poets and dramatists. Mrs. Nesbit was an 
 enthusiast about many of these, but Shakspeare 
 was her idol ; and it was in my endeavours to 
 please her, by showing that I i*eally felt the 
 beauties which I was the medium of conveying, 
 that I first cultivated that taste for elocution, 
 which, as you will see, I afterwards exercised in 
 a wider field. The first feelings of gratified 
 vanity I had upon the subject, was when Mrs. 
 Nesbit would half raise herself upon her sofa, 
 and after gazing at me intently for some time, 
 interrupt me with, 
 
 " ' My dear Alice, what an actress you would 
 make !' 
 
 " Amongst the many distinguished persons of 
 every profession who used then to frequent my 
 friend's select circle, was often to be found 
 that great actor, whose name you have often 
 heard me mention Avith enthusiasm, when we
 
 210 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 have been reading together either Hamlet or 
 Macbeth ; — I mean the head of that family who 
 have for nearly half a century upheld the cha- 
 racter of the stage, as much by their virtues, 
 as they have supported its attraction by their 
 talents. He was, indeed, a noble creature ; per- 
 haps only too exalted and abstracted in his 
 view of human nature for the matter-of-fact 
 age in which he finished his career. But the 
 revival of recollections of that time is leading 
 me from the point on which I wish to speak, 
 even had I no other and graver object in what 
 I am saying. It is not with you, who never 
 beheld him, that I should vindicate my opinion 
 of the professional pre-eminence of the person 
 in question. I only alluded to him, because 
 my partial benefactress often led this great 
 artist to participate, apparently with warmth 
 and sincerity, in her favourable opinion of my 
 uninstructed attempts at recitation ; and as
 
 THE CONTRAST. 211 
 
 enthusiasm, real or assumed, was not his cha- 
 racteristic, this testimony gave us both the 
 greater pleasure. 
 
 "In the midst of all this, and \vhilst my friend 
 was getting every day more attached to me, I 
 was unexpectedly deprived of her invaluable 
 protection, by a sudden attack of gout in the 
 stomach, which proved fatal to her in the night- 
 time, and before assistance could be procured. 
 
 "One moment I must pause upon the awaken- 
 ed recollections of my earliest friend and bene- 
 factress, whose awfully sudden end exercised 
 so great an influence on my future fate, and I 
 will then proceed."
 
 212 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Is it not monstrous that this player here, 
 But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, 
 Could force his soul so to his own conceit ? 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 When and where and how we met, we wooed 
 And made exchange of vows, I '11 tell thee. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 " It had not been in Mrs. Nesbit's power to 
 provide adequately for me ; the whole of her 
 income having been derived from a handsome 
 jointure, which, at her death, reverted to her 
 husband's heir-at-law. A codicil to her will 
 conferred on me, as a legacy, the small sum in 
 ready money which her liberal, though not ex-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 213 
 
 travagant style of living, had left at her banker's ; 
 it also conveyed to me all her library of books, 
 most of which you now see round you. Utter- 
 ly unprotected as I was, thus once again left, 
 and still only eighteen, it was necessary that 
 I should determine without delay upon the 
 course which, under these circumstances, I 
 wished to pursue. 
 
 " Perhaps it was a natural defect in my 
 character, only elicited by the situation in 
 which I had been lately placed, that made me 
 shrink instinctively from returning once more 
 amongst the kind, but rude and uncivilized 
 companions of my earlier days. Combined with 
 this dislike to that which was the obvious course 
 for a young girl like me to pursue, recollections 
 arose continually of Mrs. Nesbit's evidently sin- 
 cere opinion — ' My dear Alice, what an actress 
 you would make !' which gradually produced 
 an uncontrollable longing to embark in that 
 precarious profession : the exercise of which,
 
 214 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 in my unpractised mind, as yet only asso- 
 ciated with the idea of such partial encomiums 
 and kind criticisms as had hitherto met my 
 ear from the friendly circle in Mrs. Nesbit's 
 drawing-room. 
 
 *' Once having made up my mind, I deter- 
 mined to consult the great actor, whom I have 
 before mentioned, upon the best manner of 
 putting my project into execution. He seem- 
 ed much embarrassed at the nature of ni}' 
 appeal. It appeared as if it never had occurred 
 to him, from the sort of society in which he 
 had heard me give specimens of my abilities, 
 that it was likely I should ever be called upon 
 thus to exert them professionally. 
 
 " He told me, that he should be deficient in 
 candour, if he did not repeat what he had for- 
 merly said, * that he thought me eminently 
 qualified to succeed should I really be deter- 
 mined to try the stage ; but,' he added, ' in 
 spite of those brilliant prospects, he could
 
 THE CONTRAST. 215 
 
 never dispassionately advise any one so young 
 and unprotected to take such a step ; and if 
 the advice which I sought from him was not as 
 to the best means of doing that upon which I 
 had already decided, but that I would consult 
 him as to the expediency of doing so at all, he 
 would do all in his power to dissuade me, at 
 least at present, from thinking of such a 
 thing.' I thanked him sincerely for his kind- 
 ness, and expressed no more gratitude than I 
 felt towards him, but still adhered to my de- 
 termination, representing to him how little I 
 knew what else to do with myself, and how 
 sanguine I felt at being able and willing to 
 surmount all the difficulties and inconveniences 
 of the first steps of the profession. Seeing me 
 determined, he gave me letters of introduc- 
 tion and recommendation to some connexions 
 of his, then in the management of one of the 
 first provincial circuits. 
 
 " By them I was, in consequence, most cordi-
 
 216 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 ally received, and offered a choice of any cha- 
 racter I chose for my debut. Long before 
 that night arrived, I found out how^ differently 
 my exertions were likely to be estimated here, 
 and at Mrs. Nesbit's. There, in the absence of 
 all competition, praise excited no envy, and 
 captious criticism would have been avoided as 
 ill-breeding. Here my arrival had disturbed 
 long-established claims to admiration, and had 
 excited, first dismay, and then dislike. I had 
 chosen Juliet for my first appearance, a choice 
 most young ladies have made before me, and 
 probably will do as long as ' debutantes' of 
 eighteen each season succeed one another. I 
 was not aware of the offence this was likely to 
 give till after it was all settled ; when I found 
 I had displaced a majestic-looking widow lady, 
 whose name appeared upon the prompter's 
 books as having been in undisputed possession 
 of the part for nearly twenty years; a pre-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 217' 
 
 scriptive right upon which she rested her claims, 
 perhaps rather technically than judiciously. 
 Had it been a young girl, like myself, with 
 whom I interfered, she might have relied upon 
 the anticipation of my failure, and upon the 
 part then reverting to her ; but this lady 
 felt that her hitherto uninterrupted tenure once 
 broken in upon, it was not likely it would ever 
 be revived. 
 
 " Under her auspices, therefore, was orga- 
 nized a party to cry down ray inexperienced 
 attempts, and, with my eyes thus officiously 
 opened to my own defects, I felt, as much as 
 they could impress upon me, how very far from 
 perfect I then was. 
 
 " It was all so different to me from the dining- 
 room of Mrs. Nesbit — the mere walking; the 
 stage was a difficulty which I thought I should 
 never get over, particularly when, at each of the 
 wings, I alwaj^s found during my rehearsals, 
 
 VOL. 1. L
 
 218 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 some of my new friends to explain to me, solely 
 for my good, how ridiculous something which I 
 had done had been. The contrast between my 
 present mortified feelings and my previously 
 over-sanguine expectations was so great, that I 
 should have been completely disheartened, and, 
 perhaps, abandoned the stage in despair, but 
 for the good-natured encouragement of many 
 others of the company. All the effect, there- 
 fore, which this attempt had upon me, was to 
 determine me to defer, till we removed to the 
 next town in the circuit, my first appearance; 
 and in the mean time, to study hard to acquire 
 technical facilities, and to conquer those de- 
 fects, of which I ought to thank my rival for 
 having taken such pains to make me aware. 
 The play had been announced, and therefore 
 was not withdrawn, but an apology was made 
 for the non-appearance of the debutante, and 
 my matronly substitute once more " strut-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 219 
 
 ted and fretted" with ill-concealed triumph 
 through the childish sorrows of Juliet. This 
 exhibition Wcis also a useful preparation for me, 
 as it taught me many practical tricks to avoid. 
 
 " The company removed to a fashionable 
 watering-place, then in full season, and at 
 length my first appearance was positively fixed. 
 And here let me do justice to the general 
 kindly feelings of fellowship which I found 
 to exist amongst the members of a profession, 
 which by no means creates evil passions, 
 though it may occasionally concentrate into a 
 strong focus the causes which usually excite 
 their display. That constant and close colli- 
 sion of pretensions, in which self-love must 
 receive daily wounds, may naturally have a 
 tendency to produce that envy and spirit of 
 detraction, from which no society is free, not 
 even that, where the contests of vanity are for 
 the most unimportant objects, and between the 
 
 L 2
 
 220 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 most independent persons. But amongst my 
 brethren of the stage, I generally found these 
 feelings as fleeting as the passing pageant 
 which had excited them ; and in all essentials 
 they might challenge a comparison with any of 
 those whose own means were most assured, in 
 their eagerness to extend from their own pre- 
 carious provision, encouraging sympathy to the 
 efforts of the inexperienced, and substantial 
 support to the decay of the aged. 
 
 " In my own case, the interested attempt to 
 crush a young beginner, excited in many of the 
 company a strong feeling in my favour ; and 
 the interval which had elapsed had certainly 
 been of considerable service to me, perhaps not 
 a little in destroying that ill-grounded feeling 
 of self-confidence, in which the partial panegy- 
 rics of friends had previously nursed me. But 
 the want of this very much increased the ter- 
 rors of the awful approaching trial.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 221 
 
 " Perhaps the time I had now unassumingly 
 passed amongst them had predisposed the com- 
 pany in my favour ; but during the last day or 
 two before my attempt, it is impossible to do 
 justice to the almost paternal interest shown for 
 me by nearly every member, from the amiable 
 manager himself, down to the apothecary of the 
 night. Still, nothing could alleviate the over- 
 powering sensation which I experienced when 
 the anxious moment I so long anticipated ac- 
 tually arrived. The house was crowded in 
 every part. The cheering welcome with which 
 I was received upon my first entrance did not 
 dispel my fears, as I felt that it was only so 
 much advanced in trust that, by my exertions, 
 I would afterwards repay it. But as the play 
 proceeded, and I recovered my confidence, the 
 first spontaneous burst of applause which rang 
 from every part of the house caused a con- 
 sciousness of triumph, quite unlike any thing
 
 222 THE CONTRAST, 
 
 I had ever before experienced. It proclaimed 
 a mysterious command over the unsuspecting 
 sympathies of a mixed multitude, which was 
 immeasurably superior to the finest compliment 
 that had ever gratified my ear in Mrs. Nesbit's 
 drawing-room. My success was complete ; I 
 may now, without vanity, refer to it as un- 
 paralleled. 
 
 " Amongst the most enthusiastic of my sup- 
 porters was a party of officers in the stage-box. 
 The period to which I refer was that during 
 the late war, when the militia was quartered 
 about the country, the officers of which often 
 contained in their number many men of rank 
 and fortune ; of this party the greater number 
 were uniform in their acclamations. But even 
 on that night of agitating triumph I could not 
 help remarking the evident admiration of one 
 officer, who did not join in the vehement de- 
 monstrations of his companions, but sat in the
 
 THE CONTRAST. 223 
 
 corner nearest the stage, with his speaking eyes 
 fixed upon me with an expression which, per- 
 haps, derived some of its intensity from the 
 strong glare of the foot lights, which cast a pale 
 hue over the rest of his features. Overpowered 
 with congratulations on all sides, I retired to 
 rest after my triumph, and slept soundly, only 
 that in a confused dream of happiness the one 
 distinct object that presented itself was the 
 expressive countenance in the stage-box. 
 
 " My debut had been so beyond expectation 
 successful, and the crowded houses every night 
 I played was such an unquestionable proof of 
 increasing attraction, that the very excess of 
 my triumph destroyed at once every spirit of 
 rivalry, as it became obvious that my stay there 
 could not extend beyond the little probationary 
 practice, and that before many months elapsed 
 I should be on the metropolitan boards. Even 
 my ci-devant rival, whose term was just up,
 
 224 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 accepted a re-engagenient, subject to the con- 
 dition of her exchanging for the present the 
 girlish white satin of Juliet for the motherly 
 black velvet of Lady Capulet. 
 
 " Still, upon every succeeding night of my 
 appearance, the same young officer, sometimes 
 alone, sometimes accompanied, was always in 
 the same corner of the stage-box. 
 
 " This had continued for some weeks without 
 our ever becoming acquainted, and thus his 
 admiration appeared purely professional. The 
 fame I had acquired, and whatever personal 
 attractions I then at eighteen could boast, 
 caused me, whenever I stirred out, to be much 
 followed by many of the idlers of the public 
 walks, but never by him ; and the wise regu- 
 lations of the manager, considering the mixed 
 nature of the company at a watering-place, put 
 many difficulties in the way of the intrusion of 
 strangers into the green-room.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 225 
 
 " One evening, however, under some pre- 
 tence or other, two of the brother officers 
 of my unknown admirer had contrived to 
 introduce themselves there in a state that 
 evidently showed they had rendered themselves 
 unfit for any society. But, at the period to 
 which I refer, it was not so well established, 
 as now I hear it is, that, to appear drunk, 
 was ' unbecoming the character of an officer 
 and a gentleman." The most noisy of these 
 made me the object of his loathsome ad- 
 dresses ; the disturbance he created had 
 reached the front of the house, and my brother 
 actors were endeavouring, by quiet remon- 
 strances, to induce him to withdraw, when my 
 unknown friend entered the room, and seizing 
 him by the arm, with an authoritative move- 
 ment of the head, motioned him to retire witli 
 him. 
 
 " The offender seemed awed for the moment, 
 
 L 5
 
 226 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 and did as he was desired. Being called at that 
 moment to the wing, I overheard, at the dis- 
 tance of a few paces from me, the continuance 
 of their conference. 
 
 " ' What d d nonsense,' said the offender, 
 
 ' why, she's only an actress.' 
 
 " ' If you had any of your senses left,' 
 retorted the other, in an impassioned tone 
 which went to my heart, ' you would see that 
 there could be no reason that a person who, 
 by the display of every grace, and the exercise 
 of consummate talent, commands the sympa- 
 thies of the most refined, should, on that very 
 account, tolerate the disgusting approaches of 
 such a beast as you have made of yourself." 
 
 " ' A very fine sermon for a soldier ; so, 
 amen ! and I shall go back to my beauty." 
 
 " ' Hold !' said my defender, stopping him, 
 ' I am most serious — if you will listen to my 
 advice, so much the better ; but I am deter-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 227 
 
 mined by foul means, if I cannot by fair, to 
 prevent your returning."* 
 
 " A short scuffle, and but a short one, ensued ; 
 for my defender, though much the shghter 
 of the two, was perfectly steady, an advantage 
 of which the other had deprived himself, and, 
 seizing his athletic antagonist by the nape of 
 the neck, with one push he sent him from the 
 top of the stairs to the bottom. 
 
 " Persons, in the state in which he then was, 
 are said not to be easily hurt, or else I should 
 have thought he must have been killed ; how- 
 ever, he rose without injury, and departed, 
 very angry, and determined to take ulterior 
 measures. 
 
 *' Just at the moment this occurred, I was 
 obliged to appear upon the stage, which I did 
 in a state of agitation that was afterwards 
 remarked upon. The consequence of this al- 
 tercation was a meeting between the two offi- 
 cers ; my champion received a ball through
 
 228 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 J 
 
 his right arm ; but his antagonist, from his ■ 
 
 conduct in the whole brawl, suffered, like 
 Cassio, such a wound in his reputation, that 
 his brother officers visited his fault with the 
 same punishment as Othello did that of his 
 lieutenant, and compelled him to quit the 
 regiment. ' . 
 
 " That all this could not occur in a small 
 gossiping watering-place, without being re- 
 counted in a thousand different ways, and not 
 all to my advantage, you may well imagine ; — 
 though when I say you may well imagine, I for- 
 get my poor dear child, that, up to this moment, 
 you are happily ignorant how peculiarly prone 
 that ever-changing compound, called the world, 
 is to decry any one who has previously excited 
 its admiration. Many stories that were then 
 circulated never wounded my ears ; but they 
 had been widely diffused : for one morning, 
 some days after this had happened, I was
 
 THE CONTRAST. 229 
 
 sitting in my room with my fellow-lodger, 
 an excellent elderly lady, the DuENNA on the 
 stage, but off it the Lady Bountiful of our 
 company, with whom I had arranged to keep 
 house, as a sort of protectress to my youth, 
 when the maid brought in a card with the name 
 of Captain Somers, who begged to be admit- 
 ted. The publicity which had been given to 
 the late affair, had, of course, made me ac- 
 quainted with the name of my declared 
 defender and previously unknown admirer. 
 Gratitude, of course, required that I should 
 admit him. He looked dangerously interest- 
 ing;, with the arm which had been wounded 
 in a black sling over his uniform, and his 
 countenance still showing traces of his late 
 confinement. He appeared embarrassed at 
 first, as he apologized for his intrusion, which 
 he said was to hope I would excuse any un- 
 pleasant construction which might be put upon
 
 230 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 his unauthorised interference in my behalf, 
 which, he said, had arisen unintentionally out 
 of the circumstances of the case : that he felt 
 at the time he could not do otherwise; but 
 that he much regretted the publicity of the 
 whole affair. I could not do less than thank 
 him most warmly for his generous interpo- 
 sition to save me from insult ; and I, in my 
 turn, felt embarrassed in doing so : an awk- 
 wardness which was not diminished by my 
 fellow lodger taking advantage of that oppor- 
 tunity to rise and leave the room. 
 
 " If Captain Somers and I then were lovers, 
 we were not perfect in our parts, for the con- 
 versation was by no means easy or animated, 
 now we were left alone ; indeed it was many 
 weeks before he spoke of love, and so imper- 
 ceptibly did we arrive at that point, that when 
 he first pleaded his passion, so far from falling 
 strano-ely on my ears, it seemed to me as if he
 
 THE CONTRAST. 231 
 
 had never previously spoken on any other sub- 
 ject. But where is the woman who requires to 
 be told she is beloved ? and how much more 
 precious are the moments, when that conscious- 
 ness is derived from any other source than that 
 of the tongue ? 
 
 " The innocent intercourse which from this 
 time subsisted between us, so far from detract- 
 ing from my profession, gave me an additional 
 stimulus to exertion. Somers was an accom- 
 plished critic; and no indifferent praise, however 
 unqualified, is half so sweet as little improving 
 suggestions softly hinted by an admiring lover. 
 Yet ignorant as I then was of the world, and- 
 wrapped up in my own day-dreams of love and 
 fame, I had my misgivings that Somers's was 
 not an unniingled happiness; indeed, sometimes 
 it was with pain I beheld the occasional fits of 
 despondency to which he seemed subject, with- 
 out my being able to divine the cause. During
 
 232 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 all this time he never mentioned his family, 
 and I knew nothing of it beyond the reports 
 amongst the company, to which I listened 
 little, and did not attach much credit. Months 
 passed over, and the time arrived when we 
 were to remove to our next quarters, a large 
 seaport town in the south, whilst the ****shire 
 militia were to continue in their present 
 station." 
 
 I 
 i
 
 THE CONTRAST. 233 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 A greater power than we can contradict 
 
 Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away ; 
 
 Thy husband in thy bosom lieth dead. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 " The prospect of this separation appeared 
 to be anticipated with much dread by Somers, 
 and he sighed over each succeeding day that 
 diminished the interval that remained to us. 
 Having always beheld in him this desire to 
 linger over each departing moment, I was 
 much surpri^, two days before the time that 
 I was to have left, to receive a note from him, 
 announcing his own departure. It was short,
 
 234 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 and only, ' I dare not say more, till farther 
 assured of the truth of what I have heard, 
 than that I trust this temporary absence will, 
 in the end, lead to the reverse of separation.' 
 I endeavoured to rest satisfied with this mys- 
 terious consolation, and contrive to keep up 
 my spirits during our own removal ; but when 
 week after week passed over at our new quar- 
 ters, without my hearing farther from Somers, 
 the secret anxiety which preyed upon me be- 
 gan to affect my professional exertions, and 
 diminish my popularity. At length Somers 
 returned : he was in deep mourning, and from 
 his manner had evidently something to com- 
 municate, whilst the warmth of his affection 
 for me seemed to have gained strength from 
 absence. 
 
 " The whole mystery of his conduct was 
 now unravelled. It appeared that he was the
 
 THE CONTRAST. 235 
 
 only son of Lord Castleton ; that -whilst yet 
 scarcely of age, he had been induced by his 
 father, whose estates were much embarrassed, 
 to marry a rich heiress ; that she, well knowing 
 for what he had married her, never thought it 
 necessary to give him that affection which he 
 did not seem to require; that after the birth 
 of one son, they lived little together. The 
 peace of Amiens happening about that time, 
 she had, under the pretence of ill health, ob- 
 tained his ready permission to go with some of 
 her own family to the Continent, whilst his 
 parliamentary duties, Avhich were then new to 
 him, gave him, on his side, as ready an excuse 
 for remaining in England. 
 
 " At the sudden breaking out of the war, 
 Mrs. Somers, with many others of her country- 
 men and women, became a detenue en France. 
 As long as she had been allowed to remain at
 
 236 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 Paris, this forced detention had not appear- 
 ed to be unpleasant to her, but when, for 
 some reason not explained, she had for- 
 feited the favour which had procured her that 
 indulgence, and had been exiled to a small 
 provincial town in France, she had become 
 very anxious to return to her own coun- 
 try. But reports which had reached Somers 
 of her levity, had not caused him to regret 
 more than he w^ould have done at the period 
 of their former separation, that it was utterly 
 out of his power to facilitate such an event. 
 He owned that upon first becoming acquainted 
 with me, he had looked forward to that sort of 
 temporary connexion, which would have thrown 
 a gleam of happiness over his at present solitary 
 home ; but that as a more intimate knowledge 
 of my character showed him the purity of my 
 unsuspecting innocence, he at the same time 
 began to entertain doubts both as to the pro-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 237 
 
 priety of acting upon such an intention, and 
 the probability of succeeding in it. Hence all 
 his inward struggles and ill-concealed fits of 
 despondency. Just as he had almost brought 
 himself to determine that the period of my re- 
 moving from ***** should terminate our 
 connexion, he received a report of the death 
 of IMrs. Somers in France. His first im- 
 pression was merely the shock of the sudden 
 removal of one so young from the world, with 
 whom he had been so closely connected : and 
 though he had never loved her, all his own 
 faults towards her now crowded upon his 
 recollection. Oppressed with these feelings, 
 though he already began to cherish half-formed 
 hopes for the future, he would not see me 
 before leaving *****; especially as he 
 wished first that the intelligence which lie had 
 heard should receive farther confirmation. 
 This had been obtained in London to the full
 
 238 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 extent that could be expected, from the im- 
 perfect communication between two countries 
 in a state of war. 
 
 " He now pressed for an immediate and pri- 
 vate marriage. That it should be immediate, 
 he pleaded only too strongly the excess of his 
 passion : that it must be private, he at the same 
 time owned, to allow him to remove the oppo- 
 sition of an aged parent, and from a feeling of 
 delicacy on account of the deep mourning he still 
 wore for Mrs. Somers. Almost wild as I was 
 ■with the prospects of happiness which were thus 
 opening to me, I still felt shocked at the sud- 
 denness of the proposal ; but so unlimited had 
 become his influence over me, that he could 
 have proposed nothing, consistent with honour, 
 to which I would not have readily acceded. I 
 pleaded for delay, I fear feebly — I know in- 
 effectually. Somers had brought with him an 
 old college friend, to perform the ceremony,
 
 THE CONTRAST. 239 
 
 upon whose secrecy he could rely, and who was 
 to leave the town immediately after. Fatal 
 precipitancy ! We were married the next 
 morning. So anxious was Somers that no- 
 thing should occur on which to hang a suspi- 
 cion of the event which had taken place, that 
 he even recommended my performing as usual 
 that night at the theatre. His will was law to 
 me, and I made no objection, though I own, a 
 presentiment of evil oppressed my spirits, when 
 the prompter gave out ' Isabella, or the Fatal 
 Marriage,' as the performance of that evening. 
 
 " My husband, with what pride I then 
 thought of him as such, occupied his usual 
 place in the stage-box. In the first act, whilst 
 kneeling before Count Baldwin, I could not 
 help fancying that the words were addressed to 
 that obdurate father-in-law, whose forgiveness 
 was necessary to the acknowledgment of our 
 marriage ; this gave a peculiar energy to my
 
 240 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 appeal, which added much to the effect of the 
 scene, and crowned my exertions with a suc- 
 cess, much beyond that which had latterly 
 attended my more languid efforts. 
 
 " In the midst of the thunder of applause 
 which followed, a party of naval officers en- 
 tered the box where Somers sat, accompanied 
 by a lady, dressed in the height of the French 
 fashion, which, as there was then little commu- 
 nication between the countries, was never worn 
 without exciting much attention. The eyes of 
 the whole house were in consequence turned on 
 the lady. Somers rose upon their entrance ; 
 but upon turning round to observe them, it 
 appeared to me as if he staggered, and leant for 
 support against the side of the box ; in this posi- 
 tion, the light of the stage-lamps fell strongly 
 upon his features, and showed to me his whole 
 face, even his very lips, of a deadly paleness. 
 Before rushing out of the box he cast one long
 
 THE CONTRAST. 241 
 
 look of utter despair on me. I could not then 
 comprehend its meaning, but it was the last I 
 ever received from my husband. My husband 
 did I say.? He was her's. It was Mrs. 
 Somers who had entered the box ! 
 
 " Yet even in the dreadful suspense in which 
 I was left, my surmises never reached the hor- 
 rible truth. What agony it was to go on acting 
 — acting through five long acts ; yet I forced 
 myself to proceed, with the recollection that 
 Somers had wished me to avoid anything that 
 might lead to the premature discovery of our 
 marriage. Yet, what a night was that on 
 which to assume fictitious woe ! And there she 
 sat, and at such a moment 'twas I that was 
 pampering her morbid sensibilities. Even then 
 she wept in torrents at my ideal sorrows, and 
 was carried out in convulsions, unable to bear 
 the sight of my assumed madness and despair — 
 she whose unlooked-for appearance in the world 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 242 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 was about to bereave me of every earthly hope. 
 And even in those moments thus trifled away 
 in such wretched mockery of grief, what fatally 
 real horrors were preparing for me ! 
 
 " Somers had rushed homewards in a state 
 approaching to delirium; he locked himself in 
 his dressing-room. Fatal chance ! His pistol- 
 case lay on the table beside him. He was 
 alone. His state was desperate. The sudden 
 revulsion from the height of expectant happi- 
 ness had been too much for him. Look which 
 way he might, he saw no opening for hope ; 
 and there was no friendly hand to stay his 
 frantic purpose. Where was I then ? Which 
 way employed ? I never can bear to think of 
 it. Hurrying impatiently homewards the mo- 
 ment I was free to do so. All was then over. 
 Amidst a crowd which was already collected, 
 I found Mrs. Somers, who had left the theatre, 
 overpowered by her sensibility, which my ficti-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 243 
 
 tious sufferings had excited ; now bending over 
 the remains of what had been Aer husband, and, 
 I still thought, mine. But the mouth which 
 that morning had breathed its vows to me, was 
 now distorted in death — shattered by the des- 
 perate aim of the pistol. Oh, Lucy, even I en- 
 deavoured in vain to recognize those loved fea- 
 tures as I pushed aside every one, — yes, even 
 her^ to assume for the last time that position 
 by him which I thought mine by right. 
 
 " Mrs. Somers rose indignantly, and the dread- 
 ful cause of this horrid scene broke fearfully 
 upon me, through a torrent of the most vehe- 
 ment abuse which she launched upon my de- 
 voted head, such as an irritated woman thinks 
 herself justified in venting upon the most de- 
 graded of her own sex. I could have sub- 
 mitted meekly to all she said — I hardly heeded 
 it, till she called me her husband's murderess. 
 Was I that ? — Yes, at that moment I felt my- 
 
 M 2
 
 244 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 self a guilty creature ; for what precious mo- 
 ments had I not wasted in the unmeaning garb 
 of mimic woe, whilst he was left alone in his 
 despair to do the horrid deed ! Had I but 
 been there, I would have suffered shame, I 
 fear even dishonour, to have saved him ; nay, 
 more, I would have renounced him for ever, 
 I would have restored his newly-plighted faith, 
 to have preserved his precious life, and to have 
 been allowed to offer prayers for his happiness." 
 Alice Darnell forced herself to gasp forth 
 these last words, and then sunk back senseless. 
 When Lucy had succeeded in restoring her to 
 herself, she said, " I thought I never could 
 have brought myself to revive in words these 
 harrowing recollections. You see to what a 
 state it has reduced me, and how unfit I am 
 now to draw from the sad tale that practical 
 warning I had wished, as to the danger of un- 
 equal attachments, — above all, of surrendering
 
 THE CONTRAST. 245 
 
 the affections where any mystery involves the 
 object. One word I may as well now add, that 
 you may understand the events which I have 
 detailed. I said that Somers had one infant 
 son, but it had remained with his grandfather, 
 Lord Castleton, from the time its mother first 
 went abroad. The rumour of Mrs. Somers' 
 death had been purposely circulated to faci- 
 litate her attempt to escape : so anxious had 
 she latterly been to leave that country which 
 she had sought for pleasure, that she embarked 
 in an open boat, and had been taken up by an 
 English cruiser, the captain of which paid her 
 every attention. It was accompanied by him 
 that, upon landing, she had gone to the theatre, 
 and within a twelvemonth from that time she 
 became his wife. To-morrow, dearest Lucy, 
 I shall be calm, and better able to speak far- 
 ther, but you must stay here with me to- 
 night."
 
 246 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Your sorrow was too sore laid on, 
 
 Which sixteen winters cannot blow away, 
 
 So many summers dry. Scarce any joy 
 
 Did ever live so long ; no sorrow 
 
 But killed itself much sooner. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 Is passion to be learned then ? wouldst thou make 
 A science of affection ? guide the heart, 
 And lead it where to fix ? 
 
 Such was the sad tale of her own blighted 
 hopes which Alice Darnell forced herself to 
 reveal to her beloved niece, with the fond hope 
 that so striking a proof of the danger of un- 
 guardedly pledging the affections, where evident 
 incongruity of station was combined with mys- 
 tery and apparent concealment, might operate
 
 THE CONTRAST. 247 
 
 as a check upon that growing partiality for 
 Churchill, which she dreaded had already taken 
 root in Lucy's heart. With this view, when 
 the next morning she had in a great degree 
 recovered her usual composure, she dwelt more 
 on how much she had herself suffered from her 
 imprudence, in having admitted a stranger, and 
 one obviously her superior, into an intimacy, 
 without due caution in previously ascertaining 
 what his actual situation was. Had she but 
 been timely informed of Colonel Somers' mar- 
 riage, how much would have been spared them 
 both, and how dearly had he paid for his tacit 
 deceit on this subject. 
 
 She farther proceeded to affirm her own con- 
 viction that Churchill was not exactly what he 
 pretended to be : in this opinion she owned 
 that she might be rather biassed by the extra- 
 ordinary resemblance, though more in air and 
 expression than in form and features, which he
 
 248 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 bore to one, the recollection of whom she had 
 never ceased to cherish since his untimely loss. 
 But though this coincidence might rather influ- 
 ence her judgment, yet, independent of this, 
 she had had opportunities, in the best society 
 at Mrs. Nesbit's, just at that age when out- 
 ward impressions are more strongly distinguish- 
 ed, of exercising her talents as a close observer 
 of manners ; and the peculiar tact which she had 
 on this subject, had very much contributed to 
 make her efforts in comedy rival her success in 
 tragedy, during her short theatrical career. It 
 has, too, been remarked throughout, that 
 Castleton was by no means a skilful actor of 
 the part he had assumed ; and to a person of 
 Alice DarnelFs discrimination, the evident con- 
 straint with which one of his rank in life as- 
 sumed the manners of an inferior station, 
 though distinct in its nature, was not less re- 
 markable, than the awkward assumption of re-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 249 
 
 finement by a vulgar person. The obvious 
 embarrassment, too, with which he avoided her 
 searching observation, could only be explained 
 by there existing some reason for concealment. 
 But the penetration with which Alice Darnell 
 had discovered her niece's danger, was more 
 conspicuous than the judgment of the course 
 which she took to avoid it. For thouffh Alice 
 Darnell had been a faithful and interestino; re- 
 presentative of the outward aspect of human 
 passion, as described by others ; though in her 
 own person she had internally felt as strongly 
 as any one its devastating power ; she had, 
 perhaps, for that very reason, never examined 
 closely or coolly the various causes to whicli it 
 sometimes owes its origin, or traced to their 
 sources the crooked channels through which, in 
 its earlier stages, flow some of those springs 
 which all combine in the end to give irresistible 
 power to its headlong course. 
 
 M 5
 
 250 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 True, even in this age of mixed and miti- 
 gated feelings, there does sometimes rise, pure 
 and powerful at its fountain-head, the sym- 
 pathetic impulse of " love at first sight ;" but 
 for one instance of this kind, how many may 
 be found where that passion, instead of ripen- 
 ing regularly from original sympathy, has 
 been unaccountably grafted on habitual indif- 
 ference; and of this might be cited instances, 
 even amongst those who, once under its influ- 
 ence, have given most decided proofs of its 
 power, in braving disgrace and ruin. It seems 
 sometimes as if the heart only then acquired a 
 predisposition to infection, when every human 
 motive of action, prudent as well as virtuous, 
 had combined against it. Lovely girls have 
 been known to bloom unnoticed in the same 
 society with him who, when they have be- 
 come the wife of another, has urged elope- 
 ment with all the energy of passion ; this, be
 
 THE CONTRAST. 251 
 
 it observed, not from any selfish distinction of 
 the different requisites of a wife and a mis- 
 tress, — for grant he succeeds in his suit, and, by 
 every tie of honour, his wife she must become, 
 not as she might formerly have assumed that 
 character, richly endowed in good name and 
 wealth, — the ornament of society, — but drag- 
 ging him forth an outcast, impoverished by the 
 very price at which he is forced to purchase 
 her blighted fame. How, then, shall we ac- 
 count for such early misplaced indifference, 
 and subsequent ill-timed susceptibility, but 
 upon the endless and unaccountable perversity 
 of the human passions ? 
 
 But though Alice Darnell need not have 
 been expected to enter into these abstract re- 
 flections, yet she made two mistakes, which 
 might have been obvious even to her, in the 
 influence she expected to produce upon her 
 niece.
 
 252 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 In the first place, no one in love is ever 
 diverted from their course by the recital of the 
 sufferings of others, under similar circum- 
 stances, if these sufferings, however great, are 
 invested with interest. She had also, by 
 what she had said, inadvertently disposed her 
 niece's feelings much more favourably towards 
 Churchill, for she had flattered her vanity ; and 
 the breast which beats under the modest tucker 
 of the country maiden, is not less accessible to 
 the influence of vanity, than is that which 
 openly swells with the pride of conquest in 
 sight of the crowded ball-room. 
 
 In all her intercourse with Churchill, there 
 had been something which she could not un- 
 derstand ; she was never quite at her ease, and 
 this had produced a consciousness of constraint, 
 which had left a feeling of humiliating infe- 
 riority, not improving her favourable opinion 
 of her companion. But now she had been
 
 THE CONTRAST. 253 
 
 given some intelligible ground on which to 
 place that superiorit}^ on his part, which she 
 had felt without acknowledging, and, at the 
 same time, she was taught to suppose that he 
 was willing to forego all that very superiority 
 for her sake. This placed him in a light much 
 more dangerous to her peace of mind, than that 
 in which she had been accustomed to consider 
 him. If, therefore, his influence over her was 
 still far from being certain or confirmed, her 
 defence rested on quite different grounds from 
 those on which her aunt had been inclined to 
 place reliance ; and her best protection arose 
 from the nature of her early attachment to her 
 cousin George. 
 
 Many circumstances had combined to keep 
 her inexperienced mind in doubt as to her 
 feelings towards him during all their early 
 intercourse , the constant intimacy of childhood 
 had swallowed up the first symptoms of court-
 
 254 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 ship ; to this had succeeded protracted absence, 
 and apparent neglect on his part. He had at 
 length returned, as we have seen, with undi- 
 minished affection ; but many things had con- 
 spired to prevent its appearing in his manner 
 to her, not the least of which was the evidence 
 of those assiduous attentions in another, which, 
 whenever preference is sought in the " check- 
 ered shade," or in the " gala glare," never fail 
 in producing some effect, and mostly succeed in 
 attaining their object. 
 
 The fact was, therefore, that at this moment 
 Lucy was herself, if not in a delusion, at least, 
 in doubt, as to how much she cared about her 
 " cousin George." 
 
 She, however, listened most attentively to all 
 her aunt's cautions as to the danger of encou- 
 raging her other admirer, and bowed assent to 
 her parting advice. 
 
 " I do not wish you abruptly to show dis-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 255 
 
 trust ; but above all, avoid as much as possi- 
 ble being alone with him." 
 
 To this tacit promise Lucy meant to adhere, 
 but the state of things she that day found upon 
 her return home did not favour her immedi- 
 ately acting up to her intention. George had 
 left home early in the morning, as he said, 
 upon business, professing an intention not to 
 return in the course of the day — perhaps not 
 even at night. Her father and mother had just 
 revived some well-contested point in dispute, 
 which, from long experience, she knew would, 
 like some of the fights of the middle ages, be 
 conducted without loss of blood, and only end 
 in a drawn battle at close of day. This did 
 not render the prospect of remaining at home 
 during the afternoon very inviting, and there- 
 fore she could not resist Churchill's gentle sug- 
 gestion, that she should accompany him to the 
 cliff, on a sketching expedition. She again put
 
 256 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 on her bonnet, announcing to the parental com- 
 batants, during one of those pauses in the 
 fight which Mrs. Darnell never allowed to be 
 of long continuance, " That her object was to 
 see whether her aunt, whose illness had been 
 the cause of her absence the night before, was 
 better that evening." 
 
 1
 
 THE CONTRAST. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 My Anah ! let me call thee mine, 
 Albeit thou art not : 'tis a word I cannot 
 Part with ; although I must from thee. 
 
 Byron. 
 We '11 so bestow ourselves, that near, unseen. 
 We may of their encounter frankly judge. 
 
 Shakspeabe. 
 'Tis true they are a lawless brood, 
 But rough in form, nor mild in mood ; 
 And every creed, and every race, 
 With them hath found— may find a place. 
 
 Byron. 
 
 Churchill and Lucy sat side by side on 
 a projecting ledge which she pointed out to 
 him on the face of the precipitous cliff; this 
 position, for an admirer of the picturesque, was 
 much better chosen than that which he had
 
 258 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 himself accidentally selected the night before, 
 and of which, as a painter, he had so little 
 availed himself. The intersections of the 
 craggy clifFs, which rose one behind another, 
 as they looked along the line of coast, were here 
 bolder and more broken and varied. From the 
 height of the point whereon they sat, all below 
 was blended in that deep, purplish, hazy hue, 
 which, in a painter's eye, gave to indistinctness 
 a charm. The sea-birds, Churchill's unwel- 
 come intruders of the evening before, now 
 skimmed in silence the mid air far beneath 
 them, the undulating motion of their white 
 wings being the only sign of animation around. 
 Not a sail was seen in the wide surface of the 
 distant expanse : and along the deeply sheltered 
 sides of the little bay beneath, the waters lay 
 dead, and dark, and still. The next promon- 
 tory of the succession of crags before them, 
 less precipitous and lofty than that on which 
 they were placed, had scattered over its face
 
 THE CONTRAST. 259 
 
 huge clumps of thriving brushwood, just then 
 touched with the first mellow tint of autumn ; 
 whilst the heather, which grew in patches 
 wherever the light soil clung to the interstices 
 of the chffs, contrasting its rich dark blue 
 colour with the lighter grey of the broken 
 rocks, gave sharpness to the fantastic shapes in 
 which these were dispersed about. In the 
 middle distance, looking rather inland, could 
 be traced the valley down which ran the course 
 of the little mountain stream, by whose side 
 Castleton had first wound his way to Morden 
 Bay. And this path he followed once again 
 in his mind's eye, and he recollected his then 
 follies, and he thought of all his checkered life, 
 his successive feelings — of his hopes — of his 
 frivolous pursuits — which had all produced 
 heart-burnings and disappointments since that 
 evening when he had first beheld the lovely 
 being who now sat beside him in matured 
 beauty and still unsullied purity and innocence;
 
 260 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 and as he again looked on her with a long im- 
 passioned gaze, their eyes met, and she thought 
 that it must have been thus Somers looked on 
 Alice Darnell. More fondly she felt he could 
 not look, and this feeling gave a sensibility 
 to her own expression, which her lover had 
 hitherto sought in vain ; and they sat long 
 while they fancied they were drawing. Though 
 they did little the while, and said less, it 
 seemed, for the first time, as if they understood 
 each other, and all Churchill's gestures were 
 those of impassioned tenderness, and it was so 
 that Lucy felt them; and it is certain, that at 
 that moment she thought of no one else ; and 
 her glances, though timid and stolen at inter- 
 vals, vied with his in tenderness, and had he 
 then pleaded, a negative could hardly have 
 found its way to her lips through the inward 
 agitation of her frame. 
 
 But there had been throughout his whole
 
 THE CONTRAST. 261 
 
 scheme too much plan and method in Churchill's 
 romance, and now the moment had come which 
 might fix his fate, and make her his wife — for 
 it was with such an intention that he wooed her 
 — incongruous doubts rose in his mind, — he 
 hesitated, — he would not for the world have 
 abandoned his object, yet he almost wished 
 to dela}?^ the irrevocable step ; but it was not 
 without an effort that he could force himself 
 to do so, for his feelings were much excited, 
 and more than once the conclusive words trem- 
 bled on his tongue, but he checked himself, 
 and blurted forth an indifferent observation in 
 an altered tone. 
 
 The effect of this was instantaneous : there 
 is no female breast, how^ever untutored and in- 
 experienced, which does not feel, in its inmost 
 recesses, the reaction caused by an opportunity 
 slighted of profiting by its tenderness. In a 
 moment, Lucy became aware that the evening
 
 262 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 shadows had redoubled their length ; that the 
 sun was on the point of setting ; that it was 
 already late for her to proceed to her aunfs : 
 rising for this purpose, Churchill eagerly offer- 
 ed to accompany her, but this she firmly 
 opposed, naturally from not wishing to show 
 that she had braved her aunt's caution, the 
 prudence of which the experience of her late 
 sensations had confirmed. 
 
 She declined, therefore, his offer of help, 
 even down the first winding track, where, 
 indeed, from its narrowness, assistance would 
 have been impracticable. This track led from 
 the spot where they now were into the broader 
 path, which conducted along a lower ledge 
 round the point towards her aunt's ; and she 
 proceeded to descend it with the secure and 
 elastic step which is the combined result of 
 habit and natural activity. Churchill watched 
 her with an anxious eye through the first part
 
 THE CONTRAST. 263 
 
 of her progress, and afterwards with an admir- 
 ing one, as her fine form gradually receded, 
 whilst she pursued her way with an uncon- 
 scious grace in every motion, which would 
 have done honour to many in a more elevated 
 rank in society. But the fact is, the drawing- 
 room school, though it may improve, no more 
 creates grace, than the manege does the 
 most admired paces of the horse. 
 
 Churchill watched her round the point, and 
 knowing that she would again become visible 
 in passing the next, which jutted farther into 
 the sea, he stood there awaiting. the moment 
 in a state of mind in which were blended dissa- 
 tisfaction with himself, with increased admi- 
 ration of her. Whilst absorbed in these min- 
 gled reflections, he was startled by a large 
 stone, which, detached from the cliff above, 
 rolled close beside him, and striking the port- 
 folio, in which he had been just loosely depo-
 
 264 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 siting the different half-finished productions of 
 Lucy and himself, scattered them about ; and 
 the evening breeze, just then risen, catching 
 them up as it swept by, they " soared, ducked, 
 and dived in air," and were soon carried far 
 out of reach of recovery. Churchill, looking 
 up to see what accident had caused this, be- 
 held George at the distance of a few yards, 
 standing between the edge of the cliff and the 
 wall at its summit, against which he leaned, 
 whilst one foot, which without doubt had been 
 the means of propelling the stone, was still 
 thrust forward. He had a broad grin on his 
 face, and was evidently enjoying the mischief 
 he had caused. 
 
 There was nobody in the world from whom 
 Churchill could at that moment so ill have 
 borne a joke, if indeed it really was a joke. 
 Without a moment's reflection he sprang up- 
 wards, and finding himself beside his unpro-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 265 
 
 voked aggressor, whom he still found forcing 
 a laugh, though evidently only to suppress 
 some less pleasant feeling to himself which 
 lurked beneath, said, — 
 
 *' I don't ask you whether you did that, but 
 why ?" 
 
 *' I wanted to put up that brood of cormo- 
 rants that roost below yonder, and cared not 
 what other birds of ill omen I frightened by 
 the way. As for your trash, I'll buy you 
 better, printed and painted too, at any pedlar's 
 stall for a penny apiece." 
 
 " You mischievous imp of a cabin boy," 
 retorted Churchill enraged, and lifting at the 
 same time a small slight cane which, from 
 habit, he always carried, even on these inap- 
 propriate excursions, " you ought to be turned 
 over to your own boatswain for chastisement ; 
 it would be too much honour to touch you 
 with this." 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 266 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 It is probable that Churchill did not intend 
 really to assault his antagonist, but as he had 
 raised his cane as if with that view, George, 
 whose passions were just as much raised, and 
 whose experience had not taught him to con- 
 sider such threats as figurative, grasped firmly 
 the bludgeon with which he was described on 
 the eve of his first departure from home, and 
 which, in all his vicissitudes, had never been 
 farther from him than where it was still within 
 reach of his cot. He gave it one masterly 
 flourish over his own head, and then allowed it 
 to descend with its full swing upon that of 
 Churchill, who fell senseless at his feet. 
 
 Lucy in the mean time had reached the 
 farther projecting point, from which this fore- 
 most part of the cliff was again visible, just 
 at the moment when the stone which had 
 struck the portfolio, had scattered Churchill's 
 drawings to the winds ; and this she had
 
 THE CONTRAST. 267 
 
 witnessed, for upon arriving at that point 
 she had paused a moment, and cast " one linger- 
 ing look behind," to the spot where she liad 
 left her late companion, scarcely conscious 
 herself that that action was prompted by feel- 
 ings for him at the time, which, could George 
 have interpreted, would have given additional 
 force to that jealousy, of which he had just 
 shown such a violent symptom. She had been 
 unable at first to account for the cause of the 
 loss of the drawings, but though the distance 
 was great, and the light becoming more un- 
 certain, she too well knew the figures of both 
 of the combatants not to see only too plainly 
 the progress of the scuffle above ; and observing 
 the violent action of George's powerful arm 
 followed by the dead stiff fall of him whom he 
 struck, she was riveted to the spot with dumb 
 horror at the idea that the tender companion 
 whom she had but just left, who had so lately all 
 
 N 2
 
 268 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 but spoken the assurance that he lived only for 
 her, had been even at that moment murdered 
 by her earliest friend ; whilst her conscience 
 whispered that she herself had been the un- 
 happy subject of dispute. 
 
 Whilst still deprived by the horrific sight 
 of any power to move, she beheld three or four 
 other men approach the scene of the late con- 
 flict, and her first impression was, that they 
 were both ministers of the law and witnesses 
 of the deed, and that George, arrested by their 
 authority, and condemned upon their evidence, 
 would pay the penalty of that act to which 
 perhaps he had been driven by her cruel 
 caprice; and she thought of their early in- 
 separable years, and their former parting, and 
 how different that was from the dreadful final 
 one which such a state of things would too 
 surely bring, and she pressed her hand against 
 her eyes in mute despair; — but when again she
 
 THE CONTRAST. 269 
 
 looked, it was obvious that the men approached 
 George with no hostile intent, but on the con- 
 trary, that, evidently acting under his direction, 
 they had raised the body of Churchill from the 
 ground — and George's hand pointed downwards 
 over the edge of the cliff, and the men bore their 
 burthen towards the brink of the precipice, 
 and she, shuddering, thought that in another 
 moment she should behold the mangled limbs 
 dashing from rock to rock, as they fell ; and 
 the dreadful idea rousing her from her pre- 
 vious stupor, she gave one piercing shriek, 
 but was answered only by the startled wild 
 fowl screaming discordantly as they whirled 
 round her head. But in one minute more her 
 immediate fears as to the intentions of those 
 who bore the body, were relieved, when she 
 saw them take a steep and winding path which 
 descended the side of the cliff to the shore. 
 She then guessed that they were conveying
 
 270 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 their burthen to a well-known cave, close to 
 which the path conducted, and which she re- 
 membered from its having been the point of 
 some of her early rambles with George. A mo- 
 ment she hesitated, from dislike to trust her- 
 self amongst such apparently lawless men ; but 
 depending upon George not being so changed 
 but that he would be both willing and able to 
 give her protection, she determined to try her 
 influence over him, with a faint hope that 
 Churchill might not actually be dead, and that 
 she might still be the means of preventing fur- 
 ther danger to him. 
 
 By the faint indistinct glimmering of twi- 
 light which yet remained, as she descended the 
 cliff and approached the small bay into which 
 the cave opened, she could perceive a large 
 boat which had been run ashore, whilst on the 
 shingles beside it were scattered several bar- 
 rels or kegs, and a little farther out at sea, yet
 
 THE CONTRAST. 271 
 
 sheltered by an abrupt projecting cliff from the 
 more inhabited line of coast, a sn)all vessel lay 
 moored, and several figures appeared engaged 
 in conveying the kegs from the open shore into 
 the concealment of the cave. The wild air of 
 these men, as far as the increasing darkness 
 allowed her to distinguish them, and the rough 
 blasphemous oaths of which almost their whole 
 communication seemed to consist, as far as the 
 suppressed tone in which they spoke allowed 
 her to make out what they said, both conspired 
 to make her shrink from advancing nearer, or 
 presenting herself to their notice ; but being 
 detected even where she stood aloof and trem- 
 bling, by the quick and restless eyes of one of 
 the party, ever on the look-out against sur- 
 prisal, and being rudely dragged forward, she 
 was almost at the same time recognised and 
 rescued by George, who, upon hearing a noise, 
 came forward from the interior of the cave,
 
 272 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 accompanied by Captain Collett, whose com- 
 mand to unhand her, backing the more manual 
 interference of George, the men muttering 
 oaths, and, to her, unintelligible ribaldry, re- 
 turned to their labours, and she found herself 
 at the mouth of the cave with George and 
 his Captain.
 
 THE CONTRAST. 273 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 But my sins 
 No more the pleasure from the stripling wins ; 
 And such, if not yet hardened in their course, 
 Might be redeemed, nor ask a long remorse. 
 
 The hours tliat we have spent 
 
 When we have chid the hasty-footed time 
 
 For parting us. Oh ! and is all forgot — 
 
 Our schoolday friendship — childhood innocence ? 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 Do you remember all the sunny places 
 Where in bright days, long past, we played together ? 
 Do you remember all the old home faces 
 That gathered round the hearth in wintry weather ? 
 
 This cave, which had two arched openings, 
 both leading to the same interior, and sup- 
 ported by a colossal rocky pillar, was at low 
 
 N 5
 
 274 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 water nearly dry, excepting near the centre, 
 where a clear pool of brackish water was left 
 from one spring-tide to the next, surrounded 
 by a bed of the finest white sand. All this 
 outer cave was entirely the work of Nature, and 
 had probably been progressively scooped out 
 to its present size, by the whirling eddy of 
 water, which, during high tides and storms, 
 rushed in through one opening, and out at the 
 other, according as it was driven by the di- 
 recting force of the wind Within this outer 
 cave was another large recess at right angles 
 to it, which had at some time been assisted by 
 the hand of man. The narrow, low opening to 
 this, was generally choked up by a bank of 
 the white sand, which, as the waters rolled 
 round, they dashed against it ; and as the 
 small passage behind, thus concealed, gra- 
 dually rose as it opened into the inner cave, 
 that part was itself quite dry ; and the entrance 
 to it being thus unsuspiciously closed from ob-
 
 THE CONTRAST. 275 
 
 servation, it had been thought by George, who 
 had accidentally dug throvigh the bank with 
 his fingers Avhen a boy, that along the whole 
 line of coast, a better spot could not be se- 
 lected, in which to stow their kegs, till an op- 
 portunity occurred of by degrees disposing of 
 them inland. 
 
 It appeared to Lucy as if her arrival had 
 interrupted for the moment a dispute between 
 George and his Captain ; and in this she was 
 confirmed by Collett saying, as soon as the 
 men had returned to their work, — 
 
 " It is true, it can't be helped now ; but it is 
 a d — d foolish scrape you 've got us into : why 
 couldn't you leave the man alone ? It 's true, 
 I begin to doubt his dying. Perhaps it would 
 be better if he would, for we can't leave him 
 here to blow us ; and anyhow, there '11 be such 
 a hue-and-cry raised, that, hang me ! if I know 
 when we shall be able to look after the cargo. 
 The tide 's ebbing over-fast, or I 'd chuck 'em
 
 276 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 in again, and take a long last leave of Morden 
 Bay, and be d — d to it, for an unlucky hole ; 
 but there's not time to think of that, so the 
 kegs must even stay here, and we must stow 
 this lumber in the hold in the place of them." 
 
 Touching Churchill's body with his foot, 
 and finding him still insensible from loss of 
 blood, he added, — 
 
 " But let me tell you, that to exchange all 
 these spirits for one bodi/ is a losing trade, 
 either for this world or the next;" and chuck- 
 ling complacently at this last idea, as a man 
 who thought that the mere scoffing at serious 
 matters in itself constitutes a good joke, he 
 retired towards the inner cave, calling out to 
 George, " to take the girl in tow, and drop 
 down out of sight of their job." 
 
 But George seemed stupified by the conflict- 
 ing feelings which struggled for mastery within 
 him, and allowed himself to be silently drawn 
 by Lucy on to the beach, through the opposite
 
 THE CONTRAST. 277 
 
 opening of the cave to that thi-ough which 
 the smugglers were carrying the kegs. 
 
 *' And is it come to this then, George !" she 
 said : " these are then your companions, — that 
 is your friend, your master ! And has all 
 sense of shame left you, that you could bring 
 such a ruffian under my dear father's peaceful 
 roof? And then to finish all by murdering 
 that poor good gentleman ! Heaven, in its 
 mercy, preserve him !" added Lucy fervently, 
 in a low tone. 
 
 " He 's not good — no more are you, and he 's 
 no more a gentleman than I am," answered 
 George, doggedly, his good feelings being for 
 the moment overpowered by the evident sym- 
 pathy of Lucy for his rival. " And it 's all 
 along of you both, that I Ve come to this." 
 
 " How can you say so, George ? The poor 
 man, since it offends you to call him gentle- 
 man, never saw you till two days ago; and 
 your present courses you must have adopted,
 
 278 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 with these associates, long since ; and for me, 
 it ""s now more than four years since we have 
 met at all. And think of this spot, George — 
 this cave. The last time we were here toge- 
 ther, who would have thought that it would 
 be thus we should meet again ? Do you re- 
 member the smuggler we then saw chased by 
 the King's ship ; it was the last vessel of that 
 sort, till to-night, that had ever appeared on 
 this coast ; and the running fight, and the sound 
 of the guns gradually dying away in the dis- 
 tance, and then our suspense ; and we heard no 
 more, till you brought that printed paper of 
 the travelling pedlar, which you read to me, 
 and which told how they were all hanged : 
 George, dear George ! why did you ever forget 
 that paper .?" 
 
 " 'Tis too late to think of all that now, 
 Lucy ; though I thank you for still caring for 
 me, if it's ever so little. There was a time 
 when you might have saved me, when I wrote
 
 THE CONTRAST. 279 
 
 to you, about my first scrape, before I got 
 from bad to worse." 
 
 " You wrote to me, George ! When ? Never 
 from the day you went away have I heard 
 once." 
 
 " Ah, there was the mischief, then. But I 
 wrote all about it, when I 'd lost all my money, 
 like a fool as I then was, and am still ; and 
 how it was a girl like you — no, not like you — 
 but a girl, who had taken it all; and that's what 
 it was, and I was rather ashamed at first to 
 own so to you. Yet I was easier, Avhen I 
 had done it, for I never felt so much how I 
 loved you better than all the world. And as 
 we were a long way off at the time, and the 
 Atlantic rolled between us, I was rather match- 
 ed how to make sure of your getting it; but 
 though I was never much of a scholar, I took a 
 sight of pains with the direction. And I 
 wouldn't put Mayton on it, as they used to do 
 on most of our letters here ; for I found, Avhen
 
 280 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 I had got to London even, most people there 
 had never heard of Mayton, so I argued that 
 a-tother side of that great water they warn't like 
 to know it : so, instead, I put ' Lucy Darnell, 
 Bankside Farm, England,' for I made sure, at 
 least, they must have heard of England. And 
 long I waited there in the Indies, in hopes of 
 an answer — and none ever came, as indeed it 
 wasn't like, if you never received the letter. 
 And so at last 1 took up with the offer of this 
 here Messmate, though at the time I had but 
 half a mind, for I thought you'd never ap- 
 prove of the like." 
 
 " But, George, how came you in this dis- 
 tress ? Where was the uncle with whom you 
 sailed .?" 
 
 " Oh, he and I agreed that we suited each 
 other best at a distance, so he got me swapped 
 to another ship, which I liked well enough, for 
 I got double wages ; but I soon found that the 
 more money I had, the less I could keep it;
 
 THE CONTRAST. 281 
 
 and when I landed in the Indian Islands, it 
 went in more ways than I like to tell, or think 
 of myself now. And then Captain Collett 
 spoke me fair, and a merry time we had to- 
 gether in the privateering line, in which he then 
 was ; and when the Peace came, we had been 
 too used to dangers and their reward, to take 
 to carrying coals along the coast. So we 've 
 been dodging backwards and forwards across 
 the Channel ever since, in defiance of the reve- 
 nue Sharks, But being a bit over-well known 
 there now, we got a correspondent at Flushing, 
 and popped over here unexpected like." 
 
 " Unexpected indeed !" said Lucy, '* and 
 that it should be most unwelcome too ; for I 
 had rather never have seen you again, though 
 Heaven knows how I Ve longed to do so ! than 
 that you should come back to bring shame on 
 us all. And my poor father too, who was as 
 fond of you as if youM been his own son. 
 He'll feel this more than all the rest of the
 
 282 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 world put together — except me !"" she added 
 falteringly. 
 
 " It needed not to speak so to make me 
 feel," said George : " all along, ray fear has 
 been the loss of your good thoughts ; and 
 when I came back the other day, I had made 
 up my mind to ask all your pardons, to give 
 over the connexion, and stay at home ; but it 
 maddened me to see that you had clear forgot- 
 ten your poor cousin George, for that plausible 
 painting chap !" 
 
 *' Shame on me !"" interrupted Lucy, " that 
 I have now so long forgotten him, whilst lis- 
 tening to your bad tale of yourself. That I 
 could do so at such a moment, may prove to 
 you what now you shall never hear from me, 
 unless you learn to deserve it better, how long 
 and how much I have thought of you. But 
 if you would not have me hate you, George, 
 instantly rescue from these ruffians, this poor
 
 THE CONTRAST. 283 
 
 person, whom your own mad violence has 
 placed in their power." 
 
 George, touched by her manner, and ren- 
 dered docile by shame, instantly repaired to 
 Collett, who was himself much puzzled to know 
 what to do with their prisoner, and consented 
 to leave him behind, provided he would bind 
 himself solemnly not to disclose what he knew 
 of their proceedings ; to which George, for his 
 own sake, added the condition, that he should 
 instantly leave that part of the country, and 
 particularly Bankside Farm. 
 
 Lucy in the mean time entered the cave, to 
 observe in what state poor Churchill then was. 
 She found one of the smugglers bending over 
 him and holding a dark-lantern close to his 
 features, which he appeared to be examining, 
 and which were still fixed and insensible. The 
 man had undone both waistcoat and neckcloth, 
 and evidently was searching about his breast,
 
 284 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 as she thought, for plunder; though, as he 
 pretended, to find out whether he had any 
 other wound. There was, however, an appear- 
 ance of care and attention in this man's man- 
 ner, which she could not reconcile with his 
 purpose. He stated that the sufferer had shown 
 some signs of returning animation ; had called, 
 as he fancied, on her name, but had relapsed. 
 Now he again began to move, and with the 
 first symptoms of consciousness, George made 
 the offer of liberation, coupled with the con- 
 ditions mentioned above. 
 
 The wounded man seemed to make an effort 
 to give force to the articulation of his reply, as 
 he answered, 
 
 " Never ! I will make no bargain with such 
 as you : ruffians ! do your worst, and at your 
 peril be it.'' 
 
 The smugglers, who had now finished their 
 work, and were anxious to depart, enraged at
 
 THE CONTRAST. 285 
 
 this untractable answer, became clamorous to 
 shove off with him, and Captain Collett gave 
 the orders to bear him to the boat ; Lucy 
 clinging wildly to George, implored him, " Oh, 
 leave him ! leave him, for my sake leave 
 him !" 
 
 George's bad feelings were again roused by the 
 manner of this appeal ; he roughly replied, shak- 
 ing her from him, "For thy sake! — never! 
 What ! that he may stay behind to hang us, 
 and bless you !" He then jumped into the boat, 
 already filled with his companions, one of whom, 
 who had secretly helped himself too freely to one 
 of the kegs which had been opened that its 
 contents might encourage them at their work, 
 cried out, " Oh, if the land-lubber stands in 
 the way of our messmate George, I'll soon 
 settle his business." 
 
 He then presented a pistol to Churchill's 
 head. Lucy thought she saw George spring
 
 286 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 forward and knock the pistol out of the fel- 
 low's hand, but neither that nor any thing after- 
 wards could she recollect distinctly, such had. 
 been the agitation of this dreadful evening ; 
 and as she endeavoured to fix her eyes on 
 the boat as it heaved unsteadily through the 
 surf, her brain seemed to reel responsively 
 within her. She fell powerless on the beach, 
 and tearing up the sand convulsively with her 
 outstretched hand, she cried wildly for help, 
 till her senses completely abandoned her, and 
 she lay there in unconscious exhaustion much 
 of that awful night. 
 
 At times she partially awoke to confused 
 visions of ChurchilFs mangled form, and the 
 last moments of George's disgraceful career ; 
 and more than once she raised herself and en- 
 deavoured to strain her sight through the 
 intense darkness, and to collect her scattered 
 senses to decide whether it was fancy only
 
 THE CONTRAST. 287 
 
 made her imaijine that another sail rose on 
 the waters, still Hearing the smugglers ; but a 
 sound which followed, like the roar of cannon, 
 vibrated so painfully on her shattered nerves, 
 that she raised her hands to her ears, again 
 pressed her head against the sand, and when 
 the first dawn of the morning found her still 
 on the beach, with partially returning con- 
 sciousness, the first object she plainly distin- 
 guished was a crowd of men moving towards 
 her, in the midst of which w^ere the crew of 
 smugglers. Captain Collett and George, hand- 
 cuffed two and two, and guarded by some men 
 of the Preventive Service, and a file of soldiers. 
 
 Still half bewildered, she rushed amongst 
 them, screaming in vain for some one, and 
 crying, " Where, where is the body ?'' 
 
 " The body !" exclaimed the man, who 
 seemed in command of the party, " then it 
 was as we suspected, and a murder has been
 
 288 THE CONTRAST. 
 
 committed. Come, my young woman, you 
 must along with us ; you will be an important 
 witness, I guess ;"" and the whole party moved 
 on towards Hornscliff Abbey, the seat of the 
 nearest resident magistrate. Sir North Saun- 
 ders. 
 
 END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BV SAMUEL BENTLEY, 
 
 Dorset-Street, Fleet-street. 
 
 )i
 
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