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 EAST AND WEST 
 
 OK, 
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 BY 
 
 J, PRAZEE COEKRAN. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HUEST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHEES, 
 
 SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOKOUGH STREET. 
 1861. 
 
 The right of Trandation is reserved.
 
 LONDON 
 
 PRINTJiO BY SPOTTI5WOODE A.ND CO. 
 
 K-EW-STREET SQUAKE
 
 8^3 
 C8l3ge 
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 '•'It was a happy place — once upon a time." 
 
 A community of weavers and spinners 
 bordered one end of the great metropolis, 
 ,., like a pretty selvage, such as used to 
 finish off a piece of their own silk or velvet 
 loom-work. They were a cheerful and 
 : industrious race, these descendants of the 
 Huguenots — driven by the revocation of 
 ^' the Edict of Nantes to seek a land of equal 
 S laws, whose hospitality they repaid by the 
 ;; transfer of an enriching industry, and by 
 a^an infusion of moral benefit that could not 
 vi be too highly appreciated. 
 ^ At the time our story begins, a revolu- 
 tion was approaching, whose end would pro- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 bably be beneficent, but whose stormy work- 
 ing was to be marked by sad ravage. It was 
 no upheaving of the elements of society, 
 no explosion of a long pent-up indignation, 
 laying low the high — not always to exalt 
 the lowly. It was neither a political nor a 
 social revolution. It was simply a material 
 change. It was the coming of a giant upon 
 the earth to do the work of man by other 
 and more powerful means, but exacting the 
 inevitable price of present sacrifice, which 
 every great change entails. Machinery, with 
 its iron fingers, moved by the almost illimit- 
 able agencies of fire and of water, with 
 strength hardly to be calculated, and with 
 a delicacy equal to its strength, was about 
 to annihilate the spinning wheel and the 
 loom, the distaff and the lace cushion, 
 those primitive types of male and female 
 industry, which are to house-work what 
 the spade and plough, the scythe and rake, 
 and pruning hook are to the field. 
 
 To w^age war with machinery would be 
 child's folly. We should, on the contrary, 
 hail all developments of power as so much
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 5 
 
 gain. We ought to regulate its action, if 
 we only knew how; but that most needed 
 science, the science of the distribution of the 
 infinite wealth which the Almighty has 
 placed at the disposal of his creatures, that 
 science which would be the crowning of 
 mankind with honour, is not yet in its 
 infancy. It is not yet born. 
 
 Still it is no mystery like that of iniquity. 
 In the honest exertion of each, animated 
 by the love of all, lies the secret, if secret 
 it be, which for our safety's sake is the 
 simplest of truths, written on our hearts, 
 revealed by divine inspiration within our 
 souls, told to us every hour by the cry of 
 misery, and staring all society in the face 
 with reproach, unheeded, because familiar. 
 Honesty and love make up no compound 
 riddle. 
 
 The place to which we must introduce 
 our readers is one they would now hardly 
 like to visit. But at the period of which 
 we are speaking it was a bright, airy, cleanly 
 quarter — populous, but not over-crowded ; 
 although connected with London by lines 
 
 B 2
 
 4 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 of continuous habitations, it was not, as it is 
 now, engulfed in the ever-spreading city. 
 At this time, when there were bathing ma- 
 chines at Blackfriars Bridge, and the light 
 wherry shot over its own image, and braved 
 the fall under the old city bridge, through 
 a cloud of sweet spray — a time before the 
 noblest of city rivers had become the foulest 
 of city sewers — the suburban town rejoiced 
 in its natural play-ground, the simply and 
 expressively named Green. The fields lay 
 not far beyond, and they, like kind friends 
 before quitting town, had left standing here 
 and there some shady trees, one of old 
 Time's monopolies, which wealth and art 
 cannot equal. It was well there was so 
 much verdure where there was so much 
 whiteness, for these weavers used the lime 
 brush plentifully. It kept away illness 
 from their narrow dwellings, and made all 
 sweet within doors and pleasant without, 
 and the verdure tempered the colour to 
 the eyes. 
 
 The approaching marriage of John 
 Bessonet with Marian Thorpe excited some
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. £^ 
 
 serious differences in our busy little com- 
 munity. The schism, which had some time 
 previously broken out amongst the sect of 
 Methodists, to which these people chiefly 
 belonged, gave a sort of public importance 
 to this purely domestic event. Who should 
 perform the ceremony — the rector or the 
 preacher ? — that was the question. If the 
 former, the Primitive body, who refused to 
 sever their connection from the establish- 
 ment, would have triumphed ; and if the 
 preacher, why, then would be held up a 
 practical sign and proof of an independent 
 congregation, whose leaders could lawfully 
 perform binding ceremonies, administer sa- 
 craments, and stand up erect as the recog- 
 nised pastors, armed with truth only. 
 
 One of the persons who took an active 
 lead in the business of the parish was Mr. 
 Elias Mathews, of whom, as we shall have 
 much to say, we must needs give a par- 
 ticular description. Mr. Elias Mathews, 
 apparently a placid, and, at first sight, 
 rather a good-looking man of middle age, 
 lived in an old-fashioned house, standino; off 
 
 B 3
 
 6 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the high road to London. Notwithstand- 
 ing certain external indications of opulence, 
 he possessed no larger fixed income than 
 that he derived from the situation of 
 cashier in the Bank of Lush, Snug, and 
 Dreary, in the City ; but he had other ways 
 and means at command, to be described 
 hereafter. His family consisted, with his 
 wife, of one son, at this time above thirteen 
 years old, whom he had christened Obadiah, 
 but who went by the diminutive of Obady, 
 and two daughters — the eldest, Deborah, 
 perhaps sixteen, and Cicely, a year younger 
 than Obady. 
 
 This Mr. Elias Mathews was a great pa- 
 tron of people in his own little way. He 
 wished to be considered charitable and re- 
 ligious, although his master passion was 
 avarice. A conspicuous class-leader amongst 
 the Methodists, he remained faithful to the 
 establishment; and by this act of fidelity 
 not only added a leaf to his crown of virtue, 
 but advanced himself a step in the scale of 
 patronising power. He patronised the 
 rector, whom he held to be under a sort
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 7 
 
 of personal obligation, by the manner in 
 which he gave himself credit for having 
 arrested a defection that threatened Dr. 
 Shortley with empty pews. As soon as the 
 marriage of John Bessonet with Marian 
 Thorpe came to be spoken of, what a vista 
 of small activities opened to the limited 
 imagination of Elias Mathews ! John was 
 one of the faithful, but Marian, like a true 
 woman, was swayed more by reverential 
 affections than by abstract questions of right 
 and dignity. Her ghostly adviser, if we 
 may so designate Mr. Samuel Steele, was 
 indeed very little like those other preachers 
 with whom attendance from her earliest 
 years at the little unpretending chapel in 
 the neighbourhood had made her ac- 
 quainted. He was a singular mixture of 
 simplicity and of unconscious vanity. 
 Samuel Steele, at sixty years of age, was 
 a remarkably good-looking man. Of fair 
 height and large proportion, without cor- 
 pulence, he walked erect, with a light, firm 
 step ; his head thrown back, his long, silky 
 grey hair curling down to his shoulders, 
 
 B 4
 
 8 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 and his bright, ecstatic blue eyes looking 
 from out a pair of protruding rosy cheek 
 bones, as if trying to take advantage of a 
 nose too small to take its own part against 
 such odds, but which showed its disdain by 
 a slight cock of its own. Such was Samuel 
 Steele, as he wended his Avay to the obscure 
 little chapel, which was to him the scene of 
 pleasurable labours, and of his greatest 
 triumphs. In dress he was as much unlike 
 his fellow-preachers as he was in his elastic 
 step, for he wore the costume of a dignitary 
 of that church from which he had broken 
 off the old connection. His wide-brimmed 
 hat was looped up behind and slouched be- 
 fore. Instead of the dull, coarse blue coat, 
 and drab breeches, and leggings which ty- 
 pified disdain of mundane foppery, he wore 
 black, such as a dean might figure in at 
 court; black also enveloped his shapely 
 calves, his cravat was snowy white, and 
 his fair, exceedingly clean, soft, pulpy 
 hand did not disdain a gold-headed cane ; 
 such was Samuel when seen on the hisfh- 
 ways of this world. Had he dressed so
 
 ONCE XJPON A TIME. \) 
 
 upon calculation, to produce a particular 
 kind of effect upon the habitations rather 
 than upon the personal admiration of the 
 poor, he would have merited, the credit of 
 understanding human nature, for he was a 
 sanitary commission in himself. Who dare 
 place Samuel on a dirty chair, or at a 
 filthy table, or appear before so much su- 
 preme cleanliness in slattern apparel ? — 
 not that he, the self-absorbed, good, easy 
 man, ever saw anything beneath the clouds, 
 but that his presence banished foulness 
 as the sun darkness. In the pulpit he was 
 another man, and yet the same ; never did 
 self-sufficiency wear so musical an air. It 
 was evident, yet inoffensive. Looking at 
 his open, candid countenance, and listening 
 to and feeling the unctuous richness of his 
 vibrating, sympathising voice, one would 
 have taken his assurance for the truth of 
 anything but one, his declaration about him- 
 self, that he was a miserable sinner, and the 
 last of the least. He looked, while uttering 
 such self-condemnatory assertions, as if 
 coaxing some angel to contradict him, the
 
 10 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 spiritual coquette that he was. Yet he did 
 contrive to win all human hearts, and that 
 not without aid from the seductive auxili- 
 aries of his forgivable little weaknesses ; 
 and if love of our fellow-beings be not the 
 foreshadowing and the promise of higher 
 love elsewhere, we know not what is. 
 Can anyone wonder that Marian should 
 desire to have the religious ceremony, after 
 the legal registration, performed by Samuel 
 Steele? To make the reason perfect, we 
 must mention some other qualities, or 
 rather some other applications of the 
 one general quality which formed the 
 basis of his strength and influence. If 
 Samuel was great in his grand doctrine of 
 man's free will and noble but terrible re- 
 sponsibility — if he was touching and enter- 
 taining in his narration of those personal 
 anecdotes which make picture-books of 
 Methodist sermons — if he was the very 
 hero of the love-feast, metamorphosing the 
 buns into ambrosia, and imparting to the 
 water the taste of that which gushed from 
 the rock at the wand of Moses — if he could
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 11 
 
 sway big people like a pendulum between 
 the darkness of unutterable woe and the un- 
 speakable resplendency of future reward — 
 what could he not do with the little 
 people ? His special children's sermon was 
 a genuine children's treat. His hands 
 seemed literally made for patting and 
 stroking little heads of hair. His mouth 
 was made for telling children's stories, with 
 all the essential machinery of the super- 
 natural, the supernatural being here true. 
 His ordinary affectation melted away so 
 completely in his essential benevolence, 
 that he did not commit even the affectation 
 of speaking down to the supposed level of 
 his audience. Speaking down ! ay, he es- 
 caped that worst and most damaging of the 
 mistakes of self-conceit. Speaking down is 
 not the way to induce hearers, be they 
 mechanics or children, to think up ; be- 
 cause speaking down never moves, and 
 emotion is the soul of thinking as well as 
 of action. No more flat speaking down, 
 for it can never elevate. He became as 
 one of themselves, cordial, gentle, familiar,
 
 12 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 playful, loving ; when he talked of sin, he 
 looked with awe and horror as if he saw 
 an evil spirit ; and when he exhorted to 
 piety, he raised up an ideal character, such 
 as might in the evening walk with God in 
 a garden of Eden. In fact, he could do 
 with children that which is so hard to do 
 with adults ; that is to say, appeal to, 
 and draw out each and every element of 
 their being, and move all in action and 
 harmony. Fancy, imagination, sentiment, 
 veneration, love, honourable fear, moral 
 courage, conscience, were all alive, and not 
 one deadened or destroyed, or in an undue 
 pre-eminence over the other, which is the 
 world's work on the character of the grown 
 man, mutilating his soul, and even with 
 regard to virtue advancing one good 
 quality at the cost of another. There is 
 no such inharmonious disarrangement as 
 this in the general character of children; 
 so that never was orator more at ease; 
 never had he more complete command of 
 an instrument, no string of which was 
 broken ; never was there less occasion for
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 13 
 
 special direction to some one predominating 
 taste, or necessity for limiting its range 
 and scope ; never could Samuel Steele 
 allow such free play to his own genial 
 nature as when in presence of his own 
 favourite congregation, of those to Avhom 
 he loved to repeat the divine words, 
 " Suffer little children to come unto me." 
 
 It must be a very sweet nature indeed, 
 in which there is not one drop of gall. Over 
 the most serene countenance the cloud must 
 pass sometimes. The kindliest heart must 
 have its occasional little contractions of 
 vexation — something is an eye-sore to the 
 dreamiest of eyes. There is always a some- 
 body who, whether he will or no, does tread 
 on somebody else's corns. Now the man 
 who exercised this unlucky power over the 
 Rev. Samuel Steele, as he allowed himself to " 
 be called ; the man who, through the triple 
 fold of his piety, benevolence, and placid 
 self-satisfaction, could reach the tiny vial 
 of gall hid in the one little neglected corner 
 of his carefully-kept heart ; the man who 
 stood in his sunshine and disturbed his
 
 14 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 placidity was the rival preacher, Mr. Sam- 
 son Shepherd. His offences were manifold ; 
 he was young and presumptuous ; he was 
 hard, worldly, and unconverted ; he was the 
 rebellious head of those schismatics who 
 refused to drink at the pure well of un- 
 mixed Wesleyanism, but crept under the 
 cold shadow of the established church for 
 the sake of gentility. Such was Samuel's 
 opinion of Samson, and it was altogether 
 erroneous. Need the experienced reader 
 be told that there are people in this world 
 who cannot understand each other ? The 
 very youngest have already made the un- 
 pleasant experience of antipathies. Miss 
 Jane cannot bear cats, and she shrinks from 
 a certain Miss Susan with whom she never 
 exchanged more than a dozen words. Susan 
 is her cat, whose every syllable scratches 
 some tender nerve; and yet Susan is a 
 good girl, and so is Jane, each in her own 
 way ; and they are both liked by their com- 
 mon acquaintances, who cannot understand 
 their mutual repugnance. What a discovery 
 this would be in mid-honeymoon, before
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 15 
 
 Sir Cresswell Cresswell was invented ! We 
 will talk no more about it. 
 
 Mr. Samson Shepherd was indeed the op- 
 posite of the reverend dissenter. He was a 
 young man whose native capacity of obser- 
 vation had put him in possession of the 
 mysteries of human nature more perfectly 
 than a life of the most varied experience 
 could have done. Better far, this antici- 
 pation of experience while mental and 
 bodily powers are quick with the elasticity 
 of youth, and yearn to put forth their fresh 
 strength. Of a thoroughly manly nature, 
 that which he most prized was force of cha- 
 racter. He cared very little about exter- 
 nals, and not much about doctrine. Had 
 lie chosen to follow those who set up the 
 standard of independence, his eloquence 
 and his activity would soon have secured 
 him the leadership. But he did not possess 
 a particle of vanity. The least selfish of 
 human beings, his sole aim was the happi- 
 ness of his fellow-creatures. Some of the 
 more strict and narrow-minded brethren 
 suspected him of being a philosopher in
 
 16 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 sheep's clothing. There was something 
 suspicious in his enjoyment of the sports 
 of men and of boys. He has been seen to 
 linger rather too long at a wrestling match ; 
 he has been positively known to handle 
 a cricket-bat ; he could call foul names too, 
 as once, on seeing a blackbird fall, whose 
 song in a woodpath had entranced him, he 
 seized tlie cockney sportsman by the collar, 
 and called him a murderer. Upon entering 
 a poor body's dwelling he would put the 
 body before the soul in his inquiries, believ- 
 ing the soul to be a tender thing, which 
 must not be taken unawares, but approached 
 gradually, and led on solemnly. Upon draw- 
 ing nigh to the sanctuary, do we not slacken- 
 our pace, take off our hat, and commune a 
 little with ourselves, to tune the string for a 
 part in the sublime harmony ? Like a prac- 
 tical man, Mr. Samson Shepherd first looked 
 to the creature-comforts, thinking that the 
 church must be swept and warmed to re- 
 ceive the congregation — discomfort predis- 
 posing, as he thought, to discontent. He 
 was a terrible poker at fires, would not
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 17 
 
 allow water to be poured on the tea 
 until the monotonous sing had mellowed 
 into laughing bubbles. If he fasted, and 
 he did fast often, it was in secret ; but 
 he liked home-made hot cake amazingly, to 
 the very great pride and delight of Metho- 
 distical houscAvives. If he would not leave 
 the Church, it was simply because he could 
 see no utility in a separation which, as he 
 believed, was calculated only to contract 
 his own means of doing good. You are 
 narrowing instead of enlarging your con- 
 nection, he would say. He and others had 
 observed that there was a growing disposi- 
 tion, on the part of the Church, to burst 
 through its cold formalities, and admit 
 more glowing zeal ; and as rich zeal was 
 powerful to melt away her cold formalisms, 
 there would remain that perfected organi- 
 sation which is so essential to the stability 
 of every human institution. He had de- 
 tected the shortcomings of both the Church 
 of England and of that vigorous young 
 auxiliary which the great Wesley had raised 
 up for her support ; but which was now, 
 VOL. I. c 
 
 ^J,
 
 18 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 with the usual tendency of sects, splitting 
 into divisions. The Church had declined 
 in influence, because its members knew not 
 how to leave at the door the artificially dis- 
 tinctive marks between not merely rich and 
 poor, but between high and low society. 
 The world within retained the form and 
 spirit of the world without ; they had not all 
 agreed to assume that attitude of equality 
 suitable to Christian souls in the temple of 
 the carpenter's son. How shall that mys- 
 terious law ever be explained by which the 
 outside does become unconsciously the sym- 
 bol of what is passing within ? The character 
 of a system may be learned, like that of an 
 individual, from his dress, without talking 
 of his manners. Among those hard, rec- 
 tangular pews, some are both carpeted and 
 curtained, others carpeted only; and even 
 among those which are neither the one nor 
 the other, there are distinctions in the car- 
 pentry which the divine son of the carpenter 
 would have treated, as he served the dealers 
 who made His father's house a den of 
 thieves. 
 
 In these pen-folds for the flock there has
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 19 
 
 been a provision made for artificial breed, 
 which has turned the cry of miserable sin- 
 ners into very inharmonious bleating; in- 
 deed, for the really miserable sinners, there 
 are no pen-folds at all. How Lady Rachel 
 would colour with anger if she found her- 
 self seated by the side of Mrs. Baker, and 
 obliged to kneel with conventional humility 
 in close company with that lady, although 
 the latter has duly fitted herself for service 
 with rustling silk, the sight of which has 
 turned poor little Miss Sally from the church 
 door, who postpones her prayers until the 
 milliner has fitted her for communion with 
 the saints. Mr. Samson Shepherd told Mr. 
 Shortley, the rector, with his usual brisk, 
 good-humoured bluntness, that he would 
 save the Church with rows of benches. But, 
 my dear Sir, the pews are let, and if you 
 demolish them in comes the voluntary 
 system. How was so strong an argument 
 to be resisted ? 
 
 The decay which menaced dissent arose, 
 in Mr. Shepherd's mind, from a very dif- 
 ferent cause. A man of taste himself, who 
 
 c 2
 
 20 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 enjoyed all good things in due season ; who 
 rejoiced with those who did rejoice, and 
 who could weep with those who wept ; who, 
 if he did not go to plays or read novels 
 himself, because the demands on his time 
 and attention were too great, did not re- 
 prove those who moderately indulged in 
 innocent relaxation of mind and body, such 
 a man could not fail to discern the defici- 
 encies of ill culture. If knowledge be power, 
 ignorance must be weakness, and most of 
 the prominent leaders of the sect rejoiced 
 in their contempt for learning. Utterly 
 ignorant men they could not be called who 
 made the Book of Books their constant 
 study; but society is not to be softened and 
 improved by persons who refuse all sympathy 
 to the varied pursuits of mankind; awk- 
 ward, vulgar manners, ludicrous tones of 
 voice, with the arrogance attending the 
 assumed possession of peculiar gifts, survive 
 the first fervour of enthusiastic claimants 
 to inspiration ; and as the fire slackens, the 
 faults become more obvious to a world 
 growing critical as it ceases to be affected,
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 21 
 
 and the sect dies out, or gives place to some 
 fresh novelty of doctrine. Against such 
 fatal dangers the Church possesses security 
 in its organisation ; and yet it suffers from 
 its own terrible respectability. She feels 
 she is not Catholic in the true, spiritually- 
 democratic sense of the word ; and she is 
 accordingly ever seeking to absorb the spirit 
 of rivals who, whatever be their errors, 
 have mastered the grand principle of 
 equality. She was at this time making 
 advances to Methodism. Already there 
 was a rising tendency towards Calvinism, 
 incompatible as are its gloomy doctrines 
 with her cheerful precepts, and noble free 
 will, and responsibility, so well suited to 
 the English love of individual power; by 
 and by she will ape the gorgeous ceremo- 
 nies of Rome, until, perhaps, she finds at 
 length the desired cure in some simple in- 
 ternal arrangement of her own. 
 
 Two individuals, who are about to be- 
 come one, are at the same time in separate 
 consultation with the rival preachers. 
 Marian is standing before Samuel Steele in 
 
 c 3
 
 22 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the little side room of the old chapel, which 
 is already putting on the air of a vestry; 
 and John Bessonet is seated by the side of 
 Samson Shepherd, in a back drawing-room, 
 only separated from the front by a folding 
 door. When opened, the two rooms, over 
 the baker's shop, serve the purposes of a 
 chapel, until such time as the more commo- 
 dious tabernacle, for whose building Samson 
 is raising subscriptions, shall be erected. 
 
 Not to keep the maiden standing, we 
 shall first listen to the conversation in which 
 she is engaged. 
 
 ^'Art thou troubled in spirit, dear 
 daughter, that thou comest to me for com- 
 fort ? Didst thou not first wrestle with 
 the Evil One?" 
 
 "It is about the marriage," Marian 
 began, demurely ; when the good old man, 
 whose thoughts were not in a moment to 
 b& fixed on sublunary matters, interrupted 
 her, saying — 
 
 " Yes, thou doest well to have the wed- 
 ding garment ready, for the bridegroom 
 cometh like a thief in the nisrht. Be not as
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 2'3 
 
 the foolish virgin, without oil in her lamp, 
 but as the wise one." 
 
 Marian, in turn interrupting, blurted 
 out, ''It is of my marriage with John that 
 I speak." 
 
 " There cometh one greater than he." 
 " John Bessonet — it is of him I speak." 
 " Ah ! John Bessonet, thou hast wan- 
 dered from the fold. I pray that thou 
 be'st saved from the sin of backsliding ; for 
 
 backsliders shall not " 
 
 " Oh, he is no backslider — he is pious 
 and good." 
 
 " There is none good — no, not one." 
 Poor Marian shrunk under the reproof, 
 which, indeed, was not meant to be one. 
 Like many others of the sect, who use and 
 abuse Scripture texts, it only needed that 
 some word should be uttered recalling one 
 of the same kind in some other texts, 
 and out they came, with that hap-hazard 
 applicability which has given rise to the 
 peculiar term cant 
 
 "Yet," continued Mr. Steele, with the 
 same looseness of logic, " He came not to 
 
 c 4
 
 24 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 call the righteous, but sinners, to repen- 
 tance. Repent ye, for the kingdom of 
 Heaven is at hand. Oh ! it is a blessed 
 book ; so full and abounding in gracious 
 promises to sinners who lay their burthens 
 at His feet who came to seek and to save 
 those that are lost. Seek out those pas- 
 sages, Marian, and meditate upon them by 
 day and by night, even from the going 
 down of the sun to his uprising ; and 
 his sun, the sun of righteousness, will arise 
 with healing in his wings ; for if we take 
 the wings of the morning, and fly to the 
 furthermost ends of the earth, he is there ; 
 — and now we must part, and pray." 
 
 "Dear Mr. Steele," cried Marian, in an 
 unusual fit of desperation, " will you not 
 perform the marriage ceremony ? I am 
 going to marry John Bessonet, and want 
 you to act as clergyman." 
 
 Perhaps there is some good in a little 
 self-love, after all, for Mr. Steele descended 
 from his stilts, and by this pretty flattery 
 was humanised in a moment. 
 
 " Dear Marian, he who knoweth the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 25 
 
 secrets of our heart, knows well with what 
 joy old Samuel Steele would pronounce, *let 
 no man put asunder ;' uttering the solemn 
 injunction for the first time at the marriage 
 of our dear sister in the Lord, Marian 
 Thorpe — but I have not the power." 
 
 " You have," cried Marian, in a direct 
 and somewhat business tone ; "for the Act 
 of Parliament is plain on the subject." 
 
 "What is an Act of Parliament, Ma- 
 rian ? — I never read newspapers, and know 
 nothing of the ways and doings of this wicked 
 world. It is our duty to submit ourselves 
 to the higher powers, rendering to Csesar 
 the things that are Caesar^s." 
 
 " An Act of Parliament is a law." 
 " The law was given by Moses." 
 " Not this law, which was carried by a 
 large majority on the second reading of the 
 bill, and then passed through the House of 
 Lords, and received the King's assent. See, 
 Sir, Anno sexto et septimo. Gulielm. IV. 
 
 c. 85 " 
 
 " Dost thou quote the Douai version, 
 Marian?"
 
 26 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " Here it is, the Act of Parliament, 
 bought with my own money from Mr. 
 Maltheson, the bookseller." 
 
 Mr. Steele, who would be sorry that his 
 declaration of ignorance should be regarded 
 as other than professional, now thought he 
 had sacrificed sufficiently to his conscience 
 to look at the book of the law, as he called it ; 
 but, being unaccustomed to the jargon of 
 the legislature, he became lost in the inex- 
 plicable verbosity of the Act of Parliament. 
 
 " Here is the clause," observed Marian, 
 coming to the poor man's relief. 
 
 " What wouldst thou have me to do ? " 
 
 " To marry us according to Act of Par- 
 liament ; " adding, innocently, ^' we need 
 not be married at all." 
 
 "AYhat, Marian?" 
 
 " Not at all ; we have only to be regis- 
 tered." 
 
 " Kegistered ? " 
 
 " And we are married in law." 
 
 " And the bishops seated in high places 
 amongst the Gentiles, in the House of 
 Lords, agreed to an Act which reduces
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 27 
 
 marriage to a merely civil contract ! Are 
 we not fallen upon evil times ? Are we 
 not right to quit the establishment ? " 
 
 " That is what I say ; if we must be re- 
 gistered, we will be registered ; but we will 
 be married, all the same.*' 
 
 " I fear I have not the power, Marian." 
 ^' Oh ! that is what the busybody, Elias 
 Mathews, is putting into John's head — he 
 who starves his wife and children, and 
 keeps watch over a madman for lucre, in 
 the big house above his station." 
 
 " Speak evil of no man. There be one, 
 as thou say'st, under his roof possessed of a 
 devil." 
 
 " It is a mysterious story that.'* 
 " Could we not cast out the devil ? " 
 " Ay, and have him run to keep company 
 with legion in the hard heart of the hypo- 
 crite." 
 
 " Be not wroth, my dear child," mildly 
 reproved the good man, not so much out of 
 abundant charity as because of lurking 
 sympathy with the object of a dislike which 
 in truth was universal.
 
 28 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 "Methinks," said Mr. Samuel Steele, 
 whom the worldly turn of the conversation 
 had sobered into an approach to practical 
 sense, " that this question of marriage must 
 be settled by the conference, which meets 
 some months hence. Should it, after 
 prayerful inquiry, be resolved that Samuel 
 Steele may lawfully ask John Bessonet 
 'Dost thou take this woman to be thy 
 wedded wife ? ' and he answering * Yea,' 
 may likewise put the same question to 
 thee, Marian Thorpe " 
 
 '' I fear. Sir, John would not wait so 
 long." 
 
 She blushed ; he blessed her ; and they 
 went their ways ; and now we turn to 
 John, whom we left seated by the side of 
 Mr. Samson Shepherd.
 
 29 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 " The reason why I requested you to re- 
 main after the congregation, Brother Bes- 
 sonet, was that I observed you to look 
 occasionally dissatisfied during the sermon, 
 and it struck me that I may have uttered 
 something of which you could not in con- 
 science and justice approve " 
 
 " My dear Sir," exclaimed John Bes- 
 sonet, shocked at this charge of presumption 
 against him, for his admiration of the young 
 pastor was profound. Without noticing the 
 interruption further than by a gentle pres- 
 sure of the hand upon John's arm, he 
 continued — 
 
 " I affect no false humility ; I believe 
 that I am, as I ought to be, better in- 
 structed in those subjects which it is my 
 duty to study, than you are ; but that is 
 not saying much, for the best and wisest
 
 30 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 can do no more than acquire, in some 
 limited degree, the rudiments of that 
 heavenly science which has boundless in- 
 finitude for its exercise, and eternity for 
 its completion. I fear that I am not simple 
 enough and clear enough to reach the 
 heart ; that I only bewilder these poor 
 people with a torrent of w^ords, and that 
 they, mistaking surprise for emotion, re- 
 ceive no really profound impression. Tell 
 me the truth ; is it not so ? " 
 
 " You do yourself injustice. How could 
 you, at twenty-five years of age, have ob- 
 tained influence over high and low, rich 
 and poor, by mere words, although words 
 are a great power ? I am sure you were 
 never more impressive than you showed 
 yourself this morning ; and if your eye, 
 which takes in everybody, so that each 
 fancies your discourse to be addressed 
 to him alone, in falling upon me discovered 
 my sinful want of attention, it was owing 
 to the presence of Mr. Elias Mathews, who 
 besets me in all places, and at all times, 
 about my intended marriage."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 31 
 
 " Yes, I perceived him looking on you 
 frequently, and whispering." 
 
 " He fears lest I should yield to Marian's 
 wish to have the marriage ceremony per- 
 formed by Mr. Steele, instead of by Dr. 
 Shortley at the church." 
 
 " I know Samuel Steele. He will refuse 
 to act until the conference shall have de- 
 cided. Still we must please Marian. Her 
 love and veneration for the dear old servant 
 of the Lord is praiseworthy, and promises 
 well for your happiness, John. Those 
 good qualities will be transferred to you in 
 due time, and it would not be wise now to 
 cast the chill of contradiction upon them." 
 '^ But Mr. Steele hates you, Samson 
 Shepherd, as much as he can hate any- 
 body." 
 
 " Only professional hatred, merely sur- 
 face and canonical," said Shepherd, with 
 that pleasant smile that sometimes stole 
 over his well-defined features, which, not- 
 withstanding a natural richness of com- 
 plexion, were, by the force of thought and 
 severe self-examination in the exercise of
 
 32 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 duty, becoming severe. " Sectarian hatred, 
 strangely enough, is in proportion to the 
 slightness of difference ; yet not so strange, 
 for self-love becomes more exasperated at 
 being baffled by small than by great ob- 
 stacles. However, we will talk no more of 
 that. I have been up to Mr. Masterman 
 on the subject, and he has arranged a ca- 
 pital wadding breakfast, to which all your 
 friends of the factory are invited." 
 
 " He employs five hundred men, women 
 and children. What have you done, dear 
 Mr. Shepherd? — poor Marian will sink with 
 shame." 
 
 " And it is Samuel Steele who is to pro- 
 nounce an exhortation, and he wdll be satis- 
 fied ; and we all wdll be satisfied. It will be 
 a day to be talked of to your children's 
 children. Besides, I think it probable that 
 Mr. Masterman will raise your position. 
 He said you w^ere rather above your fellow- 
 workmen in point of education and intelli- 
 gence. I do not repeat this to flatter your 
 self-love, that inward demon towards which 
 each of ns should be a Saint Michael,
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 33 
 
 thrusting it back to the bottomless pit 
 with our brightest spear of power. No, 
 not for that ; but as there must come in- 
 creasing demands with family wants, it is 
 well that at the outset of married life there 
 should thus open a prospect of more abun- 
 dant means." 
 
 " Old Maltheson is, I am told, lecturing 
 against marriage as the cause of all the 
 miseries of society." 
 
 '' I have sounded Maltheson, and do not 
 think him dangerous. He knows something 
 of everything, and nothing profoundly. 
 As such a man exposes his ignorance as 
 often as he meets some one well versed in 
 the subject of which he has merely caught 
 up a loose general notion, and as many 
 from different points of view discover him 
 to be shallow, the result is to leave him 
 without influence. Were he to confine 
 himself to any one of his questionable topics, 
 and brood over it until it became an article 
 of faith, with its accompanying fanaticism 
 of zeal for conversion, then indeed I might 
 dread the effect of his teaching on shallow 
 
 VOL. I- D
 
 34 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 minds. Such a one seems to see his nar- 
 row object with perfect clearness, because 
 he has allowed utter darkness to gather 
 over his soul, leaving that the only illumi- 
 nated point. Kegarding marriage, which 
 is honourable unto all, we must indeed not 
 despise evident difficulties and objections. 
 But the idea that poor mortal man can 
 bind down Providence for his security is 
 monstrous. You, for example, are, in the 
 foolish worldly sense, a poor' man — that is 
 to say, living upon your weekly wages ; but 
 you have religion to raise self-denial from 
 prudence to virtue, and you have an in- 
 structed mind to do the pleasurable work 
 of filling up your moments of idleness with 
 abundant thoughts. Marian is a helpmeet 
 worthy of you, who will make your humble 
 home a clean, sweet paradise, in which, 
 please God, the cherubs will not be wanting." 
 
 '' I wish this wholesale breakfast were 
 over." 
 
 Mr. Samson Shepherd laughed outright, 
 and John's fear ran away as from a pack 
 of cachinnatory pursuers.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 35 
 
 " Fear not, John," he continued, with a 
 subsiding good-humour. " God gives no 
 more than the raw material. Whether it 
 be the one or the ten talents, you have 
 only to work up your gifts, be they what 
 they may, and He will bless them to 
 the desired end. How oddly my laughter 
 sounded in the place where we heard such 
 sweet singing this morning ! How fine it 
 will be in our lofty new chapel !" 
 
 " I think," said Bessonet, with that prac- 
 tised turn to which the artisan can so 
 promptly incline, " I think I can do some- 
 thing to make this temporary place of wor- 
 ship more comfortable." 
 
 " Can you indeed? Then let us set to 
 work immediately." 
 
 " You have not yet breakfasted, Mr. 
 Shepherd." 
 
 " That is to say, you have not." 
 
 If we could follow Mr. Shepherd down- 
 stairs to the baker's shop, we should find 
 him asking for a loaf in a tone of voice and 
 with a manner such as the Attorney- General 
 might assume when begging a favour of his
 
 36 ONCE UPON A TIME, 
 
 friend the Lord Chancellor, or the Arch- 
 bishop of the Prime Minister. We may not 
 perhaps have hit upon the right example of 
 that bland courtesy with which Mr. Shep- 
 herd always addressed people to whom he 
 gave orders as if requesting favours, but we 
 take it for granted that the highest speci- 
 mens of the bar and the episcopacy must be 
 the most polite. " And if you would be so 
 good as to allow the maid to buy two bowls 
 of milk, and bring all upstairs, I shall feel 
 much obliged." 
 
 Had the good baker's wife suspected that 
 the gentleman wanted these things for his 
 own breakfast, she would have been profuse 
 in her offers of accommodation in her own 
 back parlour ; but she was accustomed to his 
 way of bringing in a hungry fellow-creature 
 and giving him a quiet unobserved meal, 
 and so she took it as an ordinary circum- 
 stance. 
 
 The tray was laid upon two forms drawn 
 closely together so as to present sufficient 
 breadth of surface; and now sitting and 
 now standing up, taking measurements
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 37 
 
 and suggesting improvements, the break- 
 fast became only an occasional affair. 
 
 " Pardon the liberty 1 take with you, Mr. 
 Shepherd," mildly expostulated Bessonet, 
 *' when I tell you that if you mix business 
 with meals you will hurt your digestion." 
 
 " Life is so short, and there is so much 
 to be done " 
 
 " That we must not make it shorter by 
 imprudence, and do with painful effort what 
 we might do easily and cheerfully had we 
 not put our tools out of working order." 
 
 " Are not these my own words, brother 
 Bessonet ? " 
 
 " They are, Sir; but pardon me again 
 for saying that, wise as Solomon when ad- 
 vising and directing others, you violate 
 your rules as regards yourself, for you care 
 not when or what you eat." 
 
 " Come now, you cannot add * or what I 
 put on,' for I make it a point to be respect- 
 ably dressed." 
 
 " Quite true — Marian wonders how it is 
 that your cravat should always be as white 
 as a blossom with the sun upon it." 
 
 D 3
 
 38 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " I'll take it off now, if you please, and 
 my coat too. Thanks to God for this good 
 breakfast; and now let us show our gra- 
 titude by putting forth our renovated 
 strength in His service — we must first take 
 away these folding doors." 
 
 And they were removed with an effort 
 which called for breathing time. 
 
 " What a pity, Mr. Shepherd, that you 
 should not have to yourself a place more 
 worthy of your ministry!" 
 
 " All places are the same in the sight of 
 God. He sees no difference save between 
 purity and impurity. Is not the poor 
 place, like the poor man's prayer, as accept- 
 able as the choral grandeur of the Temple ? 
 Still I should not be satisfied with so feeble 
 an expression of my desire to typify by 
 outward means the depth of my love and 
 the boundlessness of my admiration, could I 
 afford to do better. No wonder they should 
 be called ages of faith, they that erected 
 those cathedrals which by their astonishing 
 beauty dwarf our cold science. They seem 
 to have been cast up like fountains out of
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 39 
 
 the intensity of the heart's love, to take the 
 chance symmetry of the arched spray drop- 
 ping in white wavy columns. You will be 
 surprised, Brother John, when I tell you 
 that my ideal of a fine religious service is 
 that of the Abbey." 
 
 " Why, Sir, we could organise as beautiful 
 a choral service as ever was heard. The 
 children in the hymn class say they never 
 heard so divine a voice as yours. You 
 have made the little creatures musicians ; 
 and I too could take an humble part." 
 
 '' Such a service would be out of place. 
 Where is the lofty roof; or, not to speak of 
 material parts, where is the mysterious 
 weight of vaguely recognised tradition, 
 looking out as it were from the sun-trans- 
 figured windows ?" 
 
 " We could manage the windows — stained 
 glass is no mystery." 
 
 " Those sorry little square things could 
 only be converted into bits of finery. No, 
 John, we must go with the age if we mean 
 to be useful ; tastes change, new habits 
 spring up, forms are eternally varying — 
 
 D 4
 
 40 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 that is to say, man is never long contented 
 with the same mode of expressing feelings 
 for which the adequate expression never 
 can be found, and the end will be a return 
 to the primitive simplicity. But we must 
 not get out of our depth : let us see what 
 work we have got immediately to do, and 
 do it, trusting, indeed knowing, that the 
 end will come right. Here is a plane ; I will 
 run a few shavings off this bench." 
 
 Whish ! the plane flew, throwing up 
 shavings, through the interstice where the 
 steel is fixed, like waves. 
 
 John Bessonet wished to shift the posi- 
 tion of the pulpit or reading desk, so that 
 the light should not fall so directly on 
 the preacher's eyes. He was soon out of 
 breath, for he was not a strong man, but of 
 shght, delicate appearance. Mr. Shepherd, 
 whose imagination had been excited through 
 the quickened current of his blood, seemed 
 to be rushing through his object. " It 
 is a glorious thing, work; through work 
 man feels that he is made in the image of 
 his Maker. The world, left to itself, would
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 41 
 
 be a wilderness — the abode of noxious 
 things. Man re-creates the earth ; the 
 gardens are his, the vineyards are his, 
 the gorgeous palaces, solemn temples — oh, 
 thou wonderful Shakespeare ! — are his." 
 (Wliish! whish! whish! flies the plane.) "A 
 Michael Angelo strikes a Moses out of the 
 rock, as Moses struck out the water, and 
 for the same purpose — to refresh the spirit. 
 Even I, in my own little way, can smooth 
 the rude plank, removing its unsightliness, 
 which is something." 
 
 He is stopped, not by fatigue, but by the 
 voice of his fellow- workman, who is singing 
 to himself. 
 
 Bessonet is in the pulpit, hammering 
 down a nail or two to steady it in its new 
 position ; and, workmanlike, in his forget- 
 fulness he is singing to himself a popu- 
 lar melody rather unsuited to the place. 
 Whether Mr. Shepherd meant to object or 
 not we cannot say, for at the same moment 
 the door opened, and Mr. Elias Mathews 
 entered with two gentlemen, whom let us 
 describe.
 
 42 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Had John Bessonet's pale, delicate face 
 any blushing power, it would have no 
 doubt exhibited modest shame's rosy co= 
 lours on both cheeks — a blush on the one 
 side, on his own account for his thoughtless, 
 preference of profane to sacred literature in 
 a sacred place, and a blush on the other on 
 Mr. Shepherd's account, whose dignity stood 
 compromised in shirt-sleeves before such 
 a man as Mr. Elias Mathews and two 
 strangers, a glance at whom showed, how- 
 ever, that they were true gentlemen, who 
 politely looked as if they' saw nothing in- 
 congruous. 
 
 " Hearing a hymn as we were passing," 
 began Mr. Mathews, with that cold slyness 
 which he meant for veiled reproof, "I 
 thought you might have changed your hour 
 of service. Allow me to introduce my 
 brother. Surgeon Mathews of the Royal 
 Navy, and Count D'Avray, who, on their 
 way to France, have been good enough to 
 come to see me." 
 
 All bowed. 
 
 " Please put on your coat, Mr. Shepherd,
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 43 
 
 or you may catch cold,'^ said John Bessonet 
 to the preacher, who, in his heedless 
 simplicity, was no more thinking about his 
 personal appearance than the plane in his 
 hand. He complied, however, seeing that 
 his work was not to be resumed. 
 
 " Very happy to make your acquaintance, 
 both as my brother's friend and as a gentle- 
 man of whom I have already heard so 
 much. My friend Count D'Avray has had 
 his curiosity excited about these distant 
 relatives of his countrymen whom an act of 
 barbarous intolerance turned from children 
 of France into excellent British subjects." 
 
 " I fear Count D'Avray will be dis- 
 appointed if he expects to find, so far as 
 their minds are concerned, any traces of 
 consideration for the old country, they 
 being in all their feelings essentially English. 
 Their physiognomies do in many instances 
 bear marks of their descent ; and the dark 
 brown eye and swarthy features do not 
 more distinguish them from the Saxon with 
 his flaxen hair, clear complexion, and blue 
 eyes, than do a certain superiority of manner
 
 44 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 and a sort of refined intelligence. Brother 
 John is a tolerable, although not very 
 robust, specimen of the race." 
 
 ^' Oh ! this is Monsieur voire frere ; " and 
 the Count politely bowed. 
 
 " Oh ! you are not yet up to spiritual 
 relationships, Count," burst out Surgeon 
 Mathews, with a low rich chuckle, as if a 
 river of honey were effecting its conjunction 
 with a river of oil. 
 
 *• My poor song was not so bad as that," 
 thought Bessonet to himself, comforted and 
 at ease. 
 
 Henry Mathews, the surgeon, some years 
 younger than Elias, was shorter and 
 stouter, with an open countenance beaming 
 with benevolence and humour. His short, 
 shiny, black, curling hair gave a character 
 of force to his head quite in keeping 
 with his firm springy walk. He was a man 
 who, notwithstanding his merry tendencies, 
 could be resolute on right occasions. His 
 burst of laughter was not here, perhaps, in 
 the right place, or at the right time ; but 
 the reproving angel must have been fas-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 45 
 
 tidious, if in that glitteringly dewy eye, 
 beaming mouth, and broad surface of cheek 
 puckered into a playground of hills and 
 valleys for all Queen Mab's train to wanton 
 in, he could have found error serious enough 
 for heaven's chancery. He was a married 
 man — married to Count D' Avray's sister. 
 Henry Mathews and Count D'Avray had 
 met abroad, when the ships in which they 
 respectively served — the Count being a 
 French naval officer — lay in the same 
 waters. As usually happens, the neigh- 
 bourhood of the ships led to interchange of 
 courtesies and civilities between the English 
 and French officers. A fever broke out in 
 the French ship, carrying off the medical 
 man, with several of the crew. Count 
 D'Avray, the captain of the frigate, caught 
 the fever, and was on the point of death, 
 when, with the cordial permission of his 
 own commander, Surgeon Mathews left 
 his vessel, which, owing to his own wise 
 sanitary regulations, had escaped contagion, 
 presented himself to D'Avray, supposed to be 
 dying, and restored him to life, after which
 
 46 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 both became devoted friends. Availing him- 
 self of a cordial invitation to pay a visit to 
 the Count's house in France, Henry Mathews 
 went there, fell in love with his friend's sister, 
 and with her hand received sufficient fortune 
 to enable him to quit the service. 
 
 Count D'Avray was, like most of his 
 countrymen, of dark complexion, and of 
 grave manners, but by no means severe. 
 He did not laugh, but he could smile very 
 graciously, and he smiled more frequently 
 of late than he used to do when setting an 
 example of order and vigilance on the 
 quarter-deck of ^'L'Eclair." Companionship 
 with his brother-in-law was sufficient to 
 account for his more habitual relaxation 
 of features ; but his throat never did catch 
 the infection of Henry's chuckle, which had 
 many a time communicated itself to friends 
 at table. Henry and his brother-in-law 
 were making a short excursion together, and 
 they had run down to pay a visit to Mr. 
 Elias Mathews and his family. 
 
 The Count, although he could not help 
 smiling more at his brother-in-law's laugh
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 47 
 
 than at his own mistake, was not in the least 
 disconcerted . With characteristic quickness 
 he seized at once the meaning of the name 
 " brother," in the sense in which it was 
 addressed by Samson Shepherd to John 
 Bessonet. In fact, he understood and spoke 
 English well, only using French words in 
 conversation with English people, either 
 from inadvertence or when at a loss for the 
 right term. 
 
 " I know what you mean," he resumed, 
 with an unembarrassed air, more com- 
 municative in its subtle influence than 
 Henry's mirth. '^ Brethren in heart." 
 
 " In spirit," interrupted Elias, dogma- 
 tically. 
 
 " In spirit and in heart. Ah ! it is this 
 habit of uniting together for common ob- 
 jects which makes the force of England. 
 But what surprises me most is, you are all 
 orators, which is the more strange, as indi- 
 vidually you are supposed to be silent." 
 
 " You are thinking of those foolish fel- 
 lows we stopped to listen to as they argued 
 on the green. A queer set."
 
 48 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Elias put the stopper on Henry's bubbling 
 humour, remarking, " They were a set of 
 radicals and infidels who met there to dis- 
 turb the minds of the parish." 
 
 " O est precisement ce que f admire. Your 
 government permits the free expression of 
 opinion. Your government is wise enough 
 to understand that amongst a people habi- 
 tuated to the exercise of their faculties, 
 there will be contradiction, by which false 
 affirmation will be corrected. Est-ce que 
 je me fais comprendre^ Henri 1 " 
 
 " Better than a member of Parliament, 
 for you are obliged to think and choose 
 your words, and speak with concision ; that 
 is to say, to act as your own gallery reporter 
 — Hear and cheers, go on." 
 
 " The police are very negligent of their 
 duty. One day I stopped to hear a wicked 
 fellow, whose language made my hair stand 
 on end. I called on the policeman to com- 
 mit him to gaol ; and do you know, Count, 
 how he answered me ? He winked one 
 eye, put his finger. Sir, to the right side of 
 his nose, and grumbled, in a husky voice.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 49 
 
 * Catch me in a haction for false himprison- 
 ment.' " 
 
 " Elias, you would make a capital actor." 
 
 Elias groaned with horror at the idea of 
 the stage, which he firmly believed covered 
 the mouth of the bottomless pit. 
 
 *' How admirable ! He is charming, your 
 policeman ! To think that the first lesson 
 given to a sergent de ville should be to 
 respect the liberty of the subject ! " 
 
 '* For which reason," observed Henry, 
 cheerful in his very gravity, ^' the people 
 trust the police. They know that they 
 never interfere without just cause, and one 
 man may go into a crowd and arrest a 
 law-breaker single-handed; for should the 
 policeman himself violate any man's right, 
 the law will punish the policeman." 
 
 " Evil too may be made the means of 
 good," said Samson Shepherd, as he pulled 
 up the breast of his coat ; " for, as it was 
 observed that these people, although fond of 
 controversy, never entered a place of wor- 
 ship, our dear brother, Samuel Steele, de- 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 50 ONCE UPON A TBIE. 
 
 termined to improve the occasion; so, 
 mounting one glorious Sabbath evening 
 upon a stone bench, he raised his venerable 
 grey hairs above the crowd, sending forth 
 his rich voice in a volume of unctuous 
 exhortation to listen to the word of life." 
 
 "How can you name that vain old 
 schismatic ; and you know he hates you ! " 
 
 " Come, come, Elias, let us hear the 
 story out. How did the people receive 
 
 him r 
 
 " They listened, as they always do, to 
 the language of sincerity poured forth in 
 sympathising eloquence ; and, as' Goldsmith 
 says, ' some who went to scoff remained 
 to pray.' " 
 
 Elias shook his head at the profane quo- 
 tation. 
 
 " In fine," observed the Frenchman, in his 
 epigrammatic way, " your Mr. Steele plays 
 the double part of parson and policeman. 
 It is the best way. Allow liberty, wdth all 
 its inconveniences, it will correct itself." 
 
 " But, pardon me, gentlemen," modestly 
 chimed in John Bessonet, "Mr. Shepherd
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 51 
 
 has not told you all ; he might have added, 
 that when Mr. Steele tried his hand a second 
 time he failed — they were no longer to be 
 taken by surprise — and he had no variety 
 of ways, like Mr. Shepherd, who went 
 amongst them familiarly and proved him- 
 self to be as humorous and as witty as the 
 funniest scoffer amongst them. They are 
 delighted now when he appears, and out of 
 that crowd he converted some. He con- 
 verted me," 
 
 He raised Shepherd's hands to his lips, 
 and let fall a tear upon it. 
 
 " Perhaps you might like to see our 
 little school, gentlemen ?" 
 
 " I would be enchanted." 
 
 " The Count would be very much pleased 
 indeed," added Henry, who thought it ad- 
 visable to translate D'Avray's thought into 
 more sober English. 
 
 " I would be charmed." 
 
 '' Brother Bessonet," half whispered 
 Elias, " you will be married in church — 
 marriage by Steele — " 
 
 X 2
 
 52 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " Would not be half strongly enough 
 bindhig," chuckled Henry, mightily pleased 
 with his own joke, which did the service 
 a joke sometimes effects, that of stopping 
 a bore.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Few readers of novels care much about 
 school training, school visiting, or systems 
 of education, and as we have no particular 
 theory of our own to forward we shall 
 make no long stay among Mr. Shepherd's 
 pupils. Neither religion nor education 
 can be much served through histories of 
 this kind, and yet they both are so inti- 
 mately interwoven with society that any 
 view of human manners, from which all 
 reference to these subjects should be sys- 
 tematically excluded, would be necessarily 
 imperfect. A professedly religious novel is 
 no more, generally speaking, than a drama- 
 tised tract, in which the adversary is made 
 to get the worst of the argument, and 
 must needs be a bad fellow because of 
 
 £ 3
 
 54 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 erroneous thinking, wliich is not always 
 the case in life. We take people as we find 
 them, and if we do not call upon our readers 
 to ride a hard steeple chase in order to 
 gain a prominent object some distance off, 
 it is because that which is called a moral 
 purpose is only another word for some rigid 
 and narrow system which my lord, the au- 
 thor, has set up for people to bow down 
 before and worship. 
 
 The school-house, a compact building, 
 neither too high to be with difficulty heated, 
 nor too low to admit a free current of 
 fresh air, had to be approached through 
 rubbish occasioned by the w^ork going on 
 for the chapel. Mr. Shepherd had deter- 
 mined, as soon as sufficient money was col- 
 lected, to make sure of the school-house — 
 for through the school he would make sure 
 of the young, an object which was not always 
 to be effected with the less malleable old. 
 There is an instinct which generally directs 
 a man to his proper calling, if he only would 
 follow it, supposing always that his way be 
 not choked up with conflicting necessities.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 55 
 
 Now, Mr. Shepherd was formed by the 
 Father of all to be a teacher of the young, 
 and the work of his mission was to be 
 found in his sympathy with the feelings 
 and pursuits of children. It is not a com- 
 mon quality, that of sympathy with other 
 people's children. Your own are, of course, 
 most beautiful in your own particular pair 
 of eyes, but very seldom so in the eyes of 
 any one else. A multitude of parents sitting 
 in ecstasy before a swarm of pink sashes, 
 muslin trowsers, exquisitely tiny feet, glossy 
 curls, and rosy cheeks, see, when taken indi- 
 vidually, each their own little group of per- 
 fections throwing the whole swarm of fire- 
 flies into the shade by halos of supernatural 
 brightness. They are a multitude of anta- 
 gonisms, despite their smiling air of bene- 
 volence; and if one professes admiration of 
 the child of another, it is praise lent out 
 on usury, in expectation of compound inte- 
 rest ; and yet the self-sacrificing character 
 of a parent makes it the purest of all — only 
 take care that it become no extended self- 
 ishness. Let not indifference to the wants
 
 56 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 of the worthy be hypocritically exalted 
 into a virtue by pleading duty to one's 
 own. 
 
 This rare gift of sympathy with children 
 belonged peculiarly to Shepherd. He could 
 feel each child's particular difficulties, put- 
 ting himself in its place, stumbling and 
 struggling with it, and not losing his tem- 
 per, but recovering his own feet and helping 
 on the poor blunderer with an encouraging 
 hand. He felt the same call upon his man- 
 liness that a brave fellow would experience, 
 who finding that he had some way got into a 
 morass along with a young companion, 
 would think more of the other's danger 
 than of his own, would suppress his inward 
 apprehension, look courageously, spring 
 from one hard spot to another until the 
 continuous hard ground should be reached, 
 when, instead of venting irritated temper, he 
 would go on his way rejoicing, to run up the 
 next hill, or climb the next rock. Good 
 teachers are few, and a great teacher is as 
 scarce as a man of genius, because his great- 
 ness, like all true greatness, must come from
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 57 
 
 the same source — large tender nature. 
 Women are the best teachers for the very 
 young, and if their education was not gene- 
 rally so limited, would carry on instruction 
 with advantage to a more advanced time of 
 even a boy's life than they are allowed 
 under existing circumstances. Have not 
 almost all great men sprung from remark- 
 able mothers ? 
 
 The long building formed two compart- 
 ments of equal size, one for boys, and the 
 other for girls, for Mr. Shepherd was con- 
 vinced that, without being mixed together, 
 the male and female children might with 
 advantage, especially to the former, be 
 placed in near neighbourhood. Boys' man- 
 ners become softened and refined, and their 
 tempers are rendered more chivalrous and 
 manly by the occasional society of females. 
 They see how the masters bow with cour- 
 tesy and politeness to the mistresses, and 
 they learn to do likewise. The girls, on 
 the other hand, acquire habits of sober 
 freedom, and learn to conduct themselves 
 independently, without shyness, coquetry,
 
 58 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 or boldness, but openly and candidly, in the 
 company of men. 
 
 They first entered the female school, 
 when that low, earnest buzz, like that of an 
 industrious swarm of bees, which indicates 
 the presence of a crowd of young scholars, 
 suddenly ceased. A little to the surprise of 
 the strangers, Mr. Shepherd, addressing 
 two ladies, evidently the superintendents, 
 asked Lady Softworth first how she did, and 
 after receiving an answer, which, although 
 of the ordinary character, was yet uttered 
 in a tone which marked a highly -bred 
 gentlewoman, put the same question to Miss 
 Bond, whose satisfactory assurances as to 
 her state of health indicated more familiar 
 acquaintance. 
 
 " Is not the room too warm ? " asked Mr. 
 Shepherd, with his quick attention to the 
 conditions of health, of which fresh air and 
 cleanliness are amongst the chief; and suit- 
 ing the action to the word, a window was 
 opened from the top. 
 
 '^ Have they read their Bibles yet ? " 
 asked Mr. Elias Mathews, addressing Miss
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 59 
 
 Bond with somewhat of an imperious 
 tone. 
 
 " This is not the day for Scripture read- 
 ing," answered the lady, with a sort of 
 authoritative meekness, no doubt acquired 
 in the exercise of her occupation. 
 
 " And is a day allowed to pass without 
 prayers ? " 
 
 " Not without prayers," interposed Mr. 
 Shepherd, cutting shoi*t Mr. Elias's horrified 
 magniloquence ; " not without prayers ; 
 but the Scriptures are only read on stated 
 days, and as a specially serious duty. We 
 must guard against that irreverential fami- 
 liarity which attends ordinary routine. We 
 must bring children to the sacred volume 
 with minds fresh and free from pre- occupa- 
 tion about their other lessons; and then 
 we must particularly select the exquisite 
 parables, and the touching histories which 
 mingle human interest with divine teach- 
 ing." 
 
 " And you point out the errors of Popery 
 and Socinianism ? " 
 
 " We teach them to love their neighbours
 
 60 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 as themselves; or rather we let those beautiful 
 passages sink of themselves into their young 
 souls. We try to form tastes and habits 
 which will not be shaken by controversy, 
 and which will attract from error by the 
 sweet beauty of example." 
 
 Without intending it Mr. Shepherd had 
 fallen into tones adapted to the place, and 
 all eyes were directed towards him as if he 
 were delivering one of his impressive and 
 balmy lectures. Lady Softworth looked on 
 him with the whole luminous strength of her 
 large, soft grey eyes ; while from under her 
 inclined brow Miss Bond regarded him 
 with gentle earnestness. 
 
 And Count D'Avray, directing with a 
 squeeze of his arm Henry's observation to 
 the children's faces, whispered " What little 
 angels ! " 
 
 As the party passed into the boys' de- 
 partment. Count D'Avray lingered for the 
 sake of having a few words with Lady 
 Softworth. 
 
 Now the fair reader who would have 
 skipped this chapter in order to escape the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 61 
 
 sermonising would have missed a very in- 
 teresting problem, one that takes many 
 a young lady's life to solve, and regard- 
 ing which very few can ever come to a 
 satisfactory conclusion. We shall put it in 
 the form of a question. Is there really 
 such a thing as love at first sight ? And yet 
 we are not going to produce a case in point, 
 for Lady Softworth is already married — 
 yes, a married woman with a widowed heart. 
 Could the fault have been on her side ? 
 Look at her as Count D'Avray is looking at 
 her now, drawn towards her by the indescrib- 
 able attraction of a beaut}^, the proper name 
 of which is loveliness — for it is beauty 
 of that order which is not to be described 
 by details, like an inventory taken of eyes, 
 nose, hair, lips, and complexion. We have 
 said of her eyes that they were large, soft, 
 and grey. We wish we had said nothing 
 of the colour, of which we protest we are 
 not sure — yet being true, as a first im- 
 pression, the colour may stand ; but we 
 have heard it disputed whether they were 
 not of the most delicate blue ; and one lady
 
 62 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 has been heard to insist that they had a 
 darkish tendency — yes, she would hazard 
 the word — violet ; and there was another 
 who, although aware she was running the 
 risk of being called paradoxical, had de- 
 tected a fleeting green, like that which is 
 sometimes seen in the evening sky at the 
 time when Yenus is about to hang like a 
 pendant to the ear of the young moon. 
 Perhaps they were of chameleon character, 
 taking their hue from the succeeding 
 emotion. Is it not a foolish thing to be 
 attempting such refined speculations about a 
 woman's eyes ? A mystery is a mystery, 
 and no more can be said about it. 
 
 Cheeks are or ought to be less bewilder- 
 ing. The author-artist is supposed to have 
 only one colour to lay on, or none at all. 
 The rose and the lily have been doing their 
 beautiful service on the cheek of woman 
 since the time when Solomon sung so 
 divinely of love that his song takes pre- 
 cedence of the Apocrypha, a puzzle for 
 Biblical critics to the world's end. If 
 the cheek be not rosy, why, of course it
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 63 
 
 must be pale ; there is no alternative, unless 
 the sparkling brunette should enter a pro- 
 test, which, indeed, the spirited creature is 
 very likely to do. Well, now, that calm, 
 full, rich countenance of Lady Softworth is 
 not to be painted by any blending of rose 
 and lily of which our rough fingers are 
 capable. Perhaps that most delicate speci- 
 men of the queen of the garden, the blush 
 rose, may be an approach to this tinted 
 marble imbued with warm life. A poet 
 speaks of the porcelain of human clay, but 
 we must fancy this imagined porcelain to 
 have been hardened out of cream, if we are 
 to admit the poet's porcelain at all. Then 
 how the lips seem to have unfolded of them- 
 selves — how they have broken spontaneously 
 into those rich symmetrical waves of which 
 nature has hidden the secret from the art of 
 man. All beautiful things seem to dissolve 
 away from rigid measurement, as if each in 
 itself, and all together should be legible 
 symbols of infinitude ; as we cannot tell ex- 
 actly — mind exactly — the colour of eyes or 
 cheeks, so neither can we say whether the lips
 
 64 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 were small or large. The difficulty having 
 been mentioned to Henry Mathews, that fa- 
 cetious gentleman suggested that '^ truth lay 
 between." The forehead was not remarkable 
 — the eye-brows were delicately arched, 
 and she wore her light, silky brown hair 
 plain. Brown, did you say? — we have 
 caught you in a direct definition at last. 
 Let that hair fall down. Sir or Madam, over 
 those shoulders of which we shall simply 
 say they were glorious, which means, more- 
 over, that nothing need be said of arms and 
 hands, and then see whether any epithet, 
 single or compound, will serve your 
 purpose. You might as well ask a word 
 for a dawn -cloud, or for a wave of the sea, 
 when the breeze and the water are playing 
 together, and the sun peeping out now and 
 then. Her figure was not tall or short, and 
 in order to prove our perfect candour and 
 impartiality, for we are not looking through 
 D'Avray's eyes, we admit it was rather 
 heavy than otherwise. As it has been 
 mentioned that she was married, you do not
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 65 
 
 of course take it for granted that she was 
 young, and you ask her age. We protest 
 we cannot even guess, but by and by, as 
 soon as we shall have consulted the bap- 
 tismal register, taking a margin of some 
 ten years, we shall be happy to satisfy your 
 curiosity. 
 
 Do you care now to look at her com- 
 panion. Miss Bond ? — perhaps it may afford 
 relief to look at something positive. She 
 is of fair height, with well-formed, regular 
 features, and clear eye, — intelligent, and yet 
 gentle, — of composed manners, not without 
 a touch of gracefulness. The bloom of 
 youth has indeed passed away ; yet she is 
 too young for those grey hairs, although 
 they become her. Still we must call her an 
 old maid. It is a pity, too, that woman so 
 made for loving should not have something 
 to love with her whole great heart. Gats 
 and dogs are the other end of the doll 
 instinct. Midway, if the heart be not taken 
 up into the great company of all nature's 
 improved joys, it may escape being like 
 poor Lady Softworth's — a widowed heart; 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 but it is an orphaned heart — one cut off 
 from its inheritance, which we are all bound 
 to support. 
 
 D' Avray saw all that we have been labour- 
 ing to describe and explain, and a great 
 deal more, in a second of time, if not less, 
 for it is wonderful how much a thoroughly 
 wide-awake glance will reveal. Say rather 
 how much kindled sympathy reveals to 
 itself ; for are there not moments in which 
 the soul feels conscious of an inward revela-- 
 tion, when all holy joys and blessed dis- 
 cernments open at once, and there is no 
 bound to the power of comprehension ? 
 The sensitive Frenchman perceived as well, 
 and indeed better than if he had heard all 
 about it, for he perceived for himself that 
 these two ladies represented influence and 
 intelligence, not separated in either, but 
 combined in different degrees. The order, 
 the neatness, the method which marked 
 every arrangement, and which were visible 
 in the clean, tidy appearance of the exceed- 
 ingly good-looking little girls, may possibly 
 have been in some degree imposed by the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 67 
 
 strict hand of Miss Bond. But the looks 
 of aifectionate respect, amounting to' awe, 
 the low whispers, as if in a temple, the 
 open eyes seeking for approval, and never 
 cowering with fear, and the becoming polite- 
 ness, must have been derived from the pre- 
 sence of the perfect lady. She was not 
 remarkable for ability. Her accomplish- 
 ments were indeed manifold, but they were 
 Only such as the children of wealthy and 
 fashionable parents usually receive with so 
 much aid as scarcely to require the pupil's 
 effort. Young ears easily take in languages, 
 whose sounds young tongues easily imitate, 
 and music and drawing are pastimes. Lady 
 Softworth was no clear commentator. Mr. 
 Elias rose highly in his own estimation 
 when he heard her " expound ;" yet when 
 he dared to " improve the occasion " with a 
 little "word in season," nobody thanked 
 him. He may have helped the sense, but 
 he spoiled the music. When her Ladyship 
 read one of the Saviour's parables, which 
 need no commentary, her voice retranslated 
 it into the old language. There stood 
 
 F 2
 
 68 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 before them one who would have ministered 
 to the divine Son — the perfect faith to which 
 he accorded miraculous grants — the perfect 
 love that casteth out all fear. When she 
 used to go to the theatre, happy would be 
 the actor whose eye caught her gaze, for he 
 played to and for her alone, and never played 
 so well. Happy the orchestral leader of the 
 concert, to which she still occasionally re- 
 paired, for Mozart underwent a new reading 
 by her sweet delight — a smile no more, for 
 more open expression would disarrange the 
 calm harmony of her countenance. Even 
 old Samuel Steele declared, wdth tears in his 
 eyes, that a power departed from him the 
 day she ceased to sit under his ministry, 
 " She seemed," he would say, " as a field 
 calmly imbibing the dew of grace — not a 
 word of his appeared to fall in vain." The 
 old man was right ; there lay the secret of 
 her attraction. She made all her bene- 
 factors, to the satisfaction of their own self- 
 love. She made herself, not meaningly, a 
 mild dependent upon others' bounty, and 
 none could refuse her all their best trea-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 6^ 
 
 sures. D'Avrav looked on her as a dove 
 whom he could cherish. He felt himself 
 within magic influence, and bound by a 
 spell. Still it was incumbent upon him 
 to justify his delay, and he proceeded with 
 admirable presence of mind to act the part of 
 an inspector of schools, required to examine 
 into the sanitary condition of his then Ma- 
 jesty's little subjects. The ladies, upon the 
 other hand, seeing that he was a French- 
 man, felt all their gentle enthusiasm fired by 
 the hope of educating him as a missionary, 
 making him capable of introducing their 
 school system into the monarchy of the bar- 
 ricades, interested as a loyal subject would 
 be to confide the safety of the dynasty to 
 a well-behaved rising generation. 
 
 " Permit me, Madam, to demand what 
 system is adopted ? I do not ask the de- 
 tails — only a general idea." 
 
 Lady Softworth directed an eye towards 
 Miss Bond. 
 
 " Well, the system — the system — really 
 I know not how to answer — the system is 
 the man himself." 
 
 F 3
 
 70 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " I understand, it is the pastor who directs 
 the boys — he is their system ; and you 
 ladies are the girls' system." 
 
 " Oh, no ! you overrate our influence, — 
 does he not, Janet ? " 
 
 " Your share, no, dear Lady Soft- 
 worth." 
 
 " I can only say the children come, and 
 we teach them." 
 
 " And the State, besides the authoriza- 
 tion of the minister, allows a certain sub- 
 vention for the support of the school ? " 
 
 " The Government has nothing to do 
 with it. We are quite independent of the 
 Government." 
 
 " Then the Municipality, perhaps." 
 
 '' You mean the Corporation. We never 
 hear of the Corporation, except as a great 
 diner :" at which, as Miss Bond smiled, the 
 Count felt obliged to compliment the lady 
 on her esprit, 
 
 " Mr. Shepherd leaves all special instruc- 
 tion in our hands, such as reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, geography, which we impart 
 voluntarily."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 71 
 
 " This is, according to what I have 
 heard, called the voluntary system. If it 
 produces such teachers, and such results 
 (looking round at the pretty children), it 
 must be the best." 
 
 " I do not altogether agree with you. 
 Miss Bond and I have frequently discussed 
 the question together, and we have come to 
 the conclusion that the State does owe sup- 
 port to the weak, whether the weakness 
 spring from childhood, poverty, sickness, 
 or old age — besides, there will always be 
 abundant opportunity for the exercise of 
 individual exertion in this world, no matter 
 how great the number of State institutions, 
 as we sometimes argue with Mr. Shep- 
 herd." 
 
 " Does Mr. Shepherd resist such obvious 
 truth?" 
 
 ** Mr. Shepherd," replied Lady Softworth, 
 " has so much self-reliance that he cannot 
 understand any one admitting dependence 
 of any kind." 
 
 *' But children cannot teach themselves." 
 
 " He would throw even children, as much 
 p 4
 
 72 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 as possible, upon their own resources — 
 making them find out things for themselves 
 — a genuine Anglo-Saxon," said Miss Bond, 
 with something like enthusiasm. 
 
 " Yes, the Celtic race is too fond of being 
 governed," observed Count D' Avray, with a 
 sigh. 
 
 " And we have our faults too. We be- 
 come, through our excessive individualism, 
 hard and unsympathising." 
 
 " You hard and unsympathising ? " 
 
 Both ladies looked a little surprised. 
 
 '^ If you like to understand more of Mr. 
 Shepherd," quietly resumed Lady Soft- 
 worth, ^' you should hear him lecture at 
 the time when he assembles the children, 
 both male and female, and recounts some 
 interesting piece of biography, — how atten- 
 tive and delighted they look ! " 
 
 " Yes, and those concerts which he has 
 organised." 
 
 " Oh, they are divine ! " 
 
 " He must be a remarkable man — Mr. 
 Shepherd." 
 
 *' Indeed he is.'*
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 73 
 
 The Count fancied that Miss Bond 
 sighed. 
 
 " When you go into the next room you 
 will see it hung with maps, showing not 
 only the position of different countries, but 
 their productions above as well as below the 
 soil ; and indeed all objects that speak to 
 the senses of children. He says that the 
 senses must be pressed into the service of 
 the understanding, and that the body must 
 be made strong and pure, like the heart 
 and soul and mind." 
 
 This being a long speech for her lady- 
 ship, she stopped, and with her eyes asked 
 her friend to help her out. 
 
 " He proposes to have gymnastic exer- 
 cises, and a laboratory, and to inculcate 
 attention to the laws of health." 
 
 At this moment the conversation was in- 
 terrupted by a vigorous hurrah, from lungs 
 so stout as to show that instruction re- 
 garding the laws of health had not been 
 thrown away. 
 
 " The holiday for ivir ! I vote for the 
 holiday ! " could be heard distinctly above
 
 74 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the general turmoil, from a voice which 
 there was no mistaking had acquired its 
 accents in the Emerald Isle. 
 
 When Count D'Avray and the ladies en- 
 tered, Mr. Shepherd, Elias, and Bessonet, 
 were trying to restore order, while Henry 
 Mathews, the cause of the outbreak, was 
 looking on with a glittering eye, which 
 seemed more disposed to enjoy than to 
 reprove the storm. Mr. Shepherd held 
 up his forefinger, but as he failed for once 
 in his efforts to look stern, the little rogues 
 discerned that he was inwardly giving 
 way, and that it was unnecessary to resist 
 an authority which was yielding of its 
 own accord. Elias was looking clouds and 
 darkness, but he was no master. He wished 
 to flog somebody ; he wished to flog them 
 all. He felt the desire of Caligula, that all 
 the urchins had but one pair of small 
 clothes, and he holding the birch. His 
 son, Obady, was there ; for out of patron- 
 age and feigned humility, and the wish, 
 too, for a little instruction not to be paid 
 for, he let Obady set an illustrious example.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 75 
 
 Poor Obady ! if he could only have peeped 
 into his father's breast, he would have beheld 
 there all the paternal feelings arrayed like a 
 jury upon him. Obady drew to his uncle's 
 side, as if for protection, while the kind 
 Henry rubbed his hand through the boy's 
 rich brown hair. " Be home before me," 
 ordered the father, in a mild voice ; and 
 Obady went — the good man observing that 
 it was not well for the lad to witness in- 
 subordination. '' I say, Obady, wait for 
 me," shouted a joyous-looking, fair-haired 
 little fellow, who was his constant comrade, 
 as he darted after him. Elias could not 
 flog that boy, but he mentally resolved to 
 call on his father and plead the duty of 
 paternal castigation. Meantime Bessonet 
 was running to and fro, trying by appeals, 
 threatening and tender, — by appeals to the 
 feelings, and by shakes of little coat-collars, 
 — to quell the mutiny — all in vain. 
 
 Usually the appearance of a strange 
 gentleman occasioned respect ; that of Miss 
 Bond, attention ; of Lady Softworth, awe, 
 — rather say, loving sway.
 
 76 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 On this occasion the stranger was hailed 
 as an ally, and very logically, for was he 
 not the friend of Mr. Henry Mathews, w^ho, 
 on an explosion of good-nature, had cried 
 out, " Here is a ten-pound note to spend in a 
 holiday ?" The ladies did indeed produce an 
 effect, manifested not in the subjugation of 
 the storm, but in a change of character and 
 direction. The boys clustered about them, 
 begging their interference with the master 
 to let them have the holiday. 
 
 This time, when the master held up his 
 two hands, the noise subsided ; the little 
 Milesian voice being the last to sink into 
 silence. 
 
 " My good boys, if this kind gentleman 
 had merely requested that you should be 
 allowed a half holiday, I would have cheer- 
 fully complied ; but as at the same time he 
 proposes a gift which, I can assure you, 
 amounts to a considerable sum " 
 
 " Two hundred shillings, and every shil- 
 ling twelve pence," abstractedly muttered 
 little O'Flaherty, making a calculation in 
 his own mind ; " and, with the young led- 
 dies, we make fifty."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 77 
 
 This occasioned a laugh, at which the 
 little red-headed fellow looked surprised. 
 
 "I am pleased to find that Thomas 
 'Flaherty, with a gallantry and generosity 
 peculiar to his nation {cheers)^ means to 
 include those whom he properly calls 
 ladies, by which he anticipates and sup- 
 ports the amendment I intend to move, 
 which is that, instead of foolishly dissi- 
 pating this large sum of money on toys and 
 cakes, we form a fine country party " 
 
 The rest of the sentence was lost in 
 cheering, which was renewed when Count 
 D'Avray begged to be allowed to contri- 
 bute an equal sum. 
 
 " But why not the half holiday as well?" 
 cried the little " father of the man," unable 
 to resist a present pleasure. 
 
 '^ They are too unsettled to do anything 
 more to-day," sagaciously whispered Miss 
 Bond. 
 
 " I fear you are right. Well, I will let 
 you go if you promise " 
 
 *' Oh ! that we will," shouted a score of 
 voices. 
 
 " To be good boys."
 
 78 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 And the school broke up, particularly to 
 the satisfaction of Master 'Flaherty, who 
 had an affair of honour on hand. We must 
 do the hero justice; the boy he meant to 
 meet had been convicted of a petty theft, for 
 which the master had forgiven him, threat- 
 ening expulsion should the like occur 
 again. Young Mark did repeat the offence, 
 on which the chivalrous 'Flaherty said he 
 would not tell, but he would thrash him, as 
 he detested an informer more than a thief. 
 It was because the half holiday afforded 
 such an excellent opportunity for fulfilling 
 the engagement, that, other reasons inclu- 
 ded, the little gentleman exhibited so much 
 anxiety not to be disappointed. 
 
 When little, fair-haired Justin Forbes 
 overtook Obady Mathews, the latter, after 
 the indulgence of a run to get beyond 
 arms' reach of his Papa, had relaxed into a 
 lounging gait, sticking each hand into a 
 side pocket, and giving no other sign of the 
 activity of mental his powers than a sort of 
 absent-minded kick to any soft or elastic 
 substance lying in his way. Obady was
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 79 
 
 evidently out of humour. He was a fine 
 boy, with brown hair, dark blue eyes, well- 
 formed features, and good complexion ; a 
 clever, self-willed fellow in the hands of a 
 narrow-minded father, and easy, indulgent 
 mother, who submitted, like himself, to the 
 same domestic tyranny, differing only in 
 mode of exercise. There were fine elements 
 in Obady ; but under a system of terror 
 he had learned somewhat of the ordinary 
 vices of the slave, and had, moreover, 
 taught himself to set too high a value upon 
 indulgences of which he was unfairly de- 
 prived. Justin, or, as he was familiarly 
 called. Just, was the step-son of Mr. Mal- 
 theson, the bookseller, who, after the death 
 of his father, a practising surgeon and 
 apothecary, had married his mother. Just 
 was allowed a good deal of his own way, 
 and, to do the brave boy justice, he did not 
 very much abuse his privilege, for he was 
 one of those open, artless natures that seem 
 instinctively to go right. Obady seldom 
 had a penny, and often hungered after a 
 little money, while Just was never without
 
 80 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 coin of some kind, for which he seemed to 
 care so little as to inspire Obady with a 
 high regard for the splendid liberality of 
 his disposition. Just, on the other hand, 
 profoundly esteemed Obady's talents, which 
 appeared, to his awkward inability to turn 
 points of difficulty with ingenuity, extra- 
 ordinary indeed. The}^ Avere, in fact, 
 bosom friends, ay, and their friendship 
 was genuine, and would have stood much 
 tougher trial than that of older people. It 
 had already borne that severest of ordeals, 
 unsettled money transactions ; but then 
 Just never could be made to understand 
 that Obady owed him anything, while 
 Obady was magnanimously arranging in 
 his imagination how he would, at some far 
 future day, repay his obligations with in- 
 terest. Mr. Elias Mathews would pro- 
 bably have called the boy a parricide, had 
 he been let into the secret of his post-obit 
 resolutions. 
 
 " I say, Obady," cries Just, coming up, 
 panting like a water-spaniel, " don't fret at 
 father stopping your holiday, for I will keep 
 you company at home."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 81 
 
 " Do you think he would let you ? " 
 
 " Do you think he would turn me out ? 
 If he did, I would have Mother soon down 
 upon him." 
 
 " That's a dodge I didn't think of. What 
 frets me, Just, is to lose the fight. Do you 
 know that I promised Fla' (abbreviation of 
 O'Flaherty) to be his second ?" 
 
 " Then it is all the better you should 
 have to go home," argued Just, who in- 
 stinctively disliked brutality. 
 
 "But think of my honour. Just; for I 
 carried the message." 
 
 " In that case I will take your place, and 
 stand by him." 
 
 " My dear boy," says Obady, with a pro- 
 tective and patronising air, " you are not 
 skilled in the science — you have taken no 
 lessons in the noble art of self-defence." 
 
 " I suppose I would only have to pick 
 Fla' up, take him on my knee, give him a 
 drink, and encourage him." 
 
 " Very good. Just ; but all that would 
 not win the battle for Fla'. I know what 
 that Shark is, — a cool chap, who will let the 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 hot little Fla' exhaust himself, and then take 
 his head into Chancery. I am the boy to 
 rein in Fla' — in fact, I must go ! " 
 
 " Your father will flog you." 
 
 " I have got a dodge that will puzzle him 
 to come over.'* 
 
 " You have ; tell it to me." 
 
 Before Obady whispered the secret of 
 what he called the dodge, he looked about 
 with that precocious caution which was one 
 of the fruits of his peculiar domestic educa- 
 tion. As we have no right to pry into a 
 secret intended for a single friendly ear, 
 we shall only say that, as soon as the pro- 
 cess was described by which an uplifted 
 hand could be made to appear as if it had 
 become suddenly spell-bound. Just's face 
 exhibited an expression of something like 
 terror as well as admiration. Yet so curious 
 did the experiment promise to be, that he 
 resolved upon being a spectator. 
 
 A bright thought struck Just, who, not 
 liking to see his friend guilty of the sin of 
 disobedience to parents, fancied he had 
 found a way to get out of the difficulty by
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 83 
 
 proposing to ask Mamma's leave — ''Mamma 
 will say yes at once." 
 
 "And catch it nicely on her own ac- 
 count," suggested the son, with a myste- 
 rious expression of countenance. 
 
 " I have it. I tell you what you'll do. 
 You will go in and ask for me — you under- 
 stand ? I am out. You will be asked to 
 sit down — don't. You won't be asked to 
 eat bread and jam, for Father keeps the 
 keys. Deborah, my big sister, will look sus- 
 picious — don't mind her either. Cicely, the 
 darling, will look friendly — don't mind her, 
 either. Mamma, good Mamma, will kiss 
 you ; and when she does, do you say, as if 
 unawares — 'If I meet Obady, Ma'am, may 
 we go and take a walk ? ' She will say ' Yes,' 
 and you cut." 
 
 " Capital. And then, if Father goes to 
 beat you, I intercede, saying it was all my 
 fault ; and " 
 
 " And then you'll see the dodge." 
 
 The programme was duly carried out ; 
 nor was Just's admiration of Obady's saga- 
 city diminished, as the result proved the 
 
 G 2
 
 84 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 precision with which the latter had marked 
 out a course of events of which he could 
 not have received information, even from 
 that supernatu rally-gifted being, " the little 
 bird " who is the revealer of so many- 
 secrets. Deborah did look suspicious ; but, 
 as Just did not betray himself by a blush, 
 even her distrust was disarmed by a coun- 
 tenance innocent in its very guile. Friendly 
 Cicely would have engaged him in conver- 
 sation on the subject of birds, when the 
 prophesied maternal kiss intervened in due 
 time to allow the request to be made, which 
 was granted precisely in the way contem- 
 plated. " All right ! " was Just's laconic 
 announcement ; and the two boys ducked 
 their heads and ran with the stealthy acti- 
 vity of a pair of young Indians, from ima- 
 ginary pursuit. 
 
 " Your uncle is not like your father," 
 observed Just, in the interval of the hardly 
 interrupted run which the two boys kept 
 up on their way to the ground." 
 
 ^' Uncle's a trump ! He gave Cicely and 
 me a guinea apiece — we being children. I
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 85 
 
 forgive his calling me a child, on account of 
 his having tipped the yellow-boy. To De- 
 borah, who is a woman, I suppose he gave 
 a silk gown, and bonnet to match." 
 
 " A guinea ! " 
 
 " My dear Just," exclaimed Obady, stop- 
 ping for once, '^ do you think so meanly of 
 me as to suppose that, had the guinea been 
 left with me, I would not have repaid a part, 
 at least, of what I owe you ?" 
 
 " It is a shame for you, Obady, to speak 
 that way to me ;" and Just found it neces- 
 sary to draw the back of his hand across 
 his eyes, and to blow his nose as if he had 
 caught cold from his friend's unkindness ; 
 for the last thing the generous boy thought 
 of was the debt alluded to, which he never 
 could be brouo^ht to re2:ard as such. 
 
 " Yes ! it is not enough for Father never 
 to allow me a penny to keep the Evil One 
 (his own name for old Scratch) out of my 
 pocket, but he must meddle with what 
 doesn't belong to him. He finds out that I 
 want things of use ; and I must put down 
 a shilling for this charity, and a shilling for 
 
 G 3
 
 86 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 that; and have my name in print, and a 
 story about his children in the pulpit." 
 
 "But that was all very good," answered 
 the simple Just. 
 
 '^Now suppose somebody gave you a 
 guinea," and Obady conveyed his idea of the 
 supposed parallel case of interference with 
 the rights of property, and of retaliatory re- 
 sentment, by a jerk of his head, and a look 
 full of what he thought to be terrible mean- 
 ing. Just's thoughts were away in another 
 direction. Suppose he had a guinea for 
 pocket-money ! He had never quite so large 
 a sum as that, and the sound set his imagina- 
 tion busily at work. The castle that it built, 
 and how it was inhabited, were thus revealed 
 to his more calculating companion : — 
 
 " If I had a guinea, I would first double 
 Blackey's allowance." 
 
 " The nigger to whom you are always 
 making presents, besides the penny a week 
 regular?" 
 
 " He was a poor slave, you know." 
 • " There are slaves with white faces too." 
 
 "Are there, indeed? I never read of 
 them."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 87 
 
 "Goon. What next ?'^ 
 
 " I would buy lots of cakes, and give 
 them away to the little children ; and I 
 would buy a cage for your sister Cicely's 
 canary, and bring Mother home a purse; 
 and " 
 
 " And pay the national debt ! " 
 
 " Ah ! you're joking, Obady." 
 
 " I tell you what's no joke — that a cove 
 should be made to spend presents in buy- 
 ing things like this," and he kicked his 
 cloth cap into the air^ 
 
 Just's blood being warmed by the run- 
 ning and excitement, he too was carried 
 away by the instinctive love of exercising 
 his limbs in a game of football ; and in this 
 way both arrived at the scene of action, 
 which was a low-lying green field, imme- 
 diately adjoining the infantry barracks. 
 
 " Clear the ring," cries Obady, who at 
 once assumed a tone of command, which 
 immediately confirmed Fla's confidence in 
 his second. " Now, Shark, recollect, no 
 foul play ! " 
 
 " Mind your own business," growled a 
 
 G 4
 
 88 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 low-browed, ill-looking lad, who proved to 
 be Shark's friend on the occasion. 
 
 " Never you fear ; I will mind my busi- 
 ness/' replied the young gentleman, very 
 significantly ; and to prove that he under- 
 stood what he was about, he proceeded to 
 prepare young Fla' for the trial, while pour- 
 ing into his ear some profound instruction 
 in a language which, although rounded off 
 with a terminology as astounding as that 
 of Kant, was perfectly intelligible to the 
 scientific pupil of this accomplished master, 
 and concluded with the considerate advice 
 to pitch as hard into Shark as would send 
 him not farther into eternity than the 
 middle of next week. 
 
 Before matters had proceeded to an ex- 
 tremity the match was interrupted by the 
 appearance of two sergeants, looking in 
 their red coats, white-duck trousers, red 
 sashes, white gloves, with canes, as smart, 
 trim, and orderly as British sergeants 
 usually do. A pair of military heroes, each 
 wearing the medal, was an unlooked-for 
 addition to the spectators. They gave
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 89 
 
 weight and respectability to the occasion, 
 and promised to impart additional fire to 
 the combatants. Yery much to the sur- 
 prise and dismay of the spectators, and not 
 without a little latent grain of comfort to 
 one of the principal actors in the scene, the 
 sergeants laid hold of each of the rival can- 
 didates for the champion's belt. For a mo- 
 ment they looked very terrible, raised their 
 canes, and then burst out laughing. Good 
 humour was immediately created, and con- 
 fidence too, and, when it was seen to be 
 established, the older-looking of the two, a 
 young man, however, addressed the lads : — 
 " "We know who you are ; you belong to 
 Mr. Shepherd's school — that good man, 
 that pious Christian, who is doing the work 
 of his Heavenly Father; and what would 
 he think if he should be told that the fruit 
 of his instruction was evil ? Would it not 
 break his honest heart ? — he who is your 
 best benefactor ; for it is the bread of life 
 with which he feeds your young souls ; and 
 you to be so ungrateful as to turn the 
 Saviour's lessons of brotherly love, which
 
 ^0 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 he tries to instil into your little hardened 
 hearts, into bitter gall." 
 
 " Shall I call out the guard and take 
 them into custody ?" interrupted the second 
 sergeant, with mysterious gravity. 
 
 " Not until we have appealed to their 
 better feelings. First, you two lads, the 
 chief leaders in this wickedness, shall shake 
 hands, and ask God's forgiveness for having 
 committed the sin of malice." 
 
 Shark, with most admirable promptitude, 
 put out his lean, sinewy arm, while his 
 sinister little face relaxed into a smile which 
 only brightened up its expression of low 
 cunning. Fla' folded his own chubby pair, 
 and resolutely refused. The two sergeants 
 remonstrated, the one sternly, the other 
 graciously, but all in vain ; and, Fla' though 
 gifted Avith no small share of his country's 
 fluency, would give no reason to excuse his 
 apparent vindictiveness. Poor Fla' ! he 
 would not take the hand of a thief who had 
 broken his word, and he would not turn 
 informer. After long suspense, and when 
 it was about to be settled that Fla' should
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 91 
 
 be brought to punisbment, Obady whis- 
 pered the state of the case in the sergeant's 
 ear, who let the boy go, taking no further 
 steps, as he and his companion very wisely 
 concluded that justice would be best at- 
 tained by leaving the matter to be settled 
 by these noble little fellows, according to 
 their own notions of truth and honour, 
 which, however wild they might seem, were 
 just and wholesome. 
 
 Before we conclude this chapter, we wish 
 to say a few words touching the behaviour 
 of our worthy English sergeants. Some of 
 our readers, we are sure, expected that the 
 interference of such men would have been 
 exercised in quite an opposite manner. 
 They have said to themselves, why, the 
 trade of these men is to fight. They are 
 hired to fight, not to preach; and what 
 would become of the country if all the red- 
 coats should prove parsons in disguise ? 
 But what do you say of Cromwell's In- 
 vincibles ? Oh, the case is different, and 
 to be intelligibly explained by a peculiar 
 state of things. Well, just so. The British
 
 92 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 army is now, as well as then, always has 
 been, and probably ever will be, impene- 
 trated with the prevailing sentiments and 
 ideas of the people at large. The soldier 
 preserves the early inclinations acquired in 
 the pure English home; and while there 
 are in the ranks, as there is in general 
 society, many a thoughtless and dissolute 
 fellow, there are others who are fond of the 
 luxury of reading and of listening to in- 
 struction, and not a few who are devout. 
 Such men are generally Dissenters, for 
 amongst Dissenters class distinctions dis- 
 appear, at all events under the chapel roof, 
 where the spiritual "experience" of a 
 private is as edifying as that of any other 
 individual whose respectability is not 
 judged by his coat, but by the brightness 
 of that armour which is described by St. 
 Paul in one of his most eloquent passages.
 
 93 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The three gentlemen, Count D'Avray, 
 Henry, and Elias Mathews, walked together 
 to the last-named gentleman's house. Now 
 the mind of Mr. Elias was generally under 
 the operation of one or other of these three 
 motives : — how to make converts ; how to 
 make money ; how to make himself a man 
 of importance in the world without expen- 
 diture. It so happened that in the course 
 of an hour or less opportunities for testing 
 his powers in these three ways presented 
 themselves successively and in due order, 
 with the addition of a fresh and unexpected 
 problem arising out of that particular ex- 
 periment which Obady was meditating, 
 and to which he gave the quaint title of 
 "dodge." 
 
 " Are there people of our persuasion in
 
 94 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 France ?" The question was of course 
 addressed to the Frenchman, who, contrary 
 to his usual habit of mind, seemed insen- 
 sible to the objects and persons around him, 
 for reasons better known to the reader than 
 to his two companions. 
 
 Henry, who was as well aware of his 
 brother-in-law's large intellectual culture 
 as he was of his brother's limited acquain- 
 tance with foreign countries and books, 
 interposed in his usual pleasant way, saying 
 that he could answer for one, Madame 
 ]\Iathilde Mathews n&e D'Avray. 
 
 " Then Count D'Avray is a Protestant?" 
 
 " Non sequitury 
 
 Ha! Henry had converted his wife! 
 Who could have expected so much from 
 the apparently careless Henry ? The way 
 was then prepared, the good seed sown; 
 why should he not put in his sickle for the 
 harvest ? Such were the thoughts running 
 in Elias's mind. But how was he to ap- 
 proach the subject ? This was no common 
 man to whom he could direct a rough ques- 
 tion about transubstantiation or the Virgin
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 95 
 
 Mary, and yet this fine diplomatist who could 
 practise his art so adroitly when sounding 
 a poor brother or sister in the Lord as to 
 their possible power of repaying borrowed 
 money with legal interest and an illegal 
 bonus, which conscience settled by calling 
 it an insurance premium rising with the 
 hazard of the transaction — this fine diplo- 
 matist felt his science baffled by the sense 
 of a superior presence. Besides, the Count's 
 absence of mind was a difficulty in itself. 
 After some cogitation he resolved to open 
 his approaches with the question — 
 " How did you like the school ?" 
 Count D'Avray started — a strange effect 
 to be produced by so simple a question. The 
 shrewd Henry began to suspect something. 
 He recollected the long delay in the girls' de- 
 partment ; and he remembered that there 
 were two handsome ladies. Which of the fair 
 ones had achieved the conquest ? He would 
 have liked to say something sly, but felt 
 restrained by the presence of Elias, for 
 Henry had all the delicacy of a gentleman 
 in his hearty nature.
 
 96 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Mr. Samson Shepherd is a remarkable 
 
 man." 
 
 " I did not converse much with him." 
 
 "No, I recollect, you directed your in- 
 quiries to our dear sister, Lady Softworth." 
 
 " She is your sister, Henry ?" 
 
 The brothers were startled in turn at the 
 energy of the question. 
 
 " My dear D'Avray, have you not your- 
 self remarked that every profession has its 
 own conventional language as well as its 
 conventional morality. Pious lawyers are 
 allowed liberties with truth, Right Honour- 
 able Peers may play tricks on the turf, one 
 may look a lie in the Stock Exchange, and 
 each profession has its own tongue as well 
 as creed!" 
 
 "Oh! shame, Henry, — your brother Elias 
 did not expect this from you. There may 
 be hypocrites, whose language is " 
 
 "Whose language is cant; but, believe 
 me, Elias, I did not mean to apply the in- 
 sinuation to you." 
 
 Count D'Avray, shaken out of his dream 
 by this momentary difference between the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 97 
 
 brothers, replied to the first observation of 
 Elias, that Mr. Shepherd was a remark- 
 able man, as if he had not noticed what 
 followed. 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Shepherd does seem a man 
 remarkable." 
 
 " Sound in doctrine — very sound." 
 
 " He does a great deal of good, I am 
 sure ! " 
 
 " No good works — no good works — all 
 faith." 
 
 " How can man show love to his neigh- 
 bour as himself, except by good works ? — 
 yet differences on the subject of religion 
 are so much upon secondary points, while 
 with regard to the one great source of light 
 and love there is such universal agreement 
 that superior minds, recognising the harmony 
 of natural theology with revealed religion, 
 of reason with faith, of philosophy with 
 religion, have aimed at the reconcilement of 
 all creeds." 
 
 Elias was sorely puzzled. Philosophy 
 was another word for infidelity, and reason 
 pretty much amounted to the same thing, 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 except when used against Papists. Happily 
 for the safety of the unprepared knight, his 
 formidable rival wandered off again into 
 the land of dreams, led by the enchantress, 
 Lady Softworth. 
 
 It was in some degree a relief to Henry, 
 when Elias, taking him by the arm a little 
 in advance, so as to leave the Count " never 
 less alone than when alone," whispered 
 almost, ^' You and your brother-in-law find 
 hotel charges high?" 
 "Well, rather." 
 
 " Hum. I could make two rooms at 
 home." 
 
 '^ My dear Elias, you must not think of 
 putting your family to inconvenience." 
 " Why not ? Deborah and Cicely could 
 
 sleep together, and " 
 
 " No, no, our stay is so short. At the 
 same time I will take an opportunity to tell 
 my brother-in-law of your kind considera- 
 tion — your affectionate hospitality." As 
 the voice was going crescendo^ Elias squeezed 
 his brother's arm, by way of reminding him 
 of the confidential character of the con-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 99 
 
 versation. Besides those words whicli 
 Henry poured into his brother's ears, there 
 ran along an aside in his own mind, to this 
 effect: — How unjust people are to this 
 worthy brother ! How much better we are 
 than we seem to be ! He does not like to 
 make parade of his benevolence. 
 
 Elias, after he had interrupted the fra- 
 ternal expression of admiration, cut short 
 the mental soliloquy. 
 
 " I did not mean that precisely. You 
 know that a man's first duties in this world 
 are to his family — the first after that higher 
 duty to his immortal soul. My idea was to 
 serve you and serve myself — that is to 
 say, them — by affording suitable accom- 
 modation upon reasonable terms." 
 
 Henry's heart collapsed within him. He 
 did not betray what he felt at this mean- 
 ness, as he considered it to be — or if not 
 meanness, yet want of gentlemanlike tact, 
 for he only thought of the subject with re- 
 ference to his friend — so he declined the 
 offer, and there was no more conversation 
 until they reached the house. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " My poor pensioners ! " ejaculated Elias, 
 with a commiserating sigh. Around the 
 little outer garden gate were collected some 
 poor people, upon whom the good man cast 
 looks of compassion blended with reproof, 
 which conveyed the sort of blame that says 
 " Why will you always be coming to me? — 
 my charity is indeed unbounded, but my purse 
 is small." Henry thought within himself that 
 he must have wronged so good a brother. 
 What if he had tried to turn an honest 
 penny ? Yet Elias had been brought up to 
 business, and was not so fortunate as himself 
 in having obtained entrance into a liberal 
 profession. He and D'Avray lingered, while 
 on the steps of the hall door a group of 
 wretches were picturesquely arranging them- 
 selves to show off to advantage a middle-aged 
 benevolent gentleman with a loaf of bread in 
 one hand, and a knife in the other. 
 
 If Elias was too deeply tainted with 
 avarice to trust a cupboard key to his wife, 
 what brought those poor people there ? 
 Because the master of that mansion was 
 supposed to have considerable patronage at
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 101 
 
 his disposal. He was liberal of time, if not 
 of money. He liked to run about with re- 
 commendations to the favour of good persons 
 and to charitable institutions. The work 
 brought him into notice, and created a re- 
 putation which was of use to him in many 
 ways. So, knife in one hand and loaf in 
 the other, he allowed himself to be so deeply 
 absorbed in a tale of distress, or to be dis- 
 tracted amongst many, that the very knife 
 itself seemed to be seized with absence of 
 mind, and to forget the presence of the loaf, 
 which it was dutifully to cut into very thin 
 delicate slices. Mr. Elias's dexterity, when 
 he did set his hand to work, was such 
 as could only have been derived from 
 practised habit. No man knew better than 
 he did, and very few^ as well, the art of 
 making the loaf go far. Such delicate 
 shavings would have made a reputation in 
 a company of fine ladies, but would have 
 cruelly tried the tempers of children, feeling 
 it no shame to obey the requirements of 
 nature, and would have infuriated even 
 these broken-spirited beggars, only that
 
 102 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 they wanted to conciliate the benefactor's 
 interest, which experience had taught to be 
 effective. 
 
 Henry felt strongly tempted to take the 
 loaf out of his brother's hand and share it 
 fairly ; but when he calculated how little it 
 would give to each, he took out his purse 
 and distributed its contents, D'Avray fol- 
 lowing his example, which excited more emo- 
 tion than it would be pleasant to describe. 
 
 Henrj^ and D'Avray, shown up into the 
 drawing-room, were entering into conver- 
 sation at the moment when Mr. Elias, who 
 had remained lingering alone at the door, the 
 beggars having melted away, heaven knows 
 where, perceived Obady and Just afar off. 
 As soon as they saw him they changed 
 their slouching gait into a brisk walk, as if 
 they had been hastening home with all their 
 might, their manner proclaiming of itself 
 that it v/as not their fault should they 
 happen to be behind time. 
 
 '' I shall catch it, Just ! " said Obady, as 
 his experienced eye observed his father's 
 sudden manner of disappeanng.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 103 
 
 " Let me settle your cap," said Just, re- 
 moving a dent, which conscience suggested 
 might have been the mark of his own toes. 
 
 '' Now for the dodge, Just." What could 
 that dodge be which Just would have given 
 anything to know, and which he was now 
 about to witness ? 
 
 The little gate is passed. Mr. Elias 
 Mathews seems to fill the ample doorway 
 with his presence ; the right hand, which 
 lately wielded the charitable knife, is now 
 behind his back, and Obady knows what 
 that means. He sees, moreover, the tail of 
 a familiar monster curling between Papa's 
 heels. It is a sort of lady's riding-whip, 
 and the dexterity of that right hand is by 
 this time pretty accurately understood. 
 
 " You have disobeyed my command, 
 Obady. You have disobeyed your father. 
 You have broken one of the Command- 
 ments. Can you tell me which it is ? " 
 
 " Honour thy father and mother." 
 
 " And you have dishonoured them." 
 
 '' No, I have not ; for Mother gave me 
 leave ; ask Just." 
 
 H 4
 
 104 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " Indeed she did ! " 
 
 Without seeming to hear Obady's last 
 sentence, or to notice the presence of Just, 
 the father repeated, " You have broken 
 one of the Commandments, and must be 
 punished according to Solomon." 
 
 " If Solomon flogged the children of his 
 300 wives and 900 " 
 
 *' What, Sir ! do you add profane speak- 
 ing to disobedience ?" 
 
 " He could not have had time to write 
 his Proverbs." 
 
 Little Just opened his eyes with as much 
 astonishment as Mr. EUas himself at Obady's 
 audacity. Obady had been prematurely 
 hardened into recklessness, as he had been 
 sharpened into cunning, by the abuse of the 
 rod ; for it appears that, like all good things, 
 even birch may be administered in excess. 
 
 " Walk into the parlour. Sir. And, my 
 good little man," addressing himself to Just, 
 " as you have wickedly connived at the sin, 
 you shall at least witness the punishment, 
 my power, as far as you are concerned, ex- 
 tending no farther."
 
 ONCE LTON A TIME. 105 
 
 " Mind the dodge," whispered Obady. 
 
 "What is that you say, Sir ?" 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " Do you dare to tell your father a lie ? 
 Oh ! Obady." 
 
 The good man lifted up his eyes to 
 heaven, and his whip in the same direction. 
 
 "Father," says Obady, ''Hf you strike^ I 
 sivear ! I will, by ; take care ! by " 
 
 "Don't swear, Obady." 
 
 "Then don't strike!" 
 
 " I must chastise you ; my duty as a 
 father obliges me, for the sake of your soul." 
 
 " Then don't you damn my soul by making 
 me swear ; for swear I will, by " 
 
 Mr. Elias tried by ingenious manoeuver- 
 ing to throw Obady oiF his guard, and put 
 in a blow before the oath could be out ; 
 but Obady was too cool and wary to be 
 caught. The father, baffled each time he 
 raised the whip, exchanged the perpen- 
 dicular for the horizontal ; even that re- 
 quired a brisk movement of the hand, and 
 the slightest indication was paralysed by 
 the first letter of an oath.
 
 106 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " And that's the dodge," thought Just. 
 
 This scene of violence was attended with 
 very little noise. The father desired that 
 justice should be executed with dignity ; 
 and the victim, with the pride of a spirited 
 boy, dreading exposure more than pain, 
 restrained his voice, lest he should attract 
 witnesses to his own degradation. The 
 threatened oaths with which the blows were 
 so successfully parried, probably produced 
 the more effect from the quiet, concentrated 
 manner in which Obady seemed ready to hiss 
 them out, the manner exhibiting more deter- 
 mination than mere boyish boisterousness 
 would have done. So noiselessly did the 
 scene pass in the parlour as not to be heard 
 by the party which occupied the drawing- 
 room, consisting of Miss Mathews, Mrs. 
 Mathews, and Cicely, with Uncle Henry and 
 the French gentleman, received on the 
 cordial footing of a family connection. 
 
 We have named Miss Mathews first, be- 
 cause, by right of well-established superi- 
 ority, she had risen long before into the 
 first place. In some families there is some-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 107 
 
 body who is the tyrant, and somebody 
 else who is the drudge. The tyrant was 
 Deborah, and the little Cinderella was 
 Cicely; the mother being simply without 
 will. If she was without will, it was not 
 altogether her own fault. Originally she 
 had been endowed with a fair share, which, 
 if wills were more equally divided, would 
 have been considered a due allowance for 
 any woman; quite enough for the active ex- 
 ercise of power for her own and others' good, 
 without intruding upon others' wishes and 
 rights. But if two wills have to live to- 
 gether, side by side, the strong will eventu- 
 ally wears down the weak, notwithstanding 
 intellectual advantages. Mrs. Mathews pos- 
 sessed a more enlarged mind, and was in 
 every way superior to her husband ; and 
 yet that hard, mean, narrow-minded, worldly 
 fanatic had broken this soft, generous, in- 
 telligent, unworldly woman into a submis- 
 siveness that had become a second nature. 
 Yet she never looked sad or desponding, or 
 seemed to understand that she had, out of 
 sheer weariness, abdicated her sceptre. Her
 
 108 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 quiet face more frequently wore a sweet, 
 indulgent smile. It was rather a colour- 
 less face, like the half faded blue silk 
 that varied a wardrobe of which Deborah 
 had creamed off the freshness before it had 
 taken its middle place in the descent to 
 Cicely, with alterations to fit her. Deborah, 
 although hardly out of her teens, had 
 nothing of that bloom which is the crown- 
 ing beauty of her years. The evanescent 
 delicacies of the spring had never flitted 
 over her liard features, which were, how- 
 ever, good enough to deceive her into the 
 belief that she was a beauty. Her eyes were 
 good, her cheeks well-coloured, her features 
 all regular ; but they did not seem to har- 
 monise. The general look was heavy and 
 inexpressive. She was her father's favou- 
 rite — rather say, she was his Grand Vizier. 
 To her he would not be very much afraid 
 to entrust his keys. She kept the accounts 
 of domestic expenditure, which he checked, 
 and never found reason to complain of ex- 
 travagance. Her checks upon servants and 
 tradespeople exalted his admiration of her
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 109 
 
 ingenuity into respect for her understand- 
 ing, and touched his sympathies by the 
 unpopularity in which they involved this 
 devoted young creature. In cases of doubt 
 and difficulty, the mother was never troubled 
 with being called on for an opinion, which, 
 indeed, long cessation from the exercise of 
 judgment would have rendered it impos- 
 sible to give. They were reserved for the one 
 supreme decision, and father and daughter 
 discussed and settled the point as if the 
 lady of the house was a wax figure, such as 
 hair-dressers keep for showing off wigs and 
 curls. Little Cicely, her eldest sister's 
 drudge and victim, was not handsome, only 
 because she wanted the child's natural viva- 
 city, and with it the child's natural freedom 
 and grace. Her wings were clipped, and 
 her foot was tied ; but when the feathers 
 grow again, and the cord is cut, who shall 
 say what Cicely may be on outspread wing ? 
 Her face resembled her mother's — it was 
 pale and kindly, and she was timid and shy, 
 and did what anybody bid her, as if she had 
 been born to serve. Her only playmate
 
 110 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 was Just, who was very fond of her, and 
 she of him ; for Just had somewhat of girls' 
 tastes ; was fond of telling stories, and of 
 listening to them; was fond of birds, flowers, 
 toys, and cakes, and had generally a supply 
 of good things of some kind, which in a 
 miser's house produced a very strange and 
 pleasant effect. The truth is. Cicely was 
 not so over-fed that a cake was not some- 
 thing more at times than a dainty, and 
 even the mother has unconsciously nibbled 
 a biscuit offered by Just, with a child's gra- 
 tification. Yet the house was well, even 
 richly furnished ; and a family picture over 
 the fireplace imparted an air of taste and 
 opulence to the chief room, representing, as 
 it did, the man of the house dressed to look 
 like a clergyman en disponihilite^ and his 
 lady in affluent attire, she gazing admiringly 
 on him (he would have it so), and he pater- 
 nally on Deborah, who is reading the Bible 
 in blue silk ; Cicely listening in white muslin 
 and blue sash ; while Obady's hand is on 
 that of his father, who seems to have just 
 bestowed upon him a green jacket with three 
 rows of gilt buttons.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. Ill 
 
 The French gentleman became immedi- 
 ately the lion of this little family party. 
 His appearance was so elegant, and his way 
 of speaking their language so pretty in its 
 thoughtful and guarded precision, that all 
 were in admiration. The beginnings of all 
 conversations are much alike. After it had 
 been ascertained upon the one side that rain 
 fell sometimes in France, and upon the 
 other that the sun was occasionally visible 
 in London, and many questions had been 
 asked which made the stranger smile at the 
 strange notions one civilised people may 
 entertain of another, it so happened that at 
 length Count D'Avray expressed freely his 
 own observations of English life. We pass 
 over his admiration of the political in- 
 stitutions so favourable to the development 
 of personal independence and public liberty, 
 and settle with him upon the topic which 
 more immediately applied to the family 
 present. He was first struck, as in duty 
 bound, with the beauty of the women — 
 their fine clear complexions, blue eyes, and 
 freshness of look and manners, which charm-
 
 112 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 ing characteristics being appropriated by 
 Deborah to herself, she felt bound to blush 
 an acknowledgment to her tenderly- smitten 
 conscience. Then the mothers of families 
 were such mothers — so benignant and ma- 
 tronly ; it was no wonder they should be 
 allowed such perfect predominance by hus- 
 band as well as children. Why did the 
 lady, the gentle lady, for whom this re- 
 mark was supposed to be intended hold 
 down her head, and Deborah do the same, 
 her colour becoming still more heightened ; 
 and why did Cicely fix her large eyes with 
 an involuntary stare upon her sister? The 
 good-natured gentleman little imagined how 
 piercingly ironical was the expression of 
 those fine eyes of his as they fell upon the 
 illustration before him of a queenly mother, 
 the pride of her own home. 
 
 " Ha ! what a pretty little fellow ! You 
 did not tell me, Henri, of this other nephew. 
 You have a charming family, Madame I " 
 
 This was said partly of and partly to Just, 
 who had put in his head through the half- 
 open drawing-room door, his face animated
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 113 
 
 with expressioD, for it was charged with a 
 communication for Cicely, whose attention 
 he had been trying to attract, as she sat on 
 her uncle's knee. When Just, in consequence 
 of the success of Obady's wonderful dodge, 
 could no longer be a w^itness of Mr. Elias's 
 triumphant vindication of the violated com- 
 mandments, he became transformed into 
 a witness of an event of a different cha- 
 racter — that of paternal defeat, which, as 
 it was not wholesome to witness, he was 
 mildly handed out of the parlour. Just, 
 although sound in all his notions of pro- 
 priety, could not resist the attractive power, 
 whatever it may have been, which drew him 
 by little and little to the door a listener, with 
 his young sharp ears, to what was passing 
 within. He in fact suspected treachery. 
 That sly, cruel eye which sought an open- 
 ing through Obady's novel armour of de- 
 fensive swearing impressed Just with 
 strange fear, and if he kept his eye to the 
 keyhole it was from the same sort of fas- 
 cination as that in which a squirrel is held 
 by the glance of a serpent. He could only 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 ONCE UPON A TBIE. 
 
 see the back of Mr. Elias's chair, but he could 
 distinctly perceive Obady's face as he stood 
 before the judgment seat of the awful Kha- 
 damantus of whom, with Minos and the 
 other infernal judge, every schoolboy has 
 heard. By way of satisfaction to Obady's 
 mind, his father had laid the whip across 
 the chair behind him, and then commenced 
 a searching examination as to the boy's 
 disposal of his time from the period when 
 he had left the school. Obady frankly told 
 all that had occurred so far as he himself 
 was concerned, but refused to compromise 
 others. He even avowed his own part in 
 the boxing match, and, with an audacity 
 which made Just's silky fair hair stand on 
 end, confessed his disappointment at the 
 untimely interruption by the military. But 
 he would not name the combatants. Having 
 heard all that Obady would consent to tell, 
 the judge arose, declaring that for such 
 high crimes and misdemeanours punishment 
 must be inflicted ; it was a duty he owed, 
 et cetera. He tried to reason Obady into 
 a flogging — to persuade Obady into a
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 115 
 
 flogging — to coax Obady into a flogging ; 
 it would be good for his soul, and not bad 
 for his body. It was a principle that was at 
 stake ; now, my dear Obady, you may by 
 submission get off with so many strokes on 
 the hand, which, if not submitted to with a 
 good grace, shall be turned into an in- 
 definite quantity of stripes about the 
 shoulder, with a broad allowance of margin. 
 Eloquence produced no effect upon the ob- 
 durate boy, who held his father in check 
 with his little by play. 
 
 But Papa had a dodge of his own, for 
 which the boy, with all his watchfulness, 
 was not prepared. He sprang at his throat, 
 which he held with one hand, so as to 
 render profane swearing impossible, except 
 with the furious heart, and through the 
 furious eyes, while with the other the blows 
 were administered. On witnessing this, 
 Just flew up stairs, and was beckoning to 
 Cicely when his animated face caught the 
 eye of Count D'Avray. 
 
 " How old are you, my fine boy?" taking 
 the lad's two hands in his. 
 i2
 
 116 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " You are mistaken, Count, Master Forbes 
 is not Mamma's son. He is not my brother." 
 
 " But I should like to be Cicely's brother ; " 
 and Just burst out crying, upon which 
 Cicely, leaving her uncle Henry's knee, took 
 her young friend by the hand. 
 
 " Sit down. Cicely," ordered the elder 
 sister, w^ho, forgetting the amiable part she 
 was performing, fell unawares into her harsh 
 tone of command. 
 
 "But Cicely can't sit down when her 
 Papa is choking Obady below stairs, in the 
 little parlour." ^ 
 
 Poor Mrs. Mathews grew paler than 
 usual ; still she sat trembling as if unable 
 to move. 
 
 " Don't stir — I'll see what it's all about," 
 said Henry, as he rose quickly, leaving the 
 room, and taking care to shut the door after 
 him. 
 
 " You are an ill-behaved boy, and I shall 
 complain to your mother, and to your step- 
 father." 
 
 " So you may, for father would not beat 
 me, and make me swear, to keep off the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 117 
 
 blows of a big whip, and then seize me by 
 the throat, the way Mr. Mathews is doing 
 with Obady." 
 
 " You hear what he says, Mamma, — that 
 Obady has been swearing, for which Papa 
 very properly corrects him ? " 
 
 That was not exactly what Just had 
 said ; yet, unable to find the proper words 
 at the moment, he could only cast at Miss 
 Deborah a very angry look, which she 
 resented by putting him out of the room, 
 when Cicely beginning to cry, she was served 
 in a similar manner; but the manoeuvre 
 did not serve the tyrannical young lady's 
 purpose, which was to exhibit herself to ad- 
 vantage to the amiable and accomplished 
 stranger, whose eyes sought for an explana- 
 tion of this conduct, which she felt it rather 
 embarrassing to give. Could she have seen 
 a little farther into his mind, she would 
 have felt more than embarrassed at the 
 contrast ; she would have found his thoughts 
 engaged with an image of gentle beauty and 
 high breeding, lodged there henceforward 
 and for ever, to be a trying standard of 
 
 I 3
 
 118 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 comparison, by which Miss Deborah, of all 
 others, could with least credit be judged. 
 
 " Do, Deborah, go down stairs and see 
 what is the matter, and bring me back 
 word." 
 
 " Nonsense, Mamma ; Papa is too good 
 and too just to exercise parental authority- 
 otherwise than according to the precept of 
 sacred writ. ' Spare the rod, you spoil the 
 child ; ' and again, ' Train up a child in the 
 way he should go, and when he is old he 
 will not depart from it.' " 
 
 Anxious to ascertain the effect produced 
 by this burst of sententious eloquence, 
 Deborah threw no sheepish glance of 
 inquiry, but followed the ball to the 
 mark. Before she could ascertain how near 
 it had gone to the centre, the door 
 opened, and a gentleman of strange yet 
 mild appearance entered. He was care- 
 lessly dressed, and his eyes were downcast. 
 Mrs. Mathews trembled, but it was only at 
 the sudden opening of the door, for she 
 met the visitor with a bland smile, as if of 
 habitual compassion. But Deborah took
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 119 
 
 him abruptly by the hand, and led him away, 
 closing the door after her in an affectedly 
 cool manner, which nevertheless betrayed 
 ill humour. 
 
 The Count and Mrs. Mathews thus found 
 themselves alone. 
 
 " Do not allow yourself to be agitated, 
 dear Madam, Henri will intercede for his 
 nephew. His father will pardon him, and 
 we shall all be happy once more." 
 
 " You are a friend of the family, a con- 
 nection — I may say a relation." She spoke 
 with hurried utterance, as one who felt 
 she had not a moment to spare. " Do not 
 think it ill of me, if I ask you for — a guinea 
 — only a loan, only a loan ! " 
 
 The Count put his purse into her hand, 
 thinkuig to himself that his sister's new 
 relations were a little singular. 
 
 When the door next opened Henry 
 entered, leading Obady by one hand and 
 Cicely by the other ; Elias following, with a 
 look of such soft, simpering character that 
 none but a very sagacious physiognomist 
 could have read its real meaning. 
 
 I 4
 
 120 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " Come over to me, Obacly," called the 
 kind mother, about whose neck the boy- 
 threw his arms, with a cordiality of affection 
 which showed a good nature, whose per- 
 version had already begun.
 
 121 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Is it not time to let the church bells 
 ring their wedding melody upon this fair 
 May morning, which the author, v/ith the 
 privilege of a Joshua, has caused to stand 
 still while he has been gossiping with the 
 reader about the bride and bridegroom, 
 their friends and neighbours, their patrons 
 too, and their companions, and of some 
 who are only connected with them and their 
 fortunes, as we are all, in some subtle way, 
 linked together in this living web of 
 humanity, of which not a thread can be 
 touched without a thrill through the whole ? 
 The world being divided into three 
 classes — the married, the unmarried, and 
 those who are waiting to be married — it 
 follows that everybody feels an interest in 
 a wedding. It is a pretty sight, even if
 
 122 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 there was nothing else, that of a couple in 
 their best attire, he in blue coat with 
 gilt buttons, and she delicately veiled in 
 vapoury gauze, like some fair creation of 
 the gods waiting for the spell which is to 
 give her to the arms of a mortal. Do 
 not think, because John Bessonet and 
 Marian Thorpe earned their living by manu- 
 facturing the silk which makes up the best 
 part of their betters' appearance, that when 
 they put on their bravery they did not pre- 
 sent some approach to those lilies of the 
 valley which, without toiling and spinning, 
 are arrayed beyond Solomon in all his glory. 
 The young weaver was intellectual as well 
 as handy, and being of a reverential turn, 
 there only needed his being in love to render 
 him a perfect gentleman ; and in love he 
 was. Marian could not be called intel- 
 lectual ; but she possessed a fund of native 
 good sense, which, as bad times were 
 coming, was a more precious gift, and if 
 she was not invested with a swarm of dear 
 little evanescent graces and airs, there was 
 a freshness and purity, a truth and
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 123 
 
 honesty, that inspired all with earnest in- 
 terest in her happiness ; and what more 
 could the finest lady in the land desire at 
 such a moment ? 
 
 As the ceremony is not to be interrupted 
 by a shriek from the church- door, or a 
 sinister growl from behind the bridegroom 
 — as he is not to stagger, nor she to faint, 
 nor peoples' nerves to be shaken by melo- 
 drama at the hymeneal altar, we would 
 have nothing more to do than take seat at 
 the breakfast-table, prepared in the long 
 factory-room at Mr. Masterman's, under the 
 superintendence of his lady and daughter, 
 Julia, a little lady now enjoying her twelfth 
 May. But we are disposed to linger in 
 sympathy with that pale, earnest face of a 
 foreign gentleman, directed, as it is, to the 
 gallery, in front of which is seated Lady 
 Softworth. A delicate pink bonnet and 
 shawl aid her exquisitely delicate com- 
 plexion ; but is it an accident, or is it an 
 emblem, that black lace veil which she lets 
 down as soon as the ceremony is over ? 
 There were critics — there always are critics,
 
 124 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 even in church, who go there as much to 
 criticise as to pray, and they talked of caprice 
 and bad taste ; and there were apologists 
 who suggested absence of mind ; but their 
 little tattle would have weighed as dust 
 in the balance, if set against the sincere, 
 heartfelt admiration of him in whose eyes 
 every turn of her head or hand was a flash 
 from what the good old romancists of an ex- 
 ploded school would have called the "jewel 
 of his soul." Dear old romancists, the 
 delight of our pre-realist days ! You were 
 not, indeed, very keen observers of ordinary 
 things, appealing only to memory, at which 
 people clapped their hands, and rapturously 
 exclaimed " Oh, la ! how like ! " You tried 
 to raise us from a world of low feelings and 
 vulgar manners; and if your unreal fan- 
 tasies and quaint artificialities would not 
 bear close examination, yet did they not 
 fail of effect. They wrapt our grand- 
 mothers in pleasant day-dreams, and kept 
 our grandfathers awake at night. In them, 
 women,* painted as goddesses, were bound at 
 least to be amiable, and men, imitating
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 125 
 
 the knights of old, to be courteous, and 
 not smoke in a lady's presence. Surely 
 your high-flown stories were as natural as 
 the Italian Opera, to which we go because 
 we must have our fairy land somehow 
 or somewhere. Why, then, should not 
 the soul, like the sun, light up 4ts own 
 jewels, formed from the purest combina- 
 tions of ray and dew in the sweetest ground- 
 work of odorous flowers ? Yes, she did 
 glitter there, wdth his whole soul upon 
 her, as a transcendental jewel, which is a 
 highly transcendental way of putting it if 
 you will ; but we are now dealing with 
 realities which love will not leave in their 
 cold simple state ; but which the wild en- 
 chanter must sublimate into illusions in an 
 atmosphere of intoxication, where sentiment 
 takes counsel of misleading fancy, and both 
 play strange tricks together I 
 
 " As you are going to the breakfast, Elias, 
 I will take out Obady for a walk. D'Avray 
 wishes to have the other little fellow along 
 with him, and we shall all be home for 
 dinner."
 
 126 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Elias could not well refuse ; so to spare 
 himself the unpleasantness of giving his 
 assent in words, he asked, " What did you 
 think of Mr. Shortley, the rector ?" 
 
 " A portly man, Elias, but no match for 
 Mr. Shepherd.'' 
 
 ^' His house is open to all, rich and 
 poor." 
 
 " No doubt ; and so he is ever at home 
 to receive company, which is very good ; 
 but Shepherd does not wait for people to 
 come to him, he goes to them. Wherefore it 
 is, Elias, that Dr. Shortley is a portly man. 
 Dock the adverbial termination, and as you 
 are fond of economy, the first syllable will 
 set the face to match the body." 
 
 " A portly man, with a port face." 
 
 " Just so." 
 
 Elias shook his head, and they went their 
 several ways. 
 
 With the aid of spring flowers, profusely 
 supplied from the country seat of the 
 Mastermans, the long ware-room, usually 
 appropriated to the finished productions of 
 the loom, was made to look exceedingly
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 127 
 
 gay ; and an abundance of good things, on 
 milk-white table-cloths, served to combine 
 comfort with sweetness and freshness. It 
 was too early in our ungenial season for 
 much display of fruits, but there were 
 some early strawberries and a quantity of 
 preserves. Weight and size used in those 
 days to represent English ideas of hospitable 
 elegance. The highest eulogium that could 
 be pronounced upon a feast would be to 
 say of it that there were lots of everything. 
 Abundance made up for want of artistical 
 arrangement, or rather was supposed to 
 shape itself into forms most fascinating to 
 the eye as well as tempting to the palate. 
 We fear, notwithstanding our cautious 
 approaches to the reader's credulity, to 
 mention the colossal proportions of that 
 Mont Blanc of a bride-cake, on which 
 rose a sugar Tower of Babel, whose ap- 
 proaches were guarded on all sides by a 
 rising generation of rosy Cupids, whose 
 way to the heart lay in a melting direction. 
 It almost eclipsed the fair face of Mrs. 
 Masterman at the head of the table, with
 
 128 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the bride upon one side and the bridesmaid 
 on the other. Indeed, it did so far obscure 
 her presence as to oblige her to bend her 
 head upon one side or the other whenever 
 Mr. Masterman, for instance, from behind 
 a corresponding mountain of cold roast 
 beef, addressed the frequently repeated 
 question, " How are you going on at your 
 side of the house ?" On one side of the 
 host sat the rector, Dr. Shortley, and upon 
 the other Mr. Elias Mathews, whose honour- 
 able position was in some measure due to 
 the important service he had rendered the 
 Church in the matter of the present wed- 
 ding ; for that worthy gentleman had con- 
 trived to persuade himself and others that it 
 was owing to his interference the ceremony 
 had been properly performed by the regularly 
 ordained clergyman. Mr. Samson Shepherd 
 plunged into the crater of a huge pigeon- 
 pie, and it devolved upon that goodly man, 
 but rather indifferent carver, Mr. Samuel 
 Steele, to serve duck and green peas to the 
 ladies. The wines were good ; and in the 
 eyes of a company of people little accus-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 129 
 
 tomed to such luxuries, and regarding port 
 and sherry as the elixir of life, crowned 
 the feast with magnificence. 
 
 Mr. Masterman was as easy, but not so 
 refined, as the rector who sat beside him. 
 He had great animal spirits tempered by 
 conceit ; for to have made money Avas, in his 
 mind, to have achieved the great aim of 
 man in this world. Having immense powers 
 of calculation, he believed that he possessed 
 a great mind. He could, while people were 
 talking about him, abstract his thoughts, 
 and, without losing a word of what was 
 said to disturb his judgment rather than 
 actually to deceive him, settle the value of 
 commodities, working up the raw material 
 through the various stages of manufacture, 
 with all the attendant cost, and strike the 
 profit with something like mathematical 
 accuracy ; and as the result generally ap- 
 peared in the shape of addition to his large 
 income, he of course had tangible proof 
 under his eyes, and in his banker's hands, 
 that he was a man of profound ability. To 
 take advantage of necessity, obliged to 
 
 VOL. T, K
 
 130 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 sell below value in order to escape some 
 worse alternative, to screw down wages, or 
 find pretext for fines or deductions, was 
 fair play and good generalship. In the 
 battle of competition no quarter is given. 
 In this death struggle the leader thinks he 
 has a right to avail himself of every kind 
 of cover and of all exposed weakness. In 
 the way of business Mr. Masterman would 
 not, as his people said, spare his own father, 
 could his father return from the other world 
 with some new articles of commerce. In 
 business he had no more bowels than one 
 of his own looms. Out of business he loved 
 to enjoy the fruits of his own wisdom ; and 
 his greatest enjoyment was that the world 
 should accord the sort of fame which attends 
 this sort of wisdom, by knowing his riches 
 and bowing down to his golden calf. There 
 was no mark of care on his shining bald 
 head, over which sixty years had slipped 
 lightly ; but it was not a good head. It 
 was narrow about the temples, and bene- 
 volence had jostled veneration into ugly 
 bumps; and yet this very clean, comfort-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 131 
 
 able, well-to-do man, all his animal happiness 
 set off with snowy cravat and buff waist- 
 coat, would have won the hearts of the 
 majority of casual beholders — won, but not 
 kept them. His speech was jovial, and it 
 would be a nice discernment, indeed, that 
 could detect the wariness that lurked in the 
 mirth of his eye, or have perceived that his 
 merriment was a cloak in which he wrapped 
 up his dealings with his fellow-men, or have 
 caught in his facetiousness the chuckle in 
 which he habitually indulged over his own 
 good and his rival's ill-fortune. His hap- 
 piness upon the present occasion was not 
 lessened by finding himself seated with a 
 favourite on either side. He liked Dr. 
 Shortley, who shared his port and did not 
 trouble his conscience ; and he liked Mr. 
 Ehas Mathews for his suppleness and his 
 suspicion of the lower orders. With the 
 Established Church he associated aristo- 
 cracy, respectability, the just influence of 
 wealth, and the rights of property. The 
 affectation of simplicity, of not being above 
 his business, and of not looking down upon 
 
 K 2
 
 132 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 that loyal democracy of bees who made his 
 honey, would probably have induced him to 
 order the family carriage to the modest little 
 chapel of the Dissenters, but the incongruity 
 was so manifest to the fastidious eyes of his 
 well-bred and well-born lady, that the ex- 
 periment was never repeated. As the visit 
 was upon the occasion of a charity sermon, 
 it was looked upon as exceptional, and 
 created only observations to his credit. If 
 Dr. Shortley won the heart of Mr. Master- 
 man by freer dealings with his port than 
 his conscience, it is only justice to the 
 rector to acknowledge that he had not a 
 single enemy in the parish. He was a cold 
 man in the sense of not being spontaneous 
 or impulsive. His sermons were fairly 
 written out, and never exceeded the pre- 
 scribed twenty-five minutes. He was visible 
 all the forenoon to persons of every degree ; 
 gave good ordinary advice when appealed 
 to on domestic troubles ; and bestowed as 
 much charity as he could afibrd. Still he 
 took a professional view of his calling, kept 
 his books accurately, crediting against ex-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 133 
 
 penditure his burial and other fees. When 
 he received his newspaper he first read the 
 paragraphs that bore upon his own interests. 
 No lady considered more attentively that 
 triple history of life, the births, deaths, and 
 marriages, indeed none so much, for ladies 
 are not particularly interested in the de- 
 mise of deans and bishops. But after he 
 had prayed, preached, christened, married, 
 and buried ; issued certificates to candidates 
 for vacancies in charitable institutions ; be- 
 stowed odd shillings, and in extreme cases 
 a good bottle of wine, he looked on his day's 
 business as done, and loved to enjoy his 
 evening like any other hard-working mortal. 
 Mrs. Masterman, who sat at the opposite 
 end of the table, between the bride and the 
 bride's mother, was a lady of high family, 
 who some twenty years before had not dis- 
 dained to bestow her portionless hand upon 
 the prosperous manufacturer who could 
 place a carriage and country seat at her 
 disposal, with a town house in a fashionable 
 square for the summer season — town being, 
 according to the taste of the upper classes, 
 
 K 3
 
 134 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the proper place for enjoying June roses, and 
 the fiery heats of July. Her face was pale 
 and placid, must have been handsome, and 
 was still refined and pleasing. Her pride, 
 of which she had a good deal, was never 
 obtrusive, and the distance she maintained 
 between herself and those in humbler station 
 was easy and unconstrained. She was a 
 kind, gentle lady, whose only dislike was to 
 personal trouble, which, as she advanced in 
 life, turned into one of the milder forms of 
 selfishness. She was always pleased to hear 
 of good things being done, but shrunk from 
 any more direct call for active participation 
 than the bestowal of money, for which, how- 
 ever, she had a temperate regard, and was 
 not therefore over-liberal. Sunny looks 
 and sympathetic tones were not hers, on 
 which account she had often to complain 
 of ingratitude, a graceful complaint that 
 served her egotism, while its expression was 
 made to play the part of shocked sensibility. 
 The most serious demands upon her patience 
 were made by that little uncontrollable 
 Julia, her daughter of twelve, who com-
 
 ONCE UPON A TLME. 135 
 
 bined in very agreeable proportions, as most 
 people thought, her mother's distinction of 
 taste and manners with her father's animal 
 spirits, whose high colour she inherited, 
 giving thus to the features she had taken 
 from her mother all that they wanted to 
 make them strikingly handsome. Thus in- 
 stead of pale cold eyes she had bright blue, 
 with glossy fair hair, and in fact all the 
 magic charms of colour on her fresh young 
 countenance. Her mother said there was 
 no keeping her quiet, and it was never her 
 mother's way to exaggerate, and the truth 
 is, there was no keeping her quiet. The 
 number of times she left her chair and whis- 
 pered some word to this person and to that 
 defied calculation, indulging a curiosity that 
 knew no bounds, and dispensing pretty 
 pleasant sayings that seemed to be inex- 
 haustible. She was like a merry little 
 octave in a great band of music, whose 
 tremulous pipe plays about the deepest 
 and loudest sounds with fairy-like caprice 
 and mocking distinctness. All eyes seemed 
 to follow the little flashing creature wher- 
 
 K 4
 
 136 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 ever her rosy shoes carried her; and she 
 did more to set poor people at their ease 
 and blend the company together than she 
 got credit for. The parents loved her as 
 an only child is loved, with an expansive 
 selfishness which had all the charm of 
 disinterested generosity. They provided 
 teachers of music, for which she showed no 
 aptitude, and of languages, which like most 
 children she caught up with facility ; still 
 her mother was beset by one fear, which 
 brought her to the only state of mental 
 distress of which she Avas capable, — that of 
 feeling uncomfortable. Her fear was lest 
 Julia should be vulgar, that is to say lest 
 Julia should be natural, which means an 
 apprehension lest she should yield to im- 
 pulse, even though bearing her in all right 
 directions, and not submit to the restraint 
 of elegant artificialities. It was a grievous 
 sign that Julia should take such extra- 
 ordinary delight in visits to the factory; 
 how she liked to romp and play wdth rosy 
 little smutty-faced girls at catch- catch 
 through the labyrinth of the looms; and 
 wished to be taught to fling the shuttle, and
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME* 137 
 
 declared her liio^hest ambition was to weave 
 herself a dress. Judo^e then what a favourite 
 Julia must have been with the company 
 present at the wedding breakfast. Her 
 mother, who never engaged in long contests, 
 eventually gave up the task of calling her 
 to her proper place, resolving in her mind 
 to hold a consultation with the governess. 
 Reference to the father, from whom the 
 taint was supposed to have been derived, 
 was out of the question, the more parti- 
 cularly as his sympathies ran altogether 
 with the wild child. 
 
 The more substantial part of the feast 
 being over, Mr. Shepherd obeys an invita- 
 tion from the Lady President for a little 
 word ; and at the other end Mr. Mathews 
 looks as if he were playing the umpire in a 
 dispute between the host and Dr. Shortley. 
 
 " These good people look very happy, 
 Mr. Shepherd. It is quite delightful to see 
 so many happy faces." 
 
 " You would like to do more good, if it 
 lay in your power ? " 
 
 "Oh, certainly!"
 
 138 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 "Well, Mrs. Masterman, I have been 
 thinking that out of the fragments of this 
 bountiful feast there remains enough to 
 make as many more happy." 
 
 " Oh ! do not ask me to preside over a 
 second party — it is so fatiguing, and I 
 have not your strength." 
 
 " Hum ! there are some old people." 
 
 " I shall have all gathered up, and you 
 can dispose of what remains as you will." 
 
 "It is not the eating and drinking, 
 Madam, so much as the sense of considera- 
 tion, and protection, and sympathy of which 
 these things, if offered under this roof, 
 would be the sign, that " 
 
 " Well, well, have your own way — you 
 are too good." 
 
 Mr. Shepherd gently repelled the com- 
 pliment, and with a lighter heart resumed 
 his seat. 
 
 " The fact is, Doctor, it is the right 
 thing to do ; these people work hard, and a 
 wedding does not occur every day." 
 
 " My dear Mr. Masterman, you speak as 
 if I did not quite agree with you on the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 139 
 
 subject ; it is the right thing to do ; and I 
 would have you extend the rule of general 
 feasting to christenings." 
 
 "Oh, ho, ho! — ha, ha! — thank you, 
 Doctor. I have daily occupation enough, 
 already." 
 
 ^^ Now that they have eaten enough, and 
 may some of them like a glass of wine, 
 would it not be as well to allow these tall 
 gentlemen in fine livery to retire ? Their 
 presence " 
 
 " Was meant for a compliment. Doctor." 
 
 ^' And protracted longer would prove a 
 restraint." 
 
 Now the rector had been blaming the 
 introduction of the nine tall fellows in silk 
 stockings, yellow plush, gold lace, and 
 powdered hair, as a sin against good taste ; 
 and although he tried to veil his meaning 
 under a quiet air, the shrewd Masterman 
 divined his thought and appealed to the 
 obsequious Elias, who, having his own 
 reasons for not offending either, took refuge 
 in a vague maxim about purity of intention. 
 
 " You had better, now that the servants
 
 140 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 are gone, bring up the bridegroom, with a 
 toast to the happiness of the young couple." 
 
 What Englishman ever yet could resist 
 the opportunity of making a speech ? 
 
 Mr. Masterman said : — 
 
 " My good friends, — Never did I, in the 
 whole course of my eventful career, rise to 
 propose a toast with feelings of more solemn 
 satisfaction than I do upon the present oc- 
 casion, when I find myself surrounded by 
 you, my good friends, who have shared my 
 toils and participated in my fortunes — who 
 have borne with your, I trust, indulgent 
 master the labour and heat of the day; 
 and when I find myself in presence of this 
 honest young couple, united, this auspicious 
 day, in the holy bonds of matrimony, by the 
 reverend gentleman on my right, and ac- 
 cording to and in conformity with the rites 
 of the Church as by law established, I do, 
 I say, feel more than I can express." 
 
 Here the orator stopped Avith perceptible 
 embarrassment, for he felt that he had not 
 quite rounded off so eloquent a sentence with 
 a becoming fulness of phraseology, nor could
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 141 
 
 he, as there were no cheers, take refuge in the 
 ordmary consolation for an oratorical break 
 down, that the rest of the sentence was 
 drowned in enthusiastic applause. Having 
 lost the thread of this weighty beginning 
 he dropped into a more colloquial strain, 
 drawing a modest picture of his own early 
 struggles, and holding forth himself as an 
 example of successful industry for the en- 
 couragement of the people who were his 
 guests upon the occasion, and more parti- 
 cularly for young Mr. and Mrs. Bessonet, 
 who immediately began to build castles in 
 the air, on the foundation of the great man's 
 patronage. Mrs. Masterman did not seem 
 quite to like the allusions to early struggles 
 preceding their union, in which, indeed, she 
 had not participated, and which excited the 
 more particular attention from the earnest- 
 ness with which Julia listened to this part 
 of the discourse, crying out in an audible 
 voice, " Oh, poor Papsy ! " the simple and 
 affectionate naturalness of which proved 
 more touchingly effective than Papsy's 
 oratory. Mr. Masterman's retrospective
 
 142 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 humility was only another form of his os- 
 tentatious self-sufficiency. What could he 
 not afford ? He was so rich ; he could even 
 afford being humble. When the rich man 
 exhibits his ladder, he wishes to convey the 
 idea that it is made after the pattern of 
 Jacob's, up which he climbed with the help 
 of all the cardinal virtues, ascending and 
 descending. If Mrs. Masterman held down 
 her head and fidgeted, Mr. Elias Mathews 
 turned up his eyes with admiration, which, 
 as he was seated nearer, afforded much en- 
 couragement to the speaker, who at length 
 concluded by proposing health, long life, 
 and prosperity to the bride and bridegroom. 
 Julia clapped her hands so rapidly as to 
 call for a gentle reproof from Mamma, who 
 disliked all strong expressions of feeling ; 
 but the signal having been given, there 
 arose one of those healthy storms of rattling 
 human sound, which is the opposite of anger, 
 and which rends the atmosphere with its 
 burst of good nature. Hearts, like throats, 
 seem to be clearing themselves for a song, 
 and the harmony never fails.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 143 
 
 Mr. Bessonet, as we must call him, out of 
 respect for his more responsible position in 
 society, rose and returned thanks. He said: — 
 "Mrs. and Mr. Masterman, my honoured 
 mistress and master. — Ladies and Gentle- 
 men, — My heart is too full for utterance. 
 I will begin by a confession. I had written 
 a speech, but it appears so poor, so 
 tame, so cold, that I cast it from me (he 
 flung the speech on the table). Yes, I will 
 trust to feelings for words — they may be 
 confused, but they will only the better 
 represent emotions which defy language. 
 This is the happiest day of my life, and it 
 is the most troubled — do not look wonder- 
 ingly and reproachfully at me, Marian — 
 I mean sweetly troubled (loud cheers). 
 Calmer days will come with you, beloved 
 companion, beloved wife, there can be no 
 distressing agitation ; we shall lead a life of 
 cheerful industry, do our duty, love, and be 
 happy." 
 
 Bessonet suddenly sat down, but his next 
 neighbour having whispered in his ear, he 
 quickly rose : —
 
 144 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 '' Mrs. Masterman, honoured lady and 
 mistress, I have to apologise for a deplorable 
 omission. It was my intention, as it was 
 my duty, to propose your good health, as 
 well as that of my honoured master, who 
 proposed my own and Marian's health with 
 so much feeling ; but again I want words." 
 
 Here occurred an amusing incident. At 
 the moment that Bessonet threw down his 
 written speech, the rejected document as- 
 sumed a form of fascinating attraction for 
 the eyes of Julia, who contrived to finger 
 it into her lap, and slily to read it over, and 
 had just come to the part introducing her 
 mother's health, when she, being quite 
 absorbed, caught the speaker's voice com- 
 plaining that he wanted words, on which 
 she artlessly said, going up to him, " Here 
 they are." This occasioned a shout of 
 jovial laughter, which rendered it impossible 
 for Bessonet to do more than propose the 
 toast. This brought up Mr. Masterman 
 again, who referred, in the most pathetic 
 manner, to her who had been the partaker of 
 his joys, as she had been the partner of his
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 145 
 
 sorrows ; and he drew an imaginary picture 
 of trials which, supposing privations endured 
 and overcome, that in reality had never 
 existed, or he would not have spoken of 
 them, did not quite satisfy the fastidious 
 lady whom the narration was meant to 
 glorify. 
 
 Mr. Shepherd next rose, and observed 
 that he thought this was the fitting mo- 
 ment, when they were returning thanks to 
 their benevolent hostess, to announce a 
 kind act on her part, which could not fail 
 to awaken in their hearts the liveliest feel- 
 ings of gratitude. " While we are enjoying 
 ourselves we are bound to think of others 
 — not in the spirit of him whose sense of 
 home comforts is enhanced by the sighs 
 and moans of the weeping storm out of 
 doors, which seems laden with the miseries 
 it occasions ; but as one who looks around 
 for a brother with Avhom to sweeten the 
 morsel by sharing it. You have gratefully 
 noticed the abundance, and super-abun- 
 dance of good things provided for this 
 worthy occasion. Enough remains to glad- 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 den the hearts of some poor old friends 
 whom I need not name — but whom we all 
 know — and it is Mrs. Masterman's generous 
 wish that they be assembled here this even- 
 ing" (Cheers, in which nearly the rest of 
 the sentence was lost). 
 
 Mr. Masterman whispered something in 
 no pleased tone to Mr. Mathews about not 
 having been consulted, in which the latter 
 frowningly acquiesced; but on a remon- 
 strance from Dr. Shortley the matter drop- 
 ped ; and as some voices called for Mr. 
 Steele, that venerable gentleman rose to 
 deliver what is sometimes called the speech 
 of the day. 
 
 We regret our inability to report an ora- 
 tion which was of somewhat inordinate 
 length. Mr. Steele began by an allusion 
 to the recent religious separation, which he 
 fervently rejoiced was not a divorce, and so 
 he ran through a matrimonial metaphor, 
 suggested by the occasion, until he arrived 
 at a more lasting union where they were 
 neither to marry nor be given in marriage ; 
 and here he wept, and stretched forth his
 
 ONCE XJPON A TIME. 147 
 
 hand to the rector, who rose from his seat 
 and took it very cordially, amidst general 
 demonstrations of satisfaction. Having re- 
 lieved his mind of public concerns, Mr. 
 Steele addressed his discourse more parti- 
 cularly to the bride, of whose docile sitting 
 under his ministry he drew an edifying pic- 
 ture ; and then, by a natural association of 
 ideas, he reverted to his own early history ; 
 and, without apparent consciousness of the 
 fact, treated the company to a love story, 
 but one so intermingled with texts of Scrip- 
 ture, and dressed up so quaintly in peculi- 
 arities of language familiar to attendants at 
 meeting houses, with little anecdotical em- 
 broideries and unromantic pieces of collo- 
 quialism, that if not a sermon after the 
 usual manner, it was an "experience" re- 
 counted at a love-feast. The circumstances, 
 divested of digressions and circumlocutions, 
 were few and simple. The approaches to 
 the heart of the late Mrs. Steele were made 
 under the cover of pretty books, which af- 
 forded opportunities for differences of opi- 
 nion, which again brought out the yielding 
 
 L 2
 
 148 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 amiabilty of the gentle critic, who won the 
 heart by submission to the superior reason. 
 It was meant to be particularly encourag- 
 ing to the young couple about to enter 
 upon the thorny paths of life, to learn that 
 the late Mrs. Steele had preceded them 
 without shoes to her feet, until the humble 
 individual who addressed them had, with 
 his own hands, and according to his calling, 
 made her a pair. The attentive listeners 
 saw nothing ludicrous in an avowal which, 
 indeed, presented no unusual occurrence. 
 Mr. Steele was not the only man whom 
 they knew to have risen in the same way 
 from similar occupations to be influential 
 leaders, with the bearing of truly reverend 
 gentlemen. 
 
 After all, what is dissent — if not a spi- 
 ritual democracy — where the race is to the 
 swift, and the battle is to the strong ? Mr. 
 Steele's manner rendered a common-place 
 narrative highly interesting by a manner 
 which, as we have not the art to reproduce 
 it, we are obliged to reduce to mere outline* 
 
 Yet, after all, is it not those circumlocu-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 149 
 
 tions, and digressions, and infinite nothings, 
 which compose the charm of all love stories, 
 including this particular one of Mr. Steele, 
 the Methodist preacher ? Who would care 
 to follow the happy pair from the declaration 
 to the church door, if the way lay along a 
 straight high road ? No, we must diverge 
 from the beaten path, and from under the 
 gaze of dull staring eyes, and wander as we 
 will, and as we can, through thorny bushes 
 that demand the lover's care, and with ex- 
 cuses for stopping afforded by some tricksy 
 thrush, which seems to articulate the pet 
 diminutive of the beloved's name. It is 
 now a flaunting flower that nods its odorous 
 benediction ; and now a brook that cries 
 take care, through slippery stones and peb- 
 bles which it encircles with flashing rings, 
 and foaming pearls more beautiful than that 
 which was dissolved in the cup of Egypt's 
 impassioned Queen. To one pressed by 
 care, and hurried by business, these gos- 
 samer nets of love and precious delays 
 would be mere impediments and waste of 
 time; but to those whom a wedding had 
 
 J. 3
 
 150 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 tuned into the mood, the nothings that were 
 all to thee, thou holy widower, rejoicing in 
 the consolations of thy reminiscences, they 
 were everything ; and to them, also, who 
 were led by the perfect grace of sincerity 
 through ups and downs which, not having 
 thy hand in ours, we cannot follow. 
 
 What said the rector, in his turn ? The 
 rector said grace, and the feast was over. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Masterman drove home in 
 their luxuriously-lined coach, driven by 
 Jehu, in short horse-hair wig, under a broad- 
 brimmed cocked hat, over a bright pink 
 complexion of considerable breadth of sur- 
 face ; while over the carriage-roof slanted 
 upward the shining gold-headed canes of 
 a pair of human ornaments. 
 
 Mr. Masterman sat with folded arms in 
 one corner, Mrs. Masterman gracefully re- 
 clined in the other, and Julia fell fast asleep 
 opposite. Why do you not feast your eyes, 
 oh favoured father, upon that rich, sweet 
 gift, who is destined to bear up the golden 
 fruit of thy industry, in the form of acquired 
 honours ? Why, on the contrary, art thou
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 151 
 
 morose and sulky ? As thou wilt not 
 answer, we must tell it for thee. The good 
 man was wearied ; he had just put a job 
 off hand, which a sort of sense of duty, of 
 no exalted kind, had forced upon him. He 
 had acted his forced part, and was done 
 with his exacting audience with a " let them 
 go hang." His speech did not astonish ; 
 Bessonet — John Bessonet was applauded — 
 Shepherd was applauded — Steele was ap- 
 plauded ; — the rector, who made no speech, 
 produced an effect by a respectable solem- 
 nity, such as did not mark his own uprising 
 or his sitting down. Mrs. Masterman had 
 not consulted him about the supplementary 
 feast of fragments. Even Julia had not 
 behaved herself with the propriety of an 
 heiress. The sum of grievances was very 
 small, but ill-humour, like jealousy, makes 
 the meat it feeds upon. It is an irrit- 
 able cuticle, of which a flea becomes the 
 despot. 
 
 " My dear, I suppose you will make this 
 worthy, honest Bessonet overseer, in place 
 of old Mr. Timbs, who has at length taken 
 
 L 4
 
 152 OXCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the hints you gave him to resign, rather 
 than ungraciously turn him off after thirty 
 years' faithful service ?" 
 
 This was not said sarcastically, nor was 
 it taken as such, for the lady was very 
 matter-of-fact in her speech, and the gen- 
 tleman thought he was only doing right in 
 replacing used-up human machinery by 
 new ; yet conscience is sometimes too 
 strong for economy of that sort; not 
 strong enough always to break through the 
 accumulated crust of scientific selfishness, 
 but yet sufficiently alive to set the giant 
 writhing under his Etna, and make him 
 vent his remorse in barren cinders. 
 
 " No, my dear, I will not appoint Bes- 
 sonet to Timbs's place." 
 
 " It will be a disappointment, I fear ; for 
 you certainly raised their hopes." 
 
 "Why, what did I say ?" 
 
 She could not recollect the words ; she 
 only remembered the impression ; and it is 
 the impression, conveyed by words, that 
 makes the real meaniiig. 
 
 " Impression, indeed ! What would im-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 153 
 
 pression signify in a court of law ? Answer 
 me that ! " 
 
 She knew nothing of courts of law. 
 
 Whom would he appoint — if it was a 
 fair question ? 
 
 It was a fair question — a very fair 
 question — and he would answer it — he 
 would appoint Soapey. 
 
 "Oh, dear! that tall, thin, white-faced 
 fellow, who lisps, and never looks you 
 straight in the face." 
 
 " My dear, you do not understand busi- 
 ness. A manufactory is a government. 
 Letat c'est moi, (The bit of French tickled 
 his fancy, and he laughed.) " I must have 
 my minister of police, as well as my general, 
 and my secretary. Now you heard Bes- 
 sonet, and if you understood human nature 
 you would have perceived that he is of a 
 literary turn ; he writes well, for I have 
 peeped into that speech picked up by Julia, 
 and he is gifted with eloquence. I even 
 suspect him of poetry. Do you think he 
 would watch the fellows for me, and bring 
 me reports ? He would first see me •
 
 154 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Pardon me, my dear, I was going to use 
 one of those shocking expressions of which 
 you have cured me. Oh, Soapey is the 
 man for me ! " 
 
 '' Dear me, how suddenly the weather 
 has changed ! " 
 
 A clap of thunder woke up Julia as the 
 carriage drew up at the door of the town 
 mansion in St. James's SquarCo
 
 155 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 "We must introduce the reader to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Maltheson, the step-father and mother 
 of Justin Forbes, whom we shall however 
 continue, until he gets out of cap and jacket, 
 to call by the diminutive Just. Mr. Mal- 
 theson had not always been the respectable 
 bookseller that he is now, nor had his good 
 wife, until she accepted him, a year, to the 
 day, after the death of Mr. Forbes, surgeon 
 and apothecary, always enjoyed the same 
 liberty of speech and of locomotion in 
 which, under the tolerant rule of her second 
 lord, she is wont to indulge. 
 
 The late Mr. Forbes, when he set up shop 
 in this promising district, looked round for 
 a lady with money or good family connec- 
 tions. If he could only get footing in a 
 rich bilious circle, he fairly calculated upon
 
 156 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the profits of dyspepsia to make up original 
 deficiencies of fortune. He accordingly in- 
 vested his expectations in the not very rich 
 but influential and esteemed family of which 
 the future Mrs. Forbes was the hope and 
 ornament. A sudden indisposition, while 
 their own doctor was away, afibrded Surgeon 
 Forbes the opportunity of feeling the pulse 
 and the heart together ; and it was very 
 much to the surprise, and very, very much 
 indeed to the indignation of a proud father 
 and mother, that they learned one morning, 
 from a neatly written note, that their con- 
 sent was not asked, only because it would 
 have been asked in vain by their " still 
 ever dutiful and devotedly afi^ectionate 
 Comely." 
 
 The signature of the pet name only 
 added to the fury which this announce- 
 ment occasioned ; and when the enraged 
 gentleman fell sick, it was not Surgeon 
 Forbes who was sent for, but the old esta- 
 blished physician of the place, whose reme- 
 dies for the body were not meant to heal 
 his patient's vexation.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 157 
 
 Mr. Forbes soon discovered that he had 
 made an erroneous calculation. His wife 
 brought him neither money nor acquain- 
 tances with morbid nerves or incurable 
 hypochondria. The only bile with which 
 he had to deal was her own portion, for 
 which, as he sulkily administered, he won- 
 dered to himself how she could have ever 
 been called Comely. Her complexion ought 
 to have been fair, but was not, and her hair 
 was meant to be red, but looked as if it 
 had been blighted before it could reach the 
 blooming fire of the orange. As the family 
 so treated him, he determined after a while 
 so to treat her. By what process of logic 
 his evil mind had arrived at this singular 
 conclusion it would be vain to inquire. 
 There are no rules about human mind and 
 character, which, however accurate they 
 m^y generally seem, are not baffled by ever- 
 varying exceptions. Mr. Forbes resolved 
 to cut his wife, but to cut her after a 
 fashion of his own invention. He would 
 live with her, but not speak to her either 
 when alone or in company ; she might
 
 158 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 question, he would not answer. If he left 
 home he would not say where he was going ; 
 when he returned he would not say where 
 he had been. Before friends at dinner 
 it would be the same course of proceeding. 
 He would so manage as not to address to 
 her a word, and for the pleasure of tor- 
 menting her would turn the conversation 
 upon the most novel and tempting exhibi- 
 tions, such as he had been to see in the 
 city, and of which and of his enjoyment 
 thereat his wife would learn in this indi- 
 rect way before strangers. Mrs. Forbes 
 had tried every known remedy, but not one 
 would meet this unknown species of perse- 
 cution. She became as much puzzled as 
 would have been the surgeon himself, had 
 he encountered a novel distemper, whose 
 diagnosis was not set down in any medical 
 authority, and which baffled his treatment. 
 She stormed, she wept, she pouted, she ad- 
 ministered strong applications of irony and 
 sarcasm, tried tenderness and harshness, 
 but all failed in turns and alike upon the 
 hard, dark face, whose only expression was
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 159 
 
 a sly smile of triumph. What could she 
 do ? She dared not return to her family to 
 endure scorn in another form ; she was too 
 much a lady to think of earning her bread, 
 even if she knew how. So what could she 
 do but submit ? As there is no standing 
 still in nature, the affections, whose expan- 
 sion was arrested by a cold, iron hand, 
 turned inwardly to fermenting hatred of 
 the author of this negative tyranny, and 
 would have become hatred of her kind 
 were it not for the blessing which Provi- 
 dence interposed in the gift of little Just. 
 How the great work of this world is done 
 by the helpless ! Those who can do nothing 
 for themselves, the feeble old, the feeble 
 young, the still more feeble sick, set the 
 best part of the strong in action, and by 
 exercising their love and sympathies, be- 
 come benefactors in turn. This life's 
 sufferers are the martyrs who redeem wild, 
 wasteful, foolish mankind. When heedless 
 strength descends from its pedestal of harsh 
 arrogance to take gently the hand that is 
 sinking, that hand repays the kindness with
 
 160 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the holy pressure of one soon to be an angel, 
 and leaves the mark of Heaven before it is 
 withdrawn. Babies are, in a more literal 
 sense than is supposed, cherubs. There is 
 joy in the mother's heart as she looks on 
 her cherub. There would have been hell in 
 thine, poor ill treated Comely Forbes, only 
 for this precious gift. It was not a complete 
 Eden, however ; for very bitter feelings had 
 obtained too firm possession of a corner, at 
 least, to allow of that. 
 
 Mr. Forbes became, notwithstanding an 
 affectedly pleasant exterior, an unpopular 
 person in his neighbourhood. The real 
 character of a man is generally pretty well 
 understood. There are spies upon his un- 
 guarded actions, of whom he is not aware. 
 We paint ourselves unconsciously in the 
 most trifling doings and sayings, for nature 
 
 is 
 
 very 
 
 resolute in exacting: harmonious 
 
 to 
 
 relations. The face cannot lie, and that is a 
 truth which makes a fool of the false tongue. 
 There was the inevitable handwriting upon 
 the wall of that agreeable physiognomy, 
 which any screaming child could decipher 
 as well as a prophet. In this sort of soli-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 161 
 
 tude, which Forbes created around him, 
 he was glad to take to the society of Mal- 
 theson, who, from having kept a book-stall 
 at the corner, had risen to the importance 
 of a regular bookseller in a good, comfort- 
 able shop. 
 
 The contempt with which the lady at 
 first treated Mr. Maltheson, as a low bred 
 person, did him no harm in the eyes of her 
 lord, who, since he had suffered injury, as 
 he supposed, at the hands of the aristocracy, 
 had taken decidedly to social equality ; but 
 his more enlarged views of humanity failed 
 to make him a better husband. His wife, 
 on the contrary, who, while amongst her 
 own family, never troubled her mind about 
 social distinctions, felt now disposed to look 
 at the question in a point of view different 
 from that taken by Mr. Surgeon and Apo- 
 thecary Forbes. She began to think that 
 her family must have been justified in their 
 contempt of an individual who had suc- 
 ceeded in rendering himself contemptible 
 in her own eyes. Eeasonings, which have 
 their source in lacerated feelings, must not 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 be expected to be logical, and if the poor 
 lady attributed ill conduct to blood, and 
 took to family pride for comfort, we must 
 not refuse her such slight consolation. 
 
 Independently of the additional annoy- 
 ance which the introduction of Mr. Malthe- 
 son to the family board afforded his wife, 
 Mr. Forbes had other reasons of a more 
 justifiable kind. The bookseller was a 
 highly popular man in the neighbourhood, 
 and his shop the rendezvous of all who 
 wanted to hear news about the publications 
 and politics of the day, and to pass an hour 
 in semi-intellectual gossip. Frequent op- 
 portunities were afforded for recommending 
 the professional services of his neighbour, 
 whose card was stuck in a conspicuous 
 place to catch the eye. Besides, the man 
 himself was a pleasant companion. Alto- 
 gether self-taught, there was nothing which 
 he could not do, and certainly there was 
 nothing which he would not attempt, no 
 matter how difficult. The fact was that 
 he possessed a vast deal of loose, undigested 
 information, without real hold of any single
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 163 
 
 subject. He was ever starting theories 
 which he fancied to be original, but which 
 had been disposed of years and years before, 
 and wasting his energies, that, however, 
 seemed inexhaustible, upon experiments 
 which, for the day in which he lived, were 
 as antiquated as the elixir of life and the 
 philosopher's stone. His dogmatism about 
 matters of which he was essentially igno- 
 rant was never provoking, but was mostly 
 amusing. How he had advanced in the 
 world from a stall to a shop, encumbered 
 with qualities which have precipitated so 
 many from opulence to distress, would have 
 been a puzzle, unless explained by an un- 
 tiring sanguineness of temperament, which 
 carried him off in a twinkling from unre- 
 gretted failure upon a wild-goose chase in 
 another direction. He was as fickle in his 
 fancies as a child with his toys, breaking 
 and throwing away the favourite of to-day 
 for the novel monstrosity of the morrow. 
 So he never dwelt long enough upon his 
 absurdity to be a bore to others, either by 
 an irritable anxiousness, such as he never 
 
 M 2
 
 164 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 felt, or by complainings in which he never 
 indulged. He was a shrewd fellow, never- 
 theless, always catching glimpses, and never 
 totally in the dark ; his perception of cha- 
 racter was somewhat remarkable, and he 
 could handle men more cunning than him- 
 self with considerable skill. This knowledge 
 of mankind was probably acquired during 
 his book- stall days ; at that time he would 
 sit in his sort of sentry box making obser- 
 vations upon those who used to avail them- 
 selves of the privileges supposed to be 
 allowed of looking at and through volumes 
 for sale in the open air. 
 
 The position was one which was rather 
 agreeable, as it suited his tastes and mode 
 of life. A cursory reader, but no deep 
 student, and fond of fresh air without 
 having to seek for it with labour of bodily 
 exercise, Mr. Maltheson could, while seated 
 in his box, indulge his taste for reading 
 without too frequent interruption. So per- 
 fect had his tact become through every-day 
 experience that, by a glance from his page, 
 he could not only distinguish the buyer
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 165 
 
 from the time-killer, but all the varieties 
 of both species. He knew the special man 
 who would buy one particular kind of book, 
 and if he had it not to offer him he took no 
 more trouble for the moment, but resumed 
 his reading, allowing the special man to 
 hunt eagerly, though in vain, for the object 
 of his search ; for he calculated that the 
 presence of one brought others, and did 
 good to his establishment. Nevertheless, 
 he made mental note of the circumstance, 
 in order that he might suit that particular 
 customer upon a future occasion. But this 
 was not all. He would take care to look 
 over the book, whether of law, physic, or 
 divinity, that he might engage the special 
 man in conversation and take, as he called 
 it, " a start out of him," by revelation of 
 familiarity with the subject. This brought 
 the special man back again to have " his 
 brains sucked," another favourite expres- 
 sion, and his purse opened with his infor- 
 mation by fresh purchases of special books. 
 Then there was the temptable buyer of 
 small means, who required to be angled 
 
 M 3
 
 166 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 like a trout, and to have his resolution de- 
 termined by an artful stimulating of curio- 
 sity and gentle letting down of price. Of 
 this species there was an almost endless 
 variety, the distinguishing of which, and 
 the treatment of whom, sharpened his saga- 
 city and exercised his diplomatic powers, 
 which were very considerable. He had 
 also his famished scholars and spiritual 
 dependents, whom he fed with free loans 
 of odd volumes. In this way it only took 
 him the trouble to rise from his seat and 
 walk three steps to see the world ; in fact, 
 the world came to him. It was that half 
 active, half idle, that dreamily industrious 
 and curiosity-indulging sort of life which 
 would keep him who consented never to 
 deviate from it alive to those hundred 
 rounded years which Flourens lays down to 
 be the right natural term of existence. 
 The Patriarchs must have led some such 
 life as this when man was a rarity whom 
 it was pleasant to meet ; when short crops 
 and machinery were the one no source of 
 dread, and the other no necessity ; when the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 167 
 
 only literature flowed direct from the foun- 
 tain of divinity, and pictures were every- 
 where. Ah 1 dream on, and forget Joseph 
 and his brothers. 
 
 When Mr. Maltheson had accumulated 
 money enough to take the shop next door 
 to his own stall, he soon found how very 
 serious a thing a single step may be. The 
 class of people who used to stop to look at 
 his books dared not to cross his shop door, 
 simply because, instead of being allowed to 
 attend themselves, they were necessarily 
 waited upon. New books becoming a shop 
 must not be thumbed over, even when the 
 leaves are cut ; and there is the uncom- 
 fortable sense of an eye being concentrated 
 upon you, besides the awkwardness of 
 escape through the door without having 
 made a purchase, especially if the door be 
 opened by an obsequious hand, with a 
 bow of reproachful politeness. While losing 
 those waifs and strays of custom, which had 
 yet to be replaced by more regular imports 
 and exports, the master found that he had 
 parted with his precious ease and liberty, 
 
 M 4
 
 168 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 for it would not do now to be seated in a 
 corner eating his own confectionary. He 
 must seem to be busy, or people will be 
 prognosticating bankruptcy. There are 
 house rent, taxes, lighting, and clerk to 
 j)ay, and repentance of no avail ; for what 
 man can bear to descend from any elevation 
 he has once attained ? No not even the 
 philosophic and equable Mr. Maltheson. 
 
 In order to create a new connection out 
 of the old, the bookseller hit upon one of 
 those expedients which seem simple after 
 they have been tried and have succeeded. 
 He replaced the stall, and he stood at his door, 
 like a watchful, patient angler, to triumph 
 in the effect. By and by certain old familiar 
 faces appeared, and old familiar eyes looked 
 about with no more vacant disappoint- 
 ment, and, like baffled hounds, old familiar 
 noses smelt about for the accustomed pro- 
 vender ; and they were caught, and talked 
 to, and fairly carried in and made acquainted 
 with the change. By degrees the new con- 
 nection became formed ; old branches were 
 grafted upon new stock ; and in due time
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 169 
 
 the old stall disappeared, leaving no trace 
 save in the sensitive memory of the apothe- 
 cary's lady. 
 
 The shrewd bookseller soon perceived 
 how matters stood in that back parlour 
 where scents more pleasant than those of 
 the shop drugs regaled his senses while 
 occupied with his game of cards. As he 
 had rendered himself useful to the husband 
 he resolved upon rendering himself useful 
 to the wife, and became every day more 
 agreeable to both. To no member of the 
 family was he more useful or agreeable than 
 to little Just, and he would half seriously 
 declare that if any one could convert him to 
 the principle of matrimony (how frequently 
 he used that word principle) it would be 
 that flaxen-haired little fellow. He who 
 could do anything was not to be baffled by 
 the craft and mystery of toys, of which he was 
 never without one on hand for Just ; and 
 true to his doctrine of principles, the toys 
 were mostly models of new or old ma- 
 chinery, or scientific instruments, calculated 
 to awaken curiosity of the right kind. Ex-
 
 170 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 planation led to demonstration ; higher in- 
 telligence than that of Master Just became 
 interested. Father and mother would by 
 their presence make up a respectable audi- 
 ence. The mother began to look up to the 
 bookseller as an extraordinary man, a most 
 extraordinary man, and to institute com- 
 parisons not to the advantage of one whom, 
 before such opportunity of comparing intel- 
 lects had been afforded, she used to think 
 very clever indeed. He could tell so well 
 the many things he had superficially ac- 
 quired, as to persuade attentive listeners 
 that they too, in imbibing his instruction, 
 exhausted the whole of the immediate sub- 
 ject. Sometimes Mr. Forbes might be 
 observed peeping with open eye over his 
 hand of cards in astonished dismay at his 
 wife's ready exchange of erudition with her 
 partner in the game. Not to be outdone in 
 scientific display he would now and then 
 throw in an oracular qualification of a ques- 
 tionable statement, only to get piqued in 
 turn by a reference to the higher court of 
 appeal, whose opinion confirmed or quashed
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 171 
 
 his own. By Jupiter ! thought he to him- 
 self, Mrs. Forbes is not so dull and ignorant 
 as somebody used to think. He began to 
 respect the lady's legal title to be the better 
 half of this no great things of a whole. How 
 the sly artificer did contrive to take up the 
 old threads of their long broken discourse 
 and knit them together ! It was not a very 
 perfect work, and required to be held by 
 his own hands ; for when left to itself it 
 seemed to be ever threatening to fall asun- 
 der. If the lady, after being long despised, 
 began to find out that she was worth some- 
 thing, we must not wonder that, with aroused 
 mental faculties, there woke up resentment, 
 for which sharpened intellect found a tongue. 
 Mr. Forbes could not fall back upon silence. 
 To fall back upon an abandoned position 
 would have been to confess poverty of re- 
 sources, if not actually to acknowledge de- 
 feat. The situation was changed ; it was 
 for the lady to assume superiority in turn ; 
 and to retaliate silence by silence not being 
 that particular woman's way, she employed 
 sarcasm, until Mr. Forbes died — not of it.
 
 172 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Nevertheless his malady was of no well- 
 defined kind. A general state of ill-health 
 set in, for which he was advised change of 
 air, mineral springs, and the usual remedies 
 where there is a mysterious sinking of vital 
 power from moral causes. The man was 
 dissatisfied with himself, and there was no 
 one to help him save his friend Mr. Malthe- 
 son, whose faculties were not of a nature to 
 penetrate the depth called for in this case. 
 
 Mr. Maltheson, failing to save the hus- 
 band, did probably the next best thing — he 
 married the widow. Rather say she mar- 
 ried him ; for she made up her mind, with all 
 the strength of her newly-discovered and 
 put-forth will, that she would waive distinc- 
 tions of birth according to certain maxims 
 she had for some time been familiarising 
 her mind with about Heaven's nobility and 
 Nature's gentlemen. Had not Mr. Malthe- 
 son already conferred upon her a title of 
 nobility, even before the death of her first 
 husband, as she used to speak of him six 
 weeks after his death, by raising her to that 
 dignified position in the world of letters, an
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 173 
 
 editress of the " Cornucoplan Magazine," 
 a serious monthly miscellany, in which arti- 
 cles about science predominated over light 
 reading? . 
 
 After their marriage Mr. Maltheson dis- 
 covered — and like most discoveries it was 
 made too late to be of use — that his previous 
 deference had been carried too far, inasmuch 
 as the superiority to which he had so long 
 affected to bow was taken in too literal a 
 sense. But there was no help for it. The 
 bookseller's acquaintances laughed in their 
 sleeve at seeing the old lecturer against 
 improvident marriages caught by an or- 
 dinary pedantic widow who took snuff, and 
 was of course a slattern as well as a despot. 
 Strange to say, little open-countenanced, 
 simple-hearted Just, whom they both loved, 
 became their bone of contention ; and what 
 seems stranger still, the source of disagree- 
 ment sprung from the boy's virtues and 
 intelligence ; for while the lady, whose 
 aristocratic notions still clung to her, 
 saw reflected in the boy all her ancestral 
 characteristics, the step-father attributed
 
 174 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 the blossoms to his own cultivation. Each 
 took pride in the boy from different motives. 
 The self-love of both found satisfaction in 
 the youth. He was of his mother's flesh 
 and blood, but was he not of the step-father's 
 mind and spirit ? 
 
 " You have nothing to say to him," the 
 mother would observe as she tapped her box. 
 
 " If he had not fallen into my hands I 
 know what would have become of him, ^vith 
 a negligent father and a mother " 
 
 As the lady never liked the enunciation 
 of an abominable truth, she always cut 
 short the " controlled by a tyrant," which 
 she knew coming, by a kiss, and " we'll say 
 no more about it," which only meant, " no 
 more about it for the present." 
 
 As Just was generally called to give 
 account of the way in which he passed his 
 time when not immediately under the eyes 
 of his mother, the latter had no difficulty 
 in coming at the particulars of the flogging 
 scene. Mr. Maltheson, who was not pre- 
 sent at the first examination of the boy, 
 was called in from his desk — a more
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 175 
 
 dignified position than that behind the 
 counter, and therefore preferred, — in order 
 to be a witness to the enormities which 
 passed in the house of Mr. Elias Mathews. 
 " Only to think, Malt (she always called him 
 Malt in private, and Just was not present 
 now), of a boy of Obady's age taking to 
 swearing as a defence from the brutality of 
 a puritanical father ! And you. Malt, are 
 not quite free from blame, seeing that 
 Obady is, as I may say, your own pupil." 
 
 " My dear Mant " (so he called his 
 Amantha in public and private), " my dear 
 Mant, if I did not consent to let Obady 
 partake of the instruction which it is my 
 pleasure, and my duty, and my privilege to 
 impart to our dear little Just, the boy's 
 education would be altogether neglected; 
 and you must acknowledge that he is a very 
 fine boy " 
 
 " As compared with other boys, Malt, — 
 not with mine." 
 
 " I make no comparisons ; for, according 
 to your own happy quotation in that excel- 
 lent article by a certain editress, — you
 
 176 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 know whom I mean — comparisons are 
 odious." 
 
 How well the scientific Malt knew the 
 way to divert the rising storm from his 
 own head ! 
 
 "It is kind of you, Malt, to permit 
 Mathews's son to share lessons with Just — 
 nay, it is Yevj charitable. Mr. Mathews, 
 as I sometimes convey to his unfortunate 
 wife, can hardly appreciate the extent of 
 his obligations to Mr. Maltheson." 
 
 " Well, well, Mant, I would hardly go so 
 far as that." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " For poor Mrs. Mathews's sake." 
 
 " I do not try to spare the foolish woman. 
 I feel so angry with her for her submission 
 to such mean tyranny. I have a mind to 
 make an article of her." 
 
 " There are no telhng points," interposed 
 the husband ; " the surface is too smooth, 
 too characterless ; Avhy not make an article 
 of him ?" 
 
 " I would not soil my pen with such a 
 fellow ; the subject would make me sick."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 177 
 
 " Yes, Maiit ; your impressible nature is 
 not suited for dealing with characters of 
 that description." 
 
 " I could do it if I liked." 
 
 *^ Of course you could, my dear — of 
 course you could j that is not precisely 
 what I mean." 
 
 " Oh, bother! " cries the impressible Mant, 
 whose toilette was by this time sufficiently 
 advanced to allow of her setting out upon 
 her intended visit to Mrs. Mathews, whom 
 she thought it her duty to assist occa- 
 sionally with her advice. 
 
 Off she went, tying her bonnet strings 
 as she passed out of the street door, like a 
 second Christina of Sweden, another learned 
 lady of impetuous character, who, while 
 mounting a horse, set it off at a gallop, and 
 seated herself while at full speed. She 
 next proceeded to apply to their right uses 
 a couple of pins which had remained 
 hidden in her mouth, in order as Mant once, 
 in a rare moment of facetiousness observed, 
 to give point to her conversation ; and she 
 thought the joke good enough for profes- 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 sional purposes, on which account she 
 enjoined him, as a duty he owed his family, 
 not to let it out before any author of their 
 acquaintance. Mark how silent and 
 watchful those clever fellows are, she would 
 say ; they never waste their wit in each 
 other's company. They spend their money 
 which is their profit, but never intrench on 
 the raw material. Perhaps it was of the 
 joke she was thinking, as she smiled to 
 herself while attaching both ends of a 
 kerchief that crossed at her waist ; or it 
 may be that she was inwardly triumphing 
 at the anticipated sting which she might at 
 the moment have been half consciously 
 illustrating; and on she went, as if with 
 her firm flat feet she was pushing up against 
 a stronger resisting medium than that of 
 air ; indeed her motion was something like 
 that of wading into the sea. In due time 
 she reached her place of destination, and as 
 Mr. Mathews was absent, partaking of the 
 wedding breakfast, she caught the lady and 
 her two daughters together. 
 
 " Pretty doings here, pretty doings, upon 
 my word ! "
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 179 
 
 The three to whom this was addressed 
 looked inquiringly. 
 
 " What doings, Mrs. Maltheson ?" asked 
 Deborah, who generally took the lead. 
 
 "Oh! what doings? Of course you 
 know nothing about your brother's accom- 
 plishments in cursing and swearing ! " 
 
 " Ah !" deeply sighed Deborah. 
 
 Mrs. Mathews wiped her eyes. 
 
 Cicely looked terrified at the dreadful 
 image which the witch had called up. 
 
 Mrs. Maltheson was the only happy one 
 of the party, for she had struck home, 
 and produced the effect at which she aimed, 
 which was to render her friends uncom- 
 fortable ; she was a perfect artist in this her 
 way. The ground-work had been laid in, 
 and now for brino:ino^ out the varied ex- 
 pression of torture with a master hand. 
 
 " AYhy do you sigh. Miss Mathews ? And 
 why do you wipe your eyes, you foolish, 
 walked- over, poor Mrs. Mathews ? And 
 there you are, staring as if you saw a ghost, 
 Cicely. Shame upon you, not to have run 
 in and saved your poor brother ! "
 
 180 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " I would if I could," whimpered 
 Cicely. 
 
 " And who prevented you ? — not your 
 poor, weak, soft mother, I am sure?" 
 
 "Oh, no, not ray Mother — not Mamma ; 
 she has often saved me /" 
 
 " Hold your tongue, Cicely ! What a 
 shame to expose your dear good father to 
 strangers !" 
 
 " So I am a stranger. Miss Mathews ?" 
 
 "I used the word in a general sense." 
 
 *' Well, as we are friends, not strangers, 
 may I ask you, in a friendly way, why you 
 did not interfere to prevent so shocking a 
 spectacle ? You are old enough, I am sure ; 
 you are two and twenty." 
 
 Deborah almost screamed a protest. 
 
 " Well, you look as old, which is the same 
 thing." 
 
 Deborah threw an involuntary glance at 
 a glass which stood on the work-table. 
 
 " Ah ! you are looking at yourself in the 
 glass ; I did not think you so vain." 
 
 Deborah bit her nails. Her tormentor 
 significantly handed her a pair of scissors,
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 181 
 
 which the latter flung on the ground, greatly 
 to the former's satisfaction c 
 
 " Come, come, let us be friends. I have 
 a bean in my eye ; and as he is not too 
 young, I wished to deduct a few years from 
 him, and make them a present to you, not 
 to let the disparity be too great." 
 
 ^' Whom do you mean ?" asked Deborah, 
 almost smiling, while the tears yet in 
 Cicely's eyes glittered, and the mother held 
 up her head. 
 
 " Oh ! you guess already ?" Then she 
 nodded her head mysteriously, and whis- 
 pered more mysteriously still. "He is 
 recovering fast. Maltheson assures me 
 that he has discovered the way to cure him 
 — set him all right here (touching her 
 head). A fine job it will be. Great 
 fortune, you know; he under obligations^ 
 you know; sees nobody in the way of a 
 pretty girl but yourself, — eh, Deborah ?" 
 
 Deborah blushed scarlet. Cicely very 
 puzzled. Mrs. Mathews particularly pained. 
 Mrs. Maltheson supremely happy. Her 
 eyes overflowed with delicious venom. Her 
 
 N 3
 
 182 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 lips looked as jovial as if some " bee had 
 stung them newly." Her nose rejoiced in 
 fresh pinches of snuff. 
 
 "What do you mean?" asked the in- 
 dignant young lady; what do you mean, 
 Mrs. Maltheson, by these insinuations? 
 You know as well as we do the circum- 
 stances under which my poor dear papa 
 consented to receive the son of Mr. Lush 
 under his roof. It was out of Christian 
 charity ; yes, Mrs. Maltheson, you may 
 smile at the word, as much as to say how 
 can a poor man perform charity towards a 
 rich one ? But was it not charity to take 
 this unhappy gentleman out of a private 
 asylum, from amongst mad people, and 
 surround him with the comforts and happi- 
 ness of our sweet domestic circle ? And now 
 that he is apparently on the way to recovery, 
 thanks to our unwearied attentions — and 
 I will confess to those extraordinary opera- 
 tions of Mr. Maltheson (she said this to 
 soften her antagonist) — you think me base 
 enough to take ad — ad — advantage " 
 
 Her feelings overpowering her, she dashed
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 183 
 
 out of the room. Mrs. Maltheson, not the 
 least affected, rose from her seat, and takmg 
 Cicely by the arm, hurried her out of the 
 room, saying, " Eun and hold your sister, or 
 she may throw herself out of the window." 
 
 Cicely, taken unawares, did run, did 
 catch her sister, and was rewarded with 
 a pinch, which caused her to scream, while 
 at the same moment Mr. Mathews was heard 
 to enter the house and ask what was the 
 matter. 
 
 The arrival of the master of the house 
 evidently disturbed the purpose for which 
 Mrs. Maltheson had hurried Cicely out of 
 the room, and which was to be alone with 
 her mother, for the sake of administering to 
 her a sufficient dose of wholesome reproaches 
 on account of her submission to domestic 
 tyranny ; and by way of encouraging her to 
 resistance she would have liked to stand 
 at the door, of which she held the handle, 
 and to catch the particulars of the revela- 
 tion Miss Deborah was making to her papa, 
 about a conspiracy between the wicked 
 Cicely and the still more wicked Mrs. Mal- 
 
 N 4
 
 184 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 theson against her gentle innocent self, when 
 the shutting to of the parlour door cut off 
 the communication. 
 
 " Poor dear Mrs. Mathews, how I pity 
 you ! but as I walked fast, and have spoken 
 a great deal, I want a glass of wine." 
 
 " A glass of wine ! oh, yes, certainly — 
 but I have not my keys." 
 
 " Your husband keeps them ? " 
 
 " He does." 
 
 " I should like to see my husband locking 
 up cupboards, I would, — and putting the 
 keys in his pocket ; " and she tapped the 
 lid of her silver snuff-box with her knuckle. 
 
 '^ Dear me ! — what would you do ?" 
 
 "I would lock the hall door, and not 
 allow him in until he surrendered and 
 begged my pardon ! " 
 
 '* Deborah would let him in." 
 
 " Deborah ! — your own child — Deborah ! " 
 
 There is fascination in the eye of a rattle- 
 snake, as squirrels can tell you, and their 
 testimony is supported by surviving birds 
 and rabbits ; there was fascination in that 
 fixed glance of matrimonial insurrection,
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 185 
 
 counselling revolution^ which it was not in 
 the nature of poor Mrs. Mathews to with- 
 stand, and she threw herself into the arms 
 of the captivator. 
 
 " Yes, rest on my bosom," cooed the dove, 
 subsiding from the wisdom of the serpent, 
 while she mentally contemplated a good 
 situation for a Cornucopian tale of domestic 
 affliction — " rest on the bosom of your 
 sympathising friend." But as her ear 
 caught the sound of advancing feet, her 
 voice suddenly returned to its habitual tone, 
 and she fired off in a broadside the whole 
 armament of maxims she had intended to 
 discharge one by one, with deliberate aim, 
 while observing the successive effect. " A 
 wife whose husband keeps the keys is not 
 worth a lock of her own hair. Her duty is 
 to disobey. She is not worth a pinch of 
 snuff — not to say a box. Did he ever 
 raise his hand ? I wish he would only 
 commit an aggravated assault, for nothing 
 else will rouse your bile. Do give him a 
 lesson in my presence. Here he comes — 
 dry your eyes ; on my life you cling to me
 
 186 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 more and more ; what can I do to help a 
 woman who will not help herself?" 
 
 "Eh, what's the matter?" blandly in- 
 quired Mr. Elias Mathews, as he gently 
 opened the door, and entered with his usual 
 soft step, and with white waistcoat and 
 cravat — he had drawn off the wedding 
 gloves, looking more than usually sanctified. 
 
 " Hush ! come here." He stooped down, 
 while she quietly put her hand into his 
 pocket, and drawing out the keys, coolly 
 desired him to unlock the cupboard and 
 take out the decanter of wine. To his wife's 
 surprise he did as he was desired. Indeed 
 the wife could not have failed to make the 
 required observation, for the order was ac- 
 companied with a preliminary nudge in the 
 side, while a second nudge supplied the place 
 of a moral application of the example. 
 
 " Take those cakes out of your nice dress- 
 coat pocket. Whenever I go to a wedding 
 I put my piece of wedding cake in double 
 folds of paper, not to grease my silk, — how 
 tempting it looks! we must have a feast 
 — ring for glasses." The bell was rung
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 187 
 
 and glasses ordered. " Call up tlie girls, 
 Deborah and Cicely." 
 
 Deborah entered, expecting a scene of 
 another kind. Cicely's eyes sparkled with 
 delight, for Cicely was a pure child of nature, 
 who gave way to the impression of the 
 moment — laughing with those who laughed, 
 and weeping with those who wept ; one of 
 those artless creatures who sink and rise 
 with circumstances, surprising the world at 
 times by the development of unexpectedly 
 high qualities. Wedding cake and wine were 
 probably Cicely's ideal of an earthly feast. 
 
 "Ob, Papa, you are too good ! " sen- 
 timentally uttered Deborah. 
 
 "There is no one too good, my dear — 
 you read your Bible to very little purpose ; 
 there is none righteous you know — not 
 even Mr. Ehas Mathews. If David fell 
 seven times a day, you may allow your 
 papa a little stumble over, by way of a tilly, 
 as my Irish milkmaid says — especially when 
 returning from a wedding breakfast, where, 
 if the water be not turned into wine, it is 
 only mixed with it."
 
 188 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Mr. Mathews drew himself up very 
 straight, as if he suspected an allusion 
 for which there might have been some 
 foundation. The quickly-divining Deborah 
 rallied to her father's assistance. 
 
 "Oh, fie! Mrs. Maltheson ; how profanely 
 you deal with the sacred volume ! " 
 
 '' You see I understand it, at all events, 
 — come, Deborah, forget and forgive ; take 
 a glass of wine with me." 
 
 '• May I, Papa ? " 
 
 " May I^ Papa ! — a great big girl like 
 you — fit to be married ; and with I know 
 not how many beaux to her string, whimper- 
 ing, ' May I, Papa ? ' " 
 
 Cicely laughed outright at the perfect 
 imitation. The mother dared to smile. 
 Deborah looked thunder at her sister, and a 
 cloud of displeasure at Mamma, while Mr. 
 Elias Mathews put on an expression of 
 grave reproof. 
 
 " Here, Cicely, drink this wine I poured 
 out for your sister, since she will not take 
 it." Cicely pressed it to her mamma's lips, 
 and would not remove the glass till she had 
 finished it.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 189 
 
 " Good girl, Cicely — now here is one for 
 yourself. That is the way the lady of the 
 house, as the wife and mother in one is 
 properly called — the husband's better half 
 — should rule in her own domain with 
 undivided sway ; she is the head of the 
 Cabinet, in which the husband takes his 
 place as Chancellor of the Exchequer, bound 
 to provide the supplies." 
 
 " The husband, Mrs. Maltheson, is the 
 lord." 
 
 " My dear Mr. Mathews, you know as 
 little of the Constitution as Deborah does 
 of the Bible. The Lords have notJiing to do 
 with money bills." 
 
 Seeing that the point of illustration was 
 not seized, the learned lady was not dis- 
 pleased at being alForded the opportunity of 
 explaining the mysteries of the British Con- 
 stitution — the more especially as there 
 was a gentleman present whom it was her 
 special mission to humble. 
 
 " I have a work on the British Constitu- 
 tion, by a Frenchman too. I must show it 
 to Count D'Avray when he returns with 
 Henry."
 
 190 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " D'Avray — D'Avray — Count D'Avray. 
 My mother was a D'Avray ; descended from 
 a noble French family of the name." 
 
 " He is walking somewhere with my 
 brother Henry." 
 
 " The boys are with them," added Mrs. 
 Mathews, " I mean Obady and your own 
 son. Just." 
 
 Mrs. Maltheson began to cogitate, mark- 
 ing the inward operation of her mind by 
 frequent appeals to her snuff-box. Her 
 old aristocratic associations rose up, and 
 she, whose delight it was to make sport of 
 others' weaknesses, exposed her own, which 
 was particularly of the kind called family 
 pride, that in English circles commands 
 most sympathy ; accordingly, as she dilated 
 upon the respectability of her connections, 
 even Mr. Mathews became reverentially 
 attentive, and when she rose to take her 
 leave, in her most softened and amiable 
 mood, he offered her his arm down stairs, 
 and when she had taken leave resumed the 
 keys of the cupboard.
 
 191 
 
 CHAPTEE YII. 
 
 When Uncle Henry took out Obady for a 
 country walk, accompanied, as the reader 
 may recollect, by his friend D'Avray and 
 Master Justin Forbes, he had, besides the 
 prospect of enjoyment in frolicsome boy- 
 hood's society, a motive of a more serious 
 kind. Henry, nearly fifteen years younger 
 than his brother Elias, was, like many men 
 of that truly joyous cast which arises from 
 the combination of the sana mens in sano 
 corpore^ much more shrewd and thoughtful 
 than, merely looking to his love of plea- 
 santry, people might generally have sup- 
 posed. Perceiving that his brother's avari- 
 cious temper had become more hardened 
 with advancing years, and that his harsh- 
 ness was tending to cruelty, the good uncle 
 not unreasonably feared that his nephew
 
 192 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 misrht be lost, which would be the more 
 lamentable as he was a fine promising boy. 
 Above all he apprehended the terrible con- 
 sequences on the mind of youth of having 
 daily to witness such discord between reli- 
 gious profession and religious practice. It 
 was not that Elias was a hypocrite. He 
 did not assume appearances for the sake of 
 forwarding worldly advantages, which, as 
 it so happened, were not affected by his 
 sanctimoniousness. So far as religion was 
 concerned he was really what is called a 
 true believer ; and during the moments he 
 found himself engaged in pious exercises 
 felt devoutly. The evil lay in this, that 
 his faith and his avarice ran in two distinct 
 currents ; the one failing in strength to 
 overcome the other. His hypocrisy was 
 rather the result of invincible propensity 
 than of deliberate design. Obady was too 
 young to make distinctions which do not 
 strike many older minds. They were clear 
 enough to Henry's observation; but what 
 would be the use of his attempting to unite 
 his nephew with himself in an analysis of
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 193 
 
 the father's moral nature ? There is no- 
 thing more worthless, if not pernicious, than 
 premature instruction. Besides, philosophy 
 which " could not make a Juliet," would be 
 offered in vain to the age of feeling as a 
 support against injustice. Seeing that his 
 father was mean and harsh, while profess- 
 ing to act under the direction of religious 
 principles, the boy learned to treat his 
 parent without love, and religion with small 
 respect. The uncle too wondered to him- 
 self why Obady, instead of being sent to 
 school, was forced to scramble out an educa- 
 tion in irregular ways. He entertained no 
 doubt that Just's step-father might be the 
 well-informed man Elias described him, yet 
 Henry placed small reliance upon gratuit- 
 ous instruction; and, at all events, he con- 
 sidered a public school to be the right place 
 of training for a life which is to be passed 
 in intercourse with our fellow-creatures. 
 If a school presented no other advantage 
 than that of destroying individual vanity 
 and conceit, for boys are intolerant of ill- 
 grounded assumptions of superiority, it 
 VOL. I. o
 
 194 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 would on that account alone claim prefer- 
 ence over solitary training. Uncle Henry 
 had accordingly resolved within his mind 
 to propose that Obady should be sent 
 to school, at his own expense, for a couple 
 of years, at the end of which time he would 
 have his nephew come to him on a visit to 
 Paris, where he would finally decide the 
 question of his future profession, which 
 would probably be the one he himself had 
 followed previously to his marriage. 
 
 Although these serious thoughts occupied 
 the good uncle's mind, we must not ima- 
 gine that the walk was not a gay one. 
 How could a stroll in the sweet green lanes 
 of England, upon a fine May day, be other 
 than delightful ? To Henry, after his wan- 
 derings, the home scene of his youth was 
 thrice blessed — blessed on its own account, 
 this scene of fertile green fields and scented 
 hedges, with the placid enjoyment of graz- 
 ing cattle, and browsing sheep, and birds 
 merry under the flying shadows of soft 
 clouds. Blessed because of reminiscences of 
 the fresh spring-time of life, brought up in
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 195 
 
 such harmonious accord with the fair coun- 
 try around him — and blessed again because 
 of the sympathies communicated by his 
 company — the boys, instinctively joyous 
 with the impulses of the season, the wide 
 prospect, the exhilarating air, acting in 
 spontaneous trials of swiftness, agility, and 
 strength, audacious contempt of hurts and 
 accidents, and desires to do mischief or 
 court danger, not knowing why or where- 
 fore ; and that grave foreigner, to Henry a 
 brother indeed, saying to himself. This 
 is a fair land, an undulating bosom sweet 
 to look upon. Was it not the symbol and 
 very type of one who had suddenly pos- 
 sessed his whole being, whom he saw every- 
 where, and whose presence was on him and 
 around him, like the all-pervading spirit, a 
 love that was a religion. 
 
 In this irregular stroll the personal com- 
 binations, if we may so speak, occasionally 
 varied ; now the boys, racing and romping 
 together, would leave Henry and D'Avray 
 by themselves, — then Henry and Obady 
 would be for a while side by side in ad- 
 
 o 2
 
 196 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 vance, may be, or behind D'Avray and Just, 
 and meeting and separating thus they would 
 go on and stop, while the conversation 
 affected by these and other accidental cir- 
 cumstances was very varied. Obady, when 
 side by side with the uncle, would ask 
 about his adventures ; and the uncle, partly 
 because of his anxiety about his nephew, 
 whom he pitied, and from a sort of rever- 
 ence for that soul of youth which it is 
 criminal to sully, would tell seriously and 
 simply the events of his life, and he found 
 that he was listened to with intent earnest- 
 ness, and felt that he was captivating to 
 himself the confidence of that ill-guided 
 relative. 
 
 " I wish you would take me when you 
 go, Uncle." 
 
 " I will come or send for you two years 
 hence, if you work hard at school. You 
 must learn French, for what could you do 
 amongst French people if you did not 
 speak the language ? " 
 
 " That is true." 
 
 " Then Paris is a famous place for a
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 197 
 
 young fellow who should wish to become a 
 doctor like myself; but you could not follow 
 lectures unless you understood the tongue 
 in which they were delivered." 
 
 " They are clever men, those lecturers." 
 
 '' They are as clever as any men in the 
 whole world. They are most remarkable 
 men — first-rate in point of ability, and 
 singularly gifted with power to communi- 
 cate their knowledge clearly and agreeably." 
 
 " That's very odd." 
 
 "Why is it odd?" 
 
 " Because people about me are always 
 abusing the French." 
 
 " Because they do not know them. Igno- 
 rance is the main cause of prejudice. They, 
 the French, abuse you." 
 
 "1 should like to hear them — wouldn't 
 I?" 
 
 " Take care, they are given to duelling, 
 which is one of their most hateful vices." 
 
 "With what do they fight?" 
 
 " Swords and pistols ! " 
 
 " Well, there can be no harm in learning 
 how to defend oneself." 
 
 3
 
 198 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " The best defence, Obady, is politeness 
 and a good temper/' 
 
 "But a polite fellow might meet a chap, 
 you know " 
 
 "With whom he is not bound to quarrel." 
 
 " That's very fine talk." 
 
 " Well, I never quarrelled." 
 
 " You didn't ?" 
 
 " No. I never fought a duel." 
 
 " And you an officer in the navy ?" 
 
 " No, a surgeon." 
 
 "Is it not the same thing?'* 
 
 " Not quite." 
 
 "But would not a surgeon fight, if he 
 were insulted ?" 
 
 " It is a surgeon's duty to cure, not kill." 
 
 " But a surgeon may fight like another 
 gentleman, mayn't he. Uncle — tell me ?" 
 
 " Any man may fight." 
 
 " I think I should rather be an officer 
 than a surgeon." 
 
 " He's a fine boy, this little Just," inter- 
 rupted D'Avray, who came up, leaving the 
 little gentleman at a hedge side, breaking 
 off a blossom; "such candour and inno-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 199 
 
 cence ! Do you not see some resemblance 
 in his face to that lady we met at Mr. Shep- 
 herd's school?" 
 
 ''Lady Softworth?" 
 
 " Lady Soft worth — Soft worth — the 
 same." 
 
 '^ A little, perhaps." 
 
 "Oh, Just is always talking of Lady 
 Softworth ; — the lady who writes poetry ; 
 but who won't put her name to it." 
 
 "She writes poetry! — I should like to 
 read it. Lady Softworth a poetess ! Could 
 you repeat me some of her poetry ? Do, 
 and I will give you a piece of gold." 
 
 " My eyes, Just, come here ! " 
 
 " What's that, Obady ?" 
 
 " Just, can you repeat some of Lady 
 Soft worth's poetry ?" 
 
 "Mrs. Barbauld's?" 
 
 " No; Lady Softworth's. Mrs. Barbauld's 
 not worth a piece of gold. Just." 
 
 " I only know Mrs. Barbauld's." 
 
 " Bother Mrs. Barbauld ! I say, won't 
 it do if I get off some ?" 
 
 O 4
 
 200 ONCE UrON A TIME. 
 
 '^ Xo, Obady. Monsieur D'Avray could 
 learn it quicker himself; or I." 
 
 " Oh, Uncle ! poetry is not your line." 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha ! and what is your line, 
 Obady?" 
 
 " The Drama ! Oh, if we could only get 
 up a play ! How I would bring down the 
 house with Eichard the Third ; or with 
 Pierre, in Venice Preserved ! " 
 
 " Does Just play ?" 
 
 " Yes. I am drilling him for Richmond 
 and Jaffier ; but you won't tell Father ?" 
 
 " That I promise you." 
 
 " What a nice piece of water, this !" ob- 
 served Henry, as they came to a pond on 
 which the sun was raining a shower of gold, 
 while a light breeze rippled the surface ; 
 " I wish I had my Thunder here." 
 
 " Is Thunder a dog ?" asked Just. 
 
 "He is ; — a fine Newfoundland dog, who 
 would take you out and save you from 
 drowning." 
 
 " How I should like a dog!" says Just. 
 
 '' A dog is nothing to a horse," says Obady. 
 
 " How pleasant it would be to have a
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 201 
 
 ride through those delicious green lanes! 
 Would you not like it, D'Avray?" 
 
 " Exceedingly." 
 
 " Uncle, Uncle ! there is a man who lets 
 out horses and ponies close by — my eyes, 
 Just ! would you not like a pony?" 
 
 "Is it easy to ride ?" 
 
 " Trust to Obady— he'll set you all right." 
 
 "Without waiting for further objection, 
 Obady ran towards an inn, at no great dis- 
 tance, — Just following." 
 
 " I have told my nephew, Obady, that I 
 would take him to France. He is a fine 
 little fellow — full of genius, which will 
 never be cultivated here ; and of spirit that 
 will only serve to lead him the wrong way." 
 
 "I should like to take his companion 
 at the same time. I like that boy Just — 
 I know not why." 
 
 " You said he resembled Lady Soft- 
 worth." 
 
 Poor D' Avray might as well have told his 
 shrewd brother-in-law the secret at once." 
 
 The agreement was quickly made, and 
 the horses led out, saddled. Obady, who
 
 202 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 had learned in the riding- school of the bar- 
 racks, of which he was a tolerated habitue, 
 on account of his liveliness and courage, 
 selected for himself a stout, hard-trotting 
 cob ; choosing for Just a more showy and 
 pretty pony, which, as it had been trained 
 for a lady, knew no step between a walk 
 and a sort of rocking-horse movement, 
 which the fair rider used to take for a gal- 
 lop, displaying her own impetuosity, which 
 was of the mildest character, to great 
 advantage. Obady, whose precociousness 
 stood in the place of years, felt bound to 
 protect his more innocent companion, in 
 years almost as old as himself, and feeling 
 kindly towards him withal, chose this 
 pony, knowing that while he was not 
 vicious, his pace was of the kind to raise 
 Just's opinion of his own talent for horse- 
 manship very highly and encouragingly. 
 Just felt accordingly much surprised when 
 his pony broke into a full gallop, as he 
 thought it, that he did not tumble off; 
 then he wondered at finding what an easy 
 thing it was to ride ; then he would give
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 203 
 
 his pony no peace ; but whipped and struck 
 with his heels, as if with spurs, and even 
 encouraged Obady to make his horse go 
 faster, who, the sly rogue, affected to wonder 
 at his friend's superior skill and courage. 
 At length all set off at a round pace. Just 
 shouting at the top of his voice, when, 
 coming to a corner, they startled a beautiful 
 little horse, drawing a shell-shaped cabriolet 
 upon four wheels, driven by a lady, without 
 companion or attendant. The horse reared ; 
 the lady maintained her self-command, call- 
 ing to the animal with perfect presence of 
 mind. The animal, as if soothed by her 
 exquisitely soft voice, stood still, but trem- 
 bled all over ; and apparently ready to start 
 off the moment the spell was withdrawn. 
 The charmer of brute and man was none 
 other than Lady Softworth. 
 
 The two elder gentlemen, taking off 
 their hats, apologised. Both possessed that 
 agreeable frankness acquired in a sea life. 
 Henry's medical experience, besides, enabled 
 him to see at once that the lady's nerves 
 were in an excited state, and he without
 
 204 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 hesitation explained how it happened that 
 he and his friend D' Avray, desiring to gratify 
 the two lads with a ride through this 
 beautiful country, had mounted hired horses, 
 which, to do them justice, seemed to enter 
 into their wishes for a pleasant run. 
 
 Lady Softworth appeared not disinclined 
 to renew acquaintanceship with the pair of 
 strangers who, on their visit to Mr. Shep- 
 herd's school, had inquired so earnestly into 
 the system of instruction, and who had 
 marked their liberality and kindness of heart 
 by donations for a holiday. The lads' faces 
 were familiar to her. Indeed she looked 
 upon them as amongst her own little friends, 
 more particularly Just, whose father's shop 
 she had frequent occasion to visit. 
 
 "You seem to be good horsemen, my 
 little friends. How have you learned to 
 ride so well ?" 
 
 " Just was never on a horse before." 
 Obady said this partly to evade the necessity 
 of having to reveal his own special school 
 of instruction, which it may be remembered 
 was rather of questionable character for a
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 205 
 
 civilian of tender years, and partly to 
 amuse himself with Just's simplicity, always 
 ready to exhibit itself more to the boy's 
 advantage than his more knowing com- 
 panion was able to perceive. 
 
 "What a brave little fellow you are!" 
 At which compliment from so fine a lady 
 Just blushed, and looked very proud and 
 handsome. " I forget your age — how old 
 are you ?" 
 
 " Thirteen, Madam, and some months." 
 
 "You do not look quite so much. As 
 I am driving by your papa's house, I shall 
 stop at the door and tell him that he must 
 buy you a pony when he can afford it, and 
 I will allow it to be kept in my own stable 
 and cared for at my own expense ; the ad- 
 ditional cost will not be much." 
 
 How could Just speak to be heard from 
 the Seventh Heaven of ecstasy into which 
 he had been raised ? But as he was an 
 impulsive little fellow, he stretched forth 
 his hand, which the lady took into her own, 
 while he pressed hers to his lips in a very 
 gallant and graceful manner.
 
 20 G ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 *^ Obady, you shall have a pony when 
 you come to me," whispered the good- 
 natured uncle, who promptly played Saint 
 Michael to the demon of jealousy, which he 
 thought he saw rising in his nephew's heart, 
 and Obady's feelings were restored to their 
 buoyancy. 
 
 D'Avray was enchanted with the lady, 
 whom, seeing for the second time only, he 
 yet saw under circumstances which, however 
 little calculated to reveal depths of character 
 in the approved romantic style, invested her 
 with graces of irresistible fascination. 
 
 She was about to take leave, when her 
 pretty horse again became nervous and 
 excited. A wasp had stung him in the 
 ear, and was wheeling about, narrowing his 
 circles more and more, with the evident in- 
 tention of repeating his bite, when D'Avray, 
 with a dexterous stroke of his whip, laid 
 the little monster low, a service for which 
 the lady felt as much obliged as if he had 
 been a hero of the fabled ages who came to 
 rescue an afflicted land from a big monster 
 who was eating up all the virgins. Still
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 207 
 
 the poor creature was not to be quieted, 
 and its mistress at length betrayed failing 
 courage. D'Avray proposed that Mr. Henry 
 Mathews should ride a little in advance, as 
 the sight of the animals would quiet the 
 horse, and he begged to be allowed to ride 
 alone by his head, an offer which was as 
 graciously accepted as politely offered. 
 
 Opportunities for conversation were thus 
 afforded, which, beginning, it must be con- 
 fessed, in an ordinary way, in speculations 
 as to the probable durability of Frisk's re- 
 turning composure, deepened by degrees 
 into more earnestness. " Madam," at length 
 began D'Avray, " I shall in a few minutes 
 bid you adieu, and, as I fear, for ever. I 
 am a Frenchman, viewed on that account 
 with little favour." 
 
 " Je rCai pas de prejuges^^^ delicately in- 
 terrupted the lady, and D'Avray, at once 
 adopting his native tongue, expressed what 
 he desired to say with more freedom, and 
 with increase of admiration at this fresh 
 discovery of another accomplishment. He 
 told her he was an officer in the navy (his
 
 208 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 profession accounted to her for his direct 
 yet gentlemanly frankness), how he had 
 met Mr. Henry Mathews, was saved by him 
 from dying, returned home, consented to 
 his sister's marriage, had accompanied his 
 brother in a hasty visit to his native home ; 
 then assured her how much he had been 
 struck with all he saw, and with nothing so 
 much as that institution in which her lady- 
 ship took such deep interest, declaring, with 
 a tone not to be mistaken, that his only 
 consolation for being compelled to leave a 
 place in which it would be the desire of his 
 heart to abide for ever, was the recollection 
 that would be treasured up in his memory 
 to the end of his life. 
 
 "If, Count D'Avray, you should, upon 
 your return to France ; if you should 
 meet Sir Stephen Softworth, tell him that 
 his once unhappy wife " 
 
 " Married, and your husband living, and 
 separated from you — from an angel !" 
 
 " These horses are all wild to day ; 
 what is the matter ?" 
 
 The matter was this, — that, as Master
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 209 
 
 Just gave his pony no peace, the latter, as 
 the best tempered creatures, both four- 
 legged and two-legged, sometimes will do, 
 set off in an angry gallop, determined in 
 his own mind, as the young gentleman, of 
 whose inexperienced power he felt no great 
 dread, was fond of a hard pace, to give 
 him enough of it. Uncle Henry restrained 
 Obady from following, lest he should the 
 more excite the flying pony as well as his 
 own, while he called up all his own presence 
 of mind in the pursuit, which he undertook 
 alone. There seemed little necessity for 
 extraordinary precautions, the faster the 
 pony ran the more delighted appeared to be 
 Just. He even turned the animal up the 
 street where he lived, in the hope that his 
 parents might be witnesses of his prowess. 
 His wish was gratified ; for there was Mr. 
 Maltheson's good stout figure standing at 
 the door, the sun upon his half humorous eye 
 and iron-grey hair, and he, with his hands 
 in his pockets, quietly cogitating about a 
 miscellaneous number of things, in which 
 his good lady and step-son were no doubt 
 VOL. I. p
 
 210 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 included. At the same moment, while 
 one of the many objects of his thoughts 
 was flying past on his swift steed, the other 
 was returning from her visit to Mr. Elias 
 Mathews^s, in a more gentle mood than that 
 in which she had set out. She had taught 
 Mrs. Mathews a lesson, supported with 
 practical illustrations, on the subject of re- 
 ducing husbands to obedience, and she was 
 on the way, as she hoped, of gratifying her 
 own personal pride by the discovery of a 
 titled relation. Still she had omitted some 
 things, the consideration, of which served 
 the purpose of giving lively occupation to 
 her thoughts on her way home ; she carried 
 on an imaginary conversation with Mr. 
 Elias Mathews, in which that gentleman 
 got the worst of it. Indeed there were 
 some sarcasms so admirably poignant that 
 she felt half inclined to go back, and turn 
 the dialogue in such a direction as to bring 
 about the collision naturally, as it were. 
 The only omission she almost grieved at 
 having made was the point suggested by 
 the gentleman's wedding party habiliments,
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 211 
 
 in which he looked so spruce and gay. She 
 might have hinted to Mrs. Mathews the pru- 
 dence of looking after her health, as, in Mrs. 
 Maltheson^s mental opinion, which she was 
 so sorry not to have expressed aloud, there 
 was something in his eye which told her, that 
 under certain possible circumstances, he 
 could not long remain a widower. In this 
 balanced state of mind she had arrived oppo- 
 site her own door, and was already commenc- 
 ing the counterpart of that operation, the 
 undoing of her toilette, which, as it may be 
 recollected, she completed peripatetically, 
 by loosening the ribbons of her bonnet and 
 undoing pins, when her attempt to cross 
 the street was prevented by the sound of 
 horses* feet thundering along the pavement, 
 while her alarm was turned into conster- 
 nation by a shout from the rider, " Hurrah ! 
 Mother, Hur-a-e-a-e," the sound dying off 
 in the distance. 
 
 Mr. Maltheson could no longer keep his 
 hands in his pockets, as they were necessary 
 to support his fainting wife. In the mo- 
 ment of their mutual distress appeared 
 
 p 2
 
 212 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Henry Mathews, who, passing quickly by, 
 bid both be of good cheer, as there was 
 no danger; then came up Obady; and 
 then Lady Softworth in her graceful shell- 
 like car, accompanied by the gentleman 
 whom neither recognised. 
 
 Lady Softworth desired Obady to ride to 
 her house, which was at no great distance, 
 and order her servant boy to come and 
 lead home her horse, of whose disposition 
 she felt no longer quite sure, while she 
 would sit for a while in Mr. Maltheson's 
 shop. Obady gladly took a message which 
 relieved him of the pain of doing nothing 
 in a moment of suspense. In a few minutes, 
 which appeared an age to the troubled 
 parents, to the hardly less troubled Lady 
 Softworth and to the strange gentleman, 
 horses' feet were heard returning, but more 
 slowly, and Just and Mr. Henry appeared 
 riding together side by side, quite jolly 
 and contented ; whereupon Mrs. Maltheson 
 scolded her son, as if his not being carried 
 home senseless had occasioned her a waste 
 of that sensibility which it was a shameful
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 213 
 
 piece of extravagance to have thrown away 
 upon imaginary alarm. 
 
 When she found that no one sympathised 
 with her anger, and that Just was pro- 
 claimed a fine brave little fellow, maternal 
 pride danced in her eyes, and she shook 
 Lady Softworth's hands with more feeling 
 than she was accustomed to exhibit, as the 
 latter declared that Just should have a 
 pony, Avhich she would order to be kept 
 along with her own. 
 
 As Lady Softworth intimated her inten- 
 tion of walking home. Count D'Avray 
 begged permission to accompany her to the 
 door. They had already talked French so 
 long together that he involuntarily preferred 
 his request in his native tongue. 
 
 Keminded by the strange tongue that 
 she was in search of a relation, Mrs. Malthe- 
 son, drawing herself up to her full height — 
 she was a low-sized woman at the best — 
 looked him grandly in the face, saying, 
 *' I am a D'Avray ! yes, I am a descendant 
 of that noble family!" whereupon, as the 
 usual termination of great emotions, she 
 
 p 3
 
 214 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 had recourse to her snuff-box, taking a 
 pinch, and tapping the lid with her knuckle. 
 
 Send a lover upon a forlorn hope ; order 
 him to the cannon's mouth ; bid him meet 
 the rude Hyrcanian boar, or the armed rhi- 
 noceros ; encounter any form but that of the 
 ludicrous in presence of the woman he loves, 
 and he will do it. 
 
 Lady Softworth perceived his annoyance, 
 well disguised as it was under his gentle 
 good breeding, and the circumstance deter- 
 mined her to accept an offer she might 
 otherwise have declined ; so, politely express- 
 ing herself obliged, she abruptly departed, 
 accompanied by Count D'Avray. 
 
 " There are many comparatively poor 
 persons residing here who are descended 
 from good French families, and Mrs. Mal- 
 theson is really a respectable and highly 
 intelhgent woman." 
 
 "Oh, we are not aristocratic in our 
 country. Social distinctions were destroyed 
 by the revolution." 
 
 " It may be weakness, it may be preju- 
 dice, but I think there are advantages in 
 rank."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 215 
 
 " Of which advantages Lady Softworth 
 avails herself only to devote herself to the 
 instruction of the poor, and to exhibit an 
 example of noble manners." 
 
 " These are kind compliments, and there 
 was a time when I might have been vain 
 enough to be pleased by them." 
 
 " Not compliments, truth — simple truth. 
 Were you not, Madame, about to charge me 
 with a commission for Sir — your — husband, 
 — when ?" 
 
 " An accident cut short an imprudence." 
 
 *' Do not say so. My stay is very short. 
 I must join my ship at Toulon within a few 
 days — unhappily I must. Tell me, I pray, 
 what can I do ? It would make me happy 
 more than I can express to render such a 
 lady a service." 
 
 " You may never meet him ; — oh, you 
 will not meet him. What could have caused 
 such an idea to enter my head ?" 
 
 " But suppose I should meet him ? '^ 
 
 " Tell him I think of him, and wish him 
 happiness." 
 
 " Good God ! what could have separated 
 
 p 4
 
 216 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 you? Is he a demon, or did a demon, 
 jealous of such heavenly perfection ?" 
 
 "This is my door; — good-bye, — God 
 bless you ! " 
 
 D'Avray felt no inclination to return to 
 meet la dame a la tabatiere, as he mentally 
 called the lady who claimed relationship ; 
 so he wandered to his hotel, a prey to con- 
 tending emotions. Never is man more 
 disposed to rail against fate than when he 
 fancies that he has missed happiness for 
 life, or when the conditions upon which 
 perfect felicity have been revealed come 
 accompanied by the grievous consciousness 
 that they cannot be fulfilled. Would that 
 he had met this lady earlier, or not at all ! 
 And yet for all the world of misery and 
 regret that lay before him he would not 
 have lost that sight of ideal loveliness and 
 purity, of perfect humanity, which exalted 
 his species by showing what beings of this 
 world might become. What sort of man, 
 what sort of monster, could he be who was 
 incapable of glorying in this heavenly trea- 
 sure ? She had not cast him off, for had
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 217 
 
 she not delicately and even tenderly inter- 
 posed his name, and as it were summoned 
 his presence to forbid declarations it did 
 not become her, situated as she was, to 
 hear? Had his own consciousness of un- 
 worthiness rendered him jealous ? Had 
 he said to himself, it cannot be that so 
 exalted a creature can regard me ? No, 
 that could not be. Did not that last per- 
 fecting grace and finish of all perfection, 
 self-unconsciousness, that most exquisite 
 unselfishness, repel such a supposition ? 
 Did it not proclaim sufficiently the exist- 
 ence of some unworthy reasons for this 
 shocking abandonment ? Who in her pre- 
 sence could feel other humiliation than 
 that of sweet worship, which itself means 
 partition in sense and knowledge of re- 
 vealed beautiful things ? No ; he must be 
 some devil, rebuked by the virtue invested 
 with suitable loveliness, such as no evil eye 
 can look upon without an inward wither- 
 in o;. "I would wao^er the earth to this 
 orange peel that he grovels in the society 
 of some wretched companion. Paugh (how
 
 218 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 came he to pick up such a thing, which he 
 cast away ?) I If we could meet, he and I ; 
 and — horrible! Is this the way that I — 
 even I. who. alas, condemn him, am plung- 
 ing into wicked thoughts ? Is this the way 
 I treat that message of forgiveness which 
 she has entrusted to me ? Has her parting 
 benediction served me no better ? Is there 
 equality between the one who left and the 
 one who seeks her love ? ^liy should I 
 rail against fate for having mocked me 
 with this possibihty of happiness, seeing 
 that I stand self-convicted of unworthi- 
 ness ?" 
 
 Henry, upon his return, found D'A%Tay 
 in no happy mood. 
 
 He too had been making his reflections, 
 and they brought him to the conclusion 
 that the sooner he took his brother-in-law 
 back to his own country the better it would 
 be for him ; and fortunately there would be 
 no more than time barely sufficient for his 
 reachinof Toulon. Henrv had learned from 
 the Malthesons the storv of Ladv Softworth, 
 which happened very singularly, as it seemed
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 219 
 
 afterwards to D'Avray, to coincide with his 
 own conjectures. Married very young to 
 a dissipated baronet, given to gambling 
 and other vices, separation had ensued 
 through the simple form of his resuming 
 an illicit connection, being taken by his 
 companion, whose ascendancy seemed to be 
 complete, to the Continent, where he was 
 travelling somewhere under a feigned name. 
 " Then the faults, in this case at least, 
 were not on both sides." 
 
 When Mr. Henry made this observation 
 to Mrs. Maltheson, he was little prepared 
 for the supreme look of contempt with 
 which that lady meant to punish male con- 
 ceit in his person. 
 
 " That is so like you men ; as if there 
 could be no such creature in this world as 
 an injured woman. Faults on both sides, 
 forsooth ! — as if no man could ever have 
 faults enough for any two ! There is no 
 such thing as injured innocence, to be sure, 
 in this world. Who ever heard of a victim 
 before ? — not you, I suppose ! It is not in 
 human nature, of course, that on one side
 
 220 ONCE UPON A TDIE. 
 
 there should be orentle sufferinof, and on the 
 other wicked tyranny. Vice and virtue 
 never of course come into collision ; vice 
 having the strength all on its own side. 
 It's very well for you to be so innocent at 
 your time of life — for I take it you are out 
 of vour teens.'' 
 
 Henry was mightily amused with the 
 lady's grotesque indignation. At another 
 time he would have drawn her out, as he 
 said, but wishing to obtain some precise 
 information for D' Avray's sake, he ventured 
 to ask where Lady Softworth's husband had 
 gone. 
 
 Mrs. iMaltheson substituted an expression 
 of hope for information, which hope was 
 so emphatically conveyed, that, if fulfilled, 
 it would have consi2:ned the obiect of her 
 anger to very unpleasant quarters, while 
 she herself abruptly disappeared as if over- 
 come bv her feelinofs. Henrv therefore took 
 his leave, turning in his mind on the way 
 to the hotel the scraps of information he 
 tried to disentangle from the lady's blended 
 hints and commentaries, so as to shape to
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 221 
 
 his imagination something like a succinct 
 narrative. 
 
 Obady felt his uncle's departure very 
 keenly. That hardened boy, as his wise 
 father thought him, wept as if his heart 
 would break ; and if Cicely seemed to feel 
 less, it was because she had so much to do 
 to try and comfort her brother. Miss 
 Deborah thought them both an ungrateful 
 young pair, to display so much more affec- 
 tion for an uncle than they had ever shown 
 towards their own parents, particularly to 
 the best of fathers. As Obady passed 
 whole days in silence, his father concluded 
 that he had been spoilt by over indulgence, 
 an evil which was only to be counteracted 
 by increased doses of severity. Obady 
 did not now care about being locked up. 
 He rather liked it, as he filled his solitude 
 with thoughts of that dear uncle. Oh ! if 
 he had been his father — how different a life 
 would be his ! With a pony to ride, and a 
 dog to follow him, and a gentleman's life in 
 prospect. His dear mamma would not be 
 the weighed- down, poor spiritless woman she
 
 222 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 had become, nor would there be any Deborah 
 to act second in command. This analogy- 
 he had picked up in the military riding 
 school, and, in confidential conversation 
 with Just, he alluded to her as the adjutant, 
 a person sometimes mentioned in Deborah's 
 presence, to Just's confusion, which happily 
 for him had either not been observed, or was 
 attributed to a conscience smarting under the 
 sense of some heinous misdemeanour, which 
 these artful young gentlemen had learned 
 so well to conceal as to render inquiry need- 
 less. Obady and Just found themselves 
 linked by fresh ties. They had the mar- 
 vellous prospect before them of a journey to 
 a foreign land, where they would be received 
 by kind friends, and see strange sights, and 
 a people differing from their own. Would 
 they be all like Count D'Avray ? 
 
 Obady pooh-poohed the supposition. 
 " Must there be no people, Just, to till the 
 land, and act as servants, and be soldiers ? — 
 they are capital soldiers, they say. By the 
 way. Just, what a cavalry officer you would 
 make ! " Just did not like fighting, but as
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 223 
 
 he had a warm imagination he dashed off 
 his imaginary horse and waved his imagi- 
 nary sword. The truth is, Just had, since 
 his pony adventure, risen highly in Obady's 
 opinion, and they became better friends 
 than ever.
 
 224 
 
 CHAPTER yill. 
 
 Three persons are seated together at a tea- 
 table, in a little back parlour looking out 
 upon a flower-garden. They are trying to 
 solve this problem: How can the greatest 
 possible diffusion of human happiness be 
 extracted from thirty-two guineas ? Con- 
 sidering the nature of the question, the 
 reader will not be surprised to learn that 
 the majority of that council was composed 
 of the tender and fair sex. Who the male 
 councillor is has probably been divined 
 already. It is Mr. Shepherd. One of the 
 ladies has already been casually introduced 
 — Miss Bond; the other is an old woman 
 almost blind, whose fingers are constantly 
 at work knitting, while her ears are ever in 
 search of intelligence ; she is Miss Bond's 
 mother — old Mrs. Bond ; and when Miss
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 225 
 
 Bond is not at the school, or engaged in 
 matters connected with it requiring her 
 presence out of doors, she is doing her best 
 to render her mother happy; nor is the 
 task by any means difficult, although 
 strangers would probably imagine the con- 
 trary, thinking the blind, or nearly blind 
 old woman must be of a querulous disposi- 
 tion, because she is fond of bewailing her 
 infirmities, and of talking about her own 
 and others' woes. But those who know her 
 best understand that, as soon as her pre- 
 liminary complaints run off, she becomes 
 very pleasant and cheerful. The suffering 
 naturally love to think that the strong sym- 
 pathise with them, or do not shun or despise 
 them. And as for ailments, she treats 
 them as single maids and bachelors treat 
 pet dogs and fancy cats, for having ex- 
 pended a sufficient amount of fondling upon 
 them, she puts them down, and bestows 
 undivided attention upon her friends and 
 visitors. With this view of her character, 
 it will only appear in keeping with ordinary 
 experience that, before the business of the 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 evening opened, there should have been a 
 previous question raised whether it would 
 not have been agreeable to have had the tea 
 things laid in that little arbour which Mr. 
 Shepherd had, with his own hands, con- 
 structed at the end of the garden. " It 
 would, indeed, only that the evenings are 
 sometimes damp, and night air might hurt 
 mamma." Whereupon the invalid presented 
 the well-remembered inventory of pains and 
 aches ; but why should she debar others from 
 their proper enjoyment ? she asked. Could 
 there be enjoyment without her ? The ques- 
 tion was balm. *' Oh ! we are very well Avbere 
 we are. The carpet after all feels cozily 
 under the feet. The air comes in sweetly 
 through the open window. In fact, the 
 comfort of indoors and the gaiety of the 
 garden are combined, so we will stay where 
 we are, keeping the door shut to prevent 
 draft." 
 
 It may have been owing to the veil which 
 hung between the old lady's mind and the 
 outer world, that her thoughts kept pace 
 with her active fingers, working out for
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 227 
 
 her satisfaction the whys and wherefores of 
 all things, whicli she sometimes accom- 
 plished with remarkable sagacity. Why 
 were those thirty-two guineas subscribed ? 
 and what were the motives of the donors ? 
 This was the skein which her keen thouofhts 
 were working into solid material, while her 
 fingers were keeping pace with, if not sym- 
 bolising the operations of her mind. She 
 could understand the spontaneous genero- 
 sity of the two strangers, fired, as their 
 admiration may have been, by the evidence 
 before their eyes of Mr. Shepherd's good 
 work, and his admirable power of speech ; 
 nor had her daughter's hand been missed 
 in these arrangements which took the 
 strangers by surprise. She wished she could 
 have heard their voices with her quick ears, 
 distinct visibility being denied to her. Well, 
 twenty guineas were accounted for, at 
 least. Lady Softworth had bestowed five 
 guineas — the dear lady; it was a good sum 
 for her who was not rich, considering her 
 position, and who gave so much in various 
 ways. Mr. Masterman had added an equal 
 Q 2
 
 228 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 sum. He was not considered a liberal man, 
 notwithstanding the wedding breakfast, of 
 which she had heard particulars, atid about 
 which she told Mr. Shepherd more than that 
 active-minded gentleman — too active to be 
 held down by observation of present things 
 under his eye — knew himself. She told 
 Mr. Shepherd, for instance, that Mr, Mas- 
 terman felt piqued at his lady's having 
 arranged, at his, Mr. Shepherd's suggestion, 
 the feast of fragments without consulting 
 him. This she had spelled out for herself, 
 with the certainty of that stocking sole she 
 had completed while working her mental 
 way to that conclusion. " Yes, Mr. Shep- 
 herd, and Mr. Masterman put down his five 
 guineas, not to be backward in generosity, 
 and by way of retaliation too." 
 
 "Of retaliation! — how could that be, 
 dear Mrs. Bond ?" 
 
 " Oh ! how could it be, Mother ? Eeally, 
 if I did not know you to be the kind- 
 est hearted, dear old mother breathing, I 
 would suspect you of being ill-natured. 
 You do attribute such strange motives for
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 22? 
 
 ordinary acts — at least, which seem such to 
 me." 
 
 '' Yes, retaliation ! He, the lord and 
 master, my dear, would show his better half 
 that he too could do something of his own 
 way and will, without asking anybody's 
 leave. That's the fact — you may take my 
 word for it." 
 
 Mr. Shepherd could hardly refrain from 
 laughing at this shrewd guess ; and would 
 probably have laughed out, only that he 
 perceived Miss Bond did not wish to encou- 
 rage her mother's habits of analysis. 
 
 "Well, dear Mother, let us now think 
 rather about the way of spending the money 
 to the best advantage than of the motives 
 which induced friends to give it, assuming 
 them, however, to have been praiseworthy." 
 
 " I must, Janet, know first what could 
 have persuaded Mr. Eiias Mathews to put 
 down two guineas — he who never did such 
 a thing in his life before." 
 
 Here she laid down her hands upon her 
 lap, suspending her knitting, and with her 
 head thrown back and her mouth squeezed, 
 
 Q 3
 
 230 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 set her mind to work with its whole undi- 
 vided and concentrated power upon this 
 more than ordinary tough problem. 
 
 " What did he say when he gave the 
 money ? Did he positively declare that it 
 came from himself ?" 
 
 " Neither that nor the contrary." 
 " Had it come from himself, he would 
 have proclaimed it on the house top." 
 "Oh, Mother!" 
 
 " He would have had out the bellman, 
 and the little boys and idle people congre- 
 gated on the green to announce the won- 
 derful performance." 
 
 " You must know. Mamma, that the bell- 
 man is never hired for such purposes." 
 
 " Well ! if any one could hire the bell- 
 man to ring his own praise, it would be 
 Elias Mathews. Ah ! I have it now. Did 
 he say he would go himself upon the excur- 
 sion ? " 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Bond, and take his whole 
 family." 
 
 " What ! out of the general fund ?" 
 " Oh, no ; at his own private expense — 
 that he clearly gave me to understand."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 231 
 
 " So much the better ; — country air tries 
 appetites sorely which are not too well satis- 
 fied at home." 
 
 " Mr. Shepherd, you must not mind 
 Mamma ; she is sometimes naughty." 
 
 " Mr. Shepherd, here is the mystery. He 
 means to patronise the excursion — to play 
 the great Mr. Benevolence who did it all." 
 
 '' Well ! he has some right to take credit 
 for his brother's subscription, and even that 
 of his brother's friend." 
 
 "No! Mr. Shepherd. Why should he ?" 
 
 Here she paused ; for she was one of those 
 persons who can only give out the results 
 of trains of thinking, without explaining the 
 process by which they are reached. She 
 had not been afforded time to strengthen 
 her own question by some summary form 
 of conclusive reasoning against Mr. Elias 
 Mathews's right to appropriate even fra- 
 ternal charity, when a simple observation 
 of Mr. Shepherd's gave to her mind another 
 clue to discovery. 
 
 " Mr. Mathews means to take poor Mr, 
 Lush " 
 
 q4
 
 232 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " The deranged gentleman ?" 
 . " He is getting over his complaint." 
 
 The great, rich banker's son, Mr. Lush, 
 junior, of the house of Lush, Snug, and 
 Dreary, whose cashier, or something or 
 other, is this same Mr. Elias Mathews." 
 
 *' He is now allowed cheerful society, and 
 country air is good for all." 
 
 " Then it is Mr. Lush gives the two 
 guineas ! I see how it is, Mr. Shepherd — 
 I see how it is, Janet ! Oh, the poor, blind, 
 little old woman, who can see nothing but 
 the end of her knitting-needle !" 
 
 '' It may be." 
 
 " It is — it is," and the knitting-needles 
 flew across each other like two small swords 
 in the fury of combat. Happily they were 
 conductors of the energetic little woman's 
 surcharged electricity, and by the time com- 
 fortable space had been provided for a toe, 
 the magnetic storm was over, and her mind 
 at peace. 
 
 " I should like to see how the poor gen- 
 tleman would behave himself." 
 
 " Then why not come with us, dear 
 Mother ?"
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 233 
 
 " No, my dear. I should only be a re- 
 straint upon you. I know you too well, 
 Janet; while your presence would be re- 
 quired here and there, and you all anxiety 
 to see things made pleasant and comfort- 
 able, I should be keeping you back — that 
 is, you would stay with me whether I liked 
 it or not." 
 
 " Indeed, Mother, I promise you." 
 
 •' But, my dear, you forget I cannot see 
 you at the little distance you are from me 
 even now." 
 
 " Poor dear Mamma," said Janet, kissing 
 her, " do come. The air of Eichmond will 
 do you good ; and you have other senses so 
 open to enjoyment — there will be such 
 scents from blossom and flowers — and such 
 gaiety for the ears, if not the eyes — do 
 come. Must she not come, Mr. Shepherd?" 
 
 " I assure you, my dear Mrs. Bond, that 
 you shall be left quite at your ease ; no one, 
 not even Miss Janet, shall remain with you 
 longer than you please. Such shall be the 
 general order from the commander-in-chief 
 of the expedition."
 
 234 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " Mr. Shepherd, will you promise me one 
 thing?" 
 
 " In case you come with us, I will promise 
 you anything." 
 
 " Whether I go or whether I stay ?" 
 
 " Ah ! come, Mrs, Bond, promise for pro- 
 mise is only fair ; as soon as you say yes, I 
 will not say no." 
 
 " Ah ! it is impossible." 
 
 " Why impossible, Mamma ?" 
 
 " Because — I have my reasons." 
 
 " Which surely will bear the light, Mrs. 
 Bond ?" 
 
 " No more than my poor eyes, Mr. 
 Shepherd; they are so weak." 
 
 '' A comparison is not a reason, although 
 yours is touching." 
 
 " Well, well." 
 
 " You yield. Mother ; that's a good 
 Mamma." 
 
 " No, I don't ; I will stay at home." 
 
 '' Now, Mamma, I know what is passing in 
 your mind as well as you do yourself. You 
 are saying to yourself that fidgety Janet 
 will be running about and eating nothing ;
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 235 
 
 and as for Mr. Shepherd, he never thinks of 
 himself at all ; and when they come home 
 they will be so glad to have a refreshing 
 cup of tea; and it will be so amusing to 
 pass a lovely evening within doors, baking 
 a cake over the fire, which nobody will be 
 able to eat." 
 
 " Now don't despise my cakes, Janet." 
 " Well, Mamma, we'll make a bargain. 
 You shall bake the cake before you go, and 
 we will eat it up upon our return ; will we 
 not, Mr. Shepherd?" 
 
 '' I shall reserve my appetite expressly 
 for the purpose of performing my part." 
 
 '' The cake would be nothing, my dear, 
 without the tea." 
 
 " We will have the tea. Bridget shall 
 have the kettle boiling." 
 
 " Bridget is indeed pretty nearly re- 
 claimed, but not quite, Mr. Shepherd, who 
 selected her for her vices." 
 
 ''■ No, no, not selected, but did not repel, 
 because I thought I saw ground for hope, 
 which has so far been justified ; she no 
 longer drinks strong liquors, and she has 
 given over lying.'*
 
 236 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " But she smokes ; she still smokes ; and 
 were she left a whole clay to herself, your 
 good work would be quite undone." 
 
 Mr. Shepherd felt that there was truth 
 in the observation ; and Janet, perceiving 
 that the great gun was silenced, felt her 
 own courage fail. 
 
 " I shall be so happy too. My birds will 
 sing the more cheerfully to keep me com- 
 pany. Will you not, Mr. Goldfinch?" 
 whereupon the little fellow hopped from 
 his perch to the wires of his cage, making 
 a sound like a yes ; " and 1 shall picture the 
 whole scene to my mind, and keep Bridget 
 out of harm's way, and make the cake, no 
 matter what you say, that I will, so do not 
 oppose me." 
 
 *' I do not oppose you." 
 
 "No, no; it is no use; I must have my 
 way." 
 
 " So you shall have, dear Mamma." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Shepherd, so you will not 
 promise what I ask ?" 
 
 " I did not say that." 
 
 " Well, well, no matter."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 2 37 
 
 " Now I will promise what you ask ; for 
 I am sure you will impose nothing un- 
 reasonable." 
 
 " It is only to make Janet ride for a good 
 long hour upon a donkey." 
 
 " Why, Mother, I never ride." 
 
 " It will do her so much good ; she does 
 not take sufficient exercise ; and I have de- 
 tected a little dry cough occasionally, which, 
 were it to increase, would send me out of 
 my senses, that's the truth of it," and her 
 knitting needles became seized with a fit of 
 impatience. 
 
 " I quite agree with you, Mrs. Bond ; 
 the prescription is excellent." 
 
 *' You too against me, Mr. Shepherd ?" 
 
 *' He has promised, Janet ; he has pro- 
 mised." 
 
 " I hope I may be thrown." 
 
 " You wicked Janet ! Mr. Shepherd, you 
 will stay beside her, and not let her be 
 thrown ?" 
 
 " Ah ! Mr. Shepherd, you have made 
 one promise; do not be caught a second 
 time. You need not, either. I only spoke
 
 238 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 carelessly. I will mount the donkey, and 
 take care not to be thrown. So now, as 
 we must start early, for the vans will be 
 ready by seven o'clock for all the children, 
 we had all better say good night."
 
 239 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The gentleman to whom such apt allusion 
 was made by the shrewd Mrs. Bond in the 
 last chapter, and truly described as the son 
 of Mr. Lush, the wealthy city banker, was 
 neither idiotic nor mad, but a victim to some 
 undetermined kind of mental malady, re- 
 quiring that he should not be left altogether 
 to himself. True it is that he was only 
 occasionally subject to aberrations, which 
 happily never took him unawares. They 
 always announced their approach by symp- 
 toms he had become accustomed to recog- 
 nise, when, of his own free will, he would shut 
 himself up from all society save that of his 
 proper guardian. During the intervals he 
 amused himself with music and reading 
 and lonely walks, now through town, now 
 into the country. A steady, gentle melan-
 
 240 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 choly, quite free from depression, gave in- 
 terest to his mild, thoughtful countenance. 
 He neither sought nor avoided society, as if 
 he had learned to resign himself to the will 
 of Providence, taking and enjoying what- 
 ever came in his way, and making no com- 
 plaints whatever happened. 
 
 His father, a widower, having amassed a 
 large fortune^ felt ambitious that his only 
 son, Edward Plantagenet Lush, should form 
 a brilliant matrimonial connection. Fore- 
 casting the boy's position from his birth, he 
 caused him to be baptized by the name 
 Edward Plantagenet, in order to neutralise 
 the Lush, and no pains were spared in 
 having the youth, as he grew up, educated 
 in a way to render him fit for the high 
 social position for which he fancied him to 
 be destined. Edward's disposition seemed to 
 lend itself very satisfactorily to his father's 
 views. He was a born young gentleman, a 
 little too shy perhaps, and not given enough 
 to horse-racing, rowing, betting, and fine 
 dress to suit his father's ideas of true aris- 
 tocratic dash. Seeing, however, the youth's
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 241 
 
 popularity at Oxford, how courted was his 
 society, and how beloved on account of 
 some overpoweringly winning gentleness of 
 nature and of naanners naturally refined, 
 Mr. Lush resolved, as he would say, to 
 leave well enough alone. The first symp- 
 tom of the malady which was to mar the 
 father's hopes, and the son's happiness, oc- 
 curred on the death of Mrs. Lush, when an 
 outbreak of immoderate grief (he was then 
 nineteen years of age) developed the illness 
 which never afterwards left him. Mr. 
 Lush procured the best medical advice, and 
 the best medical advice was to allow him to 
 have his own way. An old Irish servant 
 woman, w^hom we cannot describe as fault- 
 less, acquired over him an ascendancy 
 which was due to her warmth of heart, the 
 source of her devoted sympathy, and her 
 marvellous tact in dealing with the invalid, 
 as much to his happiness as advantage. 
 Old Shelah had a daughter, Catherine, en- 
 dowed with that peculiar characteristic of 
 Irish beauty, a fair complexion and dark 
 blue eyes ; she was gifted also with a melli- 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 fluous tongue and quick wit, with a natural 
 grace of movement and a captivating man- 
 ner, and could tell fairy tales and legends, 
 or chaunt a melody, in a low thrilling tone 
 of voice. In fact Kate Cassidy was gifted 
 with that power of communicating emotion, 
 without which the lessons of art are learned 
 in vain, and which is itself, if not the highest 
 art, yet the very highest that art can do. 
 This wild flower was as sweet and pure as 
 any upon which the grace of Heaven ever 
 fell. Poor Kate had but one fault — the fault 
 of being poor. What Edward Plantagenet 
 or his father ever opined about her was what 
 perhaps neither could tell. By the time 
 the former might have thought of putting 
 the question to himself it was too late; 
 and when the latter heard the story of his 
 son's marriage with a low-born Irish pea- 
 sant and a Papist withal, he was no more 
 capable of reasoning about the girl's qua- 
 lities than he supposed his son to be, whom 
 he set down to be a fit subject for a lunatic 
 asylum. 
 
 Had old Mr. Lowry Lush known human
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 243 
 
 nature better, he would probably not have 
 been so overwhelmed with surprise that a 
 young man of high nervous sensibility, 
 keenly alive to kind attentions, easily touched 
 by the aspect of lively yet tender beauty ; 
 captivated by wild music with immortal verse 
 married thereto, a suitable match withal, 
 and a pretty girl acting as bridesmaid at 
 the altar of this spiritual union, and he 
 mostly alone in a country house with large 
 rooms, in every corner of each a valuable 
 tongue to round off the strain as from 
 hidden shells ; and gardens to delight the 
 eyes, and a grave old grove, to which the 
 rooks had taken long ago, and seemed to 
 chatter overhead about the melancholy 
 wanderer below; had Mr. Lowry Lush 
 thought of all this, would he have lost his 
 own senses by plunging his reason into a 
 foaming caldron of paternal wrath ? Yet 
 Mr. Lowry Lush believed he knew human 
 nature well, because he could tell the 
 extent to which the firms of Cotton & Co., 
 and Leather & Co., and Linen & Co. might 
 fairly be trusted. He understood a bill or
 
 244 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 promissory note as a connoisseur might a 
 picture ; could detect the earliest signs of 
 weakness in a long-established house, and 
 mark the growing indications of prosperity 
 in one of recent origin ; was not to be baffled 
 by the best conceived and executed accom- 
 modation bills, and could, from the connec- 
 tion of a pair of the most artfully assorted 
 names, bring to light the most hidden ma- 
 chinery for raising the wind or flying a 
 kite. He could mark the colourable from 
 the real with the hand of a master. Be- 
 sides, he could see into the depths of any 
 pocket — could carry in his memory each 
 man's balance at his banker's, with the 
 variations thereof, and how alFected by the 
 fluctuating pressure of the market. It was 
 wonderful with what promptitude he heard 
 of bonds and mortgages affecting ware- 
 houses or family property ; and while be- 
 traying pecuniary necessities, affording him 
 the most recently corrected measures for set- 
 tling his customers' trustworthiness. Books, 
 except of account, or pamphlets touching 
 trade and the currency, he never read ;
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 245 
 
 and only such portion of newspapers as 
 seemed to bear practically on his concerns. 
 Such a man, we need hardly say, believed 
 himself and was believed by others to pos- 
 sess great knowledge of the world. He had 
 human nature so completely at his fingers* 
 ends that no one could do him. They who 
 know human nature after this fashion 
 generally despise it, as we despise every- 
 thing of which we think we have reached 
 the end. It is only the infinite that en- 
 gages our respect, and there is no infini- 
 tude in those small concerns, and the small 
 men absorbed by them, on which, and with 
 whom Mr. Lowry Lush played the Triton 
 amongst the minnows. A life passed in 
 fluctuation between ostentatious display 
 and eiForts to counteract attempts to de- 
 ceive is not the most ennobling, although it 
 may be the most money-making. Mr. Lush, 
 who was a dignified sort of man in appear- 
 ance — a bald head with silver fringe, and 
 a face that spoke good living, set upon a 
 frame solid and tall, and not more corpu- 
 lent than necessary to give efiect to his 
 
 B 3
 
 246 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 bunch of gold seals ; this opulent, ample Mr. 
 Lush, who would put down a round sum 
 to any charity patronised by a Lord, and 
 who loved to see his name figure this way 
 in print, would probably have wondered if 
 aware of the small meannesses of which he 
 was capable in the way of business. No man 
 would drive a harder bargain with a poor 
 wretch, to whom the pence that fell from his 
 table would have made all the difference 
 between a dry and a moistened crust, than 
 this city Dives, this gorged and gorgeous 
 millionnaire. With him money was power, 
 and as such was inordinately estimated. 
 The habits of mind being such as to reduce 
 the mind itself to a calculating machine, his 
 charities, his dinners, his equipage, his most 
 seemingly careless lavishness of expenditure, 
 were set off against the open credit account 
 which was the bible of his soul. His 50/. 
 gift was an investment in a Lord's smile or 
 public applause, taken by a sort of double 
 entry to the credit side of another account 
 elsewhere. But where he had no interest 
 in this poor wretch's opinion, or that poor
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 247 
 
 deviPs good or ill will, both being alike indif- 
 ferent, he meted out his payment drop by 
 drop, as if parting with the elixir of life. 
 He was not aware of his meanness and 
 cruelty — he could do magnificent things — 
 he was always doing them — he passed, in 
 the eyes of the shallow world, for being all 
 he thought himself. He could, by holding 
 up his finger, procure a seat in parliament. 
 Why did he not do so ? Why did not he, 
 who, having exhausted one world, longed 
 with all his soul to mount into the heaven 
 of the Peerage, seek for that title, Member 
 of Parliament, which, according to Moore, 
 in his Life of Sheridan, is the talisman that 
 opens the door of aristocratic prejudice to 
 the man of plebeian origin ? It was pride — 
 Mr. Lowry Lush would not sit for a borough. 
 No ; unless returned by a large commercial 
 community he would remain plain Mr. Lush. 
 A borough would do indeed very well for a 
 young man entering life — and when his 
 son, Edward Plantagenet's malady first de- 
 clared itself, it was no insignificant element 
 in the fiither's vexation and sorrow, that 
 
 R 4
 
 248 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 his son would be disqualified from being 
 returned along with the Hon. Mr. High- 
 flyer, with whom he had formed a friend- 
 ship at Oxford. 
 
 With this view of Mr. Lowry Lush's 
 character the reader will learn, without sur- 
 prise, that the discovery of his son's clan- 
 destine marriage with the daughter of an 
 old servant, who had risen from the kitchen 
 to be housekeeper, was almost as astound- 
 ing, although not quite so much, as if upon 
 awakening some dark morning it had been 
 told him that the bank had stopped, and 
 a commission of bankruptcy been issued 
 ■against the time and city -honoured house of 
 /Lush, Snug, and Dreary. The story was not 
 iold him until Kate's reputation required 
 ihat it should be no longer concealed. 
 
 " Father, I knocked at your door be- 
 cause I heard you saying your prayers, and 
 you are in a frame of mind to bless and 
 forgive me." 
 
 " Bless you ! to be sure — but forgive! — for 
 what ? Some foolish debt — a thousand? 
 Eh! so much as that? — No? Five hun-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME, 249 
 
 dred? No ? — pooh, pooh — you will find my 
 cheque book on the table — how much do 
 you want ? " 
 
 " Father, it is not that; I am married." 
 
 ^'Married!" 
 
 Mr. Lush sprang up from the seat he 
 had taken before his dressing table in order 
 to write the cheque, as if stung by a ser- 
 pent. 
 
 " Married ! — to whom ? — some low per- 
 son ? Eh ? " 
 
 " To Kate." 
 
 "Kate, whom?" 
 
 " Kate Cassidy." 
 
 " The housekeeper's daughter ?" 
 
 " You do not know her. Father, — she is 
 an angel ! " 
 
 " Et cetera — et cetera — not a defect to 
 work a sum in subtraction, but all the vir- 
 tues on earth multiplied by all the angels 
 in heaven — You fool ! " 
 
 Mr. Lush had hardly uttered his apos- 
 trophe, when he felt alarmed at the effect. 
 Fool was the most terrible word to flino^ at 
 him, who was haunted by the dread that a
 
 250 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 fool he would become. He sank into a 
 chair, turned deadly pale ; his eyes staring 
 as if fixed upon a spectre ; and so they 
 ■were — upon the spectre of a fool. The 
 aspect of such distress restored the father 
 to himself — a man not easily disconcerted, 
 and whose self-possession soon returned. 
 He was now the man of business, prepared 
 to take a practical view, as if of the con- 
 cerns of a house that had stopped payment. 
 
 " What day of the month is this ? This 
 is yesterday's date in the case. Tom shall 
 catch it for neglecting his duty. Must pay 
 the fellow his wages, and then do his busi- 
 ness with my own hands — there now — the 
 21st of March. Your birthday, Mr. Edward 
 Plantagenet — Plan-ta-ge-net. Hum ! " 
 
 " It is because of my birthday I hoped 
 to find you more forgiving." 
 
 " To-day you were twenty-one. You are 
 not of age, Sir." 
 
 A cold shudder ran through Edward, 
 who seized his father's meaning that the 
 marriage was illegal. 
 
 " I am now of age. Father, and confirm
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 251 
 
 the act. And, after all, our child will be 
 born in wedlock." 
 
 " I did not suppose that you included 
 law in your studies. I see I have no fool 
 to deal with." 
 
 Again the fit returned, as if the word 
 fool was a spell of diabolical power. Thi« 
 time the father cared less for his son's 
 agitation, his own fury having settled down 
 into harsh, dogged vexation, the least im- 
 pressible of humours, and the most impla- 
 cable in its propensity to worry. 
 
 " Does your law carry you so far, my 
 young counsellor, as to instruct you that 
 marriage with a Papist is unlawful? — as I 
 take it for granted that no clergyman of 
 the Church of Ens^land would have de- 
 graded himself in the business ; and that if 
 married at all (a long pause and a searching 
 look) — if married at all, the ceremony, so 
 called, has been performed by a priest, and, 
 as between Protestant and Catholic, is il- 
 legal." 
 
 " What is to prevent my changing my 
 religion ?"
 
 252 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " Perhaps, Sir, you have none to change ; 
 but that is not the question. You had not 
 changed when you married ; and that is 
 enough." 
 
 Edward threw himself on his knees. 
 
 " Oh, Father, listen to me. You know 
 how ill I have been, and how ill I am 
 doomed to be ! While this interval between 
 the gloom gone by and the heavier gloom re- 
 turning — heavier because foreseen — while 
 this interval of light lasts, listen to me ! 
 What would you say if, sick at heart and 
 ever sick, one should meet you before whom 
 the soul's sadness rolled off — one whose 
 voice filled the whole being with balm — 
 one whose eye was a delight, whose step 
 made elastic your own heavy gait, whose 
 speech, and, above all, whose song created 
 joys in the place where melancholy thoughts 
 weighed you down. If you found your life 
 to depend upon hers ; that light and darkness 
 succeeded as she came and went ; that you, 
 doomed to a life of misery, had found your 
 remedy — the one only remedy — rejecting 
 which, there was no more hope ; and that
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 253 
 
 she, with all the fascinations of pure natural 
 gifts, so that she seemed to embody, and 
 resume, and symbolise nature's self; — the 
 waterfall, and nodding flowers at its brink, 
 the soft rising and softly sinking voices of 
 the wind through heaven's musical instru- 
 ments, the branches, and all that is sweet, 
 and fresh, and exhilarating, and healing, 
 would you reject the gift, and become in- 
 deed a fool?" 
 
 This utterly unintelligible speech con- 
 vinced Mr. Lush that his son's mind was in 
 a very bad state ; and while the poor youth 
 fancied that his father was sharing his 
 emotion, the father was turning in his mind 
 to what maison de sante he would consign 
 him after he had undone that foolish busi- 
 ness, the marriage, which, as no legal con- 
 sequence could be attached to it, he was 
 already treating as he was in the habit of 
 treating all acts not cognisable by the law. 
 
 "Rise, Sir, — rise, Edward, and take a 
 chair beside me. I perceive you are ill. 
 There now ! I mean to say you will render 
 yourself unfit to talk this matter over with
 
 254 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 me. Suppose, now, we undo this foolish 
 business. Well, now only suppose it. I 
 tell you what I am ready to do in case you 
 obey me. I shall at once put you in posses- 
 sion of the ample fortune you would in- 
 herit at my death — inherit, unless I make a 
 will, which I can do, to your disadvantage." 
 
 " Do so. Sir, if you please." 
 
 " That is the way you treat your father, 
 Edward, turning him and his affection for 
 you into contempt. You would prefer, I 
 presume, an Irish mud cabin with that low 
 girl?" 
 
 " She is my equal in social position, be- 
 ing my wife; in every other respect my 
 superior." 
 
 " And my superior too, of course ? and 
 wicked, false, abominable old Shelah my 
 superior likewise? What a mother-in-law 
 to one who had such a mother ! " 
 
 " My mother is where earthly distinctions 
 must seem very poor — amongst pure spirits, 
 who reo^ard no differences but such as exist 
 between vice and virtue. Kate is the child 
 she would choose, perhaps has chosen, to
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 255 
 
 lead me to herself in eternal bliss. She it 
 is, I doubt not, who planted in my heart 
 those feelings of veneration for my adorable 
 Kate, which, by a natural transition, melt 
 into worship of the Creator of excellence. 
 It was not, indeed, my angel mother who 
 created her — she is God's work ; His seal of 
 purity is upon her — but it was my mother 
 interceding for her lonely orphan son ob- 
 tained for me that next best gift to all 
 perfection, — the capacity of recognising it, 
 of appreciating it at its priceless worth, of 
 clinging, and growing, and becoming at- 
 tached to it, until made one with itself. I 
 must endeavour to be like Kate — to be her 
 equal in goodness, sweetness, and worth, 
 and so be worthy of her. Yes, Mother, I 
 hear your voice of approbation and encou- 
 ragement. I see you before me ; do you 
 not see her. Father?" 
 
 " My poor boy, you must not give way 
 to such emotion. You faint." 
 
 He ran to the window and let in the fresh 
 air. Edward opened his eyes, gave a wan 
 , look, and closed them again.
 
 256 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 His father, now alarmed and touched at 
 the sight of suffering, rang the bell, and 
 upon his servant appearing, ordered him to 
 aid in partially undressing his son and lay- 
 ing him upon his own bed. His next course 
 was to send for the family doctor. 
 
 The latter's carriage was soon at the door, 
 and forthwith father and doctor were in 
 deep consultation. 
 
 " It is, indeed, a very bad case," said the 
 doctor — " a most serious one; indeed one 
 which requires exceedingly energetic treat- 
 ment. I never heard of so bad a case of 
 matrimony in my life. Of course the peace 
 of a respectable family must not be poisoned, 
 and I can have no hesitation in prescribing 
 a separation." 
 
 " You are quite of my opinion, that such 
 a marriage is an act of insanity ?" 
 
 " Of course it is." 
 
 " Happily, it is illegal." 
 
 " It must be so ; it could not be other- 
 wise ; our healthy constitution would soon 
 break down, if such alliances were permitted. 
 As for the marriage itself, a good dose of
 
 ONCE UPON A TLME. 257 
 
 law will settle that. The operation of 
 cutting off this unsound member, rather 
 say this excrescence, may be painful, but it 
 is necessary." 
 
 " We cannot help the pain, Doctor." 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Lush, I am well aware of your 
 fortitude, which I honour." 
 
 " Then, Doctor, you have no hesitation 
 in writing the necessary certificate?" 
 
 " Hesitation, Mr. Lush ! I would fling 
 my diploma in the fire ; I would call upon 
 the Duchess of Lovepill, who, I am happy 
 to say, is recovering ; and upon my no less 
 respected patient, the Marchioness of Hyper- 
 conderton ; and I would next visit my dear 
 Countess of Qualmsey ; and without waiting 
 to administer my favourite drops — they are 
 such drops — I would hurry to my Lord 
 Swallow's admirable lady, and, bidding her 
 an adieu for ever, next proceed to take 
 leave of the wife and children of Sir Jonas 
 Fische, Baronet ; and then knock at the 
 door of Sir Purse Proud, Knight ; and 
 never see Mr. Miles Millionnaire, again, if, 
 upon an occasion like the present, I should 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 exhibit the infinitesimal part of a moment 
 of hesitation. Let me have pen, ink, and 
 paper, Mr. Lush, at once." 
 
 " Perhaps you had better see Edward 
 first ; he is lying upon my bed." 
 
 "Oh! time enough — time enough; we 
 -will look to him after — let us lose no time. 
 You are a man of business, Mr. Lush, and 
 so am I ; and a man of business takes things 
 in their due order." 
 
 The certificate was drawn up accor- 
 dingly, and a note for fifty pounds whis- 
 pered its silvery paper acknowledgment 
 into the soft palm of Doctor Snob, whom 
 we need not accompany through the minor 
 part of the morning's performance. 
 
 " You are now quite satisfied. Doctor ?" 
 asked Mr. Lush, as they returned to the 
 study. 
 
 " Quite ; and now, my dear Mr. Lush, 
 what can I do for you ?" 
 
 " For me ! Do you see anything really 
 the matter with me ?" 
 
 " Nothing but a little temporary excite- 
 ment, like that experienced by my friend the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 259 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, after an agi- 
 tating exposition of the currency. I will 
 order a little composing draught, which he 
 has acknowledged to be very effectual. He 
 slept as sound as the leader of the opposi- 
 tion, who was to answer him. I think you 
 are of my right honourable friend's consti- 
 tution, and I should like to be able to tell 
 him that I proved and confirmed the effi- 
 cacy of this prescription upon Mr. Lush, of 
 whose financial reputation he has heard." 
 
 " Indeed, Doctor ! he sent for me upon a 
 late occasion, to ask my opinion upon a cer- 
 tain matter." 
 
 " Of great importance, no doubt ?" 
 ** Merely a small loan of ten millions, 
 subscribed for immediately." 
 
 " Why do you not go into Parliament ?" 
 " Well — well — ah — well — hum ! " 
 " You would find this bottle of such use 
 after your great speech ; and I have some 
 little electioneering interest. To be sure 
 it lies mostly amongst the Peers, not allowed 
 to take part in such matters ; but there are 
 ways of managing — you understand ?" 
 
 s 2
 
 260 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 "Well; we'll think of it, Doctor." 
 
 " And I shall drive over to Dr. Singleton, 
 to prepare him for his important charge, 
 and give him proper instructions. Adieu." 
 
 Dr. Singleton, to whom Edward was about 
 to be consigned, was a man of altogether 
 different stamp from the dark, dapper little 
 Dr. Snob. 
 
 His private asylum for persons afflicted 
 with those most melancholy of disorders, 
 affections of the brain, was admirably ar- 
 ranged. The doctor was an enthusiast in 
 his profession, and yet there was nothing 
 in his appearance or conversation to indi- 
 cate exclusive devotion to his pursuit. This 
 freedom of mind and manner arose, per- 
 haps, from his deep insight into the nature 
 and character of the individuals whom he 
 met ; and the excellence of his system, like 
 the agreeableness of his manner, consisted 
 in his power of adapting a special mode of 
 treatment to each particular case ; just as 
 he suited his lano^uao^e and manner to the 
 individual with whom he happened to come 
 into contact. This he did quite undesignedly
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 261 
 
 and naturally, for he was a grave, sincere, 
 thoughtful man ; one in whose breast incli- 
 nation and duty coincided. To a careless 
 observer he might appear of an unhappy 
 nature. Although not more than forty, his 
 face wore the sternness of an antique statue; 
 his regular features were white as marble, 
 his mouth severe, his eyes deeply set under 
 a lofty bald head; and yet when he smiled, 
 his smile was most gracious. Besides the 
 pleasure he took in the practice of his art, 
 and it was intense, there was in him an all- 
 presiding sense of responsibility, which his 
 sensitive conscience never allowed to rest. 
 He looked on his fellow-creature as an awful 
 trust. That the immortal portion related 
 to the God whom he profoundly worship- 
 ped should be disturbed by some merely 
 physical disarrangement impressed him 
 with a sense of something like terror. It was 
 to him the most awful of the mysteries of 
 our mysterious being. Although he treated 
 bodily ailments as such, yet in the course 
 of his practice he had habituated himself to 
 look deeper and to look higher, and to seek
 
 262 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 for the connection which, in most cases, if 
 not in all, subsists between the moral and 
 spiritual state and the physical disarrange- 
 ment. Consequently he condemned general 
 specifics as impudent and shallow quackery. 
 There were, no doubt, numbers of ordinary 
 cases which should be treated pretty much 
 alike ; but of settled maladies he took more 
 comprehensive views. In fine, he was a 
 marked individuality — a man of genius — 
 himself the remedy, which could not be 
 copied or learned by any other man. He 
 was a force in himself, and bore with him 
 an influence like all men of intense will and 
 purpose. Gentle, where gentleness was 
 necessary, he could, if need required, be as 
 despotic as a Eoman emperor. Had he 
 chosen to follow his profession in the ordi- 
 nary way, perhaps he might not have been 
 quite so successful as the obsequious Dr. 
 Snob ; as he very probably would have ser- 
 monised victims to ennui, and idleness, 
 and luxury ; although, assuredly, in serious 
 cases he was the man who would have been 
 called in for the occasion. A wish to con-
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 263 
 
 line himself to a single form of disease, 
 and that the one which would allow him to 
 utilise those abstract inquiries into the ope- 
 rations of the mind in which he loved to 
 indulge, led him to prefer devoting his 
 attention to that description of suffering 
 which, while it opened wider range to his 
 thoughts, and most severely tested skill and 
 patience, yet reached most surely the foun- 
 tain of tenderness which lay deep in his 
 own breast, out of the reach of ordinary 
 soundings. In order that he might be able, 
 without interference with his treatment, 
 whether designed or accidental, and to allow 
 himself to remain at home as long as he 
 pleased — for he was systematic in his habits, 
 and was not fond of frequent calls and sum- 
 monings — he determined upon removing 
 to a large mansion a few miles from town, 
 situated in a fine piece of ground, with a 
 lawn before the door, and a garden opening 
 into a spacious field behind ; and this he 
 converted into what is commonly called a 
 private madhouse. 
 
 Dr. Snob's instructions to Dr. Singleton 
 
 s 4
 
 264 ONCE UPOE A TIME. 
 
 were not likely to produce a very deep 
 impression ; and yet Dr. Snob, as his 
 horses started off at their usual flying pace 
 to the mansion of his Grace, whose par- 
 ticular malady was no worse than dying 
 for the presence of that wonderful phy- 
 sician for whose tender finger there was a 
 rivalry of languid Peeressian arms — that 
 Dr. Snob, as he sat prominently and un- 
 comfortably forward, that the wondering 
 world might see who it was with whom 
 a pair of fiery coursers were all but run- 
 ning away, was indulging in the pleasant 
 illusion that he had quite amazed Dr. 
 Singleton. His deep acquaintance with the 
 pharmacopoeia of titled names argued his 
 scientific attainments ; and his relays of 
 horses for wheels whose only rest was 
 during the golden moments of consultation, 
 proved that his practical skill must at 
 least have equalled his theoretical studies. 
 The fact is. Dr. Singleton knew his man too 
 well to have thought it worth while to enter 
 into any discussion. He listened politely, 
 and even attentively, to his colleague's
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 265 
 
 harangue, ready to seize the two grains of 
 wheat which it was not impossible might 
 fall out of the bushel of chaiF, and which, 
 to a mind so prompt to turn any suggestive 
 circumstance, however trifling in appear- 
 ance, to account, would prove useful. This 
 seeming deference was, by Dr. Snob, taken 
 to be real, and he good-naturedly resolved 
 upon putting in a good word for a man of 
 such plain, humble sense, and so ready to 
 follow superior instruction, as soon as he 
 should again call on Mr. Lush to inquire 
 into the effect of his right honourable friend 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer's compos- 
 ing draught. 
 
 Mr. Lush was not kept long waiting in 
 Dr. Singleton's study. Edward, who had 
 offered no resistance, and who allowed him- 
 self to be led like a lamb to the slaughter, 
 had sunk into a chair, the image of despon- 
 dency. All he knew was that he and 
 Kate were to meet no more. Through the 
 darkness of a mind bereft of its solar glory, 
 he could dimly discern that fact as a trail 
 of departed light. His one poor thought
 
 266 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 lay frozen up in comfortless arctic desola- 
 tion. To his father, whose observations 
 were of the ordinary common-place descrip- 
 tion employed on such occasions, he made 
 no reply. His very breath was frozen — 
 his heart was held in frost — had he closed 
 his eyes, he might have sunk into that long 
 winter sleep allowed to creatures spared the 
 sufferings he was doomed to undergo, and 
 whose awakening is a hail to the resurrec- 
 tion of the Spring. His father's presence 
 oppressed him like an overhanging weight 
 of sunless sky ; and as the pale doctor en- 
 tered, his gaoler as he took him to be, he 
 regarded him as some grey grizzly bear, 
 the master of this arctic world, about to 
 fix his savage deliberate eyes upon him — 
 yet what did he care ? 
 
 Dr. Singleton, pointing to a chair for 
 Mr. Lush, listened to his speech, which, 
 somewhat to the latter's embarrassment, he 
 did not aid by a single question. In fact he 
 kept his eye fixed on Edward. At length 
 he drew towards his patient, and said, very, 
 very kindly, " Give me your hand."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 267 
 
 The tone was so different from what 
 Edward expected, that the doggedness with 
 which he had armed himself gave way. It 
 was as if a mild air had passed through an 
 opened window into a heavy chamber — a 
 refreshing sense of relief flowed through 
 his whole frame. 
 
 " Why not give me your hand, my good 
 friend ?" 
 
 Edward held out both ; they were tied 
 together, but the coat cuffs had concealed 
 the strap round the wrists. 
 
 The doctor frowned, and a flush passed 
 over his pale face ; he unloosened the bonds, 
 which he jerked aside with an expression of 
 contempt, that brought the light to Ed- 
 ward's eyes, and very much stung Mr. 
 Lush, whose millionnaire person was not 
 used to that kind of treatment. 
 
 Dr. Singleton took Edward's hands into 
 his own, and the pressure had a sweet soul 
 in it. What tremendously speaking power 
 there is in a gently sympathising pressure 
 of that angelic instrument with which man 
 wins all his victories ; with which he baptizes
 
 268 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 and marries ; and fights his battle of life ; 
 and wreathes his crown of victory, or draws 
 the mantle round his face and falls, and 
 wooes as no voice can woo ! 
 
 Then he gently rubbed the wrists one 
 after another, and finally asked Edward 
 Avould he not like to stay with him ; and 
 Edward answered he would. 
 
 " Yery well. Now go up to the drawing- 
 room, and make acquaintance with Mrs. 
 Singleton, whom you will like very much. 
 Here, Mrs. Moran, will you conduct Mr. 
 Lush, this young gentleman, to Mrs. Sin- 
 gleton ?'* This was addressed to a large, 
 good-looking housekeeper, with a step as 
 light as that of a young maiden, and a 
 sunny autumnal smile of face. 
 
 When a newly-arrived patient was sent 
 up at once to Mrs. Singleton, the latter, a 
 quiet, sensible lady, understood with whom 
 she had to deal, and Edward was treated 
 pretty much in the way he had been re- 
 ceived below. As soon as he had disap- 
 peared, Dr. Singleton asked how long it 
 was since the first symptoms had appeared.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 269 
 
 "Two years ago; yes, two years exactly — 
 on the occasion of his poor mother's death, 
 to whom he was very much attached." 
 
 " He is, then, of an affectionate disposi- 
 tion ? In fact, I suspected as much." He 
 continued — 
 
 " May I ask. Sir, is he truthful ? Can he 
 be confided in ? I mean, now, suppose I 
 should ask him to promise me something, 
 could I depend upon his word?" 
 
 Dr. Singleton was obliged to vary the 
 same question, on account of the embar- 
 rassment each form of it seemed to occasion 
 Mr. Lush, who shifted his seat and looked 
 puzzled and vexed. At length he an- 
 swered — 
 
 " Sir, he is not to be trusted ; he is not 
 to be confided in ; he is deceitful ; he is 
 wicked. He has destroyed my hopes, and 
 ruined his own expectations." 
 
 " Then I have been too hasty, perhaps, in 
 forming a good opinion of him ?" 
 
 " Did you form a good opinion of him ?" 
 half exclaimed Mr. Lush, glad of an oppor- 
 tunity to retaliate the want of respect Avith
 
 270 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 which he conceived the doctor to have 
 treated him. 
 
 "He is of a highly excitable, nervous 
 temperament, very impressible to kindness, 
 or the contrary — may be raised into a state 
 of exultation amounting to ecstasy, or 
 thrown into paroxysms of suffering, which 
 I cannot, however, exactly call fury. 
 Either stage is followed by deep depression ; 
 and it is out of that state he is to be gently 
 drawn, by attention to his innocent incli- 
 nations ?" 
 
 " His inclinations are not innocent ! He 
 is fond of low company and the society of 
 low people, Sir ! " 
 
 "But suppose — and now I come to the 
 object of my question — suppose he should 
 like to ramble out, so as to feel that he is 
 not under irritating restraint — could I 
 reckon upon his promise to return within a 
 given time ?" 
 
 "No, Sir; he would deceive you. He 
 would run after that treacherous, vulgar 
 girl who has brought down shame upon 
 his foolish head."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 271 
 
 "Oh! he has betrayed some confiding 
 fellow-creature, Mr. Lush ? I honour your 
 virtuous indignation, and deeply commi- 
 serate your feelings." 
 
 " Sir, I am not accustomed to commi- 
 seration from any man ! I tell you he is a 
 monster, who has married a low-born, low- 
 bred girl, the daughter of my own cook ! '^ 
 
 " Married her!" ejaculated Dr. Singleton, 
 as if a weight had been raised from his 
 breast. " Married her ? Well, Sir, I am 
 happy to hear that however foolish may have 
 been his conduct, it has not been wicked." 
 
 "Doctor Singleton, we had better cut 
 short this conversation. It is quite clear 
 that regarding moral subjects you and I 
 cannot agree ; but you are not a clergyman, 
 and no man is expected to know any but 
 his own business. You are a doctor, of 
 whose skill and eminence I have heard 
 sufficient to satisfy me that I place this 
 wretched son of mine in good hands. The 
 marriage to which I allude is null and void ; 
 but his deception of his father no less 
 proves the falsehood of his nature, so do
 
 272 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 not trust him. Keep him under lock and 
 key — promise me that." 
 
 " I promise to treat him according to 
 what I may believe to be the requirements of 
 his case ; and so long as he is in my hands 
 I am responsible for my patient, and I allow 
 no dictation, no interference whatever." 
 
 ''All right. You are the pilot who, 
 when he takes charge of the ship, super- 
 sedes the captain. I wish you a very good 
 morning." 
 
 " He is a disagreeable fellow," muttered 
 Mr. Lush, as he sunk into a corner of his 
 deliberately drawn coach. " Disagreeable ; 
 so much the better ; he is not likely to be 
 imposed upon by the boy's hypocritical 
 manner. I am glad I cut short all talk. 
 The man will fear me secretly, notwith- 
 standing his rude outward ways. He is 
 rude because he is obliged to be so with 
 patients of the kind, and cannot put aside 
 his manner when in presence of a gentle- 
 man of sound understanding." Thus Mr. 
 Lush's easy ride to the City bank was not 
 so pleasant as thr.r, of Dr. Snob to the man- 
 sion of his Grace.
 
 273 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 About eighteen months may have elapsed 
 when Dr. Singleton paid a visit to Mr. 
 Lush, to whom, after expressions of satis- 
 faction as to the state of mind and body of 
 his son, he said, " Sir, I wish you to think 
 seriously of what I am about to say. I 
 see no need for your son remaining any 
 longer in my establishment. Hear me out 
 — provided that he be confided to loving 
 hands. I have watched him closely — my 
 wife has done so too — and we are of opinion 
 that the best way to secure his perfect re- 
 covery mentally, morally, and, let me add, 
 spiritually as well as bodily, would be not 
 to thwart his one, his all-absorbing wish, to 
 be re-united to her whom he regards as 
 his wife." 
 
 '' Impossible ! " 
 
 " Why impossible, Mr. Lush ? With 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 your great wealth — pardon me for saying 
 so — you. can make social distinctions bend 
 to your own will. Some of our highest 
 families are not the worse for a noble heir 
 having yielded to other attractions than 
 those of rank and fortune." 
 
 " Again, I say, impossible." 
 
 " Then, Mr. Lush, willing as I might 
 be to profit by your liberal allowance 
 in this case — and believe me when I 
 say that I make a sacrifice in oifering to 
 part with the society of this most interest- 
 ing young gentleman, in whose welfare 
 Mrs. Singleton and I take the deepest in- 
 terest, and for whom we have truly formed 
 an attachment ; yet seeing, as I think I do 
 see, the means of his perfect recovery 
 within reach, I feel it my duty to you, as 
 his father, particularly to take the course I 
 have done, although aware that it is an ex- 
 ceedingly delicate thing, even for a medical 
 man, to interfere in family concerns." 
 
 " Eor the third time, Doctor, I must re- 
 peat that what you propose is impossible ; 
 but allow me to thank you for the kind
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 275 
 
 feelings which prompted you to make a 
 proposition which, at the same time, I beg 
 of you never to repeat." 
 
 " Then, Mr. Lush, there remains no 
 alternative." 
 
 " You mean, Doctor, to require my son's 
 being withdrawn?" 
 
 " On the contrary, Mr. Lush, I mean 
 that he shall stay where he is." 
 
 Doctor Singleton, without further re- 
 mark, rose to take leave. Never doubting 
 his own disinterestedness, he cared not 
 what Mr. Lush might think of his cool 
 professional way of expressing a resolution, 
 however much to his own advantage. 
 
 " Suppose I now take Edward into my 
 own hands ? " 
 
 '' You do so upon your own responsi- 
 bility." 
 
 " Of course — but what would be the 
 consequence ? " 
 
 " A worse relapse than ever, within a 
 month." 
 
 " Will you please to sit down, Doctor 
 Singleton?" 
 
 T 2
 
 276 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 The doctor complied. 
 
 '' When, Doctor, I replied to your pro- 
 posal by saying it was impossible, I meant 
 what I said. I always do. We men of 
 business are men of few words. It is not 
 our habit to assign reasons, because, for 
 instance, if I gave reasons why such a 
 man's bill cannot be discounted, I should 
 throw a slur upon his credit — perhaps 
 render myself liable to an action at law for 
 libel ; do you understand ? " 
 
 " Those things to which you allude are 
 not much in my way ; yet I think I do 
 understand your meaning." 
 
 " Yery well. It is impossible, because it 
 is impossible — now you understand ? " 
 
 " I do not." 
 
 " You do not ? Well, I forgot, you are 
 not a man of business ; and a doctor, after 
 all, is entitled to more than ordinary confi- 
 dence. This marriage. Doctor, is already 
 annulled ; — the girl has gone abroad ; — 
 where her mother is I cannot say, and do 
 not care." 
 
 " AVas it by a suit in the Ecclesiastical
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 277 
 
 Court, Mr. Lush ? Pardon ine for asking 
 the question ; but had there been any such 
 proceeding I should have held myself en- 
 titled to be made aware of it/' 
 
 " Ecclesiastical Court, indeed ! What a 
 pretty joke ! — treat a little Papist to the 
 Ecclesiastical Court ! Why not favour her 
 Irish ladyship with the House of Lords? 
 No, Doctor; I put the matter into the 
 hands of my law agent, to whom I gave 
 carte blanche. He first silenced the priest : 
 there was little difficulty there ; for his 
 shrewd reverence was not slow to perceive 
 his danger. He next opened the old lady's 
 eyes with a rounder sum than ever she had 
 seen in her life ; and the girl, finding herself 
 without support, entered into the service of 
 a family going abroad, leaving the child 
 with her mother." 
 
 " So that all have disappeared ? " 
 
 " To be sure they have." 
 
 "It is a sad business. We must, how- 
 ever, keep these particulars from the 
 patient; and, for my part, I cannot say 
 when there may even be a likelihood of his 
 
 T 3
 
 278 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 being in a ^t state to return to society, 
 from which he is now probably excluded 
 for ever. Good morning, Mr. Lush." 
 
 " Doctor, there is, I think, a quarter due ; 
 allow me to present you with a cheque for 
 the amount." 
 
 " Not at present — not at present." 
 
 The doctor went away more deeply af- 
 fected than Mr. Lush, with his profound 
 insight into City human nature, could have 
 believed possible for a man of such cold 
 stern exterior to be. 
 
 Interviews between Mr. Lush and Dr. 
 Singleton were never agreeable to the 
 former. Yet how were they to be put an 
 end to ? Edward was cured — only required 
 loving hands. Loving hands — and what 
 were his ? Were the hands of his own father 
 not loving ? Suppose Edward married to 
 another. Ha ! — but then Edward should 
 be told all that had happened, and then 
 would come the relapse threatened by Dr. 
 Singleton. If he could find some trust- 
 worthy family willing to undertake the 
 charge — a family by whom he would be
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 279 
 
 rigorously watched, yet with whom he 
 could remain apparently as a boarder — 
 many advantages would be obtained by 
 such a course. First, there would be an 
 end of the Lunatic Asylum — the private 
 madhouse, the Maison de Sante; and there 
 would be an end of unpleasant meetings 
 with Dr. Singleton, who played the superior 
 with that powerful prince of finance whose 
 ante-chamber was filled with courtiers of 
 all complexions. It was a question whether 
 the lost tribes of the House of Israel might 
 not be recognised any morning at the house 
 of Lush, Snug, and Dreary, in Lombard 
 Street, all bowing low down to the sacred 
 calf enshrined in the high-priest's tights, 
 within an overlayer of golden top boots. 
 Loving hands ! what would they cost ? 
 Was it impossible to buy them? — no more 
 than any other hands with which the 
 market of self-interest is ever stocked. 
 There was one man upon whom he could 
 place perfect confidence — a prudent, pious, 
 painstaking man ; he was a married man 
 too, this Mr. Elias Mathews. His present 
 
 T 4
 
 280 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 confined little house would not do ; his 
 salary was small, his wants many, and he 
 was of respectable family. These were all 
 favourable conditions — a poor, pious, depen- 
 dent gentleman. Now if he, Mr. Lush, 
 would only buy that house, advertised to 
 be sold a bargain, the man and his family 
 would feel themselves raised in the social 
 scale beyond their expectations. The same 
 amount paid to Dr. Singleton, with a 
 liberal allowance for sundries, would be 
 wealth to Mr. Mathews. So ruminated 
 Mr. Lush, and the reader must, we flatter 
 ourselves, be sufficiently acquainted with 
 the former's character to need no particu- 
 lar assurance that the arrangement was 
 promptly concluded, and Edward Lush 
 removed from the care of Dr. Singleton. 
 
 It was not for Dr. Singleton, conscien- 
 tious as he was, to raise objections to a 
 plan of proceeding adopted without refer- 
 ence to himself, although he never allowed 
 pride to bar his sense of duty, yet pride in 
 the present instance was allowable. Were 
 his pride of a querulous character it might
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 281 
 
 have driven him to complaints of ingrati- 
 tude; for clearly Mr. Lush had not appre- 
 ciated his services to his son, which, rightly 
 regarded, were services to the father. 
 With his usual disinterestedness, his whole 
 thoughts turned upon the subject of weak- 
 ening the evil he foresaw. Having, in a 
 short interview with the future guardian 
 of his patient, taken the accurate measure 
 of that gentleman, he said within himself, 
 this narrow-minded man can possibly, per- 
 haps certainly, be restrained from irri- 
 tating my poor young friend. He would 
 dread the injury likely to occur to his own 
 interests should Edward be excited into 
 paroxysms demanding his removal to this 
 or another institution of the kind, so he 
 will abstain from experiments prompted by 
 his foolish fanaticism ; but, on the other 
 hand, how is the needful light intellectual 
 food to be secured for this delicate spirit ? 
 And then, turning to Mrs. Singleton, he 
 said, " There are some volumes which we 
 must cull from our library for Edward — 
 not books which enervate the mind by
 
 282 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 leadino: to vao^ue reverie, but which have 
 their uses where it is the purpose to coun- 
 teract the contrary — as Emerson is the 
 reaction against as well as the cure for 
 excessive mercantilism ; nor yet philoso- 
 phical inquiries demanding close efforts of 
 thought, but Shakspeare, Dante, Milton, 
 which bring up the whole harmonies of 
 thought and feeling, engaging heart and 
 soul and mind together — such books predis- 
 pose to right reading of the Scriptures. We 
 must give Edward these books, otherwise 
 he will not be allowed them ; and, in order 
 to present a substitute for original compo- 
 sition, of which the effort might be in- 
 jurious, I will even recommend his under- 
 taking translation, say from Dante, and the 
 Paradise rather than Hell. 
 
 Mrs. Singleton, whose actions moved in 
 harmony with those of her husband, took 
 down the books, and when she had set them 
 on the table, the fire threw up a light which 
 rendered candles unnecessary, or rather, 
 candles would have spoiled the picture 
 finished off by that purring tongue of flame
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 283 
 
 that had just darted from the slit of a dis- 
 solving lump of shining jet coal, and then 
 drew in, and then came flashing through 
 the thin curling gas, and played lights and 
 shadows over the book-bindings, and con- 
 verted Mrs. Singleton's shadow into a 
 giantess, and made the doctor's image on 
 the wall that of a great man, indeed. 
 Was it not the moment to advise calmly 
 and gently with Edward ? " Oh, no ! " quoth 
 the sagacious doctor, " he must not have his 
 night's rest disturbed. We will speak to 
 him in the morning after breakfast. The 
 communication made here would produce 
 the effect of that light upon his mind ; it 
 would throw up uncertain and dispropor- 
 tionate shadows, and between sleeping and 
 waking they would not amuse as they do 
 now. Let it be morning." 
 
 As autumn seems to die mournfully on 
 the lap of winter, so winter passes brightly 
 and vigorously into the spring; how all 
 things typify the resurrection into life! 
 It was a month since Christmas; how 
 strangely beautiful it is that Christ should
 
 284. ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 have been born in the deep gloom of the 
 ending year ! Human fiction, with its weak 
 fancies, would have made the star in the 
 east conduct to a cradle of amorous flowers, 
 shedding scents, and kissing the tender 
 treasure; — human fiction, that feebly loves 
 to shun the realities of life, or escape from 
 insupportable reflection into the mad ex- 
 citement of battle. It never could have 
 entered into mortal head to make the 
 Spiritual Conqueror of the world be born 
 as He was born — He who came to grapple 
 with these same stern realities of life, and 
 show how they were to be borne ; not 
 shunning any human temptation, even that 
 of despair, in order that despair might 
 learn to hope. 
 
 Breakfast was over; it was so fine a 
 morning that the red curtain had to be 
 drawn, lest the bright pale ray should smite 
 into black death the ruddy fire in the hearth 
 — a type, again, of the all-sufl'ering spiritual 
 ray which allows no earthly flame when it 
 takes its own full possession. They went 
 to the window, the doctor and Edward,
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 285 
 
 and looked out upon the sparkling borders of 
 box, and their eyes rested upon a dripping 
 holly, whose red berries seemed to be en- 
 gaged in melting the night's snow from 
 the glistening prickly leaves. Within and 
 without a cheerful scene ; and it suited the 
 intense, earnest countenance of that man 
 whose life's business it was to hold up a 
 light wherever there was mental desolation, 
 and who had as much to do with balmy 
 ease as a labourer with the smell of musk 
 or any other sickly odour. Mrs. Singleton, 
 without whose matronly hand the breakfast- 
 table had been a dull eating necessity, 
 instead of the cheerful banquet that it was, 
 had left, for she knew what the doctor 
 wished to say, and that her own emotion 
 would have only caused him greater trouble. 
 " Edward," said the doctor, " you know 
 that I have been always frank with you. I 
 did not conceal from you the nature of your 
 malady out of any apprehension that you 
 might be mortified by a discovery which 
 is calculated to render men cowards, not 
 only in presence of their fellow-creatures,
 
 286 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 but cowards to themselves. I wanted you 
 to cure yourself, by the proper exercise of 
 all your faculties, and it is believed that 
 you have succeeded." 
 
 " Am I going to be taken away?" asked 
 Edward, with that rapid suspicion which 
 was probably an accompaniment of his 
 morbid mental state. 
 
 " You surely would not desire to pass 
 more time than is absolutely necessary in 
 an estabhshment of this kind ? " 
 
 " Where am I to go to ? — I would rather 
 not return to father's." 
 
 " I will satisfy you at once on that sub- 
 ject — you do not return to your father's." 
 
 " To her then? — can it be — tell me — you 
 are breaking gently the news to me ? I 
 know your way. I am strong and calm, 
 and can bear it. Am I indeed to be re- 
 united to Kate?" 
 
 Dr. Singleton was so little prepared 
 for the conversation taking this turn that he 
 stood in need of his presence of mind. 
 Foreseeing a paroxysm, he poured a few 
 drops out of a little medicine bottle into a
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 287 
 
 glass of water, which he obliged him to 
 drink before he would proceed. 
 
 "Ah! I feel now so well. You see, 
 Doctor, I am ready for any communication.'* 
 
 " Your father, Edward, has made me 
 acquainted with that story." 
 
 And now the doctor felt obliged in some 
 degree to belie his own sentiments and 
 opinions, as he proceeded to take part ap- 
 parently with the father. 
 
 " I must say that, considering Mr. Lush's 
 position in the world, and how much his 
 hopes are centred in you, his only son and 
 heir to his large fortune, I ought not to 
 wonder that he should object to a choice 
 made without consulting him." 
 
 " He never would have consented, and I 
 should have died — and is not self-preserva- 
 tion a supreme law ? " 
 
 " Except there be dishonour." 
 
 " But there was no dishonour. Kate 
 was my equal — did I say equal ? — my supe- 
 rior, infinitely my superior, in all those 
 heaven-gifted qualities which cast the rub- 
 bish of this earth into contempt ! "
 
 288 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 " Well, it cannot be, Edward." 
 
 " What cannot be ? — is she dead ? '^ 
 
 " Not dead ; at least I believe not, she is 
 in another country." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 " I know not." 
 
 "And our child?" 
 
 " I cannot answer you. I only know 
 what I have learned from yourself, and 
 what your father has told me ; that clandes- 
 tinely, which was wrong, you married the 
 daughter of a servant — one too of a dif- 
 ferent religion ; and that, inasmuch as the 
 marriage was illegal, because performed by 
 a priest — you too being under age — and 
 for other reasons ." 
 
 " My imputed madness ? What matter ? 
 I am well now — and for other reasons. 
 Well " 
 
 " The marriage has been broken. She has 
 gone to another country — not with her 
 mother, who has disappeared ; gone pro- 
 bably back to her native country, with the 
 infant." 
 
 "Doctor Singleton, Doctor Singleton ! how
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 289 
 
 strange I should never have asked the ques- 
 tion before — is the child male or female?" 
 
 Again the Doctor felt thrown off his 
 centre. 
 
 " Well, positively I cannot tell." 
 
 " My father knows ? " 
 
 " I rather think he does not, for he 
 never would hear one word on the subject 
 — that I learned from his own lips." 
 
 " Unnatural father ! " 
 
 " Only too natural — too natural, I fear, 
 Edward." 
 
 " The child must have been born — how 
 odd — I never can calculate." 
 
 " A year ago — say a year ago." 
 
 " Stay," and Edward, taking out his 
 tablets, wrote down the year — only the 
 year — then he sank into a chair, becoming 
 absorbed in deep reverie. "If," he muttered 
 to himself, " she should be a girl, and I 
 should meet her some years hence." Then 
 his eyes became fixed, as if upon some 
 horrible phantom. The Doctor was pre- 
 paring to lay hold of him, when Mrs. Siufifle- 
 ton entered ; upon which he started up, 
 
 VOL. I. u
 
 290 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 and seizing her, exclaimed, " Oh ! blessed 
 woman — blessed presence — how can I 
 thank you for having banished such a fear- 
 ful — such a horrible thought? — I dare not 
 name it ! and you have brought in your 
 train such a sweet host of orphans. You 
 both think I am mad, I am not. I will 
 prove to you that I am not — because such 
 a holy thought as mine now is could never 
 have visited a diseased mind ; look at this 
 date, Mrs. Singleton ; it is the year just 
 passed — a never to be forgotten year ; a life 
 of joy and a life of sorrow were comprised 
 in that short year. Well, I mean to adopt 
 every poor orphan born in that year ; what 
 sort of madness is that, Mrs. Singleton ? " 
 
 ** The madness of charity and of bene- 
 volence, Edward." 
 
 " But the little tombs — bah ! — they 
 place no head-stones at the graves of 
 orphans, so I need think no more of that." 
 
 " It is a good thought," resumed Mrs. 
 Singleton, " and I should like to help you 
 — but where is the money to come from ? " 
 
 " The Doctor has just told me that I am 
 the heir to a large fortune."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 291 
 
 " If you survive your father.'* 
 
 " Is there any fear I shall not ? " 
 
 " Not if you follow my advice. You are 
 now, as I meant to have told you, about to 
 take up your abode in a quiet, respectable 
 family — for a time — only for a time; after 
 which you become your own master. In 
 fact it now depends upon yourself how soon 
 you shall enter into free disposal of your 
 person and property." 
 
 " You know the people ?" 
 
 " I have been introduced to Mr. Mathews 
 — and here, lest you should not find books 
 to your taste, are some which my wife and 
 I have selected." 
 
 Edward's eyes sparkled ; he seized Mrs. 
 Singleton's hands and kissed them, and 
 kissed Shakspeare, and kissed Dante, and 
 kissed Milton, with the same lips that had 
 just vowed adoption of the orphans. And 
 then he kissed the hand of the good Doctor 
 with lips redolent of Shakspeare, of Dante, 
 and of Milton. 
 
 "I do not mean that you shall be idle 
 either, Edward ; you will take with you a 
 u 2
 
 292 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 nice little writing-desk, which you will not 
 esteem the less for being a present from 
 Mrs. Singleton." Edward's eyes flowed 
 over, which was so much the better. " I 
 have put in some quires of paper." 
 
 " Dear good Doctor ! " 
 
 " And you will amuse yourself with 
 translating portions of the ' Paradise ' — 
 will you do that ? " 
 
 " It will be a labour of love." 
 
 " And now bid us good-bye, like a man." 
 
 Edward did his best. 
 
 The source of Dr. Singleton's alarm 
 was well got over. The next caused him 
 more serious apprehension. What he most 
 feared was a settled apathy succeeding to 
 those alternations of paroxysm and de- 
 pression which did not constitute in his 
 mind the worst form of Edward's malady. 
 He apprehended the establishment of a 
 chronic dulness and indifference, which, if 
 not lifelessness, would be a very low form of 
 life itself. In dealing with Edward he had 
 two objects to accomplish : the one was to 
 remove, as far as possible, the recurrence of
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 293 
 
 those fits of exaltation which, in the eye of 
 the world, were the complaint, and next to 
 bring all the powers of mind and body into 
 regularly active operation. This double 
 object may be said, then, to resolve itself into 
 one, that of restraining and directing the 
 nervous energy which wasted itself in occa- 
 sional bursts of extravagance. It became 
 therefore necessary to employ the mind, and 
 employ it constantly — and with the mind 
 the bodily senses, and keep all the activities 
 in gentle, regular motion, under a course of 
 skilful, watchful discipline. Already Edward 
 had learned the exercise of self-command, 
 a great power not only over oneself, but 
 others ; he was able to detect the approach- 
 ing signs of attack, and to guard against 
 it, unless when taken unawares by painful 
 communications, such as Dr. Singleton had 
 been obliged to make upon the morning of 
 removal to the house of Mr. Elias Mathews. 
 Placed amongst unsympathising people, and 
 narroAv-minded, moreover, likely to worry 
 him by obtrusive attentions, betraying 
 their own teasing acquaintance with a state 
 
 u 3
 
 294 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 out of which he ought to be insensibly 
 drawn, and from which he could not be 
 drawn if morbid uneasiness were kept up, 
 through having his condition forced upon 
 his mind and made the subject of constant 
 reflection ; it was to be apprehended that 
 he would shrink from notice, lose his cheer- 
 fulness, become reserved, shun intercourse, 
 and from want of bodily exercise betake 
 himself to reading, although incapable of 
 enjoying it, and thus decline into a dull me- 
 chanism, with life indeed performing its daily 
 functions in a merely material sense, the 
 animal existence surviving, as it were, the tor- 
 pidity of the soul — this was what he feared. 
 For a while the habits acquired under Dr. 
 Singleton's discipline would go on ; he would 
 read his Shakspeare, and his Dante, and 
 his Milton, but with whom could he talk 
 about his favourite poets ? On what at- 
 tentive ear could he discharge the over- 
 flowing fulness that comes up eternally from 
 these master spirits ? Into what eyes could 
 his soul plunge as into a bath of tears and 
 light? What tongue would chime in 
 harmony with his ? On what kind, placid
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 295 
 
 shore would the great wave of feeling roll 
 silvering — against what invigorating con- 
 tradiction would it beat ? How was life to 
 go on in the absence of life's necessary con- 
 ditions ? — the life of this active imprisoned 
 soul, that needs infinitude for the exercise 
 of its immortal strength. What could it do 
 while waiting for emancipation, if the cage 
 were hid in a dark corner, but mope and 
 cease to twitter the syllables of the future 
 harmony ? Musing this way to himself, 
 Dr. Singleton was using illustrations after 
 Edward's own manner, as if by force of 
 imagination he had taken his place, and 
 was mournfully prophesying his own de- 
 generacy. This circumstance of unusual 
 reverie rendered the aspect of the case the 
 more pathetic. His scientific perception 
 was painfully clear. His experience told 
 him how possible it is for the being to adapt 
 itself to any situation — it can accustom 
 itself to food that will not nourish, and yet 
 sustain ; to air that is close and encumbered 
 with foul exhalations, in which the flame 
 shows its vitality by a circle of dead 
 
 ir 4
 
 296 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 grey, but throws out no rays — sinking 
 clown to the level of that from which it 
 draws sustenance. The man seems to 
 warrant the theory of development upwards 
 by a counter process of shrinking backwards. 
 He gasps upon the marshy bank, and 
 neither wholly asleep nor wide awake, seems 
 some huge breathing connection between 
 the animal and vegetable forms of life. One 
 spark of instinctive will, Oh benevolent 
 powder ! and he puts forth blindly the rudi- 
 mental fin or arm, as the crowning organisa- 
 tion puts forth, under a still mightier spark, 
 those rudimental wino^s which are stirrinsf in 
 us all ; and lo ! a sword that shall cleave the 
 elements, and weapons for the universal 
 battle, in which wailing is swallowed up in 
 triumph, and without which there is no 
 passionate gratification of victory ! 
 
 It happened as foreseen. The madness, 
 without sinking into idiocy, hung in a 
 middle state of indifferent consciousness. 
 The little children of the Mathews' could 
 not have failed to draw out Edward's kindly 
 dispositions under other circumstances; that
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 297 
 
 is to say, had the father been a man with 
 whom he could have satisfactorily con- 
 versed, and Mrs. Mathews not an abject 
 dependent. As the children were growing 
 up, Edward was settling more and more 
 into his marshy state. Any one could do 
 with him what he pleased ; and by the 
 time Miss Deborah had, through the force 
 of her original graces, anticipated the years 
 of discretion, the son of Mr. Lush formed 
 a pretty subject upon which to exercise her 
 talent for rule and government. 
 
 Mr. Lush was becoming all this time 
 more and more estranged from his son. 
 His hopes were marred — his pride hurt — 
 such as his hopes were, and such as his 
 pride was — hopes of mounting by the 
 ladder of gold into the Olympus of the upper 
 ten thousand, and pride wounded by the 
 low tastes and imbecile mind of him whom 
 he had regarded as the promised founder of 
 a dynasty of Lushian Plantagenets. 
 
 It sometimes occurred to Mr. Lush to 
 marry again ; but as he continued his ordi- 
 nary pursuits, the idea not having an
 
 298 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 unoccupied mind to germinate in, never de- 
 veloped into a decided resolution. The 
 great seething city is not favourable to 
 brooding sentiments. To be an active par- 
 taker for some hours every day in that 
 troubled confluence of all the interests of 
 the whole world is enough excitement for 
 the evening at least, especially when one is 
 a magnate, a merchant prince, the head of 
 a banking firm, an oracle on the Stock Ex- 
 change, and not one of the myriad bubbles, 
 but an Iris spanning the cataract itself. 
 Then he seldom dined alone. When he did 
 so, it was for the sake of enjoying the 
 luxury of rest, of imbibing his port with a 
 sunshiny, basking sensation, which imparted 
 what, speaking by analogy, might be called 
 a romantic hue to the city article of his 
 Glohe or Courier, 
 
 It was after his lunch, served in a snug 
 recess of his private office, one day that Dr. 
 Snob bustled in, all smiles and bows, to beg 
 to be allowed to show up Lady Fitzspinning, 
 widow of the late Lord Fitzspinning. While 
 the Doctor is explaining the purport of his
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 299 
 
 visit, allow us to relate how it was that her 
 ladyship came to be seated in his carriage, 
 drawn up at the private entrance for dis- 
 tinguished visitors. 
 
 She had arrived a few days before from 
 Boulogne, in second mourning attire for 
 her lord, of whose death in Italy she had 
 been made aware casually, through a news- 
 paper old enough to abridge conveniently 
 the time conventionally required for weeds, 
 which did not become her uncontrollably 
 jovial aspect. The sun, surrounded by 
 ebon blackness, could not wear a more in- 
 congruous appearance than that of Lady 
 Fitzspinning's face in a widow's cap. The 
 aspect would have been as unbecoming as 
 that of Columbine skipping out of a coffin 
 to meet Harlequin. While obliged by 
 cruel custom to sacrifice her beauty, for 
 beauty it was, in spite of forty years of 
 pleasant existence, she resolved to with- 
 draw into privacy from the gaze of her 
 creditors — those bold birds that dared to 
 stare at her without winking ; she could 
 not bear the sight of them. Second mourn-
 
 300 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 ing was a different thing. It allowed of 
 some play to the fancy, and a pretty range 
 of choice in colours; she was herself in 
 the purple-and-violet colour time of life, 
 and if she could not put on bright hues, 
 neither need she wear those whose sadness 
 typified deeper trouble than that of soft 
 regrets in their transitive stage. Her 
 sorrow became set in jet brooches, jet 
 bracelets, and mourning rings ; black bugles, 
 as they replaced diamonds down her waist, 
 seemed to have caught the glitter of her 
 large black eyes; and blackish berries nestled 
 in her hair — shemio;ht have su2:2:ested to a 
 painter an image of night, touched by the 
 faintest streak of the morning dawn. 
 
 Alighting from the Continent at a West 
 End hotel, the emptiness of her purse oc- 
 casioned a vertigo which required the pre- 
 sence of a physician, and she would admit 
 only the attendance of the most eminent. 
 Dr. Snob was accordingly called in. The 
 Doctor found only a slight perturbation of 
 the pulse ; the tongue was not quite clean, 
 although the lips were ruby ; and the
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 301 
 
 languor of the eyes was such as a fine lady 
 might have put on simply for consistency 
 sake before a medical man. Dr. Snob, with 
 his usual tact, perceived that the present was 
 a case of gossip, requiring a dose from the 
 red-book, with an emollient of gules and 
 dragons out of the book of heraldry. This 
 was precisely the medicine which the sick 
 lady wanted when she called in Dr. Snob ; 
 she had tried it at the famous waterino-- 
 places and gambling places of the Continent, 
 and found it to answer her expectations. An 
 unprotected lady in a strange place, what 
 could her nervous system do without the 
 comfort of the Doctor in vogue, who knew 
 everybody, and all about everybody, as 
 well as a Confessor, rather better ! In a 
 short time the conversation between doctor 
 and patient was of the pleasantest possible 
 description. It resembled a game of some 
 new kind, in which the former held court 
 cards as usual, which the latter matched 
 with foreign titles. If the Doctor played a 
 Knight, the lady matched it with a Che- 
 valier. Barons covered Lords, Counts took
 
 302 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 up Earls ; Marquisses on both sides were 
 equal ; but the lady predominated in Dukes. 
 The Doctor tried the Garter, and was 
 matched by the Golden Fleece ; but 
 finally, when Ministers of State were ex- 
 hausted on both sides, including the Doctor's 
 Eight Hon. friend, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, his fair antagonist carried off 
 the honours of the game with Prince 
 Ponkmoramowski. The Doctor should 
 certainly become acquainted with her dear 
 Ponkmor — so she playfully called the dear 
 old man. Could not the Doctor cut his 
 patients in the dead season when all the 
 world was out of Rotten Row, and make a 
 run over to Wiesbaden, where Ponkmor 
 always passed a month, unless the place 
 was too full to afford accommodation to his 
 numerous suite. She often rallied her dear 
 Amowski, for so she divided his name, re- 
 turning it to him in instalments — was not 
 that funny ? — but he was used to it. " ' Now 
 do, my dear Ponkmor, contrive to manage 
 with a dozen less pair of legs in plush, and 
 substitute a second Chamberlain.' ' Yes, my
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 303 
 
 dear/ * Amowski, do better still, travel 
 incog, and escape the wearisome attention of 
 that mob of nobility by which you are 
 beset/ The fact is, Ponkmor has his weak- 
 nesses ; he is good-natured withal ; and as 
 he knows that it is enough to make a man's 
 fortune in the world to be called the friend 
 of Amowski ; you see I forget, Doctor, 
 and speak to you as if I were chatting 
 familiarly with himself; but the truth is 
 so. It is a fortune in itself that people 
 should say of a man — there goes a friend 
 of Prince Ponkmoramowski." 
 
 What would not Dr. Snob give to be 
 looked after by people at Wiesbaden, whis- 
 pering to each other, " There goes a friend 
 of Prince Ponkmoramowski ! " 
 
 The Doctor having lost the game which 
 was won by that matchless trump, the 
 Prince, it was only fair that he should pay 
 the stakes. He would take no fee of course. 
 It was in vain that the lady talked of chang- 
 ing a post-bill for 100/. ; the polite Doctor 
 was thinking, on the contrary, of doing him- 
 self the honour of presenting her ladyship
 
 304 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 Avith a copy — a very plain one indeed, 
 in calf — of Sir Bernard Burke's Peerage, 
 as a slight token of the pleasure afforded 
 him by the most instructive conversation 
 he had ever enjoyed in the course of his 
 professional practice. For knowledge of 
 serene highnesses and excellencies of courts ; 
 for depth of information on the statistics of 
 nobility, Lady Fitzspinning surpassed all his 
 own right honourable acquaintances. Be- 
 fore the enchanted Doctor could take leave, 
 her ladyship requested the favour of his 
 advice upon another subject, which she in- 
 troduced with many graceful apologies ; 
 but she, a widow lady, obliged by family 
 matters to hurry so fast from the Continent 
 that she left her equipage behind, was afraid 
 to be carrying loose money about her, so 
 she thoucrht of askino^ some friend to intro- 
 duce her to a respectable banker. 
 
 "To be sure, Lady Fitzspinning, there 
 is my friend, Mr, Lush — oh, you must know 
 Mr. Lush, the head of the eminent firm of 
 Lush, Snug, and Dreary ; he will be 
 charmed to be asked by me to extend his
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 305 
 
 financial protection over a lady of rank. I 
 will drive there forthwith, and your lady- 
 ship shall receive an invitation to call and 
 open an account with the bank at your 
 convenience." 
 
 " A thought strikes me, Doctor ; as my 
 carriage has not arrived, perhaps you would 
 oblige me with a seat in your own. What 
 is to prevent our driving together to Mr. — 
 Mr.— ?" 
 
 " Mr. Lush. Nothing in the world." 
 
 " I feel so strong, Doctor — you have done 
 me so much good — that I protest I think 
 I could walk into the City." 
 
 "How facetious, how unaffected, is the 
 friend of Prince Ponkmoramowski !" thought 
 Dr. Snob to himself, as Lady Fitzspinning, 
 with her usual ease and rapidity, put on 
 shawl and bonnet, which, as gentlemen never 
 remark the fashion, only struck the Doctor 
 as highly becoming. 
 
 Mr. Lush had hardly time to brood over 
 the confined range of his knowledge, never 
 having heard of Lady Fitzspinning or Prince 
 Ponkmoramowski, when the former was 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 ushered in, in all the glitter of bugles, dark 
 eyes, and captivating smiles. Happily for 
 her purpose Dr. Snob opened the conversa- 
 tion with reference to her ladyship's Con- 
 tinental experiences, which afforded her an 
 opportunity of conducting the bewildered 
 Mr. Lush through courts, palaces, villas, 
 watering-places, until he was at length 
 brought in imagination to her feet ; — 
 yes, to the feet of the second wife, the 
 one connected with the nobility, of whom 
 he had from time to time vaguely dreamed, 
 and who was there before him, introduced 
 by his confidential friend, Dr. Snob, a man 
 who, notwithstanding his familiarity with 
 great ladies, was evidently struck with ad- 
 miration of this vivacious beauty. Her 
 ladyship said she did not know how to 
 apologise for having trespassed too long 
 upon his time, which was so precious, the 
 time of a merchant prince — in her opinion 
 the first of nobles, the real supporter of the 
 wealth and power of her dear country, 
 worth all the Ponkmoramowskis in the 
 world !
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 307 
 
 Mr. Lush had, as he declared, never 
 passed so agreeable a half hour in his life. 
 
 " Her little affair was not worthy of 
 occupying his attention. To be sure it was 
 only a preliminary matter — a title-deed 
 which she wished to deposit as a security 
 for a thousand pounds — say a thousand; 
 but perhaps, in her foolish ignorance of 
 business matters, she was committing some 
 shocking blunder in offering security only, 
 no matter how unexceptionable ; in which 
 case, perhaps, Mr. Lush would obligingly 
 favour her with advice." 
 
 " Deed or no deed, it was just as her 
 ladyship pleased. The name of Lady Fitz- 
 spinning should be credited at once with a 
 thousand pounds — had her ladyship said a 
 thousand ?" 
 
 " Well, yes, a thousand would do. It 
 was so good of Mr. Lush ! Now she thought 
 of it, she really did not know what she 
 would have done while the proctors and 
 lawyers were settling those plaguy papers 
 of her late dear lord, had not a kind Provi- 
 dence visited her with an indisposition that 
 
 X 2
 
 308 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 obliged her to call in Dr. Snob, whose skill 
 was surpassing, and whose benevolence was 
 equal to his skill ; and Dr. Snob conducted 
 her to Mr. Lush, whose behaviour was equal 
 to Dr. Snob's eulogiums, unbounded as they 
 appeared to be. Yes, England was a noble 
 land. Why had she ever left the shores of 
 so glorious a country, whose doctors spurn 
 merely lucrative advantages, and look alone 
 to the peace and happiness of patients, and 
 whose bankers put to shame the compara- 
 tively petty ways of foreign princes ! Good- 
 bye, Mr. Lush. Would not Mr. Lush often 
 dine with her as soon as she had fixed on 
 her mansion ? for never would she leave 
 England again, except, perhaps, for a month 
 or two in the dead season, and for the 
 mutual advantage of Dr. Snob and Prince 
 Ponkmoramowski, unless, indeed, Mr. Lush 
 would honour the party ? He had better 
 think of it, for she would dispose of her 
 chateau on the Rhine, but not of the wine, 
 equal to Johannesberg, and which she would 
 reserve for some dear friends — would not 
 Mr. Lush accept a few dozen ? Perhaps
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME, 309 
 
 Mr. Lusli could recommend her a furnished 
 mansion to be let during the absence of 
 some one of his noble friends ?" 
 
 Mr. Lush knew exactly of the thing that 
 would suit her ; rent for six months 400^ , 
 no more — a bagatelle. Mr. Lush would 
 look about it immediately, and would do 
 himself the honour to call at her ladyship's 
 hotel. 
 
 Mr. Lush did call. Mr. Lush saw, and 
 Mr. Lush conquered — so thought Mr. 
 Lush ; while Lady Fitzspinning was hum- 
 ming, Veni, vidij vicij to herself. 
 
 They were married — the lady reserving 
 to herself only the right of being addressed 
 by her title. Mrs. Lush would remain the 
 Lady Fitzspinning. 
 
 Hardly was the honeymoon over when 
 Mr. Lush found his acquaintances consider- 
 ably extended, and his correspondence in- 
 creased. Every morning the post brought 
 him a letter from a previously unknown 
 hand, preferring an unexpected claim. In 
 fact. Lady Fitzspinning's fortune consisted 
 in debts without number ; and the expecta- 
 
 X 8
 
 310 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 tions she brought with her consisted in 
 embryo lawsuits of endless variety. Her 
 ladyship was nevertheless no impostor ; 
 her connections were truly such as her title 
 implied. All the troubles she brought her 
 husband, without reserving any to herself, 
 were occasioned by an utter want of prin- 
 ciple. She ran into debt without consider- 
 ation — never thought of paying anybody 
 for anything until compelled — raised money 
 upon ruinous conditions — and had, proba- 
 bly, never received more than ten per cent, 
 of the value of her outstanding debts. 
 
 For a while she encountered Mr. Lush's 
 inquiries, as to the particulars of her debts, 
 with playful badinage. She was no ac- 
 countant — understood nothing of book- 
 keeping — was of too easy a temper to resist 
 the troublesome importunities of trades- 
 people — could not help borrowing. "Will 
 you only tell me the gross amount, my dear 
 Lady Sally ?" " Gross amount ! — what was 
 that ? — what did gross amount mean ? — 
 perhaps he meant groceries ?" Poor Mr. 
 Lush only looked grave. How Dr. Snob
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 311 
 
 would have enjoyed her pun ! " What sum 
 of money would cover her ladyship's debts ? 
 — that is what he wanted to know ; and to 
 be done at once with the subject." ^' What- 
 ever the sum be, it would be nothing to so 
 wealthy and so good a husband!" "Very 
 likely — but what is it ?" He might as well 
 have asked her to tell the amount of the 
 national debt in farthings. Mr. Lush paid 
 and paid ; but he was like one who, trying 
 to enjoy the river's breeze at summer's sun- 
 down is beset by swarms of flies, which he 
 tries in vain to beat off. He may catch 
 some in his hand, and smite down others 
 with hat or handkerchief; but partial 
 destruction seems only to irritate the viva- 
 city of countless survivors. Like many 
 wealthy men who never experienced need 
 in their own person, Mr. Lush felt scorn of 
 debtors — in his opinion, the worst and 
 most contemptible of sinners. To be un- 
 worthy of credit was, in the banker's opi- 
 nion, to have suffered excommunication. 
 His wife was a commercial heretic, and his 
 eternal torments on her account seemed to 
 
 X 4
 
 312 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 have commenced, without any prospect of 
 their ever coming to an end, in this world 
 at all events. 
 
 It was with a melancholy air that Dr. 
 Snob surprised Dr. Singleton one morn- 
 ing with a call, and put into that grave 
 colleague's hands a newspaper, with an 
 advertisement warning the public that 
 the "undersigned would not hold himself 
 responsible for, or pay any debts hence- 
 forth to be contracted by the Lady Sally 
 Fitzspinning, otherwise Lush." 
 
 Dr. Singleton thought of Edward. Dr. 
 Snob did not know what to think ; and Dr. 
 Singleton was not the man to help him. 
 
 Dr. Singleton considered it possible 
 that the father might now be persuaded to 
 accept the society of his son ; but there was 
 a form of disease which even this man of 
 deep insight had not completely mastered. 
 It was that particular species of pride which 
 is better expressed by the French word, 
 amour-propre, than by our pride, vanity, 
 self-esteem, or any compound of these terms 
 which we can contrive. If Mr. Lush had
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. Sl3 
 
 been capable of taking an impartial view of 
 his own conduct, his son's marriage ought 
 to have looked less inexcusable, for he 
 might have reasoned thus with himself: 
 " He was young and inexperienced; and I 
 neither young nor unacquainted with the 
 world. He was a sufferer peculiarly alive 
 to sympathy ; and I a man of money, sensi- 
 tive to the smiles of rank. Providence 
 made him not quite a fool; but who the 
 deuce contrived that I should make a fool 
 of myself ! He found a rich sweet soul in 
 poverty, and he undertook the romantic 
 task of setting the jewel according to the 
 conventional taste of society ; and I found 
 a titled adventuress, whom I asked to take 
 me out of my own heavily gilt — gilt what ? 
 — say golden frame, and set me in high 
 life ; and it is very well she did not set me 
 in the Old Bailey or the Fleet, which would 
 have been rather worse than a madhouse, 
 where I deserve to be — old fool that I am ! 
 Come, Edw^ard, to the arms of your father, 
 and elevate Mrs. Plantagenet Lush to the 
 place left vacant by the Lady Fitzspin-
 
 314 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 ning." Mr. Lush did not reason so. Rea- 
 son and the reader agree that he ought; 
 although it is more than probable that, 
 under similar circumstances, reason and the 
 reader would part company. It is so much 
 the custom for men to act according to 
 amour-propre^ that conduct directed by 
 sense and justice rises to the height of mag- 
 nanimity. Men love the exercise of patron- 
 age more than recognition of merit for its 
 own sake; if to acknowledge merit serves 
 to reflect credit on the benevolent patron, 
 why, well and good. There is some cliance 
 for merit, provided it does not hazard an 
 essay at independence ; and then good-bye 
 to the chances of honour and honesty, which 
 will have the goodness to make way for 
 sycophancy. 
 
 How Mr. Lush did reason it would be 
 hard to say; for private maledictions on 
 himself, however sincere, did not result 
 from any logical process of ratiocination, 
 such as could be distinctly set forward by 
 an ordinarily analytic pen. His arguments, 
 suffice it to say, were of the kind which.
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 315 
 
 instead of clearing mental views, only sour 
 the temper. Because he was angry with 
 himself, he could not be pleased with any 
 one else. To make a private confession, 
 seasoned with free dealings with the name 
 of Satan, was a different thing from the 
 manly avowal of a fault, followed by its 
 proper moral of toleration for others' weak- 
 nesses ; although ashamed, he was not hum- 
 bled — he was only annoyed, and instead of 
 learning a lesson of gentleness, he became 
 morose and irritable. It is ever so — our 
 choice must lie between virtues and their 
 opposites. 
 
 When Dr. Singleton called to pay a 
 friendly visit to Mr. Lush he was rather 
 well received ; not because of any modifica- 
 tion of the latter's feelings towards his son, 
 but that, having cast off Dr. Snob, to whom 
 he attributed his misadventure, he felt that 
 he was inflicting some contempt upon that 
 obsequious physician by receiving a rival, 
 whom he knew to be peculiarly antagonistic 
 to that gentleman. There was a better 
 reason, however. Mr. Lush had been taught
 
 316 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 to pay homage to the word and honesty of 
 a man whom he had not trusted as he ought 
 to have done. He did not, indeed, mean to 
 say so openly, because he did not wish to 
 afford the Doctor an opportunity of bring- 
 ing forward the subject which he divined 
 to be in his mind. His own unhicky mar- 
 riage had amongst its worst effects that of 
 completing his estrangement from Edward. 
 But as there is always a lurking sense of 
 justice in the most perverse nature, Mr. 
 Lush was so far softened as to be disposed 
 to make more liberal allowance for the 
 young man's comforts. Mr. Elias Mathews, 
 who had not been slow to perceive advan- 
 tages for himself in the inquiries addressed 
 about Edward's tastes and likings, opened 
 the way to prospective concessions by the 
 information that he seemed to like the news- 
 paper. The fact was, that Mr. Elias wished 
 to have a newspaper for himself, but did 
 not want to pay for it, or any other neces- 
 sary of life not absolutely essential for 
 keeping body and soul together, and for the 
 purposes of decent appearance. But as Mr.
 
 ONCE UFON A TIME. 317 
 
 Elias's little transactions in the city, on his 
 own account, extended with the gathered 
 fruits of his economies, he found the Metho- 
 dist Magazine^ even when not a month old, 
 and freshened by the marginal notes of the 
 dear sisters through whose hands it came, 
 laden with pious reflections, no sufficient 
 guide to investments amongst the moths 
 that corrupt. A newspaper subscribed for 
 Edward would be virtually a present to 
 himself; and as Dr. Singleton's call coin- 
 cided with Mr. Mathews' suggestion of the 
 day before, Mr. Lush was not displeased to 
 find himself with a practical topic of con- 
 versation. 
 
 " It is kind of you. Doctor Singleton, to 
 call on me to make inquiries about my un- 
 fortunate son ; and now I shall take the 
 liberty of asking you would it be safe to 
 allow him a newspaper?" 
 
 " By all means, Sir, by all means. I am 
 quite delighted to hear that he shows such 
 a sign of an awakening interest in the life 
 of the world, of which the newspaper is 
 the mirror, as the drama is the mirror held
 
 318 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 up to nature — rather say was; for the 
 drama is now making way for the journal. 
 Delighted, indeed, am I." 
 
 " Is there no fear, Doctor, of his memory 
 becoming burthened with the variety and 
 multitude of things which fill the many 
 columns of a daily paper ?" 
 
 " Not at all, not at all. Like an animal 
 finding its way to its own proper food, he 
 will prefer particular sources of information, 
 rejecting those which do not assimilate with 
 his mind. Now here must be some person 
 of nice tact set to observe the sort of in- 
 formation he likes best, and if it be good 
 and wholesome, then books of more ex- 
 tended character might be laid in his way." 
 
 '' But, Doctor, suppose he should prefer 
 the unsound parts, the brutal details of 
 the police office, or the indecent investi- 
 gations ?" 
 
 " That would be bad, indeed. But no, 
 no ; I know Edward too well. Unless he 
 be greatly changed since he was under my 
 care, he will turn from such things with 
 loathing. What I expect is, that his
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME, 319 
 
 curiosity will be excited by news of what 
 is passing in all countries. Some wonder, 
 Mr. Lush, at the declining hold of works of 
 imagination ; but the imaginings and fancies 
 of poets and writers of fiction are beaten 
 by facts. Think, Sir, of the whole world 
 being brought under the eye, and seen at a 
 single glance ! Is not this more astonish- 
 ing and more exalting than fancied islands, 
 (for which there is no place) peopled with 
 creatures that look tame in presence of the 
 marvels of the microscope and the revela- 
 tions of pure science ? We seem to hold 
 this globe in our hands, and to view man- 
 kind as one race indeed, not divided by 
 seas and mountains into natural enemies, 
 but a vast brotherhood, held together by 
 common interests. We see this growing 
 fact in the newspaper only ; for it is the 
 mirror showing the whole world to the in- 
 telligence." 
 
 "Well, Sir, Edward shall continue to 
 have the newspaper. There is another 
 subject upon which I should like to have 
 your opinion. Mr. Mathews assures me
 
 320 ONCE UPON A TIME. 
 
 that Edward has derived much benefit from 
 a gentleman who is not professional. He 
 is a bookseller, a Mr. Maltheson, an in- 
 genious sort of person, who seems to have 
 read much. This Mr. Maltheson has been 
 practising some experiments, which, accor- 
 ding to Mathews' description, are too inno- 
 cent to do harm. It appears that he can 
 put Edward into a sound sleep at will, and 
 contrives to soothe him. He has no in- 
 terest in the matter, for he makes no 
 charge ; but of course Mathews has my 
 authority to convey presents to any extent 
 he thinks right ; for Mathews is a conscien- 
 tious fellow, upon whom I place implicit 
 reliance. Do you see any objection to this 
 proceeding ?" 
 
 " Not the least. I know well the sys- 
 tem to which you refer, and think it not 
 unlikely that we have stumbled upon a dis- 
 covery demanding careful investigation. 
 There may be little in it, and there may be 
 a great deal." 
 
 " Again, Doctor, Mathews tells me that 
 Edward desires to join a country party, 
 composed of school children."
 
 ONCE UPON A TIME. 321 
 
 " Let him go, by all means. Let him 
 read newspapers, see companj^, go about, 
 and set life in motion ; and perhaps you 
 will again be the happy father of a restored 
 son." 
 
 "Happy!" Mr. Lush sighed. "Good- 
 bye, Dr. Singleton ; I must leave you." 
 
 It was after this interview that Mr. Lush 
 authorised Elias Mathews to take a carriaofe 
 for his family to Richmond, and pay a sub- 
 scription into the hands of Mr. Samson 
 Shepherd. 
 
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