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 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH 
 
 BY 
 
 MARGARET L. WOODS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "a village TRAGEDY." 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL, I, 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 
 
 1S91.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 ^ 
 
 9:1 3 
 
 
 TO MV HUSBAND. 
 
 
 fe
 
 PART I.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Somewhere in St. James' there must still be 
 a pleasant room with three tall windows 
 looking over the wide street. A long time 
 ago the middle one was the favourite resort 
 of Ginckel Vanhomrigh, who knew a dozen 
 pretty ways of leaning in the embrasure, or 
 lounging on the little iron balcony which 
 then projected from the front of the house. 
 It was summer ; there was a clearness, an 
 indefinable cheerfulness about the sounds 
 that floated in through the open window, 
 which would have made even a blind man 
 conscious that it was also morning and sunny 
 weather. In contrast to the glow of sunshine 
 outside, the room with its dark wainscoting 
 and heavy curtains looked dim, except where 
 
 4. VOL. I. B
 
 2 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 the women's liMit dresses and a crreat 
 tlovvered beau-pot of roses, fresh from some 
 country garden, gleamed through the twilight. 
 But St. James' Street was comparatively 
 quiet, for the great world was out of town, 
 though painted coaches and swift chaises 
 rolled in from Kensington and Chiswick, 
 and occasionally a Cabinet Minister or some 
 other person of quality sauntered by on the 
 shady side. This was fortunate for Ginckel, 
 who otherwise might have been unable to 
 disguise from himself that he lacked his due 
 tribute of admiration that morning, the party 
 in the parlour being too nearly related to 
 him or too intent upon their own concerns 
 to appreciate the graces which elsewhere 
 made his unsubstantial fortune. Sarah Stone, 
 indeed, looked at him pretty often, but the 
 cheerful satisfaction which beamed from her 
 prominent eyes was the reverse of compli- 
 mentary. It said, as plainly as her tongue 
 said afterwards in the privacy of the sisterly 
 bed-chamber, " I'm sure I blush to think as 
 ever I let my fancy run on that popinjay of 
 a cousin Vanhomrigh. O Lord ! Suppose
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 3 
 
 he had closed with the bargain and me 
 missed getting my Mr. Harris!" 
 
 Mrs. Stone was exerting all the dignity 
 appropriate to her large flabby face and 
 figure, to repress every sign of her exultation, 
 as she detailed to her sister-in-law Vanhom- 
 righ the particulars of Sarah's very advan- 
 tageous match. Perhaps a vague feeling 
 of pique added to the natural solemnity of 
 her manner, for Mrs. Vanhomrigh was almost 
 too sincerely delighted ; the least suspicion 
 of jealousy in the background of her con- 
 gratulations would have made them more 
 flattering. But in truth Madam Van took 
 much too sanguine a view of her own daugh- 
 ters and their prospects, to be easily moved 
 to jealousy, and a marriage, anybody's mar- 
 riage, from the kitchen-maid's to the heir- 
 apparent's, was to her so inexhaustibly 
 pleasing and exciting an event, that it was 
 too much to expect her to be annoyed at 
 the prospect of one In her own family. As 
 she leaned half out of her chair listening 
 eagerly, a graceful bright-eyed woman, with 
 one delicate thin hand clasping the ends o'i
 
 4 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 the lace Steinkirk which served her for a 
 cap, she kept rapidly throwing Mrs. Stone's 
 bits of information over her riorht shoulder 
 to her son, or more occasionally over her left 
 to her daughters ; not because they could 
 not hear their aunt's deliberate utterances 
 if so minded, but out of sheer impatience 
 to hand on the news to somebody. 
 
 '' Ginckel, my dear ! Mr. Harris has the 
 chaplaincy to the Goldsmiths' Company, and 
 is to preach before the Lord Mayor and 
 Corporation. Essie shall recommend him 
 to the Doctor. Girls, girls, d'ye hear, Mr. 
 Harris stands six feet two in his stockings ! 
 Ginckel, only fancy ! Mr. Harris has a living 
 of ;^500 a year, and the most commodious 
 new-built parsonage in the county." 
 
 This was irritating to Ginckel, who mis- 
 takenly supposed his parent to be reflecting 
 on his own refusal to entertain the most 
 distant idea of a match with Miss Sarah. 
 He hoped his manner of taking snuff and 
 brushing his coat-sleeve expressed his un- 
 abated contempt for the lady, her person, 
 fortune, and social position.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 5 
 
 ''A living- of ;/i'300," corrected Mrs. Stone 
 in her fat dull voice, ''and expectations — 
 an uncle just home from the Indies, and 
 gone up to the breast In a creeping palsy." 
 
 **0h, ma'am, you hadn't better reckon on 
 him," put In the proud but cautious bride ; 
 "■ he's none so old, and may last longer than 
 some of us ; they're all such fine men In the 
 Harris family." 
 
 ** Lud, niece," cried Mrs. Vanhomrigh, *' so 
 long as you get something, what signifies If 
 it's to day or to-morrow ? Expectations, say 
 I, good expectations, are better any day than 
 savings, money as you've pined and stinted 
 yourself to lay by, and then can't get no just 
 interest for, and very likely take out and 
 spend for mere anger at being so treated by 
 a pack of rascally attorneys. There's my 
 own cousin Purvis, seventy years of age If 
 she's a day, as upright as Sarah there, and 
 able to do fine tambour work without her 
 glasses ; I reckoned her to be as good as an 
 annuity saving up for my old age, and then, 
 as I often tell the children, I'll divide all the 
 rest of my fortune among 'em and never
 
 6 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 want anything but to see 'em happy, and my 
 grandchildren about me." 
 
 And Mrs. Vanhomrigh ended, glancing 
 round the circle with a triumphant smile, as 
 one perennially unconvinced that there could 
 exist a reasonable creature that disagreed 
 with her. Indeed, there was a persuasive- 
 ness about her bright eyes, her quick speech 
 with its faint reminiscence of a brogue, and 
 above all, her unshaken confidence in the 
 justice of her own sentiments and opinions, 
 which lent a momentary respectability to the 
 most outrageous ones she might be pleased 
 to express. 
 
 Mrs. Stone, however, was not one to be 
 surprised into the most trifling deviation from 
 the straight line. '' I am not of your mind, 
 sister," she replied stiffly. *' As a clergyman, 
 I am sure Mr. Stone could not approve of 
 such principles. But, as I was saying, what 
 with Mr. Harris' cure and Sarah's own little 
 fortin — for my girls won't go penniless to 
 no man, — she'll have enough and to spare 
 for a young woman that has been plainly 
 brought up and not set above herself by
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 7 
 
 book-learning and company that's too fine for 
 her." 
 
 At this home-thrust Molly Vanhomrigh 
 raised her eyes from her own pretty foot, 
 which she had been pointing and balancing 
 some inches from the ground, either for the 
 pleasure of looking at it, or as an accompani- 
 ment to certain idle dreams. She glanced 
 up with a mischievous smile at her sister, at 
 whom her aunt no doubt more particularly 
 aimed. At the mention of the too well- 
 known name of Cousin Purvis the least trace 
 of a perpendicular line had shown itself on 
 Essie's white brow, but it was gone, and she 
 not only seemed, but was, totally unconscious 
 that Mrs. Stone had spoken with any special 
 intention. Nor did it occur to her as she 
 stood with her hands clasped behind her and 
 her head a little thrown back, that an attitude 
 to her so natural that it was becoming, was 
 unusual in a young lady, and therefore laid 
 her open to her aunt's severe animadversions 
 and her cousins' small pleasantries. Esther 
 Vanhomrigh was a straight, tall young woman, 
 in figure rather robust than what is generally
 
 8 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 termed graceful ; but in that very robustness 
 there was grace of a kind — something that 
 gave pleasure to an unvitiated eye — and her 
 skin was white, softer in tone but not less 
 pure than her white gown. Her cousins 
 observed her to be dressed with a studied 
 simplicity this morning, and whereas she had 
 been used to wear her hair dressed in curls, 
 it was now brushed up under a plain cap. 
 Its rough crisp waves, rebellious to the 
 straightening brush, were of a light golden 
 brown. The dark eyebrows and deepset 
 grey eyes, which she owed to her mother, 
 and the broad forehead above them, gave an 
 undeniable impressiveness to her face. As 
 to its beauty there were different opinions. 
 
 The fragile Francis Earle, leaning against 
 the mantel-piece with a book in one hand, 
 looked at her over the top of it with au 
 inscrutable expression ; admiration, discon- 
 tent, mockery — it might have been construed 
 to mean all or any, but its most obvious 
 meaning was mockery. 
 
 " Montaigne again ! " he said. '* Since last 
 I played with this book — the Lord preserve
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 9 
 
 me from reading it ! — since then, I say, you 
 have vented nine separate attacks of the 
 spleen on these venerable pages. The nine 
 reasons for 'em, Miss Essie, or the one 
 reason for the nine ? " 
 
 *' Put it as you please," replied she care- 
 lessly. " Perhaps they stand for the nine 
 most Intolerable times old Ann has pulled 
 my hair while she was dressing it ; and you 
 know we durst not complain — oh, we durst 
 not for our lives ! Only I like to keep some 
 sage at my dressing-table to take my scratches 
 and lend me his philosophy." 
 
 **Sage? Sage ?" questioned Francis. "Is 
 his name Montaigne when in the flesh ? 
 Philosophy ? That is a long word, and what 
 it means in a lady's mouth I cannot possibly 
 guess." 
 
 " Not so much nonsense as In a gentle- 
 man's, you must agree," retorted she, '' since 
 we cannot mean Aristotle and all that, of which 
 we know nothing, and which you tell me is 
 by far the greatest nonsense In the world." 
 
 ** Alas ! how should I love the nymph 
 Philosophy whom I have not seen, when I
 
 lo ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 do not love the philosophers whom I have 
 seen ? But you, Miss Essie, I believe you 
 love 'em. Tell me now, do you not love a 
 philosopher above everything?" 
 
 It was impossible to say if Esther was 
 deliberately ignoring certain personal mean- 
 ings in her Interlocutor's remarks, or whether 
 she really had not observed them. 
 
 " I cannot answer your question. I do 
 not know any philosopher as yet," she 
 answered ; " but when I am presented to 
 Mr. Berkeley I will tell you — no, I certainly 
 will not tell you, if I love him." 
 
 The young man dropped Montaigne beside 
 the roses so sharply that the little Dutch 
 table and the china pot rattled again. 
 
 " Pooh ! " he said ; '* you need not. If 
 you do not love him, you will at any rate 
 love to be acquainted with him. There 
 never was a less artless dissembler than you, 
 miss, and we all know your ruling passions 
 sooner than yourself. To walk up the Mall 
 with Doctor Swift, and down it with Mr. 
 Pope ; in one round of the Ring to capture 
 a compliment from Mr. Gay, a Howdee from
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, n 
 
 Mr. Prior, and a bow from Mr. Addison ; 
 this, my dear Hess, is your ambition. 
 Faith ! 'tis an odd one." 
 
 *' I own 'tis uncommon," she answered, 
 stickinof out a little more a chin that was 
 too heavy for beauty ; "but Prince Posterity 
 is on my side. Is he not proud to be ac- 
 quainted with Homer and Horace, and 
 mighty little concerned to know the fat lords 
 that fed them ? " 
 
 ** Fie ! the comparison is as upside down 
 as your face in a spoon. His Highness loves 
 wit disencumbered of the wits ; while you — 
 Well ! well ! I own there is one thing you 
 love better than to be acquainted with a wit." 
 
 " I cannot guess what that is, Master 
 Francis." 
 
 ** To acquaint us with the fact that you 
 know them. Mr. Spectator commends our 
 taste, Mr. Tatler our coffee. A post! a 
 post ! These with speed to all whom it does 
 not concern ! Why, such news must be 
 spread even so far as Oxford, to so obscure 
 a personage as Francis Earle, esquire — 
 scholar, I mean."
 
 12 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 If the young man's object was to annoy, 
 he had at lenQfth succeeded. Esther coloured 
 as she seated herself on the sofa at a little 
 distance from him. 
 
 ** O thou censorious brat ! " she cried. 
 " But be satisfied. Never aQfain shalt thou 
 be plagued with news, with a fine ruffle, a 
 shirt, a bottle of sweet waters, or anything 
 else that is good from thy kind cousins. 
 Though there are gentlemen, mind you, and 
 fine gentlemen too, that would be pleased 
 enough to get 'em." 
 
 He followed, and dropped down between 
 her and Molly, laughing silently. 
 
 '' Mercy ! mercy ! How angry you are 
 because I tear the mask from your female 
 vanity! Yet 'tis not for diversion I do't. 
 No ! but all on poor Molly's account, because 
 you grow arrogant and despise her. There, 
 don't deny it, Moll, for she does despise you. 
 What reason can she have to wear a plain 
 cap and love philosophers, except to set 
 herself above the misses who wear pretty 
 shoes and love lords ? " 
 
 It was Molly's turn to redden and bite her
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 13 
 
 fan. It was true that she had a Httle of her 
 mother's childish dehght in fine company, 
 but even of that she was ashamed before her 
 more austere sister, and she feared Francis 
 had some more particular meaning. 
 
 '* I have not wit nor Essie malice enough 
 to rally with you, sir," she said ; '' so pray 
 take it we have hauled down our colours, 
 and cease firing." 
 
 ** Not wit, miss ? Demme, not wit .'^ " 
 cried fat young Edward Stone, starting from 
 an open-eyed doze, edging his chair nearer, 
 and settling a cravat which required as 
 much attention as some modern shirt-cuffs. 
 "Gad, though! you've a very pretty wit. 
 Quite enough wit for a lady, say I." 
 
 "Why, cousin, how can you tell 'tis always 
 enough ? " asked Esther, with a smile, turning 
 on her cousin that direct look of hers, which 
 the beaux were apt to feel vaguely un- 
 complimentary, since it betrayed no conscious- 
 ness that their approval was of importance 
 to her. '' Enough wit for a lady, means, I 
 suppose, enough to exercise a gentleman's 
 wit and not enough to match it."
 
 14 ESTHER VAXHOMRIGH. 
 
 "Just SO, miss," returned Ivlr. Stone, 
 pleased to find himself conversing, for this 
 happened to him very rarely. *' Oddso ! you 
 take my meaning precisely." 
 
 '' Oh, cousin ! " cried Molly, pouting, " how- 
 can you say that, when you know 'twas a 
 compliment you meant me, and no meaning 
 else in it whatever ? Sure I'll never foro^ive 
 you if you let sister go explaining away your 
 pretty speeches to me. Indeed, sir, you 
 shall sw^ear you meant nothing in the Avorld 
 but a compliment to me." 
 
 That two young ladies on their promotion 
 might be laughing at a solid and rising 
 young gentleman from the City was an idea 
 too preposterous to occur to a w^ell-regulated 
 mind, so Edward Stone replied by slowly 
 involving himself in manifold excuses and 
 protestations, staring all the time with dull 
 but growing admiration into Cousin Molly's 
 pretty face. It was pleasant to look at it, 
 and pleasant too to show his mother and 
 sisters his masculine independence of their 
 feminine likes and dislikes by openly admir- 
 ing a Vanhomrigh girl. As to Miss Molly,
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 15 
 
 being undeniably both a coquette and a 
 tease, it amused her equally to captivate her 
 cousin and to scandalize her aunt. 
 
 Meanwhile Glnckel had hurriedly left the 
 room and flown to the street door, to inter- 
 cept a young man in riding-boots who came 
 lounging past. Presently the boots were 
 heard on the stairs. Ginckel announced 
 " My Lord Mordaunt," and a youth, re- 
 markably tall and also remarkably hand- 
 some, entered the room. There was an 
 indifference that amounted to impertinence 
 in the expression of his pale face with 
 the heavy-lidded eyes, as he performed 
 his bow at the door, and after a pause, ap- 
 parently of doubt whether or not to exert 
 himself so far, extended a limp hand. Mrs. 
 Vanhomrigh had risen as he came in, and, 
 breaking through her conversation as though 
 her sister-in-law had suddenly ceased to 
 exist, darted towards him, joy beaming from 
 her bright eyes. Had she not already, in 
 day and night dreams, embraced him as her 
 son-in-law, and saluted her Molly as Lady 
 Mordaunt? Her delight in the prospect
 
 i6 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 was frank, but by no means grovelling ; for 
 there was no match her eirls could achieve 
 fine enough to surprise her, and she was fully 
 as pleased to think Molly would make half 
 of a very pretty couple, as that she would 
 have a coronet on her coach, and eventually 
 the finest pearls in the peerage. For Lord 
 Mordaunt was heir to the Earldom of Peter- 
 borough. If the marriage was projected 
 in Ginckel's head, planned down to the 
 wedding-favours in his mother's, and trem- 
 blingly dreamed of in little Molly's, there 
 was no reason to suppose the idea of it had 
 found any place whatever in the young man's. 
 He was but twenty, and by no means of an 
 ardent disposition. As he seated himself at 
 Molly's side totally ignoring his hostess and 
 every one else in the parlour, he smiled 
 languidly as one expecting the curtain to rise 
 on an agreeable comedy ; for she was indeed 
 pretty as some gay-feathered bird, this Molly 
 Vanhomrigh, with her sparkling eyes, her 
 soft irregular face, her small rounded figure 
 and white little hands. 
 
 Esther disliked Lord Mordaunt. She sat
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 17 
 
 silent and contemplated her sister with a 
 mind full of misgiving. Meantime another 
 person was looking across the room at herself, 
 somewhat similarly disquieted on her behalf. 
 This was Mr. Erasmus Lewis, Under 
 Secretary of State, who had joined Lord 
 Mordaunt on the road from Windsor, and 
 entered a little behind him. Mr. Lewis, 
 more courteous than his young acquaintance, 
 paid his devoirs to Mrs. Vanhomrigh, 
 conscious all the time of a certain sealed 
 paper packet In his breast-pocket, super- 
 scribed To Mrs. Esther Vanhomrigh, Junior, 
 at her lodgings i7i St. J antes'. It was not 
 the first time that he had brought such a 
 missive, and he knew the quick flush of 
 carnation colour, the proud smile and 
 brightening glance with which It would be 
 received ; for was It not written with the 
 very hand of Jonathan Swift, the poet, the 
 wit, the prince of pamphleteers, the chosen 
 companion of brilliant Bollngbroke and all- 
 powerful Harley ? Of Swift, at this moment 
 perhaps the most Influential commoner In 
 England, not by any accident of position, 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 1 8 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 but by sheer force of his pre-eminent mind, 
 which seemed for a too brief time, able to 
 subdue all pettier spirits under It, and weld 
 together the mean and shifting elements of 
 political factions. 
 
 *' I recognize your flowers, Miss Esther," 
 said Mr. Lewis at length, crossing the room 
 and touching the roses In the beau-pot ; *' the 
 poor Doctor plucked them last evening In 
 my Lord Peterbrow's garden at Parson's 
 Green, while the rest of us were eating the 
 finest peaches In the world." 
 
 *' 'Twas my guardian spirit whispered him 
 to get 'em for me," cried Essie ; ** I shall 
 threaten him. If he runs after Mrs. Hyde, Til 
 recall the kind creature, and then he will 
 ' munch and crunch,' as he says, and have a 
 bad head." 
 
 *' Recall it at once, my dear miss," said Mr. 
 Lewis. *' You have plenty of reason already. 
 All the men are not out of town that beauty 
 can afford to be thus undefended by her 
 guardian angel ! " And he clapped his little 
 red heels together, and bowed with his hat 
 on his heart. " Besides, what unsuitable
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 19 
 
 things the guardian angel of a fine young 
 miss must whisper to an elderly divine ! No 
 no, you must recall it at once." 
 
 Essie made her curtsey in response to his 
 bow, but, sticking two or three flowers in 
 her bodice with a mutinous smile, " Sure, sir, 
 I shall not be so ungrateful to Dr. Swift," she 
 answered. '' 'Twould be an ill return for my 
 nosegay." 
 
 ** Miss need not be over-grateful for that," 
 sneered Lord Mordaunt, who had a languid 
 but sincere dislike to Esther. " The old putt 
 of a parson deserves no credit for gallantry. 
 ' A plague on these flowers ! ' says he, ' I 
 must needs pull 'em, and now what shall I 
 do with 'em ? I'll give 'em to a lady,' says 
 he, ''tis ever the best way to rid oneself 
 handsomely of one's rubbish ; ' and you may 
 guess if Mrs. Hyde or any one else wanted 
 'em after that. So he sends 'em into town 
 by his Lordship's courier, that was just in 
 the saddle coming this road." 
 
 *' I must own 'twas done somewhat after 
 that fashion," Mr. Lewis apologized, ''but his 
 Lordship has barely been presented to the
 
 20 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 Doctor, and seems not familiar with his 
 manner, while I doubt not Miss Essie knows 
 it well." 
 
 *' That I do, sir, and none pleases me 
 better," cried she, tossing her chin up with a 
 smile, and disdaining to look at Lord Mor- 
 daunt. Then to herself triumphantly, ''He 
 gathered them for me, whatever they may say." 
 And she was right, for Swift had thought 
 of her directly he caught sight of the wide 
 border full of late-blooming roses under Lord 
 Peterborough's southern wall. Just such 
 pink roses Esther had worn stuck in her 
 blue bodice when Swift and she had walked 
 in Kensington Gardens one evening last 
 June. What an amusement it was to him to 
 secretly detain Lord Peterborough's courier, 
 to pluck them for her, and then to play 
 "hide-and-seek," as he called it, with the 
 ladies, till each one imagined she had had 
 the refusal of his flowers, and then— well 
 it must be confessed that feeing the courier 
 for his trouble had not amused him at all, 
 but still he had done it. 
 
 ** Can you not persuade Hess to visit
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 21 
 
 Windsor, Mr. Lewis?" asked Mrs. Van- 
 homrigh, daintily pettish. '' Plague take the 
 child ! We had planned the pleasantest 
 jaunt there, to see the Doctor, and to take 
 tea with his Lordship on the way home, and 
 now, if you'll believe me, she won't let us go 
 at all. Lord ! Lord ! Well may the Doctor 
 call her Governor Huff." 
 
 " Mr. Lewis, ma'am, has brought per- 
 suasion that cannot be resisted," said Esther, 
 with rose-red cheeks and sparkling eyes, and 
 read out from her opened letter : — 
 
 ** Dr. Swift's compliments and also his 
 duty to the three ladies Van, and he will be 
 obliged to them to know what day they will 
 please to honour his lodgings at Windsor, 
 which he must not call poor, because they 
 are not his own, and because they are very 
 fine, madams all, and within the Castle 
 wall — and so antique and with so fine a 
 prospect from the window they are enough 
 to turn some folks romantick. Ladies, your 
 very humble servant. Dr. Swift, awaits your 
 pleasures."
 
 2 2 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 The letter was dated Windsor, Atigust 
 2oth, 1 71 2. 
 
 Francis Earle's quick eyes noticed there 
 was another slip of paper inside the letter, 
 w^hich she did not read out. It ran thus : — 
 
 ''To Miss Hess Vanhom. Pray w^ill 
 Governor Huff accept this ? A fo^nnal, a 
 humble invitation mzist I receive, says she. 
 Well, Miss, don't that begin formal and end 
 humble ? Besides I want some more of 
 your coffee, d'ye hear ? This is for Miss 
 Essy's private eye : t'other to be shown. 
 ' I cannot be sly,' says she. ' Yes, but you 
 shall be as sly as I please,' says he." 
 
 *''Tis plain, child, 3^ou must go," cried 
 Madame Van, beaming round on the com- 
 pany. "You see the Doctor won't let you 
 off", though he's the good-naturedest man in 
 the world. We must order the coach early, 
 for there will be the Castle and the Park to 
 visit, and Eton College, and the Doctor's 
 lodgings, and Lord Mordaunt's fine house 
 which we must see, and we might have a
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 23 
 
 water-party too ; then there are Mr. Pinch- 
 beck's musical clocks — I wouldn't miss seeing 
 em for the world — and then, my dears, we 
 should never pass so near Cousin Purvis 
 at Twittenham without making her our 
 Howdees. 'Twill be a most delightful expe- 
 dition. You must all come, all, Sister Stone, 
 and never consider of the charges, for I'll 
 treat you every one."
 
 24 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The September sky wore its most stainless 
 blue overhead, deepening round the horizon 
 to a vaporous purple, flecked with the pearl- 
 coloured edges of a few faint clouds. The 
 wide valley of the Thames lay transfigured 
 In the rich light and richer mist of early 
 autumn ; an atmosphere through which Its 
 familiar heights looked blue, remote, mys- 
 terious, as mountains In a dream. Nearer, 
 the sunshine lay broad on the golden stubble- 
 fields and smooth water-meadows, where 
 the young grass was shooting green under 
 the grey willows and the shimmering alder 
 thickets that mark the silver windings of the 
 Thames. The belts and masses of distant 
 woodland, blurred In the haze, looked dark 
 almost to blackness, but here and there on 
 the pale-leaved willows and massive elms a
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 25 
 
 splash of yellow gave token of the waning 
 year, and In the hedgerows great clusters of 
 rlpe-berrles glowed scarlet In the sun. In 
 the lanes, where bush and bank were still 
 hung with trails of gold left behind by the 
 harvest waggons as they passed, the flicker- 
 ing shadows of the leaves pressed as close 
 on each other as ever, and made a pleasant 
 coolness, but the sun beat fiercely on the 
 high road. 
 
 '' Well, I never was hotter, nor ever shall 
 be. If the Lord will forgive me my sins ! " 
 laughed Mrs. Vanhomrigh, waving a big fan 
 that sent a pleasant draught through the 
 stuffy coach. She spoke with the cheerful- 
 ness of one to whom the discomforts of a 
 jaunt are part of the amusement. The 
 youngest Miss Stone, who sat between her 
 and Mrs. Stone, shared the heat but not 
 her sentiments. 
 
 *' I protest, ma'am, your fan makes more 
 dust than air," cried she crossly. She had 
 come partly to see Windsor Castle, and 
 partly because she had understood from her 
 mamma that the Vanhomrighs saw a great
 
 26 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 deal too much fine company ; a reprehensible 
 but perhaps agreeable practice. However, 
 only Ginckel and Francis Earle were in the 
 rumble. Ginckel was as much out of temper 
 as herself, fearing the effects of the sun and 
 dust on his pearl-coloured waistcoat and pale- 
 blue coat, and afraid to betray his anxiety to 
 Francis. As a man of the world he despised 
 his cousin, whose name was but a title of 
 courtesy, and who owed his place under 
 their roof to Mrs. Vanhomrigh's ridiculous 
 generosity — a form of extravagance with 
 which her son had no sympathy — but though 
 one might be indifferent to the youth's 
 opinion, it was difficult to remain indifferent 
 to his tongue, which was of the sharpest. 
 
 Francis was in reality too self-absorbed 
 to have even a sarcasm at the service of 
 another. He was going through that 
 common stage In the development of persons 
 of character, when the limits of their lives 
 seem to have become too narrow to admit 
 of the comfortable exercise of their powers ; 
 when they suffer from moral cramps and 
 mental growing-pains, tear at the most
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 27 
 
 immutable barriers with the sanguine im- 
 patience of some newly-caught wild creature, 
 and rend the most harmless objects with the 
 fury of a puppy encouraging its teeth ; a 
 stage, in short, when to themselves and 
 others they are infinitely unpleasant. But 
 Francis' was a practical mind. His griev- 
 ances were not wholly imaginary, and his 
 present object was perfectly definite, if 
 difficult of attainment. Three-and-twenty 
 years ago his mother, a cousin of Mrs. 
 Vanhomrigh's, had gone to Holland among 
 the household of an ambassador ; soon after- 
 wards she had returned to England under 
 the protection of some man of quality. She 
 did not tell her family his name or communi- 
 cate with them further, for though such an 
 episode was then commonly reckoned trifling 
 and even creditable in the career of a young 
 gentleman, in that of a young lady its dis- 
 gracefulness was fully admitted. Seven 
 years later, when, Mrs. Vanhomrigh's uncle 
 had unexpectedly risen to be a Canon of 
 Chester, his grandson was brought to his 
 door, fortunately after dark, by a man of
 
 28 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 business. His daughter was dead. The 
 man of business, Mr. Wilson of Old 
 Windsor, stated that the child's father was 
 willing to act fairly by it ; that he would pay 
 a small sum yearly through Mr. Wilson for 
 its education and maintenance, till it had 
 reached the age of twenty-one, and would 
 then consider its case ; but on condition that 
 no questions were asked and no trouble of 
 any kind given. If its relations declined to 
 receive it, it was to be put to school at once. 
 The Canon was a widower, a student, a 
 leading ecclesiastic, and this child of six, 
 whose existence it would be difficult to 
 explain, was not a welcome addition to his 
 household. Mrs. Vanhomrigh, who had 
 greatly admired her cousin Fanny, happened 
 at the time to be staying at Chester on her 
 way to Dublin, and with her usual impetuous 
 kind-heartedness, offered to take Fanny's 
 boy off his hands. From that time she 
 honestly endeavoured to treat him as one of 
 her own family, whom as children she was 
 wont to overwhelm for three days with love 
 and attention, and then forget for a week in
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 29 
 
 a whirl of amusement and excitement. He 
 was a shy and sickly but obstinate and fiery 
 child, and would have fared ill at the hands 
 of the two Vanhomrigh boys — for there 
 were then two — had it not been for the pro- 
 tection of the robust Essie, who, though not 
 a year older than himself, was as big and 
 as ready wnth her hands as her brothers. 
 Both she and Molly grew fond of Francis. 
 Unlike their own brothers, he was clever 
 enough to be a companion to them, and not 
 strong enough to be domineering. But 
 Esther was his particular ally, either because 
 she was less sensitive than Molly to his 
 sharp tongue, or because he was often ill and 
 she had early constituted herself his nurse. 
 For these or for some subtler reasons, 
 certain contrasts and resemblances in their 
 characters, such as blended in the indefinable 
 just proportion, make friendships and loves 
 that are important and of the essence of life, 
 as distinguished from the many which are 
 trivial and among its accidents. Such being 
 Francis Earle's position in the Vanhomrigh 
 family, it was almost inevitable that Swift's
 
 so ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 domestication there should not be to his 
 taste. Be the hearthrug never so large, the 
 dog in possession cannot resist an inclination 
 to snarl at the canine stranger who proposes 
 to share it with him. In this case the 
 intruder made matters worse by completely 
 ignoring the occupier. ' Francis' sharp eyes 
 were sharpened by jealousy and dislike of 
 Swift, and he saw more clearly than any one 
 how day by day Esther's thoughts centred 
 more entirely on her great and brilliant 
 friend. Mrs. Vanhomrigh had given up the 
 sum paid for his maintenance to his educa- 
 tion, and until a year ago he had thrown all 
 his fiery energy and stubborn determination 
 into study, and had been not only officially 
 but in every respect a scholar — one who 
 looked forward to literature and the Church 
 as his roads to distinction. Accident, the 
 failure of sundry attempts at verse, and the 
 chance acquisition of a military friend — 
 either this or the natural development of his 
 character, had lately changed the current of 
 his ambitions. When his twenty-first birth- 
 day was drawing near, Mr. Wilson wrote to
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 31 
 
 say that his anonymous parent being advised 
 of his excellent parts, had authorized the 
 continuation of his allowance till his Oxford 
 course was completed, and would then see 
 to it that he obtained a fellowship or a 
 chaplaincy. Francis wrote in return that he 
 should prefer a commission in the army. 
 Mr. Wilson not unnaturally replied that the 
 young man might take his client's offer or 
 leave it. Affairs had been left in this 
 condition, and it occurred to him that he 
 might avail himself of the Vanhomrighs' 
 expedition to Windsor to reopen the matter 
 with the attorney : not indeed to sue, to 
 plead, for that was not his way, but to 
 demonstrate to the man by irresistible 
 arguments how perfectly in the wrong he, 
 Mr. Wilson, was. This seemed the easier 
 because so far he had not discussed the 
 matter with any one but himself 
 
 When the coach went up hill he jumped 
 down and walked to stretch his impatient 
 legs, and to get hotter and increase his 
 irritation by the sight of Esther inside, 
 looking very cool and fair, in spite of the
 
 32 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 heat. She had put on a blue damask dress, 
 white kerchief, and straw hat, which were 
 all particularly fresh and neat. She scarcely- 
 noticed him, but leaned back with drooping 
 eyelids and a face sometimes grave, some- 
 times faintly smiling, but always dreamily 
 happy. Molly sat by her, attired like her 
 sister, and thinking thoughts not very unlike 
 hers, but flushed and restless and full of 
 laughter and gay chatter. 
 
 So the coach rolled on, ever nearlng the 
 high Castle whose dim majestic towers rise 
 in the background of so many pleasant 
 homely landscapes — spired villages, elm- 
 bordered meadows, and shining reaches of 
 the river — crowning them all with a vision 
 of old romance. 
 
 Before the wheels rattled over the stones 
 of Windsor and the coachman urged his tired 
 steeds to one last effort up the hill, two 
 gentlemen were awaiting the coach and its 
 occupants at a tavern opposite the Castle 
 gates. The later of the two to arrive was 
 Lord Mordaunt, who drove up in a neat 
 chaise, very genteelly and becomingly dressed.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 33 
 
 and wearing a full brown peruke tied with a 
 scarlet ribbon. The other, who wore a 
 clerical gown and bands, had walked over 
 from the Castle a few minutes before his 
 arrival. His Lordship honoured this gentle- 
 man with the slightest possible bow and a 
 carelessly condescending greeting ; he had 
 been taught to expect obsequiousness from 
 parsons, and fancied that, left alone with 
 this one, he could soon teach him his place. 
 The parson paused in his mechanical pacing 
 of the tavern parlour, and looked at Lord 
 Mordaunt for about two minutes, which 
 seemed to that young nobleman a disagree- 
 ably long time. He was too young and too 
 ignorant to understand his antagonist's 
 importance in the world, but he instinctively 
 felt his boyish arrogance of rank fall shattered 
 before a far deeper and more masterful pride 
 than his own. 
 
 ''Your servant, young gentleman," said 
 the parson, removing the terror of his look 
 from the youth's face and returning his bow. 
 " You can sit down." 
 
 Before he well knew what he was doing, 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 -34 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 Lord Mordaunt had sat down, a most un- 
 wonted flush suffusing the tired pallor of his 
 handsome features. The other continued 
 his walk up and down, up and down, like a 
 lion in his den. Dr. Swift — the awe-inspir- 
 ing parson was no less a personage — was 
 about forty-five years old, but considerably 
 younger in appearance, tall, of a stately 
 presence and an impressive countenance. 
 He wore a dark peruke, his eyebrows were 
 black, and the closest shaving left a blue- 
 black shade on cheek and chin ; but his eyes 
 were as azure blue as those of any Phillis or 
 Chloe be-rhymed by the poets, and could 
 more truly than such are feigned to do, smile 
 as brightly or lower as terribly as heaven 
 itself. 
 
 After a while he stopped opposite Lord 
 Mordaunt, and looking at him attentively, 
 but after a less annihilating fashion, " Pray, 
 are you not studying at the University, my 
 Lord ? " he asked. 
 
 The young man had by this time recovered 
 his presence of mind, and determined to 
 pluck up a spirit.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 35 
 
 ''Sir, I am at the University, but I am not 
 studying," he answered, not raising his eyes, 
 but speaking to his boot, which he was 
 dusting with an embroidered cambric hand- 
 kerchief. 
 
 '' Can you read Greek, my Lord ? " asked 
 Swift. 
 
 Lord Mordaunt sat up, Hfted his eyebrows 
 and smiled superciliously. 
 
 " Gad, sir ! " he said, '' do I look like an 
 usher or a sucking parson } " 
 
 " No, young man," returned the Doctor in 
 a quiet but ominous voice ; '' you do not look 
 like anything with an ounce of brains in its 
 head or of virtue in its heart. And now I 
 have answered your question, you are bound 
 in common civility to answer mine. Can 
 you read Greek ? " 
 
 Again to his infinite mortification Lord 
 Mordaunt found himself quailing. 
 
 *'Sir, I cannot," he answered sulkily. 
 
 *' So much the better, my Lord," said the 
 Doctor, keeping his eye on that of his 
 subject, like a lion-tamer, "so much the 
 better ; now I can honestly take a guinea
 
 36 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 of you. 'Twill be a very small price you 
 will pay for making Homer's acquaintance 
 in an English dress pretty nearly as fine as 
 his Greek one." 
 
 "■ Demme, Doctor, what d'ye mean ? The 
 fellow may be in a French dancing dress for 
 all I care ! I won't have his beggarly 
 acquaintance at no price." And Lord 
 Mordaunt dug at the boards with his cane. 
 He felt that the situation was getting serious 
 since money was in question. 
 
 ''We'll pass you that then," said the 
 Doctor. '' You shall pay for the honour of 
 assisting the greatest poet of this age." 
 
 ** O sir," replied Lord Mordaunt with a 
 sneer, ''you should ha' told me before 'twas 
 lor yourself! I didn't know you was In 
 difficulties." 
 
 Swift made a gesture of impatience : *' Mr. 
 Alexander Pope is the gentleman to whose 
 translation you will have the honour to 
 subscribe." 
 
 " Gad, Doctor, you must excuse my mis- 
 take, but Lord, how the fashions change ! " 
 His Lordship took snuff after the manner of
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 37 
 
 Lord Bollngbroke. " Last year they told 
 vci^you was the greatest poet of the age." 
 
 " Then they Hed," repHed the Doctor drily, 
 **or they were fools that believed 'em! If 
 you wish to know what poetry Is, young man, 
 you must read the works of Mr. Pope.'* 
 
 Lord Mordaunt's little attempt to turn the 
 enemy's position having failed, he relapsed 
 Into sulklness. *' Damn poetry ! " he said, 
 assuming an attitude of resistance, his hands 
 in his pockets, and his legs stretched out 
 straight before him. '' What's poetry to me ? 
 I am a man of quality." 
 
 "Aye, that's just it," roared the grim 
 parson, flashing on him again that terrible 
 look, ''that's what your Lordship must pay 
 for. Why do you suppose we free Britons 
 keep such creatures and worship 'em too ? 
 Because, think you, 'tis only men of quality 
 that can be Idle and profane, ignorant and 
 debauched ? On my conscience your lacqueys 
 can do that part of your business as well as 
 you. No, sir, we keep 'em, that they may 
 be splendid, be generous, that they may pay, 
 pay — pay poets for us to read. Come now,
 
 38 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 your poll-tax, your guinea. A lord and 
 mean ? Oh, fie, fie ! " And he took out a 
 pocket-book in which a long list of subscrip- 
 tions, already entered, attested the success 
 of his labours elsewhere. 
 
 Lord Mordaunt sat sulkily Immovable in 
 body, but swayed this way and that in mind. 
 In the first place, deeply as it galled him, he 
 could not but bow to the dominance of 
 Swift's overpowering personality ; in the 
 second, he felt all the dislike of a splendid 
 youth of twenty to the appearance of stingi- 
 ness. Yet like many other splendid youths, 
 it was only from the appearance of it that he 
 shrunk ; for his lavlshness to himself was 
 only equalled by his meanness to others. 
 
 There was a clatter of hoofs and a rattle 
 of wheels. 
 
 '' There come the ladies," said his perse- 
 cutor looking out of the window. " What ! 
 Shall they find me dunning you for a guinea 
 — a paltry guinea ? " 
 
 **'Tis but a guinea, as you say — a cursed 
 guinea," and with an angry laugh the young 
 man fumbled in his waistcoat pocket and
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 39 
 
 flung the coin on the tavern table. Dr. Swift 
 pocketed it and bowed with grave civihty. 
 " Your servant, my Lord," he said. ** I am 
 obHged to you. Mr. Pope shall be informed 
 of your Lordship's donation." And he opened 
 the door for Lord Mordaunt to pass out. 
 
 They were both on the threshold of the 
 tavern, as the arrivals drove up, but before 
 either had time to touch the coach door, it 
 was flung wide, and Esther leaped to the 
 ground and stood with both white ungloved 
 hands stretched out in greeting. The un- 
 clouded sun that streamed full on them all, 
 turned the blond curls on her neck to eold. 
 Her eyes smiled shining in the transparent 
 shadow of her straw hat ; her young red 
 mouth smiled too, not dreamily now, but full 
 of a happiness too eager and too innocent 
 for self-observant restraint. 
 
 For a moment she stood so, and then 
 drawn by an irresistible magnetism and 
 scarcely conscious of what he did or of who 
 saw him. Swift stepped forward, and took 
 her hands. He wondered, as he loosed 
 them, with a shock of dismay, how long he
 
 40 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 had been standing there with her hands In 
 his and his eyes smiling down into hers. 
 But it was not a noticeable fraction of time 
 to any but those two. Lord Mordaunt, still 
 very excusably sulky, ostentatiously ignoring 
 the other occupants of the coach, bowed to 
 Molly with an air of ownership, and leaned 
 on his cane till it should be her turn to 
 descend, wondering meantime where the 
 hectoring beggar of a parson had picked up 
 his fine bow. For he had an undeniably fine 
 bow, and when it so pleased him, fine 
 manners too, which were all the more attrac- 
 tive because his courtesy was apt to have a 
 vein of satire beneath it, and his rudeness to 
 be the veil of some refined kindness. He 
 stood bareheaded at the steps, handing down 
 the impetuous Mrs. Vanhomrigh, who was 
 talking too fast to be answered, and jumped 
 out so precipitately that her petticoat hitched 
 on the step and she would have fallen, had 
 he not caueht her with one hand and dexter- 
 ously disentangled it with the other. 
 
 *' I'm obliged to you, Doctor," she cried. 
 ^'Ginckel couldn't have done it cleverer.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, ^l 
 
 There's a compliment for you ! " She smiled 
 at him silly, aware In spite of her maternal 
 feelings, that Ginckel held no particular place 
 in the Doctor's esteem. So long as Esther 
 did, what matter ? 
 
 " Well, yes, Madam Van — from his 
 mother," replied the Doctor drily, and 
 glanced at Ginckel, who having brushed off 
 the dust of the journey and combed his 
 flaxen peruke with a pocket-comb before 
 entering the town, now stood ecstatically 
 conscious of his irreproachable clothes and 
 of several fashionable ladles looking in the 
 direction of the party. 
 
 At this juncture Erasmus Lewis arrived 
 to the relief of Mrs. Vanhomrigh, who had 
 begun to fear that the Doctor would be 
 forced to devote too much attention to 
 herself to be as assiduous to Essie as she 
 could wish. She flung herself on Mr. Lewis, 
 and the secretary, conscious of a worthy 
 spouse in London whose existence preserved 
 him from all entanglements, mightily enjoyed 
 the attentions of the graceful and lively 
 widow.
 
 42 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 So the procession moved on to the en- 
 trance of the Castle, whose beauties and 
 treasures their two privileged entertainers, 
 Dr. Swift and Mr. Lewis, were to show 
 them. 
 
 ** Miss," said Lord Mordaunt in a low 
 voice, leaning over Molly and pressing the 
 arm which lightly, as for form's sake, w^as 
 locked in his, '' you'll be most infernally tired 
 if you visit this Castle — a Gothic dungeon 
 fitter for mice than men. Come now, why 
 shouldn't we sneak off and divert ourselves 
 in the Park, and let 'em find us when they've 
 done ? " 
 
 As he spoke his long brown eyes and thin 
 but well-curved lips smiled, with an appealing, 
 almost pathetic sweetness. This smile of 
 his was not his personal property ; it was a 
 family heirloom, like the Peterborough 
 pearls, only it came from the maternal side, 
 and it had quite as little relation to his inner 
 man as the jewel on his finger. Molly did 
 not know that ; she could not help returning 
 his look with eloquent bright eyes and rose- 
 red blush, and hesitating to articulate a cruel
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 43 
 
 denial. Esther, however, did not hesitate. 
 Even the absorbing interest of Swift's 
 society, and the nervous dread^ lest he should 
 find her conversation tedious or insufficient, 
 which always beset her on meeting him after 
 an absence, could not overpower her anxiety 
 on her sister's account. At the moment 
 Lord Mordaunt spoke her own cavalier 
 happened to be in consultation with Mr. 
 Lewis, and she turned round sharply on the 
 youth with a frosty smile. 
 
 " You bear a conscience, indeed, my 
 Lord," she said. '' Here are we poor females 
 at the expense of coach-hire to see Windsor 
 Castle, and never a word of warning you 
 give us till we stand at the gate, when you 
 tell us there's nothing to see." 
 
 '*'Pon honour, ladies, I did not understand 
 the Castle was your object," returned his 
 Lordship, with a certain insolence in his 
 manner of meeting her gaze which increased 
 Esther's dislike to him, 
 
 "Come, Molly," she said, ''we will not be 
 frigrhtened out of seeino^ it, now we're here." 
 
 '* Oh, pray, Miss Vanhomrigh, see it ten
 
 44 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 times over, if so please you," he answered 
 coldly, throwing the lace ends of his Stein- 
 kirk over his shoulder. '' But 'twould be a 
 sin to wear out Miss Molly's charming little 
 feet on such a pilgrimage." 
 
 '''Tis to the shrine of Loyalty, my Lord," 
 returned Molly, passing through the entrance 
 in obedience to her sister's wishes and her 
 own sense of decorum, but casting back such 
 a look of regret and apology as must have 
 softened the most justly irritated lover. 
 Lord Mordaunt, however, was not a lover. 
 
 ''Your servant, ladies," he said, taking off 
 his hat. " Vanhomrigh, you have seen this 
 confounded rat-hole fifty times. Let's take 
 a stroll in the town." 
 
 Ginckel willingly made his bow to his 
 Cousin Anna, and the two young men went 
 off together. It was then observed that 
 Francis Earle was not of the party. 
 
 He had by this time reached Mr. Wilson's 
 red-brick house, and was sounding a brave 
 rat-tat on the mahogany door. The lawyer 
 was an old gentleman, and having transacted 
 a good deal of business between his eight
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 45 
 
 o'clock dish of tea and his breakfast, he was 
 now restine and would not have disturbed 
 himself for fifty Mr. Earles. Francis waited 
 in the bare room, where two elderly and 
 unconversational clerks sat at their desks. 
 The windows looked into the dingy foliage 
 of a shrubbery, and the only object of interest 
 was a large map of North America hanging 
 on the walls, with the British and French 
 forts and plantations accurately marked. 
 One of the clerks told him it had been given 
 to their master by his client, the Earl of 
 Peterborough, who had an interest in the 
 Plantations. For a long dull time he waited. 
 A special courier arrived and was shown in 
 to Mr. Wilson before him. The Dutch 
 clock ticked on and on ; the cogency of the 
 arguments he had prepared to support his 
 appeal seemed evaporating at every tick, 
 like some volatile essence exposed to the air. 
 When at last he had entered Mr. Wilson's 
 handsome library, had seated himself near 
 the leather arm-chair that contained the old 
 man, and been subjected for a few minutes 
 to a short dry cough and drier questions, the
 
 46 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 process of evaporation was complete. The 
 effect of this sense of defeat upon Francis 
 was only to rouse his temper and his 
 obstinacy. Had Mr. Wilson been in his 
 shrewder prime, he might have lent a more 
 sympathetic ear to the young man's demands, 
 as recognizing, not their reasonableness, but 
 the signs of uncommon parts in him who 
 preferred them. As it was, he looked with 
 a passing curiosity at this youth with the 
 small alert figure, the thin face at once 
 mobile and determined, and hawk-like glance. 
 He was struck by a likeness, less in feature 
 than in general air, in tricks of manner and 
 expression, to a distinguished person of his 
 acquaintance. But there was nothing sur- 
 prising in that. Presently such superficial 
 curiosity vanished in the consciousness that 
 he was engaged with a self-willed disagree- 
 able fellow ; a fellow with the most amazing 
 notion of his claim to have what he wanted 
 in life, instead of being thankful for what he 
 could get ; who, last but not least in the 
 catalogue of his offences, seemed to think 
 that he could oblige him, Benjarnin Wilson,
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 47 
 
 to take trouble, and to trouble that distin- 
 guished person, his anonymous client. Mr. 
 Wilson stated clearly that he was paid, not 
 to importune his client, but to save him from 
 importunities of this nature ; in Mr. Earle's 
 own interest he had not communicated and 
 should not communicate to that gentleman 
 the peevish and ungrateful remonstrances 
 of his dependant. So, pale with suppressed 
 rage, the young man made his bow, and a 
 sober-suited serving-man closed the big ma- 
 hogany door behind him. 
 
 The little cloisters at Windsor are, as 
 every one knows, very little indeed. There 
 are to be found no length of groined roof, 
 no carven arches opening on the green turf 
 of College quadrangle or Cathedral close. 
 The ancient lodgings of the Prebendaries 
 surround a small oblong court, their project- 
 ing upper stories rest on timber supports, 
 and below these on a rough-cast wall ; a 
 similar gangway with timber supports on 
 each side, runs across the court. The low 
 irregular doors that open on to the flagged
 
 48 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 path seem of all ages and sorts ; here the 
 modern paint or varnish, there the Tudor 
 oak clamped with iron, or the gracefully 
 wrought knocker of the later Stuarts. The 
 houses too bear within the mark of every 
 generation. Yet the sunshine travelling 
 round the court summer after summer for 
 the last hundred and eighty years finds little 
 altered there, as it throws sharp shadows on 
 the gabled roof, and gilds the rough-cast 
 walls, and darkens the shade within the 
 cloister, just catching the jewelled gleam of 
 some trailing nasturtium or Virginia creeper 
 that overflows into the light from its box on 
 the ledge of the cloister wall. Whether any 
 one of the sixteen Prebendaries who owned 
 these lodgings in the reign of Queen Anne 
 kept a flower-box opposite his door. Is doubt- 
 ful, but it is certain that the path to it was 
 no wider then than now, and therefore that 
 Mrs. Stone and her hoop-petticoat must 
 have had some difficulty in manoeuvring as 
 far as Dr. Swift's house. Even slight Mrs. 
 Vanhomrigh presented a somewhat squeezed 
 appearance, as she stood with her flowered-
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 49 
 
 silk mantua billowing unevenly about her, 
 the dust of a dungeon Into which she had 
 been the first to descend, and which she had 
 pronounced '' vastly diverting," still visible 
 on her smart French hood. Esther and 
 Molly, belonging to that numerous body of 
 ladles whom Mr. Spectator had led to resist 
 hoops and content themselves with full petti- 
 coats, were not Inconvenienced by the narrow- 
 ness of their quarters. The ^vq ladles were 
 now leaving the cloisters In company with 
 Doctor Swift, who carried a basket covered 
 with a white cloth. 
 
 '' 'Tis no manner of use, Doctor," cried 
 Mrs. Vanhomrigh, shaking her fan at him. 
 '' The provender Is waiting for us at the 
 Park gates, and you that pretend to hate 
 waste, stand wasting good time which you 
 know they say 's money." 
 
 " Wasting money ! Ay, those be the 
 words to fling in my face, Madam Van ! " 
 replied Swift pettishly ; " because I am a 
 good prudent manager you must needs treat 
 me as a curmudgeon that will not spare his 
 friends a dinner." 
 
 VOL. I. £
 
 so ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 '' There are dinners and dinners," mur- 
 mured Molly, making a little grimace, "and 
 for my part, I would rather have one of 
 Essie's providing than of his." 
 
 Esther frowned upon her pertness. 
 
 " Sure, Doctor," cried Madam Van, rather 
 frightened, "it's nothing of the sort I'm 
 meaning. But 'twould be monstrous to 
 trouble a poor bachelor like you to provide 
 food for us eight hungry mortals on a jaunt, 
 that will eat like elofhteen." 
 
 " Well, well, if you will not peck, you shall 
 at any rate booze at my expense," said he ; 
 and held up his basket with an air of 
 triumphant hospitality not fully justified by 
 its size or contents, which consisted of two 
 rather small bottles of French wine. Mrs. 
 Vanhomrigh, conscious of a store in her own 
 basket better fitted to satisfy the wants of 
 her son and Lord Mordaunt, expressed her 
 thanks with effusion. 
 
 " And pray, Miss Essie," asked Swift 
 gravely, waiting at the cloister-entrance as 
 the ladies squeezed out, "what do you 
 reckon that I should have lost by you all,
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 51 
 
 had Madam Van condescended to accept of 
 my dinner ? I don't ask her, for 'tis my 
 belief the agreeable wretch knows no more 
 about money than that silver is cleaner than 
 copper and gold prettier than silver ! " 
 
 " Lord, Doctor, why should I trouble to 
 know, while I have Esther to manage for 
 me?" said Mrs. Vanhomrigh gaily, more 
 than contented to suffer any condemnation 
 that involved praise of her daughter, 
 especially from his lips, and quite unaware 
 that to manage for her was an impossible 
 task. Esther smiled teaslngly. 
 
 ''If you ask, sir, with the intention of 
 offering us half-a-crown apiece, the question 
 is useless," — had she not known him attempt 
 such a benefaction 1 — " few of us would like 
 to take it, and nobody would dare." 
 
 "Half-a-crown?" repeated Swift, quite 
 startled. " My dear Hess, could I not give 
 my friends a simple dinner for less than 
 that ? Wine, mind you, is provided." And 
 he again held up his basket. 
 
 Esther looked down and blushed for him, 
 and then looked up and began courageously : 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSmr OF ILllNOIf
 
 52 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 " You could, no doubt, if you chose to 
 be " and there her courage failed. 
 
 ''Parsimonious!" said he, sharply finish- 
 ing her sentence. '' You need not speak the 
 word. I have heard it before. But I did 
 not expect it from you." 
 
 *''Twas yourself, not I, that said it," she 
 replied. 
 
 They walked on together, both silent, and 
 Swift moody. When they had passed 
 through the picturesque gateway into the 
 Horseshoe Cloisters, he stepped aside to 
 the west door of St. George's Chapel, near 
 which was chained a venerable poor-box. 
 Then he turned — a tall, black-robed figure 
 against the gray background of the Chapel 
 ^all — and faced the ladies with a look half- 
 serious, half-mocking, and wholly bitter, on 
 his countenance. 
 
 " Madams all," he said, holding up a coin 
 to the sun, '' I take you to witness that I 
 refuse to make anything by Madam Van's 
 greediness and extravagance, which prompted 
 her to bring her own dinner. I would 
 divide the money between her daughters,
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 53 
 
 but the hussies are too proud to take it ; so 
 here goes a pound to the poor of the parish, 
 and many a good dinner may it buy ! " And 
 they heard the gold drop in among the few 
 and humble coins already in the box. 
 
 Mrs. Stone was staring, fanning herself 
 slowly and mechanically with a half-closed 
 fan ; she had not exactly taken in the sense 
 of the little scene, but it deepened her 
 general impression that for a doctor of 
 divinity and one living in the shadow of 
 a prebend, if not actually a prebendary, 
 Dr. Swift was reprehensibly unusual. Anna 
 had come prepared to make small jokes on 
 Esther's elderly gallant, and though up to 
 this moment she had been overawed by his 
 appearance and manner, she now put her 
 handkerchief to her mouth and giggled to 
 her heart's content. Even Molly's smile 
 was not quite good-natured, for seeing how 
 remorselessly Esther marked the flaws in 
 her sister's idol, she could not expect her 
 own, however respected, to pass uncriticised. 
 It must be owned that the flourish with 
 which the Doctor parted with his pound
 
 54 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 showed It to be rather dearer to him than 
 It should have been. Essie did not look at 
 his action so closely, but accepted it as 
 completely atoning for anything that might 
 have displeased In his former conduct. As 
 they walked side by side to the Castle gate, 
 he said In a low voice : 
 
 '' It cuts me to the heart, Miss Essie, that 
 you should call me parsimonious." 
 
 " I did not, I did not," she whispered 
 vehemently. He continued : 
 
 " To be neither liked nor understood by 
 the greater part of mankind is the lot of 
 every man of sense, and I trust I can take 
 my share of ill words without whining. But 
 I own when one I have supposed my friend, 
 even though 'tis but such a brat as you, 
 repeats the dull censure of the crowed, I feel 
 it beyond reason ; for sure 'tis not In reason 
 to expect to find a perfectly true friend more 
 than once in a lifetime." 
 
 He paused, and thought, which "puts a 
 girdle round the earth in fifty seconds," 
 brought before him another and a lovelier 
 Esther. Alas ! poor Essie ! She had better
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 55 
 
 cause than she knew to turn upon him that 
 silent reproachful look. 
 
 '' So help me, child," he went on. '* You 
 know the thing I save by my parsimony, 
 though I write it in pounds, shillings, and 
 pence, is in truth my independence. / love 
 money ? Yes, I love it as much now, as 
 when I sent back the Lord Treasurer's 
 thousand pounds, though he owed me a 
 million. 'Twas more than Steele or Peter- 
 borough or Bolingbroke, ay or Addison, 
 would have done. To what do I owe it that 
 I am the friend of Ministers, and not their 
 slave ? To my parsimony, young woman — 
 and if I have enough to spare for folk less 
 fortunate than myself, 'tis again because I 
 am parsimonious — or called so, by them that 
 squander so much food and drink on the 
 well-fed that they have none left for the 
 starving." 
 
 *' But I know all that, sir," she said in a 
 low voice. " Why do you defend yourself ? 
 It is not needed. I fancy I understand you 
 very well, and I am sure I know what I owe 
 you. Ah ! Don't you remember how
 
 56 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 different I used to be, when you first came 
 to London ? 'Twas you that taught me to 
 seek order and cleanliness before fineness, 
 and to count it dishonest to spend more than 
 I had got. It is hard, very hard sometimes " 
 — and she caught a little sigh and stopped 
 it half way — " but I always try to do what 
 you would think right." 
 
 "You are a good child, Hess," he said 
 gently. " If you were not, you might say 
 what you liked of me. And you have a 
 good head on your shoulders too. As to 
 that poor dear creature, your mother, if she 
 will not be guided by you, I sometimes fear 
 she w^ill end in no better company than the 
 bailiffs." 
 
 " Poor mamma ! She at any rate is no 
 example of your saying that a spendthrift is 
 first cousin to a miser. She is all generosity. 
 
 But there are others Ah ! if our blood 
 
 were gold, he would suck it." 
 
 '^The Colonel.^" returned Swift drily. 
 '' Yes. Nature was a fool to let such as him 
 wear the breeches. Not that he is worse 
 than other young men of fashion ; but the
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 57 
 
 difference is, he need not have been one. 
 Bah ! what a generation it is ! Do you think 
 him worse than his friends ?" 
 
 " No," she answered shortly, and for a 
 few moments walked on, frowning straight 
 in front of her with her Chinese fan pressed 
 hard against her red under-lip, and biting 
 the top of it with her strong white teeth. 
 Then — " I sometimes think I hate men ! " 
 she cried. 
 
 There was no accent of coquetry in the 
 words ; they sounded bitterly sincere. Yet 
 they were no sooner spoken than with a 
 sudden charming change of countenance she 
 turned to Swift, " But I don't really," she 
 said. He met her smile with that incom- 
 parably arch glance oi his blue eyes which 
 sufficed to bring even strangers under his 
 spell. 
 
 '' Then we agree, as an Irishman would 
 say, for I sometimes think I hate women. 
 The truth is that once on a time I loved 'em 
 well enough, if only they were fine and witty 
 and kind ; but now I can take tea with half- 
 a-dozen of the finest drabs of quality in
 
 58 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 London to wait on me and be so dull all the 
 while I wish myself anywhere else. Lord ! 
 I have even said to myself," and he made a 
 wry mouth, " I would almost rather be 
 drinking ratsbane in the Sluttery and hear 
 Governor Huff scold, scold, scold, all the 
 time. 
 
 Essie lauo^hed a little lauo-h full of the 
 music of love and happiness. They were 
 now in the street of the towm nearinof the 
 Park gate, where the provisions and the 
 young men were to meet them, and at that 
 moment Francis Earle joined their party. 
 Esther's laugh jarred upon him. 
 
 The Colonel, Erasmus Lewis and Lord 
 Mordaunt, and Mrs. Vanhomrigh's man 
 carrying her basket, w^ere waiting for them 
 at the gate, and the party moved on through 
 the chequered shadows of the Long Walk, 
 at first in a compact body, but gradually 
 straggling into groups. Dr. Swift being a 
 fast w^alker, he and Esther were soon a little 
 in front of the others, while an accident to 
 Molly's shoe-ribbon made an excuse for Lord 
 Mordaunt to loiter behind and offer to tie
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 59 
 
 it for her, which he did not, however, do. 
 But while she was tying it, he was graciously 
 pleased to observe that thenceforward he 
 should not think quite so meanly of the 
 leather shoes the ladies had taken to wearing, 
 since on some feet even those looked genteel. 
 Molly expressed an opinion in favour of 
 them for country walking, but his Lordship 
 declared that though for men who could 
 hunt and shoot and drink, the country might 
 be tolerable, he never could imagine what 
 could take an elegant female there. 
 
 " Why, Philomel ! Romantic shades ! 
 Purling brooks ! to be sure," laughed Molly, 
 shrugging her shoulders ; and then they both 
 laughed together at the absurd notion of 
 enjoying the beauties of nature. 
 
 '* You miss out the most important item, 
 dear miss," said Lord Mordaunt. '' Sighing 
 swains are to be found there, the poets assure 
 us." 
 
 " 'Tis the yawns that break into sighs, and 
 the poets, poor things, mistake 'em," returned 
 she. 
 
 '' No, no ! I feel the rural fit is on me,"
 
 6o ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 and he heaved a gentle sigh or two. '' Tell 
 me, Miss Molly, when 'tis on you, for I have 
 heard say the shepherd nymph is kinder to 
 her Corydon than you belles of the town are 
 to us poor fellows." 
 
 He cast a languid glance at the figure beside 
 him, so fresh and neat in the blue damask 
 dress and white neckerchief, and at the soft 
 young face, which, however, quickly drooped 
 beneath his eyes, and left him nothing but 
 the top of a Leghorn hat to contemplate. 
 So they paced on side by side beneath the 
 elms, to all appearance a well-matched boy 
 and girl couple pursuing the same harmless 
 happiness, but in their real thoughts and 
 feelings as immeasurably divergent from 
 each other as the innocent must be from the 
 wicked. 
 
 Meantime Mrs. Stone was prosing on 
 about her sons, the prosperity of Edward 
 and the genius of George, not caring much 
 whether any one answered her or not, and 
 between the answers which politeness now 
 and then dictated, Mrs. Vanhomrigh passed 
 silently through a number of exciting and
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 6i 
 
 delightful experiences. First she had to 
 choose the preferment that would be most 
 suitable to Dr. Swift, and having secured, as 
 the first step, the Deanery of Windsor, she 
 passed on to arrange the more delicate affair 
 of Molly's marriage. Lord Peterborough 
 Avould of course be averse to the match at 
 first, but the intercession of his admired 
 friend and her own son-in-law Dr. Swift, and 
 the prayers and tears of his last remaining 
 son would at length melt his paternal heart ; 
 he would consent to see her Molly, and own 
 the young lady's charms made full amends 
 for her inequality of birth and fortune. By 
 this time Mrs. Stone's conversation had 
 moved on from her sons to her daughters, or 
 jather to the daughter about to be married. 
 
 "We ha'n't made up our minds if 'tis to 
 be in St. Martin's or in St. Paul's, Covent 
 Garden," she was saying. 
 
 "Well, St. Martin's for a single wedding, 
 say I," replied Mrs. Vanhomrigh briskly. 
 " But if the two sisters was to be married the 
 same day, why, St. Paul's is the roomier." 
 
 ''The same day !" repeated Mrs. Stone in
 
 62 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 slow astonishment. " We've had luck enough 
 I'm sure In getting Mr. Harris, that's a good 
 match for any young woman, though with a 
 fortin of her own, without marrying 'em both 
 off the same day." 
 
 " You're right, Sukey," returned Madam 
 Van, half listening, half reflecting with 
 genuine regret on her own future deserted 
 condition. " 'Twould be a sad thlnof for a 
 mother to lose both her daughters at once, 
 and might cause a mortification to the elder, 
 If her younger sister should have a bride- 
 groom greatly superior In rank to her own — 
 for of course he must take the pas!' 
 
 This was a new and anxious question, and 
 brought a wrinkle to the widow's smooth 
 brow. 
 
 '' I wish I could think as well of Anna's 
 chances as you do, Esther," replied Mrs. 
 Stone In a burst of unwonted confidence. 
 '' But I sometimes say to Stone the men 
 can't be so blind as not to see her temper In 
 the corners of her mouth ; " then recollecting 
 herself, '' not that there's cause to be anxious 
 about the girl. She's got her health, and
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 63 
 
 what with that and her pious bringing-up and 
 her Httle fortin and all, we may be sure, as 
 Mr. Stone says, the Lord will provide. Yet 
 I can't think shell go off better than Sarah, 
 or be married the same day." 
 
 '' As to the same day," rejoined Mrs. Van- 
 homrigh, "you are certainly right. 'Twould 
 be more convenient to have a twelvemonth, 
 say, between 'em. For 'twould be but sense 
 in buying their clothes to consider the dif- 
 ferent rank of the bridegrooms ; and yet 'tis 
 a difficult matter for a mother not to treat 
 both her dear girls the same. 'Tis true the 
 money might be made up in household stuff 
 and furniture." 
 
 " 'Tis a terrible costly matter to marry a 
 daughter," said Mrs. Stone, shaking her head 
 gloomily. '' Even Mr. Stone and me that 
 have been sober saving people all our lives, 
 and, thank the Lord, not poorer than most, 
 can scarcely bear the expense. As to clothes, 
 Sarah is inclined to be tasty, but I tell her 
 'twould be most unbecoming in a clergyman's 
 wife to be dressed up modish." 
 
 " Oh, an ordinary clergyman's wife, I grant
 
 64 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 you," broke In Mrs. Vanhomrigh. "'TIs a 
 different matter with the wife of a Dean or 
 Bishop. She should be quietly but hand- 
 somely dressed — grey lute-string say, 
 branched with silver." 
 
 '' 'Tis true Mr. Harris is like to rise in the 
 Church," replied Mrs. Stone complacently. 
 " Sarah would be glad to have a talk with 
 you, sister, about dresses and mantua-makers, 
 in case you could recommend a reasonable 
 one. For my part I think myself too old 
 to value such vanities ; but the child already 
 begins to trouble about em, and bade me 
 not forget to ask Molly for the pattern of 
 the new Macklin commode she was wearing 
 o' Tuesday." 
 
 The subject of lace commodes and m.antua- 
 makers was one of irresistible interest to 
 Mrs. Vanhomrigh, and so at this point the 
 two ladies' diverorent streams of thoucrht met 
 and flowed in the same channel. 
 
 Mr. Lewis had been walking with Anna 
 Stone, and the remarks of that gossip-loving 
 young lady seemed to have caused him some 
 uneasiness. Drifting from her side he took
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 6$ 
 
 young Earle's arm and walked on with him 
 in silence for a bit. Then after clearine 
 his throat nervously once or twice — 
 
 '•Mr. Earle," he said, •' if Colonel Van- 
 homrigh can be trusted to act with secrecy 
 and discretion, there is a confidential sub- 
 ject on which I would willingly offer him 
 advice." 
 
 " Han't I seen a parrot and a weather- 
 cock at your lodgings in town, sir ? " returned 
 Francis, who was in no very amiable mood. 
 " Your confidence and your advice would be 
 a deal better bestowed on them than on the 
 Colonel." 
 
 This expression of opinion was offensive 
 to Mr. Lewis's cautious mind ; he muttered 
 something deprecatory about his young 
 friend Vanhomrigh, and cleared his throat 
 several times before resuming. However, 
 in the course of a long if not intimate 
 acquaintance he had had reason to think 
 well of Francis Earle's judgment, and he 
 knew him to be practically a member of 
 the Vanhomrigh family ; so he made up his 
 mind to go on. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 " It being admitted that the Colonel's dis- 
 cretion is not wholly to be depended upon, 
 I turn to you, sir, as having influence with 
 these ladies ? " 
 
 " Influence ? I ? Not a penn'orth, sir," 
 replied Francis ; and in a less biting tone — 
 '' But I am certainly bound to be very much 
 at their service." 
 
 " I imagined you not ungrateful, young 
 man," said Mr. Lewis, " and Mrs. Vanhom- 
 righ told me that you have influence with 
 the person most concerned." He cleared 
 his throat again. *' I think you must know 
 that Miss Esther Vanhomrigh's name is 
 beginning to be mentioned in connection 
 with that of my friend, Dr. Swift ? " 
 
 The idea suggested was not exactly new 
 to Francis, but it gave him a new prick of 
 annoyance thus brought to him from without. 
 His cold answer, however, betrayed nothing 
 of his sensations. 
 
 " In that case," he said, '* I hope soon to 
 hear that Dr. Swift has made proposals in 
 form." 
 
 " Ah, my young friend," almost whispered
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 67 
 
 the lawyer, pressing his arm and speaking 
 into his ear, "that is just what is so very 
 unlikely to happen." 
 
 " May I ask why, sir ? " returned Francis 
 haughtily. '' Has not Miss Vanhomrigh 
 enough wit, beauty and fortune to satisfy 
 a parson on his promotion — one that's no 
 chicken either ? " 
 
 '' No doubt, no doubt, my dear sir ; there's 
 no fault to find with Miss Esther. The 
 obstacle is quite different." 
 
 " What is it, then ? " asked Francis. 
 
 *' Another woman, Mr. Earle." 
 
 '* Oh, that's it, is it ? " said Francis, and 
 uttering a malediction on the Doctor, he 
 stood still. He had uttered it without raising 
 or much altering his voice, but Mr. Lewis 
 flushed with nervousness and vexation. 
 
 " Hush ! young man, hush ! Such language 
 is most unbecoming." 
 
 *' My language becomes his conduct, if it 
 don't his cloth." 
 
 '* Pray do not imagine I hint at any un- 
 becoming conduct," Mr. Lewis hastened to 
 say. " But I happen to be acquainted with
 
 68 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 a young woman named Johnson, who was 
 brought up at Sir William Temple's. My 
 friend Swift was secretary there, when she 
 was a little child, and took a fancy to her. 
 She afterwards invested the little money Sir 
 William left her in Ireland, and went herself 
 to reside there, when Dr. Swift was secretary 
 to the Lord- Lieutenant. 'Twas a strange 
 step for a young woman to take, to be sure, 
 but she hath always with her a respectable 
 widow as companion, and I never heard 
 aught against her character, except that she 
 had a mind to be Mrs. Swift. In Ireland 
 they have thought these five years that he 
 would marry her, were it not for their lack 
 of fortune. I have known Mrs. Johnson 
 for years, and she is as beautiful and agree- 
 able a young woman as ever I saw. Sure 
 he would have done more prudently and 
 honourably to marry her without waiting 
 for preferment. But remember, sir, this in 
 confidence," he added, glancing uneasily at 
 the not very distant figure of Swift. " My 
 friend has never spoken of Mrs. Johnson 
 to me as of a lady to whom he was in
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 69 
 
 any way contracted, but on the contrary 
 as an intimate friend and a kind of ward 
 of his." 
 
 Francis was silent for a little ; then he 
 said, *' You may trust me, Mr. Lewis, not to 
 chatter about your friend's or any one else's 
 affairs, but what use I am to make of your 
 information I know not. 'Tis plain, I cannot 
 tell Miss Vanhomrigh he is contracted to 
 another. Besides," he added coldly, "■ is it 
 not an impertinence on our part to imply that 
 the matter is of moment to her ? " 
 
 Mr. Lewis shrugged his shoulders im- 
 patiently. 
 
 " Pray, my dear Mr. Earle, don't let us 
 talk nonsense," he answered. 
 
 '* Besides it would do no good for an 
 insignificant creature like myself to tell Miss 
 Vanhomrigh anything to Dr. Swift's dis- 
 advantage," continued Francis. 
 
 ''To his disadvantage!" exclaimed Mr. 
 Lewis, shocked. " Certainly not. There is 
 nothing to be told. Never was a man more 
 careful of his reputation. Only as a friend 
 to both ladies I in short think it better
 
 70 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 Miss Vanhomrigh should know of the other's 
 existence." 
 
 " Then pray, sir, tell her yourself. I am 
 not the man to do it, for," Francis cried with 
 a sudden burst of frankness to himself and 
 to the lawyer, ''for I hate Swift." 
 
 Mr. Lewis had just time to hold up his 
 hand in silent reprobation before Ginckel 
 and Anna joined them. The party now 
 gradually fell together, and coming to a wide 
 grassy space they spread their cloth at the 
 edge of it. 
 
 The turf was still somewhat yellow from 
 the August drought. It had been nibbled 
 short by a herd of deer, that were now 
 grazing on the other side of the wide space, 
 under a group of Scotch firs, whose stems 
 and the grazing herd beneath them, showed 
 in patches of tawny red where the sunshine 
 caught them through the scattered shade of 
 the branches. Behind the improvised table 
 of the party, and on either side of them, the 
 forest stood away, still dark with the leafage 
 of late summer, but from time to time there 
 was heard among the branches a long low
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 71 
 
 breath, the sigh of the coming autumn, and 
 a flight of yellow leaves drifted slowly to the 
 ground. 
 
 It was a merry dinner party. Swift was 
 in his happiest mood, witty, kind and 
 courteous to all the world, the Vanhomrighs 
 in high spirits, and every one in good temper 
 except Francis Earle, whom nobody minded. 
 Madam Van, as having in her the strongest 
 Irish vein, was the most amusing and also 
 the noisiest of her family. When it came to 
 her challenging the company round to sing 
 " Hopped she " against her, and several had 
 attempted it and ridiculously failed. Lord 
 Mordaunt thought it time to go. In singing 
 this ancient song the prize is awarded to 
 the person who can longest continue the 
 chorus — 
 
 " Once so merrily hopped she, 
 Twice so merrily hopped she," 
 taking a sip from his glass between each 
 line, without being guilty of a falling-off in 
 tune or in time, which is beaten by an im- 
 partial person. His Lordship, who was 
 somewhat silent and habitually reserved in
 
 72 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 general society, would not for worlds have 
 played the fool to it ; a part which indeed it 
 takes much native gaiety and spontaneity to 
 play with grace. He looked at his watch, 
 and rising, remarked to Ginckel that it was 
 nigh on three o'clock and time for them to 
 be starting. It had been arranged that he 
 and Ginckel should drive on to his house to 
 make preparation for the ladies, who were to 
 follow by boat, for Mrs. Vanhomrigh had 
 quite made up her mind that a water-party 
 must not be omitted from the day's pleasur- 
 ing. Their coach with an escort was to call 
 for them at Lord Mordaunt's, and take them 
 back to town. The two young men walked 
 off arm in arm, and the rest proceeded to 
 help pack up the dinner ; a proceeding only 
 interrupted by a lively passage of arms 
 between Swift and Madam Van, who would 
 willingly have left the site of their encamp- 
 ment marked by the half-devoured carcases 
 of fowls, several pieces of bread, and the 
 wreck of a pasty. Swift having vainly pressed 
 her to collect these remains, at length did so 
 himself, and making a parcel of them —
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 73 
 
 " This will be a good meal for Patrick and 
 Mrs. Brent and myself," he said gravely ; 
 " and afterwards a rare basketful for the 
 poor soul that comes for the broken meat. 
 Ay, ay, you may laugh, Madam Van, but 
 you are a proud, extravagant hussy, and will 
 come to a bad end. And so will Moll there, 
 that laughs too because I speak wisely."
 
 74 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Before they reached the river the sun was 
 low enough to be veiled by the autumnal 
 haze. It was one of those pearl-gray after- 
 noons which perhaps best become the 
 pastoral beauty of the winding Thames, 
 though '' lovely all times it lies." They 
 were rather too many to be taken by one 
 waterman, and Francis earnestly entreated 
 Esther to come with him in a smaller boat. 
 Swift was to go part of the way with them 
 and to be put out on the bank at a place 
 from which there was a convenient field-path 
 back to Windsor. It was therefore with an 
 effort that she consented to go with Francis, 
 but she knew his face too well not to notice 
 that it was unusually pale and worn, and she 
 felt a little pang of something like remorse 
 as she realized how absent he, and indeed
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 75 
 
 all the others whom she was accustomed to 
 consider, had been from her thoughts during 
 the past few hours of Paradise. 
 
 Rowing was not then, as now, a fashion- 
 able exercise ; indeed exercise in general 
 was not fashionable, and Ginckel would have 
 both smiled and shuddered at the notion of 
 handling the oars with his slim white fingers. 
 But Francis Earle's restless energy was 
 physical as well as mental, and at Oxford 
 the excuse of fishing had taken him many 
 a long row on the Upper Thames. 
 
 The large boat was the first to start, 
 moving slowly to the regular stroke of a 
 single waterman. As Francis was pulling 
 after them Esther leaned back over the stern 
 to look again on Windsor, the bridge, the 
 steep red-roofed town clinging round the foot 
 of the rock, the great Castle itself rising over 
 all ; here Caesar's tower, like some mightier 
 bastion of the grey and naked cliff from 
 which it sprang, there high embattled walls, 
 their bases hidden in deep-foliaged elms, and 
 higher still a confused mass of gabled roofs 
 and clustering pinnacles piled dark against
 
 76 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 the sky. In the face of that huge wall her 
 eyes sought vainly the little window of the 
 Prebendary's lodging where she had stood 
 not many hours ago looking down on the 
 river. The laden craft in front, containing 
 the rest of the party, moved on, floating like 
 a bouquet of bright flowers on the pale and 
 tranquil surface of the water. She could see 
 Swift there, his hand over the side, watching 
 sometimes the clear w^ater bubble between 
 his fingers and sometimes the advance of the 
 smaller boat. Madam Van and Molly began 
 to sing, first humming low, as they tried to 
 remember the music, and then their sopranos 
 breaking out clear and sweet into '' CJiloris 
 in 7iative piu^ple bright ^ 
 
 As Francis gained upon the waterman, 
 they called to Esther to take a second, and 
 she joined them with her low mezzo, small in 
 compass but full in tone. Francis did not, 
 however, slacken his stroke when the boats 
 drew together, and was soon leadinof the 
 way. Essie left off singing and complained 
 that they had left the other boat too far 
 behind.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. -j-j 
 
 '"TIs the fault of my rowing, I know," he 
 replied gravely, continuing as before. *' Just 
 so — so it goes. I cannot mend it." 
 
 '' Perversity ! " she cried, her head turned 
 in the opposite direction. '' If I wished to 
 go faster, there would be some sense in your 
 answer." 
 
 *' Ah ! you do not like a civil excuse," he 
 returned, putting a little more force into his 
 strokes ; ** then I must try an uncivil one — 
 as this. Pray, young woman, what honour 
 or pleasure Is there in rowing the second in 
 a duet ? You might as well expect me to be 
 gratified at taking the big drum and the 
 double bass on board my wherry, while the 
 rest of the Lord Mayor's orchestra were 
 playing away on his Lordship's barge." 
 
 ** Sure then you had better have Molly. 
 She will be pleased to come," said Esther 
 with alacrity. "If she's too timid to change 
 places on the water, we can easily put Into 
 the bank there." 
 
 Francis laughed silently, not seeming to 
 enjoy his own mirth. 
 
 *' I did not say that it was the truth," he
 
 7^ ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 returned, " I only said 'twas an uncivil 
 excuse, and so it is." 
 
 Esther, still leaning and looking back with 
 her chin on her hand, shrugged her shoulder. 
 
 '' You're an odd, tiresome fellow," she 
 observed ; and then there fell a silence. 
 
 "Yes, that is all I am," he answered at 
 last, without looking up, " an odd, tiresome 
 fellow. 'Tis time I was told so, is't not, 
 Hess?" 
 
 She turned and looked at him in silence. 
 
 *' What is the matter, Frank ? " she asked. 
 
 Then he told her. He was not lavish of 
 words or sentiments but he made his mean- 
 ing clear to her, at least as far as it was clear 
 to himself. His long and complete reserve 
 on the subject had given a certain morbid 
 streno^th to the ambitions and discontents 
 which he at length expressed, and besides 
 these, he owned he was tormented by a 
 keen curiosity, to discover the carefully- 
 guarded secret of his parentage, though 
 aware that the discovery was unlikely to 
 be of use to him. In implying an accusation 
 of Esther's indifference to his feelings during
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 79 
 
 the past year, he seemed to her exceedingly 
 unjust, since he had never expressed them 
 to her. But sympathy is not the consequence 
 of confidences, it is the magnet which attracts 
 them. The truth was that for some time 
 one powerful and increasing influence had 
 been sensibly changing the orbit of Esther's 
 life, and of this Francis was better aware 
 than herself. But circumstances and cha- 
 racter had given her the feelings and re- 
 sponsibilities of the mother rather than the 
 daughter of the Vanhomrigh family, and 
 whatever the future destructive force of 
 passion, it could not as yet undo the habit 
 of years. So it seemed very natural to both 
 her and Francis to be floating together on 
 the quiet water among the wide evening 
 fields, and that he should have for the 
 moment all her attention and all her sym- 
 pathy. Counsel there was none to give, 
 except a counsel of patience, which was of 
 course received with contemptuous im- 
 patience. Their conversation on the subject 
 did not last long, being carried on in that 
 kind of oral shorthand in use amone intimate
 
 8o ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 but reserved friends, who neither care nor 
 require to give full expression to their feel- 
 ings. Then they fell silent, each pursuing a 
 separate and engrossing train of thought, but 
 Francis continuing to row with all his might. 
 
 ** Pray now," she said, '* what Is the mean- 
 ing of this ridiculous haste ? We are Lord 
 knows how far ahead already. The Doctor 
 is to be landed before we reach Lord Mor- 
 daunt's, and 'twould scarcely be civil to let 
 him go without saying farewell." 
 
 '' We will drift presently," he replied, *' and 
 wait the other waterman's good pleasure." 
 
 So after some dozen more vigorous strokes, 
 he turned toward the bank, shipped the oars, 
 and stood on the seat to put aside the long 
 drooping branches of an unpollarded willow, 
 allowinof the boat to sfllde in under them. 
 When his face was out of sight behind a 
 veil of greenery, some perfectly aimless 
 impulse prompted him to ask : 
 
 " Hess, do you know one Mrs. Esther 
 Johnson ? " 
 
 " I have heard the name," she answered 
 carelessly, " but I scarce know how."
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 8r 
 
 " She Is so old and close a friend of Dr. 
 Swift's, I supposed you must be acquainted," 
 returned he, taking his coat up from the 
 bottom of the boat and putting it on with 
 as unconcerned an air as he was able. 
 
 Esther gave an exclamation of annoyance 
 quite unconnected with Mrs. Johnson. One 
 of the oars must have been insecurely shipped, 
 and then caught by a rebounding branch of 
 willow, for it had gone overboard, and was 
 already out of reach. Francis punted after 
 it as well as he could with the remaining oar, 
 as It floated at a pace which ought to have 
 made him consider, down a backwater of the 
 river. But he was an inexpert punter, and 
 the water deep, and though several times 
 they came near enough to the truant oar 
 to induce him and Esther alternately to 
 almost upset the boat iri their ineffectual 
 struggles to gain possession of It, it still 
 eluded their grasp. 
 
 '' Stop, pray, stop ! " crie^; Esther suddenly, 
 '' we are going down a wel--," 
 
 A turn of the stream h :d brought them 
 close in sight of a ruined mill and a broken- 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 down weir, which had been concealed from 
 them so far by the trees on the banks. 
 Their ears might indeed have warned them 
 of danger, as well as the increasing swiftness 
 of the current, but the monotonous rush of 
 weirs is a sound so common on the Thames 
 that it becomes almost unobservable, and the 
 excitement of the oar-hunt had made them 
 heedless. 
 
 •' What shall we do, Francis ? " 
 '' Lose the oar," replied he drily. 
 " Do go back ! " she cried. 
 *' I am trying to," he answered ; but his 
 best efforts did not succeed in keeping the 
 boat's head up the stream. It drifted steadily 
 nearer the weir. 
 
 ''Can I do nothing, Francis?" asked 
 Essie, as quietly as though they were still 
 lying under the willow. 
 
 *' Pull up a plank," he said, " and try to row 
 with it. This puntlng's of no use." 
 
 She did so quickly, and sitting down 
 beside him, followed his example as he bent 
 to his oar. She was strong, but had scarcely 
 ever attempted to row before, and the plank
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 83 
 
 was but an awkward substitute for an oar. 
 However, her attention was so concentrated 
 on her efforts that she hardly reaUzed the 
 situation, when Francis cried with an impre- 
 cation : 
 
 ** 'Tis of no use, Hess. Keep hold of the 
 plank — I can't swim." 
 
 But in spite of this inability, he put his 
 arm round her, with a vaQ^ue idea that he 
 must be able to help her somehow, as the 
 boat turned broadside on and rocked for a 
 moment at the top of the weir before turnimj;- 
 upside down. For an instant both its 
 occupants disappeared under the eddyino- 
 foam below. Happily for Esther when she 
 came to the surface again, she found herself 
 close against the overturned boat. She had 
 presence of mind enough to seize hold of it, 
 and in a minute more it was carried against 
 the stout branch of a broken-down willow, 
 which lay almost flat on the face of the 
 stream. Essie was thus enabled to lay hold 
 of the branch and pull herself along it to the 
 bank, if bank it could be called ; for the 
 willow formed an island by itself in the pool
 
 84 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 below the weir, and when she had with some 
 difficulty climbed out of the water, it was on 
 the trunk that she stood. 
 
 " Francis ! Oh, Francis ! " she shrieked 
 in anxious terror, as she saw a dark head 
 appear in the midst of the foam. He had 
 not been thrown so far out as herself, but he 
 had still hold of his oar, and in a minute 
 more the eddy must bring him too some- 
 where near the willow. Quick as thought, 
 she ran out on the projecting branch, and 
 flinging herself on her face, prepared to 
 catch him as he passed. But, even so, it 
 was evident she would not be able to reach 
 him. With a desperate effort she bent down 
 a long branch till the water rippled through 
 its twigs, and It lay right across the way her 
 cousin was being carried. He caught It, and 
 still in fear lest It should give way In his 
 hands, she pushed the boat out towards him, 
 and succeeded in holding it there till he had 
 swung himself up beside her on the tree. 
 When they were both back on the main 
 trunk — 
 
 "'Twas a mercy you did not fall in again,"
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 85 
 
 he said in a scolding voice. '' How could 
 you be so foolish as to venture yourself out 
 so far on that branch ? You are too heavy 
 for it." 
 
 '* You would have had me leave you to 
 drown before my eyes, Francis ? " 
 
 " Drown ? Pooh ! If I was blundering 
 fool enough to put us both into the water, 
 'tis plain I should have been left to get 
 myself out without your interference." 
 
 And he began squeezing the water out of 
 her dripping skirts. 
 
 *' You must allow me to be glad I suc- 
 ceeded in fishing you up. Whatever should 
 I be doing else alone on this tree ? " 
 
 " The question is what you'll be doing 
 now," answered he, looking ruefully at the 
 water that streamed and eddied round their 
 little island. " You lost the wherry while 
 you were fishing me out. Here, sit up on 
 this forked branch, and let me empty the 
 water out of your shoes." 
 
 Esther did as she was bid, and while he 
 was taking off her shoes, she began to laugh 
 hysterically.
 
 86 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 " Well, If ever I save your life again, 
 Francis, to get nothing but a chiding for 
 it!" 
 
 He laughed too. 
 
 " I don't admit you saved any of my lives, 
 Hess, of which you well know there are nine. 
 I should have got out by myself somehow. 
 Yet I'll allow you behaved very handsome, 
 and take notice I hereby thank you heartily 
 for it, and beg to say " — he paused awk- 
 wardly — " to say there's not another young 
 lady in London would have shown so much 
 courage, and not fainted, or screamed, 
 or 
 
 " Or in any way behaved like a woman of 
 quality. Well, Frank, I give you up my 
 pretensions to quality, but shall ever obsti- 
 nately maintain I saved your life." 
 
 ''While I shall ever as obstinately main- 
 tain the contrary," replied he gravely. 
 *' However, let us not dispute, but halloa for 
 assistance, since the confounded wherry's 
 gone out of reach." 
 
 They shouted together till they were out 
 of breath, but without any result Again and
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. Sy 
 
 again they shouted, but no voice made 
 reply, no figure appeared on the bank. The 
 time went on ; the September sun sloped 
 towards the west, and the evening air blew 
 chill across the water. Esther was herself 
 very cold, and more anxious on her cousin's 
 account than on her own, as he was much 
 the more fragile of the two. But Francis 
 seemed insensible to the cold and in the best 
 of spirits. And the reason for this was that 
 on the miniature desert island, where fate 
 had cast him with Essie, and where he found 
 himself happier than he had been for months, 
 he had consciously entered on a new and 
 exciting stage of his life. He was hence- 
 forth to be not the brother, but the lover of 
 Esther and the rival of Swift. What if his 
 rival had fame ? Francis meant to have 
 that too some day, and he had youth on his 
 side and true love. It would be hard if in 
 the long run he did not drive the elderly 
 person out of Essie's head. But however 
 delightful he might find imprisonment on the 
 willow, he was aware that it could hardly 
 appear so to Esther, and was for the tenth
 
 88 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 time proposing a desperate plan of escape, 
 when she cried out joyfully — 
 
 ** Look ! there comes a man." 
 
 Beyond the pool below the weir there was 
 a flat meadow with a barn In It, and beyond 
 the barn a green bank sloping up to a wood. 
 
 They perceived a dark figure coming 
 quickly down the slope out of the shadow 
 of the trees. Francis shouted, but the 
 pedestrian heeded not the shout, for having 
 reached the bottom of the slope, he turned 
 and began to go up it again at the same sort 
 of quick but awkward trot at which he had 
 descended. Essie, alarmed at seeing him 
 thus prepare to desert them, began In her 
 turn to scream for help, and her shriller notes 
 attracted the moody or deaf wayfarer's atten- 
 tion. He stopped, and staring about him, 
 apparently observed the wherry floating 
 bottom upwards, for he ran down to the 
 water's edge. Then, as It seemed, he caught 
 sight of the two waving handkerchiefs and 
 clinging figures on the willow branches, for 
 shouting In answer he disappeared among 
 some neighbouring branches.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 89 
 
 " It is Dr. Swift," said Essie. 
 
 " Even so," returned Francis drily. 
 
 In a few minutes Swift reappeared, on the 
 opposite bank, looking quite pale with sym- 
 pathetic terror at Esther's situation and the 
 danger she must have run. 
 
 '' Oh Faith, you are an awkward slutakin/' 
 he cried, '' and your cousin there a con- 
 founded fool ! " 
 
 The rush of the water drowned most of 
 the words, but the last were clearly audible, 
 and Francis, in spite of having applied a 
 similar condemnation to himself a dozen 
 times in the course of the last hour, smiled 
 grimly. 
 
 Shouting out a promise of help loud enough 
 to reach their ears, the Doctor vanished in the 
 direction in which he had come. Then they 
 saw him again cross the meadow to the barn 
 and return with a ladder over his shoulder. 
 It was a long, heavy ladder, but he carried 
 it easily, coming quickly towards them at his 
 peculiar trot. 
 
 It proved sufficient in length to make a 
 bridge between the bank on which he stood
 
 90 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 and the trunk of the willow, but It required 
 some nerve to cross such a bridge with the 
 rushing stream beneath. Obviously the only- 
 safe plan was to cross on hands and knees, 
 and Francis, setting it firmly across the trunk 
 of the tree, began somewhat anxiously to 
 instruct Essie how best she might cross over. 
 But his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. 
 For a moment she paused with her foot on 
 the ladder and her right hand on the branch 
 above ; then, still upright, she dashed for- 
 ward, and before he had time to do more 
 than suppress an ejaculation, she was half- 
 way across. The too elastic bridge bounded 
 beneath her tread, as she leapt from rung to 
 rung. The water raced giddily beneath, but 
 her foot did not slip, and her eyes, fixed on 
 the well-known figure on the further side, 
 never once strayed to the stream below. 
 Swift and straight as an arrow from the bow, 
 she passed over, and flinging herself upon 
 her friend burst Into tears on his shoulder. 
 Too surprised and also too moved to con- 
 sider whether such an attitude was or was 
 not compromising, Swift soothed, scolded,
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 91 
 
 and comforted her with fifty quaint tender 
 expressions, now stroking her hair, now 
 sharply pinching her arm. Francis, who had 
 crossed the ladder in a less impulsive manner, 
 stood by amazed and embarrassed. He 
 would as soon have expected to find himself 
 in tears as his cousin. But Essie was not 
 merely a woman, she was at bottom an ex- 
 citable one ; not with the easy shallow ex- 
 citability of her mother, but with the less 
 evident, the deeper and more dangerous 
 excitability of a strong temperament and 
 character. It was but a few minutes she 
 remained so, and then she sat down on the 
 stump of a tree, wiped her eyes, and re- 
 covered herself as suddenly as she had 
 given way. Swift stood in front, shaking 
 his cane. 
 
 *' Plague on you, tiresome brat," he cried ; 
 "what a fright you have given me! I feel 
 for all the world like the drabs in the street 
 slapping their children betwixt anger and 
 joy when they get them out safe from under 
 the waggon-wheels. And pray, young sir," 
 he added, turning with more genuine severity
 
 92 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 to Francis, *' what excuse have yoit to offer 
 for bringing a lady that was under your care 
 in danger of her Hfe, to say nothing of ruining 
 her new damask dress ; a misfortune of which 
 she will be sensible to-morrow ? " 
 
 ** O none whatever, sir," replied Francis 
 coldly, meeting with unflinching eye a gaze 
 which had struck awe into bosoms apparently 
 hardier and certainly more important than 
 his. 
 
 Esther hastened to declare herself the first 
 to blame, and between the two Swift was 
 quickly in possession of the few facts of their 
 adventure. 
 
 "But come, Hessinage," he cried, "we 
 had best walk briskly to Lord Mordaunt's 
 house. 'Tis not a mile from hence." 
 
 At the mention of Lord Mordaunt's name 
 all Esther's spirit returned to her. 
 
 "Noi" she cried, "I do most utterly 
 refuse to present myself at that young man's 
 door in such a plight. Go you, Francis, and 
 tell them to put to the horses, and meet me 
 
 Pray, dear sir, where shall he tell them 
 
 to meet me ? "
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 93 
 
 " O Faith, Governor Huff, you must be 
 reasonable ! Come now to his Lordship's, 
 and dry that draggled tall of yours, and warm 
 your bones a little before you start for town, 
 else you will catch a great cold." 
 
 '' I care not for great colds. Doctor. I 
 will have fifty colds rather than beg civility 
 of that detestable fellow. Besides, 'tis 
 already so late that If we delay there. Aunt 
 Stone will declare she durst not for her life 
 start for London at such an hour — she would 
 have stayed behind at Windsor had it not 
 been for the expense — and O ! how I should 
 hate to be perhaps the cause of our spending 
 a night beneath Lord Mordaunt's roof! " 
 
 She did not add that her mother and sister, 
 for other reasons than Mrs. Stone's, would 
 joyfully accept any invitation that might be 
 extended to the party, but Francis under- 
 stood her fears, and both because he shared 
 them, and because it was pleasant to back 
 her wishes in opposition to Swift's, he 
 said — 
 
 '' I am of your mind, Hess. There must 
 be some neighbouring cottage wliere ycu can
 
 94 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 dry your clothes, and if the Doctor will direct 
 me, I can run to his Lordship's and presently 
 bring Mrs. Vanhomrigh and the coach to 
 fetch you." 
 
 '' You are certain to do as you please, 
 Governor, reason or no reason," returned 
 Swift, shruoforinor his shoulders, '' and this 
 time, I ow^n, you have blundered onto the 
 better plan. The Peterborough Arms is 
 nearer this than the Manor, and nearer the 
 coach-road too ; and so there you shall go, 
 and that quickly." 
 
 He took her hands to pull her up, and 
 then began hurrying her across the field in 
 the direction from which he had himself 
 come, Francis came behind, somewhat mor- 
 tified to find ^how much he was encumbered 
 by the ladder which the Doctor, whom he 
 was pleased to regard as advanced in years, 
 had carried with so much ease and dexterity. 
 But having replaced it by the barn, he 
 started ofT, running up the woodland path 
 whence Swift had first appeared, with the 
 light foot of youth and activity. Esther and 
 her companion struck across the fields
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 95 
 
 towards the Peterborough Arms. They 
 were glad to be alone, but more silent than 
 when Francis was following them. A 
 natural love of secrecy and the habits formed 
 by another long and but half-acknowledged 
 intimacy made Swift almost unconsciously 
 different in his manner to Essie when they 
 talked together without witnesses. It was a 
 difference so natural and so subtle as to 
 escape definition, and not to be remembered 
 by himself with any pang of conscience ; yet 
 the charm of it thrilled through every fibre 
 of her being and wrapped her in a warm 
 mist of dreams. 
 
 The great ball of the sun had now gone 
 down, and a red fire of sunset burned half 
 round the horizon, while opposite the moon 
 began to glow almost as redly through the 
 dim purple of the autumn evening. Yet It 
 was hardly twilight, for the sky and water 
 were full of reflected light. The grass took 
 a strange metallic green, and the high woods, 
 so dark at noon, showed brown and tawny 
 against the sunset. Essie, whose friend 
 loved to rally her on her romantic delight in
 
 96 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 rural scenery, scarcely ventured a remark on 
 the peculiar beauty of the evening ; but it 
 lingered in her memory as the fitting close 
 of a day marked out from its *' obscure 
 compeers."
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGIL 97 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 They reached the Peterborough Arms at the 
 same moment that Francis approached the 
 Manor House, which standing alone among 
 the fields, was unmistakable. It was a fine 
 Jacobean house with two square bays pro- 
 jecting the whole height of it, on each side 
 of the main door. The space in front was 
 enclosed by a cut yew hedge, but from the 
 sloping ground above it Francis could see a 
 coach standing there. Crossing what had 
 once been a moat, he found his way through 
 a maze of overgrown paths to the front door. 
 As he issued from a lattice gate in the yew 
 hedge, he was greeted by a shriek from the 
 coach, in which Mrs. Stone, determined that 
 if there was any dangerous delay it should 
 not be through the Stone family, had been 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 seated for the last half-hour with her 
 daughter beside her. 
 
 *' Well, Mr. Earle, here you are," cried 
 Anna, thrusting a sharp and agitated nose 
 out of the window. " Where the plague 
 have you been ? And, Lord, what a figure 
 you are ! WeVe been waiting for you this 
 age, and half the household are seeking you." 
 
 '' Indeed, miss, I'm sorry for 't. I've been 
 in the water," panted Francis, out of breath 
 with his run, and bounding up the steps he 
 gave a sounding rat-tat-tat on the old oaken 
 door. As he did so it struck him that 
 perhaps the whole affair was a dream. The 
 wrought-iron mermaid that formed the 
 knocker seemed perfectly familiar to him, 
 and so did the carved monogram and motto 
 above the porch. As he followed the black 
 boy who appeared at his summons through 
 the square hall, this impression of familiarity 
 deepened. He found the rest of the party 
 assembled in a handsome bay-windowed 
 parlour, drinking a stirrup-cup of burnt wine 
 and spices. They, like the Stones, greeted 
 him with a volley of exclamations, questions
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 99 
 
 and upbraldlngs, that scarcely left room for 
 his account of himself. They had not, how- 
 ever, long been anxious about the missing 
 couple, whom they imagined to have passed 
 the landing-place by a mistake easily made, 
 as the Manor was not within sight of the 
 river. Mrs. Vanhomrigh was not inclined 
 to be anxious, and knowing Essie to have 
 taken one of her unfortunate dislikes to 
 that amiable young nobleman Lord Mor- 
 daunt, felt sure that if such had been the 
 case neither she nor Francis would have 
 been in a hurry to rectify their mistake. 
 Lord Mordaunt was well-bred enouofh to 
 fulfil his duties as host with a o;race that 
 cost him nothing, for he was beginning to 
 feel a definite interest in his languid pursuit 
 of Molly. That she would drop into his 
 clutches one day he had no manner of doubt, 
 but to bring that result about might cost just 
 enough scheming to amuse him, and give a 
 certain piquancy to the affair. So his Lord- 
 ship's civil behaviour was such as to afford 
 the Vanhomrighs an excuse for rapture, and 
 what with walking in the grounds, drinking
 
 100 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 Bohea tea, and viewing the Dutch and 
 Chinese curiosities with which some former 
 occupant had stocked the house, the 
 moments would have flown unmarked until 
 Francis made his appearance, had it not 
 been for Mrs. Stone. She, good lady, could 
 not be consoled even by the society of a 
 nobleman for the dangers of the return 
 journey, which seemed to her to be increased 
 by every moment of delay. Nor were her 
 fears so ridiculous as the Vanhomrighs de- 
 clared, since highwaymen were proverbially 
 common on Hounslow Heath. Her im- 
 patient enquiries after the missing two were 
 not, however, all prompted by self-interest, 
 for she was really surprised at the equanimity 
 with which Madam Van took their unex- 
 plained disappearance, and was glad when 
 she had succeeded in instilling enough 
 anxiety Into that lady's buoyant bosom for 
 some of his Lordship s men to be sent to seek 
 them. When Mrs. Vanhomrigh understood 
 what had really happened, she was distracted 
 with retrospective alarm, and prepared to 
 rush off at once to the Peterborough Arms.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. loi 
 
 " But pray, mamma," said Molly, ** let 
 Francis dry his clothes first. We shall have 
 him down with an ague, or worse, If he sits 
 in the coach like this." 
 
 " Oh, my poor child ! " cried Mrs. Van- 
 homrigh, at once embracing him and feeling 
 his coat, " how do I forget thee ! 'Tis true 
 thou'rt wet and cold too, on my conscience ! 
 Quick, GInckel I let your man get him a dry 
 suit out of your valise." 
 
 GInckel gave his mother a look ; seldom 
 had he felt so keenly her thoughtlessness 
 and want of all sense of the fitness of 
 things. 
 
 '' Cousin Earle and I are scarce of a size, 
 madam," he answered, drawing himself up 
 to his full height, which was not very for- 
 midable. " But there Is a good fire in my 
 chamber, before which, with his Lordship's 
 permission, he can dry himself." 
 ■ " Ay, and keep me waiting till Christmas," 
 returned she petulantly. 
 
 Francis had in truth just begun to be 
 conscious of the chill of his wet clothes, but 
 he was of course ready to deny the necessity
 
 I02 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 for changing them, and Mrs. Vanhomrigh In 
 her haste to be gone would have accepted 
 the denial. Molly, however, who like Essie 
 was still accustomed to regard him as the 
 chief invalid of the family, was not satisfied, 
 and Lord Mordaunt, willing to please her, 
 took the trouble to suggest that her cousin 
 might stay behind and subsequently join the 
 coach on the high road by a short cut across 
 the fields. Mrs. Vanhomrlgh's leave-taking 
 was short but effusive, and accepted with 
 languid condescension by her host. He 
 exerted himself so far as to wrap a scarf 
 round Molly, and murmur in reply to her 
 thanks for his hospitality, ** Fie, dear miss, 
 'tis but old maid's entertainment, Bohea and 
 civility. Come again and try true bachelor's 
 fare ; that they say 's bread and cheese and 
 kisses." 
 
 Francis meantime having followed the 
 black boy up the wide oak stairs to an 
 upper room, hurriedly divested himself of 
 his garments, and sitting by the fire wrapped 
 in Ginckel's embroidered bed-gown, im- 
 patiently expected their return. On the
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 103 
 
 wall opposite him hung a piece of tapestry- 
 representing Adam and Eve parleying with 
 a Dutch Creator, who had made them solidly 
 in his own imxasfe. Time had done much 
 to blend the outline of the figures with the 
 blues and greens of Eden, so that in spite of 
 the clumsiness of the figures, the whole piece 
 made a pleasant bit of colour in the large 
 bare bed-chamber. It was not, however, its 
 decorative effect that gave it a fascination in 
 the eyes of Francis ; it was the curious train 
 of fancies that it suggested. He not only 
 seemed to be familiar with it, which was 
 natural enough, since the design was not 
 uncommon, but he had a distinct impression 
 that if he opened the door yonder, by the 
 great bedstead with its faded hangings, he 
 would find himself in a narrow room, a sort 
 of small gallery, where two similar pieces, 
 representing the Temptation of Eve and the 
 Expulsion from Paradise, would hang on 
 his right hand facing the windows. There 
 would be an oriel at the end opposite him, 
 and a few bits of quaint Dutch marqueterie 
 furniture along the walls. He smiled at his
 
 104 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 own delusion, but it was so strong that he 
 rose and, at the risk of intruding on Ginckel's 
 own man or some yet more dignified 
 individual, opened the door of communica- 
 tion. The lighted sconce and the flickering 
 fire in the bed-chamber threw but a feeble 
 glimmer into the adjoining room, but the 
 moon, which Essie had watched dawning so 
 redly, now shone large and golden in the 
 sky. It poured its beams through the ample 
 lattices that formed one side of the gallery, 
 and Francis, now no longer with his mind s 
 eye, but actually, saw every object as he had 
 conjured it up. The mechanism of memory 
 having once been set to work, went on 
 reproducing with inconceivable speed a 
 thousand lost impressions. His remem- 
 brance of his mother was not particularly 
 tender, but perfectly distinct. He recollected 
 well playing round her toilette-table of a 
 morning, while his nurse dressed her head, 
 fingering the silver knick-knacks upon it, 
 pulling out odd little drawers, and generally 
 finding himself banished to jump up and 
 down the step of an oriel window. There
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 105 
 
 was the step and there the toilette-table, 
 pushed against the wall, with its glass 
 reflecting only the bright moonlight, and 
 bare of its silver knick-knacks, but with the 
 same countless drawers and inlaid bouquets 
 of flowers which his childish fingers had too 
 persistently picked. From the windows he 
 saw a stone terrace, a sun-dial and a fish- 
 pond, whose images had always remained 
 impressed upon his memory. He returned 
 to the bed-chamber in a state of excitement. 
 He told himself that faded memories might 
 combine with coincidence to deceive him ; 
 this house and garden might be like, but he 
 could not be sure that they were identical 
 with the home of his earliest childhood ; also 
 that even if he were not mistaken in his 
 facts, he might not be able to follow up the 
 clue thus found, and that, moreover, if he 
 did, his discoveries would do him no good. 
 In vain. He was of an inquisitive and 
 somewhat contrary disposition, and from the 
 moment that he discovered that a mystery 
 had been thrown round his parentage, had 
 from time to time determined to penetrate
 
 ic6 ESTHER J'JXmWElLlIf. 
 
 it. Oi late a hope that could he find his 
 lather he niig-ht plead with him more 
 successfully than with the lawyer at 
 Windsor, had given a keener edge to his 
 curiosity. 
 
 The black boy reappeared with his clothes, 
 and hastily enduing them, he made his way 
 downstairs, determined to return to the place 
 at some more convenient opportunity and 
 question any old residents he might find in 
 the neighbourhood. xAt the foot of the stairs 
 he met a footman bearing a folded scrap of 
 paper addressed to himself, and opening it, 
 read in dim and scrawly characters : 
 
 " j\Il DEAR CIIILDE, 
 
 " You must now stay at his 
 lordships this nite, wich he will not be at alle 
 onwilling, for Essy's arm being somthing 
 renched, and her as extream sicke as ever I 
 saw her, and your Aunt Stone mitey affeared 
 of the gentlemen of the rode, as you no, poor 
 creeter, the kinde Dr. extends to us his 
 orspitality and lodges us alle in Winser till 
 tomorrer mornen, wen we shall egspect you
 
 ESTHER VAXHOMRIGH. 107 
 
 mi cleare at the signe of the Wite harte and 
 am your loving cousin, 
 
 " Esther \'aniiomrigii, the elder." 
 
 Francis crumpled up the note in his hand, 
 and stood still on the last step of the stair 
 smiling- sardonically to himself. So the little 
 comedy he and Esther had foreseen had 
 been acted, with a slight change of scene 
 and personages. Probably she was better 
 pleased with it now, but he was not. Mean- 
 time the footman also stood still, keeping an 
 eye on him till he was recalled to a sense of 
 his obligations. Francis began to hunt for 
 his purse, and then suddenly asked him if he 
 knew^ who had occupied the house before 
 Lord Mordaunt's day. 
 
 '' This 'ouse, m'lord, this 'ouse ? " returned 
 the man, pretending to consider the question 
 and really watching for the appearance of 
 the purse. He did not of course mistake 
 this shabby-looking little gentleman for a 
 lord, but he commonly used the title in 
 preference to the plebeian sir, as showing in 
 what society he was accustomed to wait, and
 
 io8 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 as generally conducing to his own sense of 
 dignity. The vails produced being larger 
 than he had judged likely, he grew affable. 
 
 ''Troth, your Honour," he said, ''this 
 ^ouse an't no place for people of quality. I 
 doubt even the gentry would find it sadly 
 too ancient to live in. I 'ave heard his 
 Lordship intends when he comes of age, to 
 pull it down and build a mansion nearer to 
 Windsor/' 
 
 " Did the late Lord Mordaunt live here 1 " 
 asked Francis. 
 
 "The late Lord Mordaunt, your Honour, 
 and the late Honourable John did both use 
 to come here for stag-hunting and such like, 
 when the Court was at Windsor," returned 
 the man, " the same as his present Lordship." 
 
 The footman pocketed his vails, and 
 Francis continued his way to the parlour, to 
 announce his Intention not indeed of staying 
 the night, but of walking to Windsor, where 
 he could easily find a lodging at an inn. 
 Lord Mordaunt, who viewed him with in- 
 difference but not dislike, civilly offered him a 
 bed, and on his declining that, observed that
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 109 
 
 he might as well wait supper, as two gentle- 
 men were expected from the neighbourhood 
 of Windsor, and would probably be able to 
 give him a cast on his way in their chariot. 
 Francis, for whom the place had a fascination, 
 willingly accepted the latter invitation, and 
 seeing his Lordship was In high good-humour, 
 ventured to put some questions to him about 
 the house and Its former owners. 
 
 *' The estate came to Lord Peterborough 
 from a cousin," said his host, " and Gad ! the 
 land Is worth having. As to the house," 
 looking round him with contempt, '''tis a 
 rare old den and half-way to Jericho. I am 
 surprised his Lordship didn't destroy it, but 
 the old dog knew a trick worth two of that." 
 
 It was scarcely a filial fashion of naming 
 his parent, and he ended with a sneering 
 laugh, but Immediately afterwards left the 
 room with some alacrity, exclaiming, "Ay, 
 there come Tom and Peter." 
 
 There was a sound of wheels dashing up 
 to the door, the steps of the chariot clattered 
 down, and there rushed into the house a 
 torrent of youthful noise and high spirits.
 
 no ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 The hall re-echoed with loud greetings and 
 laughter, and when the clamorous party, con- 
 sisting of the two arrivals, Ginckel, and Lord 
 Mordaunt, entered the parlour, Francis was 
 surprised to observe that the latter was con- 
 tributinof to the tumult. That GinckeFs 
 mincing manners should be doffed as easily 
 as his coat, was to be expected, but the 
 languid, silent gravity of Lord Mordaunt 
 seemed an integral part of him. Indeed it 
 was not an affectation. Generally speaking, 
 ladies bored him ; he had not naturally any 
 conversation for them, and was too lazy and 
 indifferent to invent it. The Vanhomrighs 
 would have been scandalized to learn that he 
 found their society attractive partly because, 
 beinof his inferiors in rank, he did not think 
 it necessary to treat them with such cere- 
 monious politeness as custom and surround- 
 ings enforced upon him among people of 
 quality. This, and pretty Molly's lively 
 tongue, which at once tickled his fancy 
 and saved him all conversational trouble, 
 together with the instinctive gregariousness 
 of the idle, had caused him to drift into their
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, in 
 
 company so often while the town was empty. 
 Had they seen him in Lady Peterborough's 
 withdrawing-room, they would have observed 
 a difference in his manners ; had they seen 
 him among his young companions, a trans- 
 formation. The two young men who pre- 
 ceded him were of a more common-place 
 type, a year or two younger than himself, 
 rosy, and robustly built, but with a certain 
 bloatedness of appearance which augured ill 
 for their future comfort. Francis subse- 
 quently learned their names to be Tom 
 Raikes and Peter Ponsonby. The whole 
 party burst into the parlour convulsed by 
 some rare stroke of their own humour, 
 headed by Mr. Raikes, who unable to let 
 off his feelings by mere cachinnation, was 
 mingling with it a variety of strange shrieks, 
 and striking the air violently with his loose 
 right hand, till the joints cracked like small 
 pistol-shots. Ginckel, dressed in pearl- 
 coloured cloth, with freshly-combed peruke 
 and fine perfumed handkerchief pressed to 
 his mouth, followed his host cackling shrilly ; 
 in the rear gleamed the grin of Tully, the
 
 112 FSTHi:!^ J'AXHOMRIGH. 
 
 black boy, who could not help adding; a 
 guttural explosion to the general roar, while 
 the high glasses of Rhenish wine and sugar, 
 which he carried o\\ a massive silver salver, 
 rattled again. Whereat his master paused 
 abruptly in his mirth and swore at him 
 savagely : then. " Keep your cursed throat 
 still, you dog. and don't spill the wine." 
 And turning to his friends ; " Drink, boys, 
 drink — you'll ne'er taste better. Old Peter- 
 borough brought it from Germany, and if his 
 butler weren't a better friend to me than he 
 is. you'd never ha' seen the colour oi it this 
 night." 
 
 As the wine went round — a wine whose 
 bouquet it would have drawn tears from a 
 connoisseur to divine through the cloving 
 sugar — Mr, Earle was named to the new 
 o'uests. The introduction was so cursorv it 
 formed no interruption to the series of 
 whoops, laughs and oaths, whereby the ball 
 of conversation was kept tl\'ing. while the 
 wine was being despatched. Just as the ball 
 had dropped, Tom Raikes, who lay in a 
 chair with his hat over his eyes and was
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 113 
 
 drumming on the table with the foot of his 
 glass, started it afresh by suddenly slapping 
 his knee, and doubling up in a fresh con- 
 vulsion of merriment. 
 
 ''O Lord! O Lord, the parson! That's 
 what I ha'n't forgot ! " he shrieked ; " never 
 bammed a fellow so neatly in all my days. 
 Mordaunt, lad, Mordaunt ! the parson leap- 
 ing for a guinea with his plaguey petticoats 
 tucked up across his arm ! " 
 
 " Ay, ay," joined in Ponsonby, with a 
 burst of exultant imprecations, '' 'twas the 
 rarest trick of the deal. Lord, the fellow's 
 phiz, when I says to Tom quite quiet — 
 ' Tom, smoke the Bishop at the window ' — 
 just like that I says it. Didn't I, Tom ?" 
 
 " Ay, and then," continued Tom, throwing 
 up his hat and catching it again, '' if the 
 dirty fellow didn't dispute the vardi and 
 make as though he'd keep his guinea ; but 
 I promise you I had it out of him, though 
 'twas dearer than blood." 
 
 *'Well done, my lad!" cried Mordaunt. 
 " Trust a parson for sticking to his money, 
 and you for getting it out of him!" He 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 reflected with some bitterness on the guinea 
 he himself had sacrificed to the cloth that 
 day. '' But you won't make your fortin out 
 of leaping with parsons, three leaps a guinea." 
 
 " And devilish dear at the price," observed 
 Peter. 
 
 " 'Tis true, if he don't make it, he won't 
 lose it neither," sneered Mordaunt. ''You 
 take my advice and stick to the beggarly 
 parsons, Tom, lest heavy in the purse prove 
 light in the leg." 
 
 "Ha! ha! that's pure! Smoke that, 
 Tommy ! " cried Peter, and all laughed 
 except Mr. Raikes, who sat up and swore 
 with dignity. He was a short-legged, fat 
 young man, whose appearance entirely belied 
 his boasted agility. 
 
 '' Pray divert yourselves, gentlemen," he 
 said, after devoting his companions piece- 
 meal to perdition, ''but I'll lay you, Mor- 
 daunt, and you, Ponsonby, and Van there, 
 and Mr. What-d'ye-call, if he be no parson, 
 a hundred pounds apiece, I beat you all at 
 three leaps each — two of you o' Monday, 
 and two o' Tuesday, meet when you will.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 115 
 
 I'll lay 'em and win 'em too, gentlemen — lay 
 'em and win 'em too." 
 
 '' No, hang me, not of me ! " exclaimed 
 Lord Mordaunt. '' Leap ! Why the deuce 
 should I leap? If it had to be done, Ld 
 make my nigger do it. Go to Bedlam, Tom, 
 and leap for a hundred straws." 
 
 ''Well said, Mordaunt," cried Ponsonby. 
 " I love a wager, but for sport I'd a precious 
 deal sooner put my money on four legs than 
 on two." 
 
 " What, all affeared ? " jeered Tom, feeling 
 it safe to assume a swagger. " Come, 
 Colonel, come now, when will you meet ? " 
 
 " If I may dance for't, Tommy," replied 
 the Colonel, taking snuff and smiling with 
 the indulis^ence of the elder man and the 
 acknowledged beau, "let it be at the next 
 Birthday. Leaping, I take it's for country 
 putts. Yet here's Mr. Earle, who's been 
 swimming, ha ! ha ! to-day, and for aught 
 I know may love leaping as well." 
 
 He felt some mortification at the unex- 
 pected presence at their select party of 
 Francis in his camlet suit, somewhat shabby
 
 -ii6 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 to Start with and the worse for the water, 
 and his own draggled brown hair. So he 
 at the same time disclaimed any close con- 
 nection with him, and took revenge for the 
 unavoidable one of which he was conscious. 
 
 " Hey, Mr. Earle, sir, what do you say ?" 
 
 " I say that my legs never yet carried the 
 weight of a hundred pounds, save of my own 
 fool's flesh." 
 
 This candid confession of poverty, con- 
 firmed by the speaker's appearance, em- 
 boldened Mr. Raikes. 
 
 *' I care not," he said. " Say ten and 
 done, and meet me o' Monday with the 
 gentlemen here for judges." 
 
 Francis shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 •' Pardon me, Mr. Raikes, but I have 
 other fish to fry." 
 
 *' A plague on you, sir. You shall not 
 oet off thus," cried Raikes insolently, kicking 
 off his shoes. " Mordaunt, let Tully bring 
 a cane, and we'll e'en leap here before supper. 
 If the door be opened there'll be room and 
 to spare." 
 
 Then he came up to his adversary and
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 1 17 
 
 made as if he would pull off his coat. 
 Francis, with his hands in his pockets, per- 
 sisted in declining the invitation. Mr. Raikes 
 now took him round the body and began 
 dragging him towards the middle of the 
 room. This was horse-play of a kind vastly 
 to amuse the assistants, and they roared 
 again, encouraging the struggling pair in 
 the choicest language of the cock-pit. 
 
 "Gad! Mr. Earle," said his Lordship, 
 " don't cross poor Tom. You shall leap and 
 not risk a penny, for 111 put ten guineas on 
 you myself, just for the sport on't." 
 
 "Ay! so will I," cried Ponsonby with 
 many asseverations. 
 
 Francis' blood was now thoroughly up ; he 
 jerked himself free from Raikes' grasp, 
 leaving his coat in the enemy's hands. 
 
 ** Deuce take your guineas, gentlemen ! " 
 he said. " Lay 'em where you please. I'll 
 leap against Mr. Raikes for nothing, and if 
 I don't beat him first leap, I'll engage to leap 
 again for any stake he may name. But 
 you must let me place the cane as I 
 choose."
 
 ii8 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 " Done," cried Tom. '' Done, Mordaunt, 
 and done, Peter ! The odds are even." 
 And he threw off his coat, and bounded 
 awkwardly several times into the air. 
 
 Now Mr. Raikes' belief in his own agility 
 Avas one of those strong delusions that are 
 sometimes sent upon young men — from the 
 gods, as we must suppose, since they have 
 no apparent origin in this world. The 
 laziness of the youths of fashion with whom 
 he consorted, and the awkwardness of the 
 unlucky parson before mentioned, had en- 
 couraged his conceit, and as in the casual 
 struggle that had just taken place his weight 
 had given him the advantage over his slender 
 antagonist, he imagined himself sure of 
 victory and twenty guineas. But though a 
 sturdy, he w^as also a clumsy, self-indulgent 
 young man, quite unfit to contend in such a 
 sport with one of active and temperate habits. 
 Francis, having quickly appropriated two 
 small ombre tables, began piling folios out 
 of the bookshelf. He piled up his edifice 
 silently and savagely to the utmost height 
 that he thous^ht he could clear, and then
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 119 
 
 placed across It the bamboo provided by Tally. 
 The others looked on at his arrangements. 
 
 ** Lord ! you must be meaning to run 
 under it," observed Ponsonby, who began 
 to tremble for his guineas. Tom meantime 
 was busy taking out the half-ell of black 
 ribbon that tied his shirt in order to tie back 
 his peruke. He stared at Francis' pre- 
 parations, but concluding them to be part 
 of the bravado of despair, followed him out 
 of the door. The others pressing close to 
 the door-way, looked eagerly down the 
 dimly-lighted bit of corridor and hall along 
 which they were to run. Francis came first. 
 Rage at the species of baiting to which he 
 had been subjected, and perhaps the fumes 
 of the Rhenish in his blood, made him feel 
 as if he had wings on his heels. The 
 moment he started a satisfied smile began 
 to dawn on the faces of his two backers, 
 who were shrewd enough where their money 
 was concerned. It broadened and broke 
 into a short laugh of gratification as he 
 passed them, and flying clean over the 
 bamboo with two inches to spare, came
 
 I20 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 down lightly but firmly on the polished 
 boards beyond. 
 
 A minute afterwards Raikes blundered 
 by, all arms and legs, made a desperate 
 bound and plunge, and fell prone under a 
 table and an avalanche of folios ; for, whether 
 purposely or not, Francis had so arranged 
 the cane that It did not, as might have been 
 expected, fly at the first touch of an In- 
 discreet toe. 
 
 Such an accident happening to any one 
 would have seemed a good joke enough to 
 the three spectators, but happening as it 
 did to their particular crony Tom, their 
 delight knew no bounds. Besides there 
 was the money Involved. The shrill cackle 
 of GInckel, Mordaunt's grating laugh, and 
 Ponsonby's younger and heartier hilarity 
 broke out in a simultaneous roar over the 
 prostrate form of their companion. Francis, 
 with an Impassive face, began to put on his 
 waistcoat. Raikes, his natural clumsiness 
 increased by wrath and disappointment, 
 struggled for some minutes on the slippery 
 well-waxed boards before he could get to
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 121 
 
 his feet, and then stood glaring savagely 
 round, his peruke all awry. 
 
 " Egad, my Lord, he's going to eat us 
 without salt or pepper ! " cried Peter, point- 
 ing at him. 
 
 "• I'll carve ye to begin with, at any rate," 
 replied Raikes, and swearing an oath or 
 two, considered whom first he should devour. 
 Then he took up a sword that lay on the 
 table, and approaching Lord Mordaunt with 
 a truculent air — 
 
 " Demme, my Lord," said he, '' you may 
 refuse a leaping engagement, but there's 
 meetings no gentleman or nobleman either 
 can refuse." 
 
 His Lordship became suddenly grave. 
 
 " Come, Raikes," said he, drawing him 
 into the embrasure of the window, " don't 
 let's drive a jest too far. Deuce take thee, 
 man ! whose notion was the leaping but 
 thine own .^ Sure," he continued, lowering 
 his voice, '* 'tis but reasonable these sort of 
 rascals, that must earn their living by their 
 heads or their heels, should have some 
 advantage over men of quality." And again
 
 122 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 raising his voice, '' You was obstinate to do 
 it, my lad, but any one could see you was 
 not in good jumping trim to-day. An't that 
 so, Van ? " 
 
 The Colonel and Ponsonby, though sur- 
 prised at Mordaunt's unwonted conciliatori- 
 ness, followed his lead. Tom was pacified 
 as quickly as he had been roused, and when 
 supper had begun to warm his heart by 
 way of his stomach, he solemnly pledged 
 Francis across the table. 
 
 " You beat me handsomely, sir," he said. 
 */ Demme, I own it. You may go boast you 
 beat Tom Ralkes of Morley, and, 'pon 
 honour, there's not many could say that 
 much." 
 
 *' Sir, you flatter me," replied Francis 
 gravely, bowing over his glass. 
 
 Ponsonby was also grave, and kept fixing 
 a considering eye on the obscure youth. Two 
 days before he had lost a valuable race- 
 horse, by name Ramillies, and in spite of 
 his avowed preference for placing his money 
 on four legs rather than on two, he was not 
 in a mood to throw away any chance.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 123 
 
 Accustomed, like Raikes, to the society of 
 lazy fine gentlemen, young Earle's leaping 
 powers seemed to him much more remark- 
 able than they really were. It occurred to 
 him that a partnership between capital and 
 labour, as personated by himself and Mr. 
 Earle, might be of service to both, and so 
 much was he taken with his idea, that no 
 polite retort of Francis' would shake him 
 loose from it. Lord Mordaunt, however, 
 who was a youth of some discrimination, 
 at length intervened. 
 
 '* Don't be tedious, Peter. The gentleman 
 knows well enough there an't no money in 
 your concerns. Faith, but I was in luck 
 to have notliing on your Ramillies ! Was 
 your eggs all in one basket, or will you ride 
 to Datchet races with Tom and me next 
 week ? " 
 
 ** Shall we have the diversion of meeting 
 your Lordship's Papa ? " asked Ponsonby, 
 and laughed. 
 
 Tom laughed louder, and brought an 
 imaginary cane whistling through the air and 
 down on some solid object. The reference
 
 124 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 was to a little episode that had taken place 
 at the New Market two years before, when 
 Lord Mordaunt had unexpectedly encount- 
 ered his father on the race-course and had 
 been peremptorily forbidden to return thither 
 till he should be of age. This time Lord 
 Mordaunt looked with disgust on the mirth 
 of his companions. 
 
 ** Lord Peterbrow," he said Indifferently, 
 *' starts for Spain to-morrow. Where he'll 
 be next week, is more than any man can 
 tell." 
 
 '•Well, well," said Vanhomrigh, holding 
 up his glass, " I hope I may without offence 
 drink the noble traveller's voyage to that 
 land — what does the play call It ? — that land, 
 ' from which no traveller returns.' " Mor- 
 daunt smiled disagreeably, but made no 
 remark. 
 
 '' A — men," cried Tom in a sepulchral 
 voice, seizing a bottle. " And bumpers all 
 round." 
 
 And the two young guests who sat at the 
 opposite side of the table to the Colonel 
 and Francis waved their glasses vociferously
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 125 
 
 in the direction of a portrait which faced 
 them, and which Francis gathered from their 
 exclamations to be that of Lord Peter- 
 borough, though its position, behind him 
 and beyond the light of the candles on the 
 table, prevented his seeing it clearly. 
 
 When the enthusiasm of the toast had 
 subsided — " Who's the nymph ? " asked 
 Ponsonby, pointing with his glass to another 
 portrait in the same direction. " Hang me, 
 if I can see her ! " 
 
 ''That an't your loss," replied Mordaunt. 
 " She's no beauty, for all the painter could 
 do. What's her name, Tom ? Lord ! how 
 should I know ? I call her Peterbrow's 
 Folly." 
 
 He went on between oaths and ill-words 
 to explain that the nameless nymph had in 
 some long past time been placed by Lord 
 Peterborough in this house ; that at the 
 caprice of the fantastic lady it had been filled 
 with the valuable Chinese curiosities which 
 Lord Mordaunt had that afternoon been ex- 
 hibiting to his visitors. That Lord Peter- 
 borough should have wasted on his own
 
 126 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 amusement sums, which otherwise miofht 
 have now been profitably used in extending 
 his son's, naturally moved the indignation 
 of Lord Mordaunt and his companions. 
 
 That double consciousness, which is latent 
 in every one, plays an exceptionally large 
 part in the mind of the lover. The thought 
 of the beloved is immanent in all other 
 thoughts, and continually tends to develope 
 and overpower them. The image of Esther 
 had never been absent from Francis' con- 
 sciousness that evening, and now appeared 
 as a definite comment on what was passing 
 around him. From the mental vision of 
 that countenance he looked with disgust 
 and contempt on Ginckel's profile next him 
 — so irritating in its likeness to his sister's — 
 agape and thrust forward to form one of 
 a group of faces, all in different proportions 
 degraded by low and vinous merriment, and 
 with nothing of youth left in them but its 
 weakness. This was the Colonel who, in 
 St. James' Street, gave himself the airs of 
 the superior male creature, guardian and 
 protector, and when In his most unselfish
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 127 
 
 mood, schemed to secure even such a one 
 as himself as a husband for Molly or Esther. 
 In spite of jealousy, Francis could not but 
 feel It a satisfaction to picture the three 
 ladles at a distance, In a quiet little parlour 
 at Windsor, probably rallying Dr. Swift 
 and Mr. Lewis over coffee and oranees. 
 The contrast came Indeed as something of 
 a relief to jealousy. He had said to himself 
 before, and now repeated with more con- 
 viction, that since this was the type of man 
 whom Ginckel brought to St. James' Street, 
 It was no wonder that Esther, who was 
 not so blind as her mother, turned with 
 enthusiasm to the society and even to the 
 worship of Swift and his friends. But It was 
 a considerably greater satisfaction to return 
 In fancy to the willow, to stand close to 
 the branch on which Essie sat, and to dispute 
 with her whether or not she had saved 
 him from death by drowning. He was re- 
 called from this pleasant excursion by two 
 dark objects flying over his head, their 
 simultaneous thud against the picture behind 
 him being greeted by yells of delight from
 
 128 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 three of the company. He started angrily, 
 but soon perceived that the shots were not 
 directed at him. Lord Mordaunt, who was 
 never quite hurried off his feet by any 
 excitement, and was also of an orderly 
 disposition, was annoyed at the bombardment 
 of what he knew to be a valuable pos- 
 session. 
 
 " Curse you, fellows 1 " he said, with a 
 sudden change of voice and manner. ''If 
 you want a mark to cast greasy dumplings 
 at, take Tully there into the garden. You 
 won't spoil Jiis beauty, and if you did, he 
 an't worth so much money as the hussy 
 yonder, who had herself painted by the best 
 master in the Hague." 
 
 " Oddso, man ! how tetchy you turn, when 
 we did it out of pure friendship to your 
 Lordship," cried Peter. 
 
 " Tully," continued Mordaunt, '' take a 
 light and rub the grease off yonder picture 
 with your handkerchief. Look alive, and 
 be hanged to you ! " 
 
 The negro took one of the heavy silver 
 candlesticks off the table, and putting it on
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 129 
 
 the floor near him, climbed laboriously on to 
 a high oak stool to accomplish the task. 
 The flickering flame glittered on his silver 
 dog-collar and beady eyes, but did not 
 enable him to see the marks on the picture. 
 Francis good-naturedly rose and lifted the 
 candle. As he did so, from the darkness 
 of the recess where the picture hung, and 
 from out the yet deeper darkness of Its 
 background, his mother's face looked on 
 him — not tenderly, but as It had been used 
 to smile In life, subtly and mockingly. The 
 curious pale long-eyed face was not In the 
 least like any other he had ever seen. The 
 feelinor of mlno^led fear and fascination, with 
 which he had regarded her as a child, 
 returned upon him, and the candle shook 
 in his hand, as addressing Lord Mordaunt 
 with a dazed look — 
 
 " What was her name, did you say ? " he 
 stammered. 
 
 His Lordship stared. 
 
 " I said, hang me If I knew," he replied. 
 " And I'll trouble you, sir, not to spill my 
 wax on my nigger's silk stocking." 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 Attention was then called to poor Tully's 
 dumb contortions of person and countenance 
 — It Is to be feared his concern was rather 
 for his own legs than for his master's silk 
 stockings — and they gave rise to fresh mirth. 
 
 " Gad ! I forgot to tell you the end of the 
 story," continued Mordaunt when silence 
 was restored, '* and yet 'twas the best of It. 
 The witch there was burnt to death, luckily 
 for us, before she had sucked the last guinea 
 out of old Peterbrow. Hes never been 
 near the place since, but they say you may 
 meet her In the gallery any night of the week. 
 So I wish you joy of her company. Van." 
 
 The Colonel smiled a sickly smile. 
 
 '' She was burnt to death," Lord Mordaunt 
 had said. Francis had a recollection of 
 waking one morning to a house full of 
 strange confusion and whispered horror, and 
 he had gathered that his mother had died 
 In some sudden and shocking way, but till 
 this moment he had not known how. He 
 lifted the light up to the portrait opposite 
 hers, which he knew to be Lord Peter- 
 borough's ; this revived a much less distinct
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 131 
 
 memory, yet one not wholly obliterated. 
 So at last by chance he had picked up the 
 key to the mystery, which he had so often 
 tried to solve. He dropped into his chair, 
 and passed his hand across his eyes like 
 one giddy. Lord Mordaunt glanced at him, 
 and taking him to be overcome with wine, 
 made no remark, but was reminded thereby 
 that if business was to be done that evening, 
 it was time to leave off passing the bottle. 
 He rose abruptly and marshalled his some- 
 what unwilling company back to the parlour 
 in which they had first met. The spirits 
 of his three comrades were not sobered 
 even by the sight of the card-tables prepared 
 there. Tom Raikes had begun again to 
 make strange cracking noises with his fingers, 
 which admired accomplishment Ponsonby 
 and Vanhomrigh were vainly endeavouring 
 to imitate. This was not the kind of sport 
 in which Mordaunt ever took an active part, 
 and now he looked on with a frown of 
 impatience. 
 
 '' Come, gentlemen, what's your game } " 
 he asked. *' Lu, or five-handed Ombre 1 "
 
 132 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 " My Lord, I do not play," said Francis. 
 His Lordship accepted the statement with 
 an indifferent nod. Yet it was an extra- 
 ordinary one in an age when cards were the 
 common passion of all ages and both sexes. 
 In any other young man it would have 
 argued something like heroism to have made 
 it in such company, but it cost Francis no 
 effort to take his own line in such matters. 
 Had the vice of gambling been less ordinary, 
 it might, in spite of his common sense, have 
 had temptations for him. As it was, the 
 sordid side of it lay continually open to 
 those critical observations which it was his 
 pleasure to make on things in general. His 
 mind was still in the state of excitement 
 caused by his unexpected discovery, but it 
 was now a calm and luminous excitement, 
 in which the images of things and people 
 presented themselves to him with extreme 
 clearness and meaning, without interrupting 
 the course of an inward debate as to his 
 action or inaction, which he felt to be of 
 immediate importance — for was not Lord 
 Peterborough starting for Spain next morn-
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 133 
 
 ing ? The reverence for mere bonds of 
 blood was still strong in that generation, and 
 the conviction that Mordauntwas his brother 
 gave that heretofore rather indifferently de- 
 spised young man a sudden interest for 
 him. 
 
 For Mordaunt the silent youth at the fire- 
 place behind him had ceased to exist. He 
 was seated at the card-table. Tully had 
 removed his peruke and was tying a silk 
 handkerchief round his head in lieu thereof. 
 In obedience to his impatiently repeated 
 summons, the others came to the table, and 
 after a dispute as to what game they should 
 play, began drawing for places in the new 
 game of Quadrille, which all but his Lordship 
 preferred to the true Ombre, as requiring 
 fewer wits in the player. When the dealer 
 and the partners, the stakes and the number 
 of tours were determined; '* 'Tis you and I^ 
 Van," said his Lordship, " so don't let's have 
 any of your Beastings." 
 
 Which was as much as to say, '* Don't let 
 us have any of your mistakes." 
 
 The Colonel flushed a bright pink, and
 
 134 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 reached a card to mark the tours with 
 before he answered. 
 
 '' Pooh ! my Lord, you think my play 
 ruined by the ladies, but I warrant my ruin 
 is of another guess fashion. The chattering 
 baggages know neither mercy nor honour, 
 and when they have luck, love to call a king." 
 
 Expressions of reprobation passed round 
 the table, though the Colonel himself was 
 notorious for playing this risky and selfish 
 game, by which the player breaks partnership 
 and plays for his own hand. Lord Mordaunt 
 and Vanhomrigh were formidable opponents 
 for the two other young men, and the game 
 now began in earnest, all attempts at talk 
 being sternly checked by the host. 
 
 Every face at the table wore a look of 
 intense and more or less ignoble concentra- 
 tion. Lord Mordaunt's clear-cut features 
 showed themselves to the spectator at the 
 fire, now profile, now three-quarters, against 
 the flame of a wax-candle beyond, stripped 
 of their usual expression of haughty indiffer- 
 ence as entirely as of their shadowing curls, 
 and sharpened by attentive anxiety. The
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 135 
 
 drooping lids were lifted from the dark eyes, 
 the fine lips lengthened and straightened by 
 the clench of the jaw, and the whole face 
 looked older by ten years and strangely 
 mean, in spite of the beauty of its outline. 
 There was a cold keen eagerness about it, a 
 nameless something, as though some devil of 
 remorseless egoism, usually lurking in the 
 shadow and mystery of the human heart, 
 had suddenly and shamelessly stepped into 
 the light. Francis, surveying his new-found 
 brother with a critical eye, smiled in scorn of 
 womankind, when he thought of the praises 
 that Mrs. Vanhomrigh, the looks and blushes 
 that Molly lavished on this bad-hearted 
 young man. Yet, alas ! their mistake was 
 more worthy of pity than of scorn. The 
 world provides the regulation domino and 
 mask for every frequenter of its masquerade, 
 and it is less often the wise than the ill- 
 natured who are swift to divine ugly shapes 
 behind them. 
 
 At first the game went, as might have 
 been expected, in favour of the two more 
 experienced players, but the others took their
 
 136 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 losses with good temper, If not cheerfulness. 
 Against luck, however, no skill can stand. 
 When it came to Mordaunt's turn to be the 
 Ombre, or player, he surveyed his hand with 
 a glance as keen and swift as that with which 
 his father would have reviewed a regiment 
 of recruits, and cried *' Pass " immediately. 
 When it came round to the Colonel again, 
 they lost Codille. 
 
 " I'll trouble you not to draw my Basto 
 next tour with your cursed Manille," observed 
 his partner in a voice as sharp and cold as a 
 steel knife-edge. 
 
 The next tour found the Matadors yet more 
 against them, and they lost heavily. Ralkes 
 and Ponsonby, heaping up the mils and 
 fishes which marked the score, dared scarcely 
 indulge their satisfaction even by looks, so 
 black the silence that brooded over the 
 table, broken only by an occasional oath from 
 Mordaunt at his cards or at his partner. At 
 length Ponsonby, putting down his card, cried 
 ** Gano " to his partner, as a request to him 
 not to take It. Mordaunt dashed his cards 
 on to the table^ and shooting out his right
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, \yj 
 
 arm suddenly, presented the finger like a 
 pistol at Ponsonby's breast. 
 
 ** Beasted, Peter ! " he exclaimed, with a 
 short laugh. 
 
 Peter also dashed down his cards and 
 swore indignantly. On this there arose a 
 clamour as great as can be made by four 
 gentlemen all talking together, and each bent 
 on making his imprecations, if not his argu- 
 ments, audible. For Quadrille being yet in 
 its infancy, the rule which forbade the call 
 for Gano was not fully established, and the 
 two winners were by no means willing to 
 reduce their winnings by paying the fine 
 demanded. 
 
 While the rest of the company were thus 
 intent upon their own affairs, Francis Earle 
 left the room and the house unobserved.
 
 138 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Outside the night was cool and exquisitely 
 silent, for there was no sound, except that 
 of the faint breeze sighing through the tree- 
 tops. Below them it was pitch dark, as the 
 moon had gone behind a cloud, and the 
 foliage was still very thick. A long avenue 
 of beeches ran across the fields to the house, 
 and down this Francis began to make his 
 way, in accordance with the directions given 
 him when he had been intended to join the 
 coach. But he experienced the usual diffi- 
 culty in walking straight in the dark, and as 
 he knocked his hat off against a branch, and 
 first one shoulder and then the other against 
 the boles of the trees, and tripped and 
 strayed among the brambles and thorn- 
 bushes that had been allowed to encroach 
 on the avenue, he felt, not indeed a tempta-
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 139 
 
 tion to return, but exceeding wrath against 
 his inanimate and invisible foes, and some- 
 thing like despair of ever reaching his 
 destination. He would probably have 
 wandered yet longer in this wilderness, and 
 hopelessly missed the high-road, had it not 
 been for a fortunate accident. A bonfire of 
 weeds and the stubbed-up roots of trees near 
 the path having smouldered itself hollow, 
 the top fell in just as Francis passed, and 
 a red genial tongue of flame shot up into 
 the darkness. There was something at once 
 strange and friendly in the fire, crackling 
 and glowing through the night, alone in the 
 deserted field. It lighted up a footpath 
 that crossed the avenue and a stile in the 
 hedge, which he must otherwise have over- 
 looked, but which he recognised as his right 
 way. On the open path it was not so dark 
 as under the trees, and the ripples of light 
 at the edge of the dun cloud that hid the 
 moon were broadening and brightening. As 
 he crossed another stile at the further end of 
 the way, she swam out again into the clear 
 sky, and he saw the white high-road stretching
 
 I40 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 left and rlorht between the dark lines of Its 
 hedges. He turned in the direction, not of 
 Windsor, but of London, with the regular 
 determined tramp of a man settling down to 
 work, for he had more than twenty miles to 
 cover before morning. He did not know 
 the country, but he felt sure that the high- 
 road must bring him right eventually. In 
 the first village street he came to, though 
 the other houses were all dark, a stream of 
 light came from the ale-house door, and he 
 asked if this were the coach-road to London. 
 The landlord nodded an answer, and he and 
 one or two belated men round the door 
 stared with much solemnity and suspicion at 
 the lonely pedestrian, and would have ques- 
 tioned him in their turn had he not dis- 
 appeared again into the darkness before they 
 could arrive at articulation. 
 
 He met no other foot-passengers and only 
 one post-chaise passed him, driving very 
 quickly. In the day-time it was a busy 
 road, for besides the scattered towns and 
 villages upon it, he passed the gates of large 
 villas, which the wealthier merchants and
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 141 
 
 many of the nobility preferred as summer 
 residences to country places at a distance 
 from London. But now these dark and 
 silent houses, withdrawn among their gardens 
 and trees, seemed rather to emphasise than 
 to lessen the loneliness of the way. As he 
 passed the scattered groups of thorns on 
 Hounslow Heath he kept his hand on his 
 sword, but If any highwaymen were lurking 
 there, so Insignificant a prey did not tempt 
 them. Below him the river flats by Ham- 
 mersmith lay shimmering white with mist 
 In the moonlight. Before he reached them 
 the moon was gone, but from time to time 
 the roll of a market cart, and the gleam of 
 its sleepy lantern came to him cheerfully 
 through the darkness. 
 
 He entered London when the oil lamps 
 in the streets were burning even paler than 
 before in the cheerless dawn. In St. James' 
 Street no one was yet stirring, and It was only 
 a prolonged volley of knocks that at length 
 brought Mrs. Ann, the Vanhomrlghs' own 
 woman, to the door. The old waiting-maid 
 threw up her hands in horror at the appari-
 
 142 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 tion of Francis, thinking he brought ill-news 
 of her ladies. She was greatly relieved at 
 finding that it was his own business that 
 brought him to town, and inclined to pity 
 and make much of him. He certainly 
 looked wayworn, and felt tired when he sat 
 down, but not sleepy. On the contrary, he 
 had a curious feeling as though something 
 were strained right across his brain, and he 
 would never be able to close his eyes again. 
 He dressed himself afresh with considera- 
 tion, not indeed achieving an appearance 
 that would have made the Colonel proud to 
 acknowledge him, but freeing himself for the 
 moment from the reproach of a scholarly 
 slovenliness of dress. Then he took down 
 from the wall a small Spanish sword which 
 was his oldest possession. Something on 
 the embroidered scabbard or belt to which 
 it was attached had caus^ht his childish 
 fancy, and as he had not been able to draw 
 it, he had been allowed to keep it as a 
 cherished toy. He then sat down by a 
 cheerful fire which Mrs. Ann had lighted, 
 drank the dish of chocolate she brought him,
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. -143 
 
 and read a book till a quarter to eight 
 o'clock, when he went out and turned across 
 St. James' Park in the direction of Peter- 
 borough House. On his way he arranged 
 what he should say when he got there ; for 
 even twice his years teach few of us the 
 futility of such one-sided plans of conversa- 
 tion, where no allowance is made for the 
 winds and tides of our own immediate im- 
 pressions, still less for the independent and 
 constraining force of another mind. He 
 marched stoutly on till he came in sight of 
 the big door with the two shallow steps 
 before it and the oil-lamps on each side. 
 Then for the first time he realised to how 
 audacious a course he was about to commit 
 himself, and not so much hesitated as en- 
 couraged himself, by weighing the risk and 
 the possible loss and gain resulting from it. 
 He could but lose the slender allowance 
 which eked out his Bible-clerkship at All 
 Souls, and the chance of a chaplaincy or a 
 living, neither of which he would care to 
 accept. On the other hand, there was the 
 irrepressible youthful hope that this famous
 
 14+ ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 father, himself so ambitious and so restless, 
 might have more sympathy with the rest- 
 lessness and ambition of his son than the 
 dry little lawyer at Windsor. Should his 
 lordship fly into a rage, Francis would but 
 have to retire, and he imagined himself 
 retiring discreetly under cover of a smart 
 repartee. He knocked at the door, and a 
 large butler In a large peruke, who regarded 
 him with awe-inspiring surprise, informed 
 him, as he expected, that Lord Peterborough 
 was shortly leaving for Madrid, and would 
 see no one except on special business. But 
 he stepped past the butler into the flagged 
 hall with an easy confidence which sent that 
 individual's ideas, that like his majestic 
 frame usually moved with measured dignity, 
 jostling each other In hopeless confusion. 
 
 " His lordship will see me'' said the un- 
 known and apparently insignificant person, 
 and would not vouchsafe his name. 
 
 Now Lord Peterborough, like some other 
 noblemen and politicians in those days, when 
 the succession of the House of Hanover 
 seemed daily more doubtful, had grown
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 145 
 
 tired of that uncertain seat called in modern 
 phraseology '' the fence," and was engaged 
 in getting off it on the Stuart side. Conse- 
 quently he received a good many mysterious 
 or shabby visitors. 
 
 He was one of those irritable masters 
 who expect their servants to know by 
 instinct whom they wish and whom they 
 do not wish to see, and the butler knew not 
 whether he would incur most wrath by 
 admitting, or by sending away, one who 
 might be a political emissary of the highest 
 importance, or a needy tradesman bringing 
 a bill. Meantime, In mere confusion of mind 
 he began to mount the stairs, closely followed 
 by Francis. On the landing, still as far 
 from having arrived at a conclusion as ever, 
 he turned and faced his pursuer like a sheep 
 at bay. 
 
 '' You must please to tell me your name 
 and business, your Honour, before I can 
 admit you to his Lordship," he said with 
 attempted firmness. 
 
 '' Neither concern you, my good man," 
 replied Francis, shrugging his shoulders 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 with a gentle but superior smile ; '' you may 
 say, the gentleman from Lord Mordaunt." 
 
 The butler opened a door slowly and 
 wide to give himself time to collect his 
 thoughts, but not succeeding in doing so, 
 announced in loud and pompous tones from 
 the force of habit, "My Lord, the gentleman 
 from Lord Mordaunt." 
 
 '* Mordaunt ! " cried a sharp surprised voice 
 from far within the room ; then after a pause, 
 " well, let him wait." 
 
 The butler closed the door gradually, 
 looking in a doubtful, almost appealing way 
 at Francis, who had walked past him and 
 stood in the small ante-chamber divided by 
 folding-doors, which were open, from the 
 large room beyond. Within he could see 
 the back of a man in a neat travellinof wIq[- 
 and a military coat, seated at a desk and 
 writing fast with one hand, while with the 
 other he from time to time conveyed a tea- 
 cup or food to his lips. 
 
 Now did Francis begin somewhat to 
 quake, finding himself in the very presence of 
 Lord Peterborough, though as yet unobserved
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 147 
 
 by him. Here was the man of glittering 
 reputation, of whose bold genius for war, 
 of whose adventurous feats of daring, he 
 had heard a thousand stirring tales from 
 men who had fought in Spain ; here was 
 the '' Mordanto," whose cosmopolitan activity 
 had been chronicled in verse by Swift him- 
 self, whom the Tory party — at the Vanhom- 
 righs Tories predominated — lauded to the 
 skies as the worthy rival of Marlborough ; 
 the hero of a day on whom Time had not 
 yet clearly written meney mene, tekel. Had 
 his new-discovered father been a more 
 ordinary individual, Francis would not have 
 dreamed of thus claiming him, but a conscious- 
 ness of something unusual in his own aims 
 and abilities made him instinctively trust 
 this unusual man to recognise in him at once 
 no ordinary claimant for money or social 
 recognition. This consciousness at least 
 buoyed him up till he found himself left 
 there to watch the dark curls of Lord Peter- 
 borough's wig vibrating, as he could almost 
 have imagined, to the quick working of the 
 brain within, and to listen to the scratch-scratch
 
 148 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 of his somewhat unruly quill. The qullI 
 having become totally unmanageable, his 
 Lordship pitched it into the fire-place, and 
 turned round sharply to reach another from 
 a table behind him. Then, to his surprise, 
 for he supposed he was alone, he found 
 himself face to face with a small young man, 
 who stood with his back ao^ainst the well- 
 filled bookshelf in the ante-room, meeting 
 his Lordship's eye with a look at once 
 earnest and abashed. 
 
 ''Well, sir," said Lord Peterborough sharply, 
 *' what d'ye want ? " and added a muttered 
 curse on the butler. 
 
 The young man stepped forward and 
 bowed, still earnestly regarding him, but 
 did not immediately answer. So he answered 
 himself. 
 
 " Ah ! thegendeman from Lord Mordaunt, 
 to be sure," and he smiled grimly. " I pre- 
 sume the affectionate creature sends me his 
 blessing before I sail — and would be glad 
 of a thousand pounds." 
 
 " Possibly, my Lord," replied the young 
 man in a deliberate if somewhat hesitatinor
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 149 
 
 manner. '' But I was not sent by Lord 
 Mordaunt." 
 
 Lord Peterborough's restless emaciated 
 fingers drummed on the chair-back. 
 
 ''You announced yourself as from my 
 son ! " 
 
 There was a short pause before Francis 
 answered with Ingenuousness, rather than 
 boldness — 
 
 " My Lord, that was a He ; I don't usually 
 He." 
 
 His Lordship stared at his singular Inter- 
 locutor, and then throwing himself back In 
 his chair, laughed silently. But quickly 
 regaining his countenance — 
 
 ''Then who the deuce are you?" he 
 asked. 
 
 Francis paused again before replying : 
 " I came here to ask your Lordship that. 
 My mother's name was Frances Annesley." 
 
 Every glimmer of amusement died out 
 of Peterborough's face. " Ah," he said, " I 
 perceive." 
 
 Then he filliped at some stray grains of 
 sand on the document upon which he was
 
 ISO ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 engaged, and finding them still there, took 
 it up and brushed them off. 
 
 '' Upon my honour, young gentleman," he 
 continued coldly, without raising his eyes 
 from his task, ''you have indulged a most 
 idle curiosity. I have no objection to gratify 
 It ; but you will get no money from me, 
 which is, I suppose, what you want." 
 
 At these words a change also passed over 
 Francis' manner and expression. 
 
 "Money!" he cried, ''money! O your 
 Lordship may be easy. If you indeed be 
 the man I think, I came to inform you that 
 such moneys as you have paid towards 
 making a parson of me are paid for stark 
 nothing, and if 'tis true, as Mr. Wilson 
 affirms, that you will give 'em for that and 
 nothing but that, why I hereby sacrifice 
 my interest In 'em freely to your Lordship, 
 and have the honour to wish you a good- 
 morning." 
 
 This was not in the least what he had 
 intended to say, but the most meditated stroke 
 of art would hardly have been so successful 
 as this unpremeditated outburst of anger.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 151 
 
 Peterborough looked at him curiously 
 and relaxed into something approaching 
 a smile. 
 
 *• Foolish boy ! 'Tis a handsome offer. 
 Another might take advantage of thee. 
 Were it handsomer, I should do so myself. 
 But let us talk of it, since I do not leave 
 for Madrid till dinner-time, and " — looking 
 at his watch — '' 'tis not yet half after eight. 
 Yet," he added, with a glance of renewed 
 suspicion, " I am very likely a fool not to 
 kick you downstairs." 
 
 Nor would the certainty that the young 
 man was his own son have deterred him 
 from doing so, had he not begun to feel 
 an amused interest in the creature, and to 
 observe in him a strong likeness to himself, 
 and yet more to his late promising son, 
 John. He had lost his two eldest sons 
 in one year, and though far from a domestic 
 character, he had been affected, both in 
 his affections and in his parental pride, by 
 the death of the second, a distinguished 
 naval officer ; especially as that loss brought 
 him face to face with his youngest son, whom
 
 152 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 heretofore Lady Peterborough had been 
 left to spoil at her ease. 
 
 At this direct summons to speak, Francis 
 was silent, and his first awe returned upon 
 him, while Peterborough, who seemed never 
 for an instant without movement in some 
 part of his face or person, rose from the 
 escritoire and went to the fireplace. 
 
 *' Come, come, boy," he cried impatiently, 
 turning the poker round and round in the 
 flame, for there was a fire in the grate. '' If 
 you be Mrs. Annesley's son, you must have 
 a tongue in your head. Why will you not 
 be a parson ? 'Tis no bad trade for one 
 that has wit and knows how to use it." 
 
 "Say, abuse it, my Lord. To lick a 
 trencher better than a lacquey, and spoil 
 a good poem with a vile dedication." 
 
 ** Pooh, pooh ! You talk like friend Swift 
 in a fit of the spleen," returned Peterborough, 
 still amused and laughing. 
 
 '' Dr. Swift would confirm me that 'tis 
 an ill trade for one that is ambitious and 
 would be honest." 
 
 *' But Swift is honest, ay, and imprudent
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. I53 
 
 too ! " cried Peterborough. '' Yet look what 
 his mere wit hath got for him." 
 
 " Promises," returned Francis drily. Peter- 
 borough, being among the very few persons 
 in the secret of Swift's unstable position 
 and the obstacles between him and promo- 
 tion, silently congratulated the youth on 
 his penetration, not guessing that it was 
 quickened by jealousy. '' But I care not," 
 Francis continued. '' The richest Bishopric 
 in England could not tempt me to be a 
 parson." 
 
 '' You are a fool," returned Peterborough 
 impatiently, moving from the fire, " but what 
 is that to me ? Wilson shall have in- 
 structions to continue your pittance and 
 let you go your own ways ; though I cannot 
 guess what this monstrous ambition of yours 
 may be, that leads you to despise a fat 
 fellowship and the chance of a fat living." 
 
 Francis laid his hand on the hilt of his 
 sword, and meeting the famous soldier's 
 eyes with an earnest look, " I know not 
 whether my ambition be monstrous, my 
 Lord," he said, ''but I am sure 'tis great.
 
 154 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 for I aspire to use this sword, that once 
 belonged to the hero of Barcelona, in such 
 fashion that the world may say I am worthy 
 to be his son, if I am not so." 
 
 As a diplomatist, and a man of wit and 
 fashion, Peterborough had acquired for 
 occasions the cool polish of exterior then, 
 perhaps even more than now, thought indis- 
 pensable to the role. But the native 
 impulsiveness beneath it, the impulsiveness 
 which at once made and marred him as a 
 general and a politician, constantly broke 
 through to the surface. The frank young 
 homao^e of this unknown lad with the 
 strangely familiar face, at once flattered 
 his vanity and touched w^hat remained of 
 his heart. He stepped forward and set his 
 hands on Francis' shoulders. Their eyes 
 were on a level, and as they met, Peter- 
 borough's emaciated features, worn with the 
 ceaseless pursuit of pleasure and ambition, 
 flushed and softened with a smile that made 
 him for a moment look like the young man's 
 brother. 
 
 *' Come," he said, " I will trust you with
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. I55 
 
 the truth. If your mother was really Mrs. 
 Annesley, then you are really my son, and 
 methinks the best one I am like to find 
 now-a-days." 
 
 Francis had a tongue nimble enough In 
 many respects, but In others exceedingly 
 lame. He was surprised and touched by 
 Lord Peterborough's admission and the 
 manner of It, but he only looked down, 
 coloured, and said nothing. Peterborough 
 drew the youth's sword from the scabbard, 
 and examined It, blade and hilt. 
 
 '' So thou would'st be a soldier ? " he said, 
 after a pause. " Well, 'tis a secret I trust 
 to your discretion, but I intend landing in 
 the Netherlands on my way to Spain. If 
 you are in earnest, I will leave you there 
 with a gentleman that shall get you a per- 
 mit to serve with the allied troops, though 
 I cannot promise you a commission or to 
 see more than the end of the game." 
 
 '* My Lord, I am infinitely obliged. At 
 what hour shall I attend your Lordship ? " 
 asked Francis. 
 
 The calmness with which he accepted the
 
 156 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 sikklcn proposal to leave his native country 
 and assume a totallv new position in lite 
 within the next few hours, g'ave Lord Petcr- 
 borou.^-h extrenu^ satisfaction. 
 
 " Be here at four o'clock." he said. " brin^;- 
 ino' no more than a portmantel. I hate 
 bag'g'age. You shall be equ![^ped for the 
 canip at the Hague. I do not promise great 
 things, mind \'0u. but \'0u shall have just 
 as much as sufhces to g'ive a }'Oung man 
 credit enough to run into debt. Xow tare- 
 well. If you come not at the hour I shall 
 know \ou repent — and so shall I." 
 
 He extended his hand to Francis, who 
 kissed it respectl'ulK' and made his way 
 downstairs, almost stunned by the unlooked- 
 tbr success o\ his tuture. 
 
 As to Lord Peterborough. o\ course as 
 soon as he heard the big tVont door close 
 behind Francis, he called himself a tool for 
 thus negpo-entlv exiu'>sing himself to claims 
 and annoyances winch he had tor fifteen 
 }-ears successful!}' taken precautions to avoid. 
 But he was reaching an age when the most 
 active and liardened of men occasional! v teels
 
 ESTHhR VA:.//OM/:/G/r. 157 
 
 the pan;^.s of solitarInf:.ss. His \vandc:riri;^ 
 and prof]];:^at^: liT^: had lon^ and hopf:]'':s.sly 
 ali^:nat^:d Lady Pct^:rborou;^li's afk:ctions 
 from him, and Ins rojations v/iih his sur- 
 viving- son woro r:vtromo])' unploasant. The 
 sincero and admiring, but not \-cry profound, 
 liking ontortaii'i^:d for him by c^:rtain litorary 
 mon, was tho host thing Ic-ft to him in a hfe 
 of private and poh"tical intrigue v.hich, 
 generally speaking occupied his energies too 
 cornjjletely to lea'/e room for anything else. 
 Yet from time to time some indication of 
 failing health brought before him the chiil 
 vision of a soli tar)- old age. If he can be 
 said to have loved any woman in the cour.^e 
 of his life, that v/oman v;as Frances Annes- 
 ley. Cold, unprincipled, and with little 
 beauty, she had b}- her wit and that strange 
 gift of fascination which defies anal)'sis, re- 
 tained her power over him for se\en years. 
 At the end of that time they had had a quarrel, 
 in the course of which he had knocked a 
 lighted candle off the table, which falling on 
 her dress, set her on hre and caused her 
 death. His heart was not very soft nor his
 
 J 58 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 sensibilities very keen, but this horrible acci- 
 dent made a real and disagreeable impression 
 upon him, and he hastened to try and efface 
 it. If Mrs. Annesley had been Interested in 
 her child, she might long before have had 
 him well provided for, but the plain sickly 
 boy was an object of indifference to her, and 
 when Lord Peterborough shut up the Manor, 
 he instructed Mr. Wilson to make a small 
 allowance for the child's maintenance and 
 have him brought up in ignorance of his 
 parentage. This he did partly to avoid 
 annoyance, and partly to enable him the 
 more completely to forget the episode of 
 Mrs. Annesley. He was now not quite sure 
 whether he was glad or sorry the seal of 
 secrecy had been broken in some way as yet 
 unexplained. He said to himself that the 
 youth would undoubtedly prove ungrateful, 
 extortionate and the cause of infinite annoy- 
 ance to him, and yet Then, as next 
 
 day must see him through the delicate busi- 
 ness of tampering with some of Marl- 
 borough's officers in the interest of the 
 party, he speedily and completely dismissed
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 159 
 
 his personal and family affairs from his 
 meditations. 
 
 Francis meantime was hurrying home- 
 wards to pack the one portmantel permitted 
 him by his patron. Mrs. Ann, coming in 
 to find his room strewn with the contents of 
 his cupboards, began to scold, as she had 
 got into the habit of doing in the days when 
 her comb used unmercifully to tear through 
 his thick hair and her soapy water to squirt 
 into his eye. 
 
 ** Lord ! Master Francis, what a litter you 
 be in, sure/y ! Marry come up ! You make 
 as much work in the house in a day as 
 Master Ginckel 'ud make in a week — if it 
 wasn't for his own man ! " 
 
 When, however, she heard that he was 
 to leave home that day and for a foreign 
 country, she left off scolding and took the 
 arrangement of his affairs into her own 
 hands, packing for him not only the best of 
 his own scanty possessions, but various 
 articles belonging to other members of the 
 family. When in the course of time these 
 appropriations were discovered by the
 
 i6o ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 owners, there would no doubt be a good 
 deal of grumbling, but every one was too 
 much accustomed to her system of practical 
 family socialism to seriously resent it. 
 
 Francis, after wandering round her 
 
 vaguely for some time and being strictly 
 
 forbidden to touch every article he offered 
 
 to hand her, went down to the parlour to 
 
 write a letter to Mrs. Vanhomrigh. He was 
 
 o-lad Windsor was too far off to admit of his 
 
 getting there and back before the afternoon^ 
 
 as otherwise he might have yielded to the 
 
 temptation to see Esther once again before 
 
 leaving England. At present he was too 
 
 dazed to be very conscious either of pleasure 
 
 or pain, but he knew that when he recovered 
 
 himself, his intense satisfaction in his new 
 
 career would only be tempered by his regret 
 
 at parting from her. Yet even as regarded 
 
 Esther, his present course was the only 
 
 promising one. So far he knew only too 
 
 well, she had never regarded him in any 
 
 other light than as a younger brother, but 
 
 his absence, his return in the character of 
 
 a soldier and as he fondly hopod, a dis-
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. i6i 
 
 tinguished one, might change all that. If 
 Swift should come forward as a suitor for 
 her hand, then Francis could not doubt that 
 she would under any circumstances be lost 
 to him for ever. Something made him hope, 
 and almost believe, that this would not 
 happen. 
 
 His farewell letter took him long to write, 
 but it was very brief. He was leaving the 
 kindly roof which had sheltered his forsaken 
 childhood — leaving it for the first time, not 
 temporarily but permanently. He was far 
 from lacking in gratitude and in the piety of 
 the hearth, but he had more than his share 
 of that self-consciousness which is the dismal 
 inheritance of his countrymen, and which 
 makes it so much easier for them to express 
 their unamiable than their kindly feelings ; 
 especially if the objects of those feelings 
 happen to be persons with whom they are 
 familiar. Consequently his letter contained 
 little but a cold statement that owing to 
 circumstances which he was not at liberty to 
 mention, he was leaving England without 
 havinor time to wish Mrs. VanhomriMi and 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 i62 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 the young ladles good-bye. It concluded 
 with a few small jests, an inquiry after the 
 health of the party, and his love and duty 
 to Mrs. Vanhomrlgh. Having sealed the 
 missive and entrusted it to Mrs. Ann, he 
 went to bed and to sleep.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 163 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 '' It rains with a crescendo,' Swift observed, 
 abstractedly putting down his pen. 
 
 " 'Tis certainly unfortunate for you, sir," 
 returned Essie, looking up from the manu- 
 script in her hand. 
 
 *' How so, miss?" asked he. "Come, 
 this is one of your impudent sayings. A 
 pretending brat that must needs be rally- 
 ing like her betters ! Explain yourself, 
 Hessinage." 
 
 " No, no ! " she said, and mimicking her 
 mentor's voice and manner — " explanations 
 are of all ballast the heaviest ; a mere 
 weighing down of conversation to the 
 capacity of the dull." 
 
 '' Bratikin ! " cried he. '' You think to 
 whip me with my own tail, as you serve the 
 puppy ; but we mark you not."
 
 1 64 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 He rose from his papers and walked to 
 the window. 
 
 " Lord knows," he said, *' I wish this rain 
 were away, for if we could see anything, 
 this fine prospect would turn you romantic, 
 and then I should laugh. Yes, you are 
 diverting, miss, when you turn romantic." 
 
 The windows of the small panelled parlour 
 of the Prebendary's lodging where they sat, 
 were amonof those that look out over the 
 tree-tops and the Hundred Steps to the 
 Thames and Eton, but now there was 
 nothing to be seen from them but a grey 
 misty veil of fine rain. 
 
 " And this to one that hath said neither 
 O nor Ah to a sunset and a full moon ! 
 Well, Doctor, you may think meanly of me, 
 yet I thank God I am not a stag-hunting 
 Maid of Honour, with a hat-mark on her 
 brow and a laugh like a horse-boy; I've 
 seen one named Hyde or some such thing, 
 that I'm sure you'd never love." 
 
 '' Indeed, miss, you are mistook, for I love 
 the creature dearly," he cried, and Essie 
 laughed teasingly.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 165 
 
 Now Mrs. Hyde was one of those ladles 
 of quality with whom Swift had consented to 
 be on terms of friendship, if they would 
 observe his conditions ; which were that the 
 first advances should proceed from them and 
 be made in due form. She had a fine face 
 and figure and abundance of good spirits, 
 which her hearty admiration of the great 
 Doctor helped him at the time to mistake 
 for wit. But though a satirist may have as 
 much vanity as another, he is not so long or 
 so easily duped by it, and Swift had soon 
 perceived his devoted Mrs. Hyde to be not 
 very different from the other Maids of 
 Honour, for whom he had notoriously no 
 liking ; a discovery the loyalty of his nature 
 forbade him to admit, but which Esther 
 shrewdly guessed, and it must be confessed, 
 was not sorry for. It was inevitable that she 
 should be jealous. His power and distinc- 
 tion, which caused him to be flattered and 
 sought after, made her part in his life so 
 obviously small as compared with his part in 
 her own. Then the acceptance of conditions, 
 the calmness of middle-age, could not but
 
 1 66 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 appear coldness, when brought into contact 
 with the revolts, the warm eagerness, the 
 boundless claims and impossible projects 
 which are the fairy gold of youthful friend- 
 ship. These things alone, not to reckon a 
 blinder and more fatal element fast intruding 
 upon the domain of friendship, sufficed to 
 make it not disagreeable to her when the 
 attentions lavished upon Swift by persons of 
 importance failed to please him. 
 
 " The truth is, Hessinage," he said, '' Mrs. 
 Hyde hath made her hontade. But no matter 
 — be neither moral nor witty over the 
 boutades of others, Hess, for I warrant your 
 own, that you are saving up for all this time, 
 will be a bad one when it comes." 
 
 '' When I know what you mean. Doctor, 
 with your boittadey I shall know better how 
 to answer you." 
 
 '' When a horse, that has gone so quiet for 
 a month that you have finally concluded him 
 a sober animal, jerks out his hinder feet on 
 a sudden, why, you know better than I, 
 Mademoiselle, that the French call it a 
 boutade. Heaven bless us ! 'Tis what you
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 167 
 
 all do sooner or later ; ay, sooner or later, 
 whether 'tis at the end of a week, a month, a 
 year or ten years, every jade of you makes 
 her boutade and lands us in the mud." 
 
 " Your sex, sir, are truly not guilty of 
 boutades, for you kick so regular we cannot 
 plead surprise, and must e'en make a shift to 
 stick on, or take our mud with philosophy." 
 
 "- Why, what fine young fellow hath been 
 playing you a scurvy trick, Hess?" asked 
 he. '' It cannot be Ford, for only t'other 
 day after dinner he drank to you under the 
 name of 'the Jilt.' " 
 
 Hester laughed an unembarrassed laugh. 
 
 '' Lord ! that was a scurvy trick indeed of 
 Mr. Ford's ! Why, the truth is, he hath not 
 bestowed a thought on my beaux yeux since 
 this time last year, when he first made the 
 acquaintance of Moll's. Sure, dear sir, I 
 shall never get a husband unless Moll and I 
 part company, for so soon as I have gotten 
 myself one poor ewe-lamb of an admirer, in 
 comes this naughty miss and whisks him 
 away to swell her train of adorers." But her 
 countenance betrayed not a shadow of
 
 1 68 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 annoyance at the abduction or seduction of 
 her followers. 
 
 " Odsbodlklns, this Is fine play-acting! 
 You'd have me think you're not jealous of 
 Moll, when If I write her the least smallest 
 love-letter, or so much as call her Brat or 
 Slutlkln, you're ready to tear my eyes out. 
 Governor Huff, you know you are." 
 
 Hester looked down and picked at the 
 tassel of a sofa-cushion. 
 
 '' Sure," she said, *''tls all my fun — but then 
 that's different. The dear creature's welcome 
 to my admirers, but not to — not to " 
 
 '' Your friend. Well, you may be easy." 
 
 There was a short silence, broken by the 
 entrance of a servant. 
 
 ''Your RIverence, there's a fine young 
 nobleman In a yaller chariot and splendid 
 liveries and an umbrella and a nigger, wants 
 to know If he may wait on the ladles." 
 
 Then he stepped across to the Doctor, and 
 thrusting his head Into his master's wig, 
 whispered something. 
 
 " Shish — shish — shish ! " cried Swift Im- 
 patiently, shaking himself away. " What
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 169 
 
 d'ye think I can make of that, you dog ? 
 Stand up and speak out, Patrick, and never 
 consider the lady. She's above minding the 
 compHments of a nobleman, or of his nigger 
 either." 
 
 Patrick stood up and looked at Essie with 
 a smile half-apologetic, half-ingratiating. 
 
 '' Sure, my Lady, his Lordship wouldn't be 
 for disturbing Madam Vanhomrigh for the 
 world, nor wouldn't take the liberty of asking 
 for Miss Vanhomrigh ; 'tis no one at all, at 
 all, but Miss Molly he'll be after troubling 
 to-day." 
 
 ''You may tell his Lordship," replied 
 Swift, "that the ladies are abroad and will 
 not return before dinner-time." 
 
 So Patrick retired to communicate his 
 answer. 
 
 Swift's and Esther's eyes met, and she 
 smiled faintly. 
 
 *' Fortune and you befriend me to-day," 
 she said. And then, after a pause, '' What 
 can I do, dear sir ? What can I do to rid 
 my sister of this young rake ? — for I suspect 
 him to be little better than that."
 
 170 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 Swift shrugged his shoulders : " Rid her 
 of her infatuation for him." 
 
 *' And how in Heaven's name am I to do 
 so ? " 
 
 '' By means of her reason, Hessinage," 
 returned Swift. ''If you w^ill forgive me 
 for saying so, I think well of Molkin. She 
 is yet very young, and she hath a greater 
 love for the world and a milder and 
 pleasanter disposition than Governor Huff, 
 which causes her to be easily led into follies 
 by them that should keep her out of them. 
 But Moll hath an excellent shrewd wit, and, 
 did you reason with her enough, might be 
 brought to see 'tis mighty ridiculous to buy 
 a pig in a poke. She knows stark nothing 
 of this boy, except that he has a handsome 
 face and a fine coat, and the very rank that 
 dazzles her makes him scarce likely to mate 
 with folks of our breedinof. Pooh ! reason 
 with her, I say." 
 
 " Reason ! " cried Essie in amazement. 
 " Whoever yet found reason strong enough 
 to drive out love .^ " 
 
 " I have found it so," replied Swift sternly.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 171 
 
 '' Others would, if they did but beheve it 
 possible, but they resign themselves to suffer 
 from this complaint because they fancy there's 
 no remedy for it. Do you think that I am 
 more insensible than another man to the 
 charms of beauty, of wit, of sense and virtue ? 
 No ; there was a time, the time when I first 
 found all these united in the person of one 
 young woman, when I felt as great an 
 inclination as any to play the lover and the 
 fool ; but my reason told me that, with my 
 narrow means, such as would indeed be bare 
 beggary for a wife and family, and with my 
 uneasy temper and very ill-health, marriage 
 was not for me, and I resolved to rest 
 content with beinis: her friend. 'Tis a reso- 
 lution I applaud as often as I see a pair 
 of lovers that have been a twelvemonth 
 married, for it allows me to suppose she 
 and I had been more faithful in our fondness, 
 had we permitted ourselves to love. But 
 come, bratikins, I talk of myself, when I 
 meant but to persuade you that the strength 
 of this passion is grossly exaggerated. 'Tis 
 like some monster of your favourite romances
 
 172 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 that fades to air in the grasp of the bold 
 champion that grapples with it." 
 
 Esther had listened with a changing colour 
 and questioning eyes. Who, ah, who was 
 the woman he could have loved under a 
 more fortunate star ? Deep in her heart 
 a siren voice whispered Esther Vanhomrigk. 
 
 Returning with an effort to her former 
 pre-occupation, as he ended — 
 
 "It may be as you say," she returned, 
 ''but where is the power to make her grapple 
 with it?" Then, ''Alas! how can I talk 
 over my sister's unhappy infatuation even 
 with you, sir ? I do very wrong. But 'tis 
 my excuse that, as you know well, our poor 
 fond mama hath a younger head on her 
 shoulders than any of us, and thinks no 
 harm of the matter, and when I am troubled 
 about it, to whom should I turn but to the 
 best, the wisest friend that ever woman 
 found ? Yet I doubt I do wrong. You 
 must forgive me, though Moll would not." 
 
 She spoke quietly, but her companion, 
 familiar with her every gesture and expression, 
 divined there was trouble beneath the exterior
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 173 
 
 calm of her demeanour, and his perception 
 of that touched the deep vein of tenderness, 
 of womanly sympathy in him, that made him 
 dear to women. The more dear, perhaps, 
 because the tenderness lay below, or was 
 mingled with, much apparent and some real 
 cynicism, and a bitterness and scorn of men 
 which were like his power of sympathy, the 
 outcome of a hyper-sensitive nature. Now 
 when he saw that Esther was in trouble, 
 he sat down by her and took her hand gently, 
 as an elder brother might have done. 
 
 ** Never blame yourself for that, Hesskin," 
 he said. '* What's told to me is dropped 
 down the Castle well. You have on your 
 young shoulders the cares without the 
 authority of women twice your age, and 'tis 
 no wonder you turn somewhere for counsel, 
 little Hesskinage. As for Molly, the slut, 
 you know I love her very well, and am not 
 the fool of the vulgar opinion which condemns 
 the betrayal of an innocent sentiment more 
 than it winks at the harbouring of a guilty 
 one. No ; virtuous breasts, as I have told 
 vou a thousand times, need never fear to
 
 174 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 show what's in 'em. I am as vexed as you 
 that Molkin has cast a favourable eye on 
 this puppy, but if she were more secret in 
 the matter, I should be more apt to suspect 
 evil than now, when, as she does not conceal 
 her preference, I'm convinced there's nothing 
 ill in it but the object." 
 
 *' You speak comfortable words," said 
 Esther ; *' yet Shakespeare says somewhere 
 'tis no wise thinof for the best of hearts to be 
 worn on the sleeve — the daws will peck at it." 
 
 " Fudge, child !" replied Swift, patting her 
 hand rather hard before he dropped it. 
 *' You think too much of your old plays, and 
 they're better, truly, than modern romances, 
 yet by no means the best books for a young 
 gentlewoman's reading. When the day 
 comes that you have such a heart under 
 your kerchief as you are ashamed to take 
 out and pin to your elbow-ruffles for my 
 inspection — why, on that day you may take 
 Master Shakespeare for your friend instead 
 of the Doctor. Now, since you are so pre- 
 tending as to quote poetry, I shall read you 
 out this manuscript of Mr. Pope's, which is
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 175 
 
 to my mind the smoothest verse yet writ In 
 our language." 
 
 Esther gave him up the manuscript, which 
 was that of a poem entitled '' Windsor 
 Forest/' and In a fine well-modulated voice 
 Swift began to read : — 
 
 " Thy forest, Windsor ! and thy green retreats, 
 At once the monarch's and the muse's seats, 
 Invite my lays," 
 
 So he continued for sixty-eight lines, which 
 treating of Lady Granville, Eden, Olympus, 
 Pan, Flora, Queen Anne, and William the 
 Conqueror, followed each other with all the 
 regularity and pompous inanity of a string 
 of geese. At the sixty-eighth line he paused 
 and repeated — 
 
 "The hollow winds through naked temples roar." 
 
 " What think you of that line .^ " he asked. 
 '* To my mind the sound answers marvel- 
 lously to the sense." 
 
 Esther gave a guilty start, and murmured 
 some reply which committed her to nothing. 
 
 " Your wits are gone wool-gathering," he 
 said sharply. '' You are wont to be a better
 
 176 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 listener. Come, now, a penny for your 
 thoughts." 
 
 She blushed deeply. 
 
 '' Mr. Pope's are so much finer," she an- 
 swered. '' Pray, Doctor, continue and read 
 me that line ao^ain. 'Twas but in a moment 
 of inattention it slipped me." 
 
 ''A goodly moment!" grumbled Swift. 
 '' I'll wager you have heard nought since 
 Mr. Pope made his fine bow to Granville in 
 the opening. No, you shall read it yourself, 
 Miss Essie, though you can no more read 
 than a magpie." 
 
 This last accusation was unfair. Essie 
 was his own pupil, and one with natural 
 gifts. As she read the empty monotonous 
 lines took meanino^ and sw^eetness from her 
 intonation and voice, and thoucrh from time 
 to time her master snatched the manuscript 
 from her hand to correct her rendering of 
 S3me pet passage of his, he could not quite 
 conceal his satisfaction in her performance. 
 Just as she had begun the invocation to the 
 Thames, a sound of feet and voices was 
 heard on the staircase, and in another minute
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 177 
 
 Mrs. Vanhomrigh entered, followed by 
 Molly, Mr. Lewis and a young man whom 
 Swift greeted warmly by the name of Ford. 
 
 " I thought you was to have stayed in 
 town for your business all this week. Ford," 
 he said. 
 
 Mr. Ford made some wordily inadequate 
 excuse for his unexpected reappearance, 
 which in fact was due to the Vanhomrighs' 
 visit, and turned the conversation by pro- 
 ducing a packet of letters for the Doctor 
 which he had picked up for him at the St. 
 James' Coffee House. Swift glanced at the 
 superscription, and laid the packet on the 
 table. 
 
 ** Lord, Doctor ! " cried Madam Van, 
 looking at it, '' I always said you was a 
 magician, and here's the proof of it ! You 
 keep a double in Ireland to write you all 
 that's doing there with your very own hand. 
 Why, I never thought there was so much 
 news in Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Con- 
 naught all put together, as would swell a 
 package to that size." 
 
 Swift coloured visibly. 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 " The writer," he replied, after an ahnost 
 imperceptible pause, " was a pupil of mine 
 some twenty years ago, and keeps the trick 
 of my capitals. But never mind the letter ; 
 here's Ford can orlve us the latest news of 
 London, a place which, for my part, I value 
 more than fourteen Irelands put together." 
 
 '' Luckily," he added to himself, '' Ppt.'s 
 hand is not obtrusively feminine." His dis- 
 comfort at the sight of the letter was not 
 altogether due to the possible observations 
 of others upon It. Something in his own 
 breast, which he called '' undue scrupu- 
 losity," had made certain observations to 
 him several times in the course of the last 
 year, and several times he had completely 
 replied to them. 
 
 " It is true," he said, '' I no longer feel 
 the same necessity to write all my doings to 
 Ppt. I have nothing to tell her but politics, 
 politics, politics, for which pretty Ppt. cares 
 not a button, and disappointments whenever 
 a Bishopric falls in. It is true I am not so 
 glad as I was to catch sight of a letter from 
 her, stuck up in the little glass window of
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 179 
 
 the St. James'. I love her as well as ever, 
 but poor Ppt.'s life is dull. I don't believe 
 she has got two new acquaintances in Dublin 
 since I left, and if she had, confound 'em, I 
 shouldn't care to hear of 'em. The divert- 
 ing witch can get you a jest out of a blue- 
 bottle fly when you are in her company, 
 but her pen is none so witty as her tongue, 
 and I am tired of hearing that the Dean and 
 Stoyte and Walls are at piquet as usual with 
 her, and I know Goody Walls has a baby 
 once a year, and don't care to hear who 
 stands godfather, and who eat the christen- 
 ing cake." 
 
 To other observations of his spiritual foe 
 he would reply — 
 
 '' Yes, silly Ppt. would be jealous if she 
 knew. W^omen are foolish, unreasonable 
 creatures, and were she my wife, I should 
 be forced to tell her what does not concern 
 her and submit to her caprices, or live in 
 misery. But I am not even her lover, still 
 less Hessinage's. A man may not have 
 more than one wife, but he may surely have 
 as many as two friends. And 'tis my weak-
 
 i8o ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 Hess that I cannot be content without a 
 woman about me. I know not how It Is, but 
 there's something too much of my mother 
 in my composition. I am glad the world 
 does not suspect it. Be sure when I have 
 charming Ppt. again, I shall want no other." 
 
 And who was this charming Ppt., whose 
 letter lay there unopened on the table, while 
 Esther Vanhomrigh at Swift's command 
 read out Mr. Pope's poem to the assembled 
 company .^ What pet name lurked in the 
 shelter of that hieroglyph Is only divined, 
 not known, by those who now share with 
 her the contents of those private packages 
 that for so long had reached her eager hands 
 once a fortnight, and of late had been 
 exchanged for rarer and less detailed letters. 
 But on the outside of them is written legibly 
 the name of Mrs. Esther Johnson. By this 
 time she was expecting another, and it was 
 not even on Its way to her. The loth of 
 September was a rainy day in Dublin as 
 well as at Windsor. When the evenino- 
 began to fall It left off ralnino;, but the faint
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. i8i 
 
 yellow reflection of an invisible sunset In 
 the puddles and gutters of the muddy street 
 did nothing to enhance Its cheerfulness. 
 Mrs. Johnson was by no means of a moody or 
 querulous disposition, but it was unquestion- 
 ably dull in the little panelled parlour, with 
 no companion but Dingley, who was dozing 
 over her darning. It was chilly too. Dingley 
 was always exceedingly put out if a fire was 
 lighted before the exact middle of September. 
 As she could quote Dr. Swift as being of 
 her mind on the subject, because certain 
 little rules of this nature are desirable to 
 restrain us from luxury, Mrs. Johnson com- 
 monly gave in to her prejudice. She sat 
 idly In the window-seat, not for want of the 
 will to employ herself, but because her eyes 
 had to be spared. The large lustrous brown 
 eyes were from time to time troublesome 
 to their owner, and the inactivity their 
 weakness imposed on one of her active 
 temperament, did more to impair her temper 
 and spirits than a serious misfortune could 
 have done. In the street life was not 
 eventful. A posse of bare-legged ragged
 
 i82 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 children pattered by through the dirt, and 
 a strong-lunged pedlar-woman made the 
 street ring with '' Gentlemen's gloves ! 
 Good Worcester gloves ! Four shillings 
 the pair." The pedlar paused under the 
 window, and held up a pair of gloves tempt- 
 ingly, with wreathed smiles. Mrs. Johnson 
 shook her pretty head — what use had she 
 for gentlemen's gloves ? — and retreated into 
 the room. 
 
 " Dingley ! " she cried sharply, *' Dingley, 
 you are asleep." 
 
 Dingley sat up very straight, and stuck 
 her needle Into her finger. *' Asleep .^ " she 
 repeated, " I swear I was nothing of the 
 kind." 
 
 " O you're like the parrot that learned 
 to swear when it was young, and couldn't 
 forget it," returned Esther Johnson, alluding 
 to the frequency with which she had heard 
 this asseveration. 
 
 But Dingley continued talking, uncon- 
 scious of the sarcasm : 
 
 '* Lord knows I often wish I cotild take 
 forty winks as some folks can, being such
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 183 
 
 a bad sleeper. All our family are such bad 
 sleepers, but the others do get their forty 
 winks, while I can't close my eyes, when 
 once I'm up. Yet I want it more than any, 
 for I'm sure last night I heard every clock 
 strike." 
 
 " I wonder you could hear 'em," replied 
 Mrs. Esther. " I couldn't — you was snoring 
 too loud." 
 
 Now it is well known that to be accused 
 of snoring rouses ire in the meekest bosom, 
 and Mrs. Dingley's was not especially meek. 
 
 " Lord ha' mercy ! " she cried, ** was ever 
 such a thing heard '^, Snoring ? Me ? 
 Highty tighty ! miss, I'd have you to know 
 the Reverend Dingley, that was my husband 
 half a dozen years, never once heard me 
 snore." 
 
 " No," returned Esther, with a mischievous 
 laugh, " they never do, the husbands. 
 They're afraid to, poor creatures ; they'll 
 be damned for perjury before they'll ven- 
 ture it." 
 
 Mrs. Dingley bridled in silent Indignation 
 before she replied.
 
 i84 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 '' Mrs. Johnson, I'd have you to know 
 your language is most unbecoming. Fie, 
 miss ! An unmarried woman to talk so 
 familiarly about husbands ! You'd have 
 some right to speak, if you'd taken one when 
 you'd got the chance." 
 
 *' Such a chance, DIngley ! Sure you 
 yourself thought at the time I might do 
 better, and I think so still." 
 
 Mrs. DIngley shook her head dubiously. 
 The little tiff between her and her companion 
 had blown over as quickly as it had come on, 
 for both were irritable, rather than bad- 
 tempered. 
 
 '* 'Tis true. Miss Hetty," she said, '' I 
 made sure you'd get a match to your liking 
 before many months were over. But there ! 
 Things have turned out very unlucky, and 
 the chance is gone now. Yet I couldn't but 
 think of it when I met TIsdall at the Stoytes 
 t'other day, looking quite the gentleman in 
 a new gown and bands, and Mrs. TIsdall as 
 happy as a queen, with a fine boy just fifteen 
 months old and another expected." 
 
 ''For shame, DIngley!" returned Hetty.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 185 
 
 ''You shouldn't wish I'd robbed the poor 
 lady of her happiness. 'Twould have been 
 like the old tale of the doo; in the manofer. 
 Fancy being happy to have one child like 
 Tisdall and to be threatened with another ! " 
 
 '' True, the boy did take after his father,' 
 said Dingley, *' yet I tell you, my dear, 'twas 
 a fine boy all the same." 
 
 "• Of course," replied Esther, "■ I knew it. 
 Tisdall must have been a fine boy at fifteen 
 months, with his bouncing cheeks and goggle 
 blue eyes. I should have hated Tisdall at 
 fifteen months. His feet ! O do you 
 remember his feet, Dingley, and how Pdfr. 
 used to laugh at 'em ? '* 
 
 " Sure, Swift was always pleased enough 
 to laugh at Tisdall, that I know." 
 
 ** But, Dingley, dear Dingley, don't you 
 remember when he came courting that Good 
 Friday, dressed up so smart except for his 
 feet, and they was in great old brown bulging 
 shoes, for all the world like a couple of hot- 
 cross buns '^ Lord, how Pdfr. laughed when 
 I told him ! " 
 
 *' How silly you talk, Hetty ! Twas
 
 1 86 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 well enough when you was a girl to think 
 your lover must be a beauty, but a woman 
 of your age ought to have greater sense 
 than to suppose a man's looks are here or 
 there when he's your husband. Sure the 
 Reverend Dingley was as the Lord made 
 him, and I never gave his looks a thought 
 from the time we left the church door. I 
 own when we was walking down the church 
 together, and I saw my Aunt Dawson 
 whispering to my cousin Tibbs, I felt afraid 
 lest they should be passing remarks on his 
 shape ; but then 'twas but natural they 
 should be spiteful on account of the family 
 quarrel about the jewels, my grandmother's 
 
 jewels that was lost in the " 
 
 ''Oh, yes, I know all that," put in Hetty 
 hastily, for she had heard the impending 
 anecdote but too often already. *' But don't 
 tease, DD. 'Tis silly to fancy every single 
 woman pining for a husband. Silly — silly, I 
 say. 
 
 Mrs. Dingley could have replied some- 
 thing as to the different view of matrimony 
 Mrs. Johnson would have taken, if the
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 187 
 
 Reverend Doctor, who had come forward so 
 honourably three years ago, had been another 
 than Dr. Tisdall. But in spite of his 
 absence, fear of Swift more or less restrained 
 her loquacity in speaking of him to Esther. 
 She contented herself with saying, " Lord, 
 my dear, where's the harm if they do ? 'Tis 
 but nature," and would have proceeded to 
 relate in her low, quick, monotonous voice 
 a series of totally uninteresting anecdotes, 
 concerning the marriages of professed 
 spinsters of her acquaintance, if Mrs. Johnson 
 had not cut her short with : " 'Tis in the 
 nature of our sex to be foolish, that I know 
 well, but one that hath had the advantage to 
 be educated by Dr. Swift should be above 
 some female weaknesses. I trust, though 
 a female, I have sense enough to see that 
 a parcel of brats would scarce afford pleasure 
 to a woman who detests 'em ; nor would 
 they be made more endurable by the addition 
 of a self-important ass of a husband. As to 
 love, 'tis the silliest, tiresomest passion in the 
 world, and the aptest to end in peevishness 
 and wrangling. A woman who has had the
 
 1 88 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 happiness to possess the best of friends these 
 twenty years, knows better than to desire so 
 worthless a thing as a lover." 
 
 "Marry come up, Hetty!" cried Mrs. 
 Dingley, who, though she had heard these 
 sentiments periodically for years, had never 
 recovered her surprise and indignation at 
 them. "You're a strange girl — and Swift, 
 too, what a strange man ! There's quite a 
 couple of you." 
 
 She would have liked, but feared, to add 
 that Esther at any rate would have found 
 some advantages in their being made a 
 couple in a matrimonial sense, as a husband 
 could not easily have betaken himself across 
 St. George's Channel for an indefinite 
 period, and left his wife behind him in 
 Dublin. Years ago she had daily expected 
 Swift to make an offer of marriage to Mrs. 
 Johnson, and had repined at the probability 
 of its depriving her of their joint home. 
 Now she felt personally injured and deceived 
 at the offer never having been made. That 
 his insufficient means, real or supposed, 
 alone prevented it, she never doubted, and
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 189 
 
 she and Mrs. Walls and Mrs. Stoyte had 
 long agreed that such caution did not become 
 a clergyman ; it argued a want of trust in 
 Providence. If, when the long and vainly 
 expected preferment at last came, Swift was 
 in the same mind as when he left Dublin, 
 they all felt sure that he would return and 
 marry Mrs. Johnson. The question was, 
 would he after so long an absence — no one 
 could as yet put a definite term to it — after 
 having entered as an admired and honoured 
 guest the most distinguished circles in 
 London, after having won fame by his pen 
 and favour by his social qualities, would he 
 be content to return to Esther Johnson .'* 
 Beautiful she was and witty, but after all 
 only the daughter of Sir William Temple's 
 steward. Swift's old Dublin acquaintances 
 knew well that though he never spoke of 
 it, he never forgot his birth was gentle, and 
 that in spite of his practical benevolence to 
 his sister Mrs. Fenton, he resented her 
 husband's plebeian person and calling as 
 much as his bad character. He who 
 trampled on nobles and treated his social
 
 I90 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 inferiors with punctilious courtesy, would 
 not for a coronet have been supposed the 
 born equal of those inferiors. His enemies 
 in the Temple family knew well how to 
 mortify him when they set it about that 
 he had occupied a menial position in the 
 household at Moor Park. It was a sufficient 
 humiliation to his haughty nature to 
 remember that he had occupied a dependent 
 one, and had trembled at a master's frown. 
 He remained grateful to the memory of 
 that severe master ; but he liked to reflect 
 that he was now a more influential political 
 personage than Sir William had been in 
 his most self-important days. By marrying 
 Mrs. Esther Johnson he would confirm the 
 calumnies of the Temples, for her mother 
 was still a sort of housekeeper to Sir 
 William's sister. Lady Gifford. Esther her- 
 self had while a young child, been given 
 a special position at Moor Park. Sir 
 William's honoured lady had spent many 
 pleasant hours at play with the little maid, 
 whose baby beauty and activity had triumphed 
 over the disadvantages of a tight linen cap
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 191 
 
 and a long dress. After her ladyship's death 
 the recollection of this would alone have 
 recommended the child to Sir William, had 
 not her native grace and charm been enough 
 to do so. When Swift arrived at Moor 
 Park, a young man of twenty, Esther was 
 six years old and the pet of the household. 
 When Sir William had sent for the new 
 secretary after dinner, he was too nervous 
 to notice at the time, but afterwards remem- 
 bered, a little black-eyed girl who stood at 
 the great man's elbow cracking nuts for 
 him by dint of vast exertions, and occasionally 
 receiving a sip of Malaga as a reward. 
 When the recollection of Dorothy, Lady 
 Temple, had somewhat faded from the 
 memory of the household, the servants of 
 Moor Park invented a legend which accounted 
 for the partiality of their master for little 
 Miss Hetty, by supposing her to be more 
 nearly related to him than he cared to 
 acknowledge ; his will, which secured to 
 her a small independence, gave some colour 
 to the invention. Such was the origin of 
 Esther Johnson, and the explanation of
 
 192 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 much that was anomalous in her position. 
 She had a mother and a sister Hving, but 
 her social education had made it difficult 
 for her to share her life with them, even 
 had her means permitted her to support 
 them. She continued on affectionate terms 
 with them, but after Sir Temple's death she 
 joined her small income to that of Mrs. 
 Dingley, and set up house with her. It 
 had needed little persuasion on Swift's part 
 to induce them to leave Farnham for 
 Dublin, on the plea that money bore a higher 
 interest in Ireland than in England, and 
 they had now passed twelve years in that 
 country, sometimes at Trim, sometimes in 
 Dublin. When Swift had left Ireland some 
 two years before, as an envoy from the 
 Irish clergy to the Queen's Government, 
 it was thought that his absence would be 
 short ; but when his cause was won, and 
 those for whom he had won it treated him 
 neither with gratitude nor honour, while in 
 London the leaders of the Tory party were 
 bidding eagerly for his support, he was 
 easily persuaded to remain there. With St.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 193 
 
 John and Harley and Mrs. Masham, all 
 honestly anxious to serve him, it seemed 
 inevitable that he should rise high in the 
 Church, and that before long. The one 
 obstacle to his promotion was the Queen's 
 prejudice against him. The Archbishop of 
 York had impressed upon her Majesty that 
 Dr. Swift's '' Tale of a Tub " proved him 
 little better than an infidel, which indeed his 
 Grace had always suspected him of being. 
 Her favourite, the Duchess of Somerset, 
 had Implored her with tears not to promote 
 so remorseless a foe of the fair petitioner's. 
 Oueen Anne, who was determined since her 
 escape from the tyranny of the Marlboroughs 
 to show her Ministers from time to time that 
 she had a will of her own, selected the point 
 of Dr. Swift's promotion as a fitting one 
 on which to oppose them. It was sufficiently 
 simple and unimportant to admit of her 
 doing so, without any undue strain on her 
 feeble intellectual and moral faculties. Mean- 
 time Swift, ignorant of this real opponent, 
 lingered on in London, pamphleteering for, 
 dining with, domineering over the most 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 powerful men in the kingdom, and able to 
 obtain favours for everybody except himself. 
 Sometimes in his letters he talked of retiring 
 in disgust to his canals and his fruit-trees 
 at his vicarage of Laracor. He talked of 
 it, but he never came. 
 
 *' 'Tis a long time, an't it, since we got 
 a packet from London '^. " said Dingley, after 
 an interval of silence. Mrs. Johnson was 
 staring at the grate, so black and cheerless 
 it looked as thou^rh it never could have been 
 
 <z> 
 
 or be aeain a thingr of warmth and cheer- 
 fulness. 
 
 " No longer than I should expect," she 
 answered sharply. "He told us not to 
 look for journals, while State matters were 
 so heavy upon him." 
 
 And she shivered a little as she spoke, 
 •for the night was certainly cold.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 195 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 In after years when Swift proposed, though 
 he probably never seriously intended, to 
 make additions to his story of '' Cadenus 
 and Vanessa," he mentioned '' The Windsor 
 Expedition," or '' The Indisposition at Wind- 
 sor," as an incident not to be omitted. The 
 weeks which Swift and Esther Vanhomrigh 
 had spent at Kensington in the summer 
 of 171 1 had also marked a stage in the 
 advance of their intimacy. Esther had gone 
 thither on a visit to an invalid friend, and 
 Swift, in search of country air and lodgings, 
 had been nothing loth to take some rooms 
 within easy reach of her temporary home. 
 He had a fancy for educating ladies, which 
 was singular perhaps, but praiseworthy, at 
 a time when most of those he met in thei 
 finest society read or wrote worse than
 
 196 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 a modern mald-of-all-work. Evening after 
 evening that summer had he brought his 
 book into the parlour, where Esther's friend 
 lay on her couch and she herself was sitting 
 by her, book in hand, or preparing against 
 his probable coming the fragrant coffee 
 which his soul loved. The long softly- 
 draped figure and pale Intelligent face of 
 the invalid, the window beyond her opening 
 on the purple night and the silent masses 
 of the Kensington trees, the big moths 
 floating in at it and booming and banging 
 against the candles — there was not a detail 
 of the scene which did not vividly return 
 to Esther's mind ten years after, when Swift 
 bade her remember '' The Sick Lady at 
 Kensington." These evenings and the semi- 
 accidental meetings of a morning in the 
 Gardens, alone or behind the sick lady's 
 chair, gave Swift and Esther a feeling of 
 special intimacy with each other, beyond 
 his general intimacy with the family as an 
 old friend of Mrs. Vanhomrlgh's hospitable 
 house. He had always indeed entertained 
 a secret partiality for Esther, at first because
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 197 
 
 she bore a name he liked to utter, and 
 afterwards for her own sake. He called her 
 a ''presuming chit," when she threw herself 
 ardently Into the discussion of the politics 
 which were then his own absorbing interest, 
 and an "ignorant, romantic brat," when she 
 praised her own favourite romance or criti- 
 cised some one else's ; but for all that he 
 listened. 
 
 Up to the Kensington episode, however, 
 he had not regularly read with her or 
 directed her studies. He had loved almost 
 as well — more, Esther thought — to pun and 
 laugh with Molly, to rally her on her 
 *' fellows " and bring her French sweetmeats, 
 begged from Lady Bollngbroke's store. 
 It was the one point on which Esther had 
 ever felt inclined to resent her sister's 
 superior attractions. Since at the age of 
 sixteen she had first made his acquaintance, 
 Swift had been the particular object of her 
 homage. Perhaps Francis was right in 
 accusing her of mingling some vanity 
 with her preference for distinguished wit. 
 Nemesis does not often smite totally un-
 
 1 98 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 provoked ; it is in the disproportionate 
 weight of her punishments, not in the 
 innocence of the victims, that her injustice 
 is shown. On wet days or when he had 
 nothing else to do, as he was careful to 
 tell Mrs. Johnson, Swift had long been in the 
 habit of dropping in to dinner with Madam 
 Van, and spending hours either in the front 
 parlour with the smart and the witty people 
 who somehow affected the ladies' society, 
 or in the '' sluttery," as he nicknamed the 
 back-parlour, over coffee and oranges with 
 them alone. As often as not he mentioned 
 his visits to the house in his Journals to 
 Mrs. Johnson, but no one reading those 
 brief allusions of his, would guess that the 
 parlour where he represented himself as 
 yawning away his time he knew not why, 
 was called by him in a letter to another, 
 ''the happiest place in the world." 
 
 On his return from Windsor, with the 
 completed History of the Peace of Utrecht 
 in his portmanteau, the readings were 
 resumed. Molly assisted at them less fre- 
 quently than before. The two sisters' paths
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 199 
 
 in life showed ominous signs of separating. 
 Up till now their tastes and pursuits had 
 not been fundamentally different ; each had 
 liked reading, dancing and company in her 
 different degree, though in the matter of 
 company Esther had always been fastidious. 
 But Molly's enjoying temperament and 
 universal popularity were leading her more 
 and more into a world that was merely gay 
 and fine, while Esther grew more and more 
 impatient of any society, except that in which 
 she could at least talk of matters in which 
 her master was interested. She asked no 
 better amusement than to sit on a stool by 
 the fire with her elbows on her knees 
 reading^ Bossuet's Discourse on Universal 
 History, or Mr. Dryden's translation of 
 Virgil's y^neid. Swift's lessons she was 
 able to return in kind, for havanof been 
 educated at a school kept by a French lad)- 
 in the nei^^hbourhood of London, and bavins: 
 also spent some months in Paris, her French 
 was very superior to that of most other 
 young ladies who aspired to a knowledge 
 oi that language. It annoyed the Doctor
 
 -oo ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 to be unable to join In or even follow the 
 conversation at Bollngbroke's, when some 
 of his host's many foreign acquaintances 
 were among the guests. In his anxiety to 
 Improve his knowledge of the language, 
 he even read with Esther a considerable 
 portion of Le Grand Cyrus, though no one 
 had less patience than he with the still 
 fashionable French romance. 
 
 It was half after eight o'clock one evening 
 In the February following the Windsor ex- 
 pedition, when Esther Vanhomrigh was just 
 lifting the coffee-pot off the fire In the back- 
 parlour, that a loud chairman's rat-tat-tat 
 sounded at the street-door. She stood 
 listening with the coffee-pot In her hand. 
 Presently from the wide passage that served 
 as a hall there rose the sound of voices, the 
 chairman disputing his fare wuth a customer 
 who was by no means Inclined to give In to 
 his demands. A flush, a faint smile, not of 
 amusement but of expectation, passed over 
 her lifted face. Then a well-known heavy 
 step came slowly up the stairs and Swift 
 entered unannounced, for the man servant
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 20 [ 
 
 was absent with Mrs. Vanhomrigh and 
 Molly. He wore his sombre look, and after 
 the least possible greeting sat down by the 
 fire and stared at it in silence. Essie poured 
 out a cup of coffee and placed it by his side. 
 Then she stood with one foot on the fender 
 and one hand raised to the high mantel- 
 shelf, also staring at the fire. She had 
 abandoned the plain cap she had once 
 adopted as likely to please his taste for 
 neatness, because he had on the contrary 
 censured it as affected. Her thick blonde 
 hair fell in curls on her neck, in the graceful 
 fashion of the times, and her round neck and 
 arms gleamed from the loose black wrapper 
 branched with silver, which she had appro- 
 priated from her mother's always too abun- 
 dant supply of half-worn garments. People 
 who had met her this winter in the Park or 
 at assemblies, had pronounced the eldest 
 Miss Vanhomrigh to be grown uncommonly 
 handsome. 
 
 *' Drink your coffee, come now, drink your 
 coffee," she said at last imperiously. '' That's 
 the way you let it spoil, and then you call
 
 202 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 it ratsbane — good coffee at six and sixpence 
 a pound." 
 
 Swift took the cup. 
 
 "It may be ratsbane in earnest for all 
 I care," he said. '' I'm half poisoned 
 already." 
 
 *' Where do you come from ? " she asked. 
 '* How late you are, when you told me you 
 would be early ! I had almost given up 
 hopes of you." 
 
 *' From Lord Treasurer's," he replied 
 shortly, drinking his coffee. 
 
 " Had he no news ? " she questioned. 
 " Are the Bishoprics filled up ? Who will 
 be Dean of Wells .^ " 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Ask the town-crier. He will know 
 before I. My granna'm used to say : — 
 
 ' ]\Iore of your lining 
 And less of your dining.' " 
 
 '' O 'tis shameful ! Shameful ! " she cried. 
 "■ 'Tis w^ell I don't know either Lord Trea- 
 surer or the Secretary, for if I did I should 
 never contain myself Truly such ingrati-
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 203 
 
 tilde, such base, base Ingratitude is enough 
 to make splenetics of us all." 
 
 The cloud on Swift's brow lightened ; he 
 looked up half arch half tender. It was not 
 in nature to feel otherwise than gratified 
 when the bitterness and Indignation re- 
 pressed in his own proud bosom, found 
 vehement expression In that vivid young 
 face and the music of that young im- 
 passioned voice. 
 
 "O Governor Huff, Governor Huff!" he 
 exclaimed, '* the poor fellows think they 
 have enough to do with her old Grace — 
 Disgrace I mean — of Marlborough and red- 
 haired Somerset against them ; how they 
 would tremble did they see the valiant 
 Amazonian Hesskin ready to charge upon 
 their rear ! Pooh, I say ! Let me have 
 none of your petticoats in politics." 
 
 Esther threw herself into a chair and 
 tossed her chin. 
 
 " Yet you have told me fifty times that had 
 L. T. or my Lord Secretary half the sense 
 of Mrs. Masham, the country might be 
 saved."
 
 204 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 '' Masham is a good creature, a sensible 
 creature, I don't deny It. I love her dearly, 
 and think she does me the offices of a 
 friend." 
 
 "A friend!" cried Esther, ''a mighty 
 fine friend ! She that has her Majesty's ear, 
 and has only to whisper In it to put you in 
 the place you merit ! Yet here you abide, 
 but plain Jonathan Swift, Vicar of Laracor." 
 
 "You wrong her, Hessinage ; I'm con- 
 vinced she hath done all she durst venture 
 on my behalf." He sighed and went on, 
 with a curious plaintlveness and hesitation, 
 " I know not what to think except that the 
 Queen does not love me. But why does not 
 her Majesty love me, Hess ? — answer me 
 that, you witch, for 'tis more than my reason 
 can tell me." 
 
 Even with her master Esther was apt to 
 exhibit more candour than tact. 
 
 *' One need be no witch to guess that your 
 writings have given her offence," she an- 
 swered. 
 
 Among the strange weaknesses and ten- 
 dernesses of Swift's complex nature, was to
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 205 
 
 be reckoned a sentiment of personal loyalty 
 of an emotional, almost religious nature ; a 
 kind of loyalty, the former existence of which 
 we now admit as an historical fact, without 
 beine able to understand it. In him this 
 sentiment was already but a survival ; it 
 could not subdue his reason enough to make 
 a Jacobite of him, but it could make him 
 verv sensitive to the disfavour of the last 
 Stuart Queen. When Esther had spoken, his 
 head dropped on his breast, his dark cheek 
 grew paler, and he answered nothing. She 
 took an orange from the dish ready for him, 
 prepared it and placed it at his side. It was 
 a customary attention which he was used to 
 call his tribute, and to accept with mock 
 regality, but this evening he thanked her 
 almost humbly, and cried with a dreary 
 smile, '' Coffee and oranges ! Ay, those are 
 the only good things in London ; the only 
 good things I shan't get at Laracor." And 
 then he was silent again. Esther was accus- 
 tomed to his silences, and liked them almost 
 better than talk, There was a feeling of 
 intimacy in being admitted to them. After
 
 2o6 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 a while she rose, took some books from the 
 shelf and put them quietly on the table. 
 Swift shook his head, smiling at them. 
 
 ''Kind, kind Slutikin ! " he said. ''Thou 
 know'st there's nothing soothes the enrag^ed 
 politician like philosophy and the belles 
 lettres ; 'tis the one sentiment in which even 
 the Lord Treasurer and the Secretary can 
 agree. But, Esther," he continued, pushing 
 the books away, " I have seen this long 
 while that your studies weary you, and for 
 all your good nature what wearies you cannot 
 please me." 
 
 " Weary me ? " she cried. " Oh how ? 
 When '> " 
 
 " How ? When ? " he repeated with a 
 somewhat bitter playfulness. " It is easy to 
 see how studies may weary a fine young 
 miss whose eyes are made for brighter 
 things than books, and as to when — why, 
 when you cannot put your mind into what 
 you are doing." 
 
 " Sure, sir, you're not blaming poor weak 
 female brains for their dulness," said she, 
 biting her fan.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 207 
 
 *' A fig for your excuses, you impudent 
 madam. Dull you are not, but an idle, lazy, 
 ignorant hussy, that wants to be shaking 
 her heels to a fiddle with the young fellows, 
 I warrant her, instead of poring over grave 
 books with a gown of forty. Pshaw, Hess ! 
 'Tis a vile excuse. I know as well as any 
 what female brains are like, and I tell you 
 yours are not such. Ha'n't I taught a 
 young woman before now, ay, and one that's 
 twenty times wittier than you ? The little 
 monkey was quick to learn and quick to 
 forget, and understood her book but never 
 thought over it, and could give me back my 
 own opinions so much better than I had 
 expressed 'em myself, that on my conscience 
 I took 'em for hers. Consider, miss, how 
 different from your behaviour, you that dis- 
 pute every word I utter and must needs 
 forsooth have your own pretending opinions. 
 She liked her book for — other people's sake ; 
 but you was meant to spend your days 
 grubbing in college libraries and to end 'em 
 a Bentley. O Lord ! O Lord ! Smoke 
 little Hesskin a Bentley!"
 
 2o8 ESTHER VANHOMRIGfT. 
 
 He had talked out his Irritability and 
 smiled. 
 
 '' Pray scold, sir, so long as you make It 
 plain 'tis but for scolding's sake. Sure never 
 was woman compounded of such opposite 
 vices ! A giddy hussy and a pedantic book- 
 worm ! " 
 
 " 'TIs monstrous, I own, but 'tis the truth. 
 The scholar got the better of the hussy for 
 a month or two, but now she will not be 
 denied. I saw you last Wednesday, miss, 
 at Lady Lansdowne's, standing up with some 
 puppy or other ; the company was saying 
 you danced very finely, but as to that I am 
 no judge ; I only know you was looking 
 as proud as a peacock and as pleased as 
 Punch, and all because you was strutting 
 about and being handed round by a red- 
 heeled jackanapes, before the smartest drabs 
 of quality in London. On your honour, did 
 you not enjoy yourself mightily at Lady 
 Lansdowne's } " 
 
 " I will not deny it, sir ; I was pleased you 
 should see 'tis a false accusation you bring 
 ao*ainst me when you say that I do not love
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 209 
 
 fine company only because I cannot be of 
 consequence in it." 
 
 '' On your honour again, Essie, are not 
 your thoughts wandering to all the diversions 
 you miss, when you have let Moll go off to 
 her moderns in her finest clothes, and leave 
 you in the sluttery with your ancients in — in 
 a mob, or whatever you ladies call that 
 ddshabilU of yours ? " 
 
 And he looked curiously, perhaps appro- 
 vingly, at her dress. 
 
 '' Indeed, sir, you are mistook. You 
 forget I have been longer in the world than 
 Molly, and have worn so many smart clothes 
 and seen so much smart company, I am tired 
 of it all. O I love it well enough now and 
 then, when I am not splenetic, but never so 
 well as coffee in the sluttery." 
 
 Swift appeared to be satisfied, and opening 
 Tully of Moral Ends, began to read aloud. 
 
 Presently he came to this passage : — 
 '' Epicurus declares it his opinion that 
 wisdom among all the ingredients of happi- 
 ness, has not a nobler, a richer, or more 
 delightful one than friendship." 
 
 VOL. I. J>
 
 2IO ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 *' Ay," he said, " 'tis In such sentiments as 
 these we see the true wisdom of the ancients 
 and their superiority to us barbarous 
 moderns. We who say Httle of friendship, 
 but are for ever celebrating love, love, love, 
 with the most ridiculous earnestness." 
 
 '' Pray, sir," replied Esther with spirit — 
 for the Doctor had lately shown peculiar 
 animosity to the tender passion — '' must 
 there not be some good In a sentiment those 
 great wits, the poets, agree in celebrating, 
 and Christian times have honoured much 
 more than heathen ? " 
 
 '' Simpleton ! You know as well as I the 
 Christian Church permits but does not 
 encourage human folly, and as for great wits, 
 'tis admitted they are the greatest fools." 
 
 " How loth would a certain great wit be to 
 admit it In his own person ! " cried she, holding 
 up her finger. '' But seriously you cannot 
 expect me to admire a conclusion which 
 would shut us poor women out of the best 
 part of your hearts, as we are already shut 
 out of the best part of your minds." 
 
 **H'm! The worst's too good for 'em.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 211 
 
 Let me tell you though, that when a woman 
 deserves our friendship she gets it. Epicurus 
 himself, who was by no means the rake he is 
 vulgarly supposed, had several ladies among 
 his intimates and followers." 
 
 " And you, sir, own yourself indebted to 
 the friendship of the ladies Berkeley for 
 much greater gains than prizes and promo- 
 tions. Sure we are agreed in praising such 
 friendship, and agreed too that 'tis rare. 
 You say 'tis because we are unworthy of it' 
 but your instance helps to show you wrong, 
 for 'tis not the common kind of men who 
 make friends of women, only the superior 
 ones. Now do not laugh but listen, and I 
 will tell you why. A booby you know, 
 always loves to entrench himself behind the 
 superiority of his sex, and that for good 
 reasons. Great wits like you, sir, do not 
 fear a familiarity which can but breed the 
 more respect. Then in ordinary men there 
 is a coldness, a dulness of disposition, that 
 makes them unapt to consider or feel with 
 others in any very intimate manner. 'Tis so 
 much easier to despise foreigners and women
 
 212 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 than to understand 'em, that 'tis no wonder 
 dull fellows prefer it. But some noble minds, 
 the bent of whose genius it is to understand 
 every language of the human heart, some 
 such learn ours, and they love to converse 
 with us — yes, they do, Doctor, though they 
 have the weakness to be ashamed of it when 
 they get among common men, and to abuse 
 us heartily, lest they should be suspected of 
 partiality for us." 
 
 *' I will pass you your strictures on my 
 sex, miss — the more because I know 'em to 
 be solely prompted by jealousy — and your 
 reflection on my honesty — though I smoked 
 it at once — in consideration of the compli- 
 ments to myself you have mixed with your 
 stuff. Lord, Lord ! Poor Isaac Bickerstaff 
 is fallen low in the world, when he is obliged 
 to an ignorant brat for her fine speeches. 
 Besides, though you have long been off the 
 point of the argument, you have let me see 
 in a sidelong kind of way — for 'tis the right 
 to our friendsJiip I observe you vindicate 
 with so much warmth — that you are not 
 quite the fool you made yourself out, w^hen
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 213 
 
 you talked about love. Pray now confirm 
 my good opinion of your sense by confessing 
 'twas merely for the sake of disputing you 
 contradicted me, when you know as well as I 
 'tis a very contemptible passion." 
 
 Esther blushed and hesitated. 
 
 '' I cannot think," she said, " that love is 
 always contemptible. It does not appear so 
 in Petrarca, or in the heroes of Mademoiselle 
 de Scudery, who were all, they say, drawn 
 from real personages." 
 
 " Believe me, child, this love is always the 
 same thing in the highest as in the lowest. 
 Real personages be hanged ! 'Tis these 
 rascally poets and romance writers that cheat 
 women out of the little sense Nature gave 
 'em. Could the poor creatures see the world 
 as it really is, even they would not snatch at 
 the bait so readily, whether 'twere an offer of 
 marriage or mere gallantry. To be com- 
 plimented and caressed beyond reason for 
 a few years, and treated with contempt for 
 the rest of her life — that is commonly the lot 
 of a woman, even if she be beautiful and well- 
 endowed. I pity 'em, poor creatures ! But
 
 214 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 that they should be so well-pleased with a 
 passion that serves *em thus scurvily, that is 
 what I find surprising — no, not surprising, 
 for what folly is surprising in woman or man 
 either for that matter ? Fools, fools all ! But 
 truly 'tis very laughable, and despicable too. 
 Love, indeed! I thought, you silly Hess, 
 you had more discretion than to talk of such 
 pernicious nonsense to me." 
 
 Swift was tired, irritated, sick with hope 
 deferred, and he poured forth his scorn of 
 men, women, and love with the ferocious 
 bitterness of voice and countenance peculiar 
 to him. Esther was silent. He looked 
 round and saw her leaned on her elbow and 
 shading her eyes with her hand. 
 
 '' Slutikin," he said gently, ''are those 
 tears I see ? " 
 
 She did not answer, and he drew her 
 hand away from her face and held it. 
 
 ** What is it, my child ? " he asked 
 anxiously. 
 
 She was still silent, but the large tears 
 rolled down her flushed cheeks and dropped 
 into her bosom, making her look like the
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 215 
 
 child he called her. With her free left 
 hand she fumbled for her handkerchief to 
 wipe them away. Swift whipped out his 
 own large one and thrust it into her 
 hand. 
 
 *' There, there," he said, *' take it, 'tis silk. 
 Lady Bolingbroke gave it me." 
 
 At another time Esther would have 
 answered with gibes, asking him whether 
 he had yet got a countess to find him his 
 perukes, for they all knew there was one 
 that kept him in nightcaps, and whether 
 ladies of less quality were still allowed to 
 mend his cassock. 
 
 This time she said nothing, but dried her 
 tears with the red bandana. 
 
 " Little dear Essie," he cried, '* I beg 
 you to tell me what I have said to distress 
 you." 
 
 Esther had for a young woman brought 
 up in good society, a remarkable incapacity 
 for telling those small fibs without which it 
 would be unmanaofeable. Even if she at- 
 tempted to do so she totally failed to deceive. 
 So now, instead of offering a plausible excuse
 
 21 6 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 with confidence, she pressed the handker- 
 chief to her Hps, looked away from the 
 Doctor, and said in a muffled voice, *' O 
 nothing, sir, nothing at all. 'Tis the spleen." 
 
 " Pish ! " cried he, '' 'tis true you are often 
 confoundedly splenetic, but that's not the 
 way you show it." 
 
 '* O sir, 'tis my fortune ! — and Ginckel, and 
 — and the debts," she returned incoherently, 
 and snatching away her hand she buried 
 her whole face in the bandana and began 
 to cry again. 
 
 " What the deuce ! When your Cousin 
 Purvis has just been fool enough to pay 
 every debt your mamma durst tell her of ? 
 And you that's gone into the whole matter 
 like a lawyer, know well enough Ginckel 
 can't touch your fortune. Don't lie, Brat, 
 till you can lie better." 
 
 Esther unable to defend her excuses made 
 no reply. Swift rose and paced up and 
 down the room in an irritated manner. 
 
 " The truth is, Hess," he said at last, 
 "you are in love. I have several times 
 suspected as much."
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 217 
 
 *'0 no, no," cried Esther, burying her 
 face yet deeper In the pocket-handkerchief. 
 " 'TIs cruel of you to say so." 
 
 "The truth Is never cruel, my dear," he 
 returned with grave kindness, sitting down 
 beside her. *' I own I was wrong to speak 
 In so violent and general a way of a passion 
 common to the bad and the good. My 
 excuse must be, that the bad are so greatly 
 in the majority that in speaking of mankind, 
 one alms at them. But, my dear, you must 
 be sensible that I do not judge Molkin 
 severely, who I'll be bound has found a 
 worse object for her affections than you are 
 like to. To be sure I spoke too strongly — 
 'twas that Tokay of Lord Treasurer's which 
 disorders the stomach and heats the head ; 
 I will drink no more of it. In virtuous 
 young ladies, such as Molkin or yourself, 
 what is called love is not very blameable ; 
 'tis scarcely a passion but a weakness of the 
 mind against which they have no defence, 
 for as if Nature did not present to them 
 sufficiently the too charming idea, their 
 parents and acquaintance are careful to do
 
 2i8 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 SO, while they take no pains to provide 'em 
 with its antidote, which is reason.'* 
 
 '' But love, sir, may be founded on reason," 
 replied Esther with some return of spirit. 
 
 " Stuff, Bratikin ! Reason shows the object 
 either contemptible or worthy of some more 
 solid sentiment, as esteem and friendship." 
 
 Esther sighed, dried her eyes and looked 
 away. 
 
 " Do I not hear links at the door ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 '' So you will not confide in your friend, 
 Miss Essie ? Yet he is older and wiser than 
 you, and could either help to the accomplish- 
 ment of your wishes, if they be wise, or cure 
 you of 'em, if the contrary. Indeed I fancied 
 I knew all your fellows, but I can't think of 
 one of 'em that's worth a sigh of Miss 
 Vanhomrigh's, or half good enough to be 
 her husband." 
 
 Esther smiled faintly. 
 
 " What a faraoro of nonsense is this we 
 have been talkino^ ! " she said. '' Let us hear 
 
 o 
 
 no more of it." 
 
 The link-boys had thrust their torches into
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 219 
 
 the rings outside, and the front-door opened 
 wide to admit a merry noise of tongues 
 and a Httle crowd of people, first josthng 
 each other as dark silhouettes against the 
 glare of the links and the bright reflections 
 on the wet pavement without, then, as they 
 stepped into the lamplight of the narrow 
 hall, transformed to glittering figures of 
 gaily-dressed men and women. It was 
 Madam Van and Molly, whom a party of 
 the young lady's admirers on their way to 
 the Fountain Tavern, had insisted on chair- 
 ing home, in spite of state of the streets. 
 Voices confused in mirth, Molly's clear 
 laugh, and her mother's, scarcely less fresh 
 and young, reached Esther's ears. 
 
 ** Mercy on us ! They have company with 
 'em," she cried, and darting out of the room, 
 she banged the door behind her and fled 
 hastily upstairs. But the company, after a 
 playful dispute as to the chairman's fare, 
 which, according to them, ought to have been 
 nothing less than Miss Molly's slipper to 
 drink her health out of, departed to the 
 tavern, probably to drink their own health
 
 220 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 twenty times over out of more ordinary and 
 convenient goblets. The two ladies came 
 tripping upstairs, with the gleam and rustle 
 of silks and the tap of little heels, bringing 
 with them into the quiet dimly-lighted back- 
 parlour an atmosphere of festivity and the 
 great world. 
 
 " Well, madams all, where have you been 
 gadding to ? " asked Swift, when the first 
 greeting had been exchanged. 
 
 '' O sir, no further than Lady Wentworth's 
 in St. James' Square," replied Mrs. Van- 
 homrigh, *' or I warrant the young sparks 
 wouldn't have troubled to carry my old bones 
 hither, however they might have treated 
 Molly's young ones.'* And she cast a glance 
 of maternal pride at her charming Moll, so 
 pretty in her peach-coloured lute-string, with 
 the smile of pleasure and raillery still 
 brightening her eyes and dimpling her soft 
 cheeks. '* But pray. Doctor, what have you 
 done with Hess ?" 
 
 The Doctor shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 "Governor Huff has a headache, or the 
 vapours, or some such thing. If I was you,
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 221 
 
 madam, I would never mind her, but take 
 an oranore." 
 
 '' Doctor, you are a barbarian. The 
 vapours, indeed ! Sure my poor girl is very 
 sick or she'd never have left you so un- 
 civilly. Ann, Ann ! Feathers and my 
 hartshorn-drops." 
 
 " No, no, mamma. What would they 
 be for ? She an't in a swoon," inter- 
 rupted Molly, endeavouring to restrain her 
 mother. 
 
 " Don't be saucy, miss. How do you 
 know what she's in .^ Anyway, feathers is 
 good to burn, for they can do no harm. My 
 vinaigrette — where is it ? Sure 'twas here 
 I put it. No '^. Then there's fairies in this 
 house." And whirling round the room in 
 search of the missing vinaigrette, which was 
 all the while in her pocket, she caught her 
 heel in a hole in the carpet and stumbled 
 forward, her slipper flying high in the air 
 behind her. " Confound my shoe ! " she 
 cried. '' 'TIs the third time this evening. 
 Slip it on quick, darling Moll. Hess will 
 wonder I do not come."
 
 222 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 *' If she has a bad head, mamma, she had 
 rather be left alone," said Molly. 
 
 ''For shame, miss!" replied Mrs. Van, 
 stamping her foot down into her shoe, which 
 was too small, '' I trust her own mamma 
 knows best what she likes." 
 
 So upstairs she flew, with a step as light 
 as that of a girl of twenty, and was imme- 
 diately heard bursting into Esther's bedroom, 
 brimming over with enquiries and condo- 
 lences. 
 
 The Doctor shrugged his shoulders, and 
 then : *' Now sit down, Molkin, pray," he 
 said, " and let us be cosy together, since there 
 is no Governor Huff to tear your eyes out." 
 
 " But what is the matter with her .'^ " asked 
 Moll. 
 
 " Moll," returned he, leaning forward and 
 speaking in an emphatic and mysterious 
 voice, *' I believe she's in love." 
 
 Molly started. 
 
 " Pooh ! Mr. Bickerstaff," she said, after 
 an almost imperceptible pause, " there never 
 was such a man as you for giving credit to 
 your own inventions. I believe you was
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 223 
 
 almost convinced Mr. Partridge was dead 
 when you had written your tale of his 
 decease, and thought him pretty impudent 
 for maintaining the contrary." 
 
 '' Faith, Molkin, you shall not put me 
 off with raillery," replied Swift. " You should 
 know 'tis not a vulgar curiosity that makes 
 me anxious to know whatever may concern 
 you or her." 
 
 And he spoke the truth, for his curiosity 
 was so closely connected with what was 
 loveable In his nature, his feminine capacity 
 for interesting himself in the whole, the 
 utmost detail, of a life which had once 
 attracted his interest, that it was not so 
 much a defect as the under side of a quality 
 — the same quality which made Lord 
 Oxford's bitter independent pamphleteer, 
 the unsparing critic of his political blunders, 
 also his most sympathetic friend In domestic 
 joy and sorrow, his truest in disgrace. But 
 if the Doctor had been both clear-sighted 
 and candid, he might have added that 
 a touch of jealousy gave an edge to his 
 curiosity. Molly had observed some little
 
 224 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 signs of this jealousy in him of late, and had 
 misinterpreted it. Swift's jealousy was that 
 of the exclusive friend, who sees himself 
 in danger of being bidden to go down lower 
 in favour of the lover. Molly leaned back 
 in a corner of the couch, with her French 
 hood thrown half off, and played with her 
 fan, looking at the Doctor demurely. 
 
 " Sure, Doctor," she said, '' you know as 
 much as I do. I am not the confidante nor 
 the duenna." 
 
 '' Stuff and nonsense, Moll ! I'm sure 
 you have noticed something, and if I were 
 in your shoes I should be able to tell all 
 about it. But you want penetration, Molkni. 
 I'll be hanged if I can think of one of your 
 fellows that Essie has distinguished more 
 than another. True there's a creature with 
 a cocked hat, and a Ramillies wio^, and his 
 sleeve empty, I have seen walk in the Park 
 with her of a morning lately." 
 
 '' Captain Fortescue," returned Molly, 
 " a very gallant young officer." 
 
 " May be, miss, but you'll never persuade 
 me that Hess could want taste so much
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 225 
 
 as to be enamoured of a man without an 
 arm. Monstrous ! Besides, the fellow's 
 illiterate. I heard her remark it." 
 
 " Then, sir, there's Mr. Charles Ford." 
 
 *' Ford ! O I'm positive it's not Ford." 
 
 ''But why not, sir '^ You tell us he is 
 the finest scholar of any layman in England, 
 and he has been mighty attentive to Essie." 
 
 '' Has been, perhaps, but now is mighty 
 attentive to another young lady, it being 
 plain that Miss Essie cared not a jot for 
 him. Moll, name some other followers 
 you have seen about her of late." 
 
 " There is Sir James Bateman, the wealthy 
 man with the palace in Soho ; a fine scholar 
 and a patron of the Arts, and one that always 
 greatly affected Essie's society." 
 
 " What } The man that lately lost his 
 lady ? The inconsolable widower, and twice 
 her age ^ Essie has more delicacy." 
 
 '* Inconsolable, sir 1 Must I teach you 
 what that means ? And as to age, he is 
 scarce so old as yourself. Yet I do not say 
 there is a match in it — I but humour your 
 fancy by naming her followers." 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 " Molkin, you think to play with me, but 
 I will not be put off so when I am serious. 
 As to you, If you was brayed in a mortar 
 like the fool you wot of, a grain or two 
 of sense might be found In you, but not 
 one of seriousness. Come now, since when 
 has Essie been taken with the vapours ? " 
 
 Molly paused before answering, and waved 
 her Chinese fan slowly, studying the little 
 porcelain-faced people upon it. Then for 
 an Instant a provoking smile played round 
 the corners of her mouth, but it was gone 
 before you could swear to It, and she said 
 innocently : " Lord now, how long is it 
 since Cousin Francis went abroad ? " 
 
 Swift started : " Molkin, you cannot mean 
 to say — to hint — O 'tis impossible ! " 
 
 Molly shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " I told you, sir, I was not Essie's con- 
 fidante, but she has certainly been splenetic 
 and averse to company, and what you call 
 vapourish, since he left. And I take it as 
 an odd thing that she has never spoken 
 of him except once or twice to say 'twas 
 a churlish way he left us, and to marvel that
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 227 
 
 he has not writ since ; yet she was always 
 extreme fond of him when he was at home." 
 
 " Essie would be extreme fond of a lame 
 duck that she had had the nursing of, and 
 think it the best fowl in the barn-yard." 
 
 *' Yet I own," he continued, rising, '' there's 
 something in what you say, if 'tis true that 
 pity is akin to love. But Lord, Lord ! 
 Essie in love with him ! Why, 'tis Mid- 
 summer madness ! " 
 
 " O, sir, as the world goes, it would be 
 a poor match, but my sister has her fortin 
 and will have more, and sure Francis is 
 a good honest creature, though his tongue 
 is none of the sweetest." 
 
 The Doctor poked the fire noisily. 
 
 ** What ! " he cried, " that little mean- 
 looking sluttish fellow, not so much as come 
 of honest parentage, as I have heard say ? 
 And your sister, as fine a lady as any woman 
 of quality in the town, with so excellent an 
 understanding and disposition, and handsome 
 enough to please. Moll, Moll, here's a sad 
 folly ! Faith, miss, I had best wish you 
 good-night or I shall grow splenetic."
 
 228 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 So he put on his hat and tramped round 
 the corner to Bury Street, while Molly ran 
 upstairs to her mother's bedroom, took a 
 leap on to the bed and sat there laughing. 
 Mrs. Vanhomrigh, busy compounding some 
 mysterious and horrible physic, asked her 
 what her joke was. 
 
 "■ My dearest mamma, I have been 
 persuading the Doctor that Essie is in love 
 with — with — now guess." 
 
 Mrs. Vanhomrigh paused with a phial in 
 her hand and turned a grave face to her 
 daughter. 
 
 "O Molly, with whom ?" 
 
 *' I give you three guesses, mamma ; you 
 won't do it in thirty." 
 
 " A plague on your guesses, miss. Tell 
 me at once." 
 
 '* Why, mamma, with Cousin Francis." 
 
 And there was a simultaneous burst of 
 laughter from the two ladies.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 229 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " Flowers, fresh flowers ! All a-growing 
 and a-blowing ! Who'll buy my flowers ? " 
 
 Above the many cries of the London 
 street, it rang out clear from the strong 
 round throat of a country girl, who sat on 
 the steps of a City church with her wares 
 about her. Her damask roses and white 
 pinks were breathing as sweet a scent Into 
 the morning air as ever they did at 
 Hammersmith among the nightingales, and 
 the large blossoms of forget-me-nots still 
 looked as dewy fresh as when they hung 
 clustering above their own blue reflections in 
 the gliding Thames. The quality folk were 
 not yet abroad, and the little knot of 
 customers that kept accumulating and 
 dispersing between the flower-girl on the 
 steps and a costermonger's barrow in the
 
 230 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 Street, consisted of a few citizens, marketing 
 women and idle children. Presently a 
 white-haired man joined them, hobbHng 
 noisily on a stick and pushing his way 
 through the loiterers with a large iron key. 
 
 ** By the Lord, Master Sexton," said a fat 
 woman resentfully rubbing her arm, " it's to 
 be hoped when we're corpses you'll treat us 
 a bit more respectful." 
 
 *' Rosemary sprigs, fair rosemary sprigs, 
 twopence a score ! " chanted the flower- 
 seller. 
 
 *' A plague on your rosemary ! " cried a 
 pert girl of fourteen. '' Sexton an't going 
 to a funeral or I guess he'd be In a better 
 temper. 'Tis a wedding, I'll warrant. O I 
 do love a wedding ! " 
 
 An aged grandame who had drifted to 
 the church steps and stood there leaning on 
 her stick, with protruding under-lip and 
 lack-lustre eye, apparently conscious of 
 nothing but the sunshine, lifted her head 
 and looked towards the speaker. 
 
 '* Where Is't, my dear ? " she asked almost 
 eagerly. '* I can't see nothing. I'd like to
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 231 
 
 see the wedding. But marry come vp ! 
 I've seen many and many a wedding — fine^^ 
 weddings nor you'll see nowadays, my deai 
 Scores and scores on 'em — fine, costly 
 weddings, and cake and wine in plenty, and 
 brides — ah, beautiful ! " 
 
 Her flash of interest in the life about her 
 faded again, and she looked away muttering 
 to herself, either in mere emptiness of 
 thought or calling to mind the many and 
 various brides whom in her ninety years she 
 had seen pass to the altar, and on through 
 the various circumstances of life, to old ao^e 
 and the tomb. 
 
 *' Faith, dame, you're right," said the 
 sexton. " Marrying you may see, little 
 missie, and get a husband yourself if you're 
 a good girl, but weddings — Lord ! they an't 
 worth opening the church for, and if I was 
 Parson, I'd go no further than a tombstone 
 to string up these 'ere private marrying 
 folks." 
 
 " Mercy on us ! 'Tis a runaway match," 
 cried the girl, jumping for joy to find herself 
 in contact with so exciting an incident. The
 
 232 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 interest of the little feminine crowd, which 
 had been awakened by the word '' wedding," 
 visibly quickened. 
 
 The sexton, who was suffering from 
 rheumatism, hobbled up three steps before 
 he found breath to answer. Then he turned 
 round and addressed the company in general. 
 
 " Runaway match!" he repeated. ''Deuce 
 take 'em! No! If 'twere that there'd be 
 small blame to 'em for marrying on the sly. 
 No, what I cry shame on is the way decent 
 folk, ay, quality folk too, that's been courting 
 this twelvemonth, '11 come sneaking up to 
 church in a hackney coach, master in a 
 surtout and miss in a Mob, and not half-a- 
 dozen people with 'em. And it's * Pray, 
 Parson, don't tell on us,' and, ' Be sure the 
 rascal sexton holds his tongue,' and precious 
 little we gets for our trouble — that I can 
 tell you — precious little ! " And he brought 
 his stick down on the step with emphatic 
 disgust. 
 
 ** 'Tis a shame, that it is ! " cried the fat 
 woman, forgetting her personal wrongs in 
 her sympathetic indignation.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 23^ 
 
 ** Not a bite nor a sup do we get, ma'am, 
 that I can tell you," continued the sexton, 
 addressinor himself to her. 
 
 *' Tis quite the mode, though," said a 
 mercer's lady, lately own woman to a 
 Baronet's wife, " for the very high quality 
 does it pretty often, only they're married in 
 their own chambers. But 'tis mighty pro- 
 voking, I own, to know naught of the matter 
 till you hear the drums under their window 
 in the morning." 
 
 *' 'Tis enough to make one wish more 
 funerals nor weddings," observed a saturnine 
 female, related to a butcher, who was 
 cheapening spring carrots. '' At any rate 
 there's good roast and biled for every one 
 at 'em." 
 
 '' Skinflintin' new-fangled ways ! " ejaculated 
 the sexton. 
 
 "Well, there's the reception next day," 
 continued the mercer's lady meditatively, 
 "and ribbon cockades more the mode than 
 ever. Why, they do say my Lord Strafford's 
 cost five guineas apiece." 
 
 " Who's going to be married, Master
 
 234 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 Sexton ? " asked some one not interested in 
 the business side of the question. 
 
 '' A parson," replied the sexton. " Not 
 one of your Church mice, that can't do 
 things handsome if they would, but a fellow 
 with a good fat living, and his lady a little 
 fortin, as they say." 
 
 '' Is she a beauty ? " asked the girl of 
 fourteen, giggling. ''I'd like to get a peep at 
 her. Lord, how oddly she must be feeling ! " 
 
 *' Poor creature ! I wish she might never 
 feel worse ! " said a handsome, haggard 
 young woman, with a baby on one arm, a 
 heavy basket on the other, and a second 
 toddling child clinging to her skirts. '* She's 
 eot her troubles before her." 
 
 " Come, neighbour Thomson, you'd best 
 go away," said another, " or you'll be bringing 
 bad luck on the bride, pretty dear, with your 
 croaking." 
 
 ** Go ! O you may be sure I'll go as fast 
 as may be," replied neighbour Thomson. 
 *' rd sooner run a mile nor see a wedding. 
 It creeps down my back like cold water, it 
 does."
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 235 
 
 Yet as a hackney coach rattled up to the 
 church steps, she turned round to look 
 with the rest. The first to jump out was 
 a smart little lady in a riding-dress, a 
 camlet petticoat, a man's coat and waistcoat 
 of scarlet cloth laced with silver, matched 
 by the scarlet ribbon tying back her hair, 
 a large lace cravatte, and a miniature beaver 
 cocked defiantly. As regarded her dress, 
 there was no reason why she should not 
 be the bride, but somehow it was plain she 
 was not. Next, stooping his stately head 
 under the low lintel of the coach door, came 
 an ecclesiastic in a new silken gown and a 
 decorous but fashionable peruke. As he 
 stood ready to hand out the two remaining 
 ladies, the whispering spectators pronounced 
 him a little old for his part, but a fine figure 
 of a man for all that. The genteel woman 
 who followed him must be the bride's 
 mother, but the public interest centred in 
 the tall young lady who descended last. 
 She wore a white flowered damask dress. 
 It was a costume that would have been 
 trying to many handsome women, especially
 
 236 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 in the bright morning sunshine, but the 
 soft purity of her skin and the young curves 
 of cheek and chin and throat, triumphed 
 over the hard whiteness of their surroundings. 
 The sunshine without gilded her hair ; an 
 inner fire, coming out to meet it, helped to 
 make her eyes so sparkHng and her lips so 
 red. There was a murmur of approval from 
 the spectators. 
 
 '* If you'll take my advice, Madam Van," 
 said the Doctor, *' you won't keep the coach- 
 man here, but get one called when the 
 business is done, or he'll fleece you to the 
 tune of a crown or two." 
 
 *' I love to oblige, Mr. Dean," replied 
 Madam Van. '' But I've took your advice 
 once too often already this morning. You 
 was importunate we should start at once, 
 and here I am with my stays but half- 
 laced." She pointed to a smart be-ribboned 
 pair of articles, which, as the fashion was, 
 formed a visible part of her costume. '* And 
 Molly, I vow, has caught up the worst pair 
 of gloves in her box and forgot her patch 
 and her fan, and "
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. lyj 
 
 '* Her perfume-flask and her snush-box 
 and the rest of her modish fal-lals, all for 
 show and none for use," interrupted the 
 Doctor. ''So much the better, Madams all, 
 so much the better." 
 
 " And here we are," continued Madam 
 Van, *' we and nobody else, but the sexton 
 trying to bring to a conclusion some very 
 old quarrel with the church door." 
 
 For the sexton's rheumatic fingers were 
 now wrestling with the large key and rusty 
 lock. 
 
 ** 'Tis but poor housewifery, Mr. Dean, 
 to save a crown on coach-hire, and waste 
 thrice as much by spoiling your attire," said 
 Molly. 
 
 Swift shrugged his shoulders and made 
 as if he would stop his ears. 
 
 " Faith," he cried, '' I have drawn an old 
 house on my head ! Go your own ways, 
 hussies ; throw your money down any gutter 
 you please, the good Doctor will not hinder 
 you. 
 
 Fortunately for the supposed bridegroom's 
 reputation with the crowd, who despise
 
 238 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 nothing so much as economy, his remarks 
 had been made in a low voice, and their 
 attention was fixed on the lady in white. 
 She had stepped aside to look at the flower- 
 girl's wares, and was now considering a 
 bunch of deep red damask roses. 
 
 ''Pish! child," said Swift, ''those will 
 never become thee ! Lord, Lord ! What 
 will Moll and you do when the poor Doctor's 
 gone, and there's no one to tell you when 
 you look frightfully ? " 
 
 He picked up a bunch of forget-me-nots and 
 tried their effect against the white damask. 
 " See here, miss, an't these the charmingest 
 thinofs ? Ods bodikins ! Enfeeble me if 
 they an't the prettiest things for showing 
 off a fair skin like your la'ship's, and cheap, 
 dirt cheap at — I mean, what's the price, 
 girl ? You should give 'em me cheap for 
 praising your wares better than you could 
 do it yourself. Ah, why, why was I not a 
 mercer ? I should have got a fortune by this 
 time, instead of an Irish Deanery. But no 
 matter. Here's the posy for thee, Hess. So 
 — stick it in your bosom just where your
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 239 
 
 hood ties. 'TIs a pity your eyes are not blue, 
 or I could make I know not what fine com- 
 parisons. But on my conscience there's not 
 a penn'orth of blue In 'em." 
 
 The old grandame was standing at the 
 foot of the steps, bowed over her stick. 
 Her dull gaze was fixed on Esther, and her 
 tremulous under-lip had been moving some 
 time, but it was only now that audible words 
 came. 
 
 *' Bless you, bless you, my pretty mistress ! " 
 she cried In a hoarse feeble voice, stretch- 
 ing out her deeply-veined, wasted hand and 
 arm. " Happy's the bride the sun shines 
 on. And a beautiful bride you make, mis- 
 tress, ay, that you do. Old Bess can tell 
 you that — ninety years of age last Martinmas 
 I am, your honours. It's a great age, a great 
 age. Many's the bride I've seen married 
 and buried and all, and by'r Lady, your good 
 gentleman's in luck. God bless your honour, 
 and give you many days and happy, you and 
 your good lady there. Ninety years old I 
 am, your honour, and hale and lusty for my 
 years."
 
 240 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 There was a murmur among the specta- 
 tors, some echoing the crone's '' God bless 
 you," some her praise of the bride, others 
 whispering their own remarks on the couple. 
 While the poor old creature was speaking, 
 Esther turned very pale, and then in a 
 moment the carnation colour rushed over 
 her face from brow to chin. A confused 
 emotion between pleasure and terror and 
 shame made her heart stand still, then give 
 a great bound, and go on beating so loud it 
 seemed to her that the bystanders must hear 
 it. She bowed her face over her bouquet 
 of forget-me-nots, as though she expected 
 them to smell sweet, and made no reply 
 either to Swift or to the old woman. The 
 Dean, far from being embarrassed, seemed 
 rather gratified at the mistake. He smiled 
 shyly and felt for his purse, which always 
 opened at the call of charity. Taking out a 
 shilling he went down the steps and placed 
 it in the crone's hand, folding her small 
 claw-like fingers over it with his own. 
 
 '* There's for your blessing, grandam," he 
 said, " and I hope I and my good lady, as
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 2\\ 
 
 you call her, may deserve It, though Indeed 
 'tis very doubtful if we do." 
 
 Then he bowed gravely to the admiring 
 crowd and returned, delighted at the little 
 mystification, and making a just perceptible 
 grimace at Esther, as one who was sure like 
 himself to find it mighty pleasant. 
 
 Esther laughed awkwardly. 
 
 *' Fie, Mr. Dean ! Behave now, do ! 
 These good people will be angry when they 
 find how they are deceived, and by a Dean 
 too.'' 
 
 '' I believe you are angry yourself, 
 Governor Huff," he said. ''You are as red 
 as a turkey-cock. Silly ! " 
 
 Then he paid for the forget-me-nots and 
 for some other flowers which he presented 
 to Mrs. Vanhomrigh and Molly. 
 
 " 'Tis a most profligate expenditure," he 
 said. '' But 'tis the last, the farewell ex- 
 travagance, committed for the spendatious 
 hussies of the sluttery sisterhood. Faith, it 
 gives me short sighs to think on't." 
 
 A subdued sound of wailing and lamenta- 
 tion went up from Mrs. Vanhomrigh and 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 Molly; decorously subdued because they 
 were now entering the church. He waited 
 for Essie to join in it, but she made no 
 sign. 
 
 "Still angry, Governor Huff?" he asked 
 in her ear. " Is it so unpardonable a crime 
 for a luckless wretch, such as I, to play for 
 a moment at being a happy man ? Well, 
 may you never know what 'tis to be 
 miserable '^. " 
 
 '' I do," she answered shortly in a deep 
 tone, not looking at him but gazing straight 
 before her. 
 
 '' Tilly-vally!" he exclaimed; then checking 
 himself — for was not this perhaps the last 
 day of many days, which he was more loth 
 than he had thought to bring to an end ? — ■ 
 *' Well, at least you know what 'tis to be 
 happy." 
 
 A slow illuminating smile passed over 
 Esther's face, and her eyes, though fixed on 
 the same point, were wider. 
 
 " Yes," she answered. 
 
 " Ah ! I do not. There's the difference," 
 he replied bitterly.
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 243 
 
 Now the real bride and bridegroom drove 
 up at the same moment to opposite doors 
 of the church, but their arrival received 
 only the amount of notice that the crowd 
 bestows on that of guests at a wedding. 
 A deshabilU, or as it was called a Mob, 
 was considered a very proper costume for 
 a bride on such a private occasion, but it was 
 not one to set off the scant and gawky charms 
 of Miss Stone. 
 
 " Lord ! An't she a pea-hen of a woman!" 
 cried Molly to the Dean, as he hurried into 
 the vestry to don his surplice. Molly had 
 a habit of making audible remarks on persons 
 in her near neighbourhood, but the same 
 Providence which protects children and 
 drunken men, usually preserved her from 
 being overheard. The Dean, who was 
 punctiliously courteous in many respects, 
 and had no claim on that particular Pro- 
 vidence, answered by a frown so portentous 
 that it made her seriously uncomfortable 
 for some minutes. Mrs. Vanhomrigh mean- 
 time was in a delio^htful state of excitement, 
 kissing every one within reach, and saying
 
 244 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 quite loud, as the bridegroom passed up 
 towards the altar, " Lud, girls, I wish either 
 of you may get as proper a fellow ; " where- 
 at Mr. Harris, a good-looking young man, 
 fair and fresh and six foot two in his stockings, 
 blushed very much. Being the kind of 
 young man who always does and feels 
 precisely what is expected of him, he was 
 altogether as blushing and constrained as 
 was proper to his position. 
 
 Now the church doors were locked, and 
 the whole party, which consisted of little 
 more than a dozen people, stood in the 
 chancel. The Dean, clad in the short and 
 dirty surplice of the parish clergyman, began 
 reading the service in his most impressive 
 manner, and the married ladies present, as 
 used to be customary at weddings, began 
 to cry. When the final exhortation, which 
 the Dean read to the bride with unnecessary 
 severity, was reached, Mrs. Vanhomrigh 
 gazing tearfully at her niece, whispered to 
 Molly— 
 
 *' 'Tis just as I said, my dear, when your 
 cousin was cheapening that gown at De-
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 245 
 
 lamode's. There's five guineas' worth of bad 
 temper gone into them shoulders." 
 
 " There an't five guineas' worth of any- 
 thing in the train," rephed Molly, disdaining 
 to whisper. 
 
 " Sh, child ! You should pay attention 
 to the prayers. Sure I hope the boy's going 
 round to ask all the folks to dinner. Have 
 you heard say whether Cousin Annesley's 
 moved to his new house at Chelsea yet ? 
 'Twould be plaguey provoking should he not 
 get the invitation." 
 
 In marrying their daughter privately the 
 Stones did what was usual with sensible 
 persons of the middle-class, who were 
 averse to incurring the worry and expense 
 of a public ceremony and the three or four 
 days of pandemonium which succeeded it. 
 On such an occasion the young couple would 
 leave the church separately, and meet again 
 at a tavern or at the house of a friend, where 
 they would dine and divert themselves 
 with the small wedding-party for the rest 
 of the day, giving a reception at their own 
 home on the following one. Mrs. Van-
 
 246 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 homrigh had offered her house for this 
 purpose, and the arrangement was equally 
 agreeable to the Stones, to whom spending 
 money at a tavern seemed little short of 
 profligacy, and to Madam Van who dearly 
 loved to see company and to play a part, 
 no matter how humble, in a weddino-. So 
 private an affair was repugnant to her, but 
 she consoled herself by planning the fine 
 doings there should be when her own 
 daughters were married, and by inviting 
 as many relatives as could be got together 
 at a few hours' notice. 
 
 Swift resisted all pressure to join the 
 party at dinner, boldly alleging his dislike 
 of the crowd, the heat, the superabundant 
 food and drink, and the time-honoured wit 
 that he would be certain to find there. He 
 came in later to taste the bridecake and take 
 a dish of tea, but he looked gloomy and 
 preoccupied. 
 
 *' Call you this privacy, Madam Van ? " he 
 asked, looking round the crowded room. 
 " 'Tis as public as an auction." 
 
 '' A fig for your privacy ! 'Tan't privacy
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 247 
 
 they want, 'tis cheapness," returned the 
 heated and radiant Madam Van. '' Yet 
 'twould be a pity if the drums, poor creatures, 
 couldn't get wind of the matter. Live and 
 let live, say I." 
 
 " O pray live, madam, if you find any 
 amusement in it, and let anything else live 
 except the drums. They may fitly beat a 
 quick march for a couple of simpletons into 
 the battle of married life, but why should 
 they confoundedly punish every unoffending 
 creature in the neighbourhood ? " 
 
 " Mr. Dean, you're one of them stout 
 pagans that make the stoutest Christians, 
 when they're converted. Let's drink to 
 your conversion. Hess, child, fill the Doctor 
 out a dish of tea. Lord ! how finely he 
 read the service this morning ! " 
 
 " No thanks to Moll," returned the Dean, 
 " with her comparison of the pea-hen. Do 
 but look at the bride-thing there, with her 
 strut and her neck and her nose 1 A pea- 
 hen ! " 'Twas a wonder I did not say in 
 the midst of the business, ' Moll, you are 
 an agreeable wretch ! ' "
 
 248 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 '' So 'twas Moll you was 'thinking of all 
 the time," said Esther. " Sure she's high 
 in favour to engross your thoughts even in 
 church." 
 
 ''She did not engross my thoughts, Miss 
 Essie," returned Swift in a lower key. 
 " What ! D ye think with the Archbishop, 
 I have no religion ? " 
 
 *' Why do you think about Moll In church, 
 sir ? 'Twas a thankless sin, for she does 
 not bestow a thought upon you." 
 
 " Now you are jealous as the devil ! 
 There's another person I think of in church 
 sometimes, Hesskin," he added gravely, 
 " and pray for us both together, that we may 
 be delivered from the spleen and live in 
 charity with our neighbours. I pray the 
 Almighty very earnestly that He may make 
 us both more content and better Christians 
 than we are ; and since He does not require 
 informing so much as most prayer-makers 
 believe, I leave it to Him to decide which 
 of us lacks most in doctrine and which in 
 practice." 
 
 Here the bride, too elated by her position
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 249 
 
 and the unusual dimensions of the men of 
 the Harris family, to be afraid of the Dean 
 of St. Patrick's, came up with her mother to 
 thank him for officiating. 
 
 *' Sure, sir, my father-in-law — the fine big 
 old gentleman yonder, who you may have 
 heard tell of in the City — protests you are so 
 fine a man that when he came into church he 
 took you to be an Archbishop. Lord ! We 
 would not for the world have been married 
 by the little scrub parson of the parish, no 
 higher than Moll there. Such folks shouldn't 
 be In the Church ; 'tis impossible to reverence 
 'em." 
 
 " Certainly, madam," replied the Dean, 
 ''If promotion were measured out fairly to 
 the clergy, so much to every square inch 
 of 'em, I might hope by a generous diet 
 to fit myself for a bishopric in partibus 
 Infidelmm — which means Ireland, you know 
 — and I trust, but I cannot be sure, that 
 your housewifery would be good enough to 
 bring Mr. Harris to the primacy before 
 very long." 
 
 ''Sir, your most obleeged," replied the
 
 250 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 young lady, curtseying. *' Mr. Harris will 
 be vastly obleeged when he hears your good 
 opinion of him." 
 
 " Yes, I have a good opinion of Mr. 
 Harris, madam. I think him a worthy and 
 amiable young man and an excellent clergy- 
 man, and I trust you will always submit to 
 him and esteem him as greatly your superior 
 in wisdom and in virtue, as both reason and 
 duty bid you to do. Yet do not, as many 
 wives use, tease him with a foolish fondness 
 which he cannot be expected to reciprocate. 
 For you must not forget, madam, that how- 
 ever a lover may talk of charms and raptures, 
 marriage puts a sudden and complete end 
 to the ridiculous illusion of what is called 
 Love. But I trust 'twas no more than a 
 reasonable liking that instigated this match 
 of yours and Mr. Harris'." 
 
 The unlucky object of his homily looked 
 by this time inclined to cry, and Esther 
 plucked him by the sleeve. So he wound 
 up his remarks more mildly. " Endeavour 
 then to become worthy of your husband's 
 friendship and esteem; for this is ^ the only
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 251 
 
 means by which you can make marriage a 
 blessing rather than a curse." 
 
 '' Good God, sir 1 " exclaimed Esther in 
 a low voice, as the disconcerted bride re- 
 treated, *' will you never be tired of preaching 
 homilies against women and marriage ? Sure 
 you must consider both of more importance 
 than you pretend, or you would talk of 'em 
 less. You may hector your brides of quality 
 to your heart's content, but I do not love 
 to have you frighten my cousin on her 
 wedding-day, and in my mother's house." 
 
 Swift shrugged his shoulders uneasily. 
 
 " O I cannot abide a fool, Brat. You 
 should not have let your cousin be a fool, 
 if you wanted me to be civil to her. But 
 I cry you mercy ; only do not let the 
 Governor chide too much to-day, lest we 
 should part in unkindness." 
 
 The truth was that on returning to his 
 lodgings from the church, he had found a 
 note from one of the gentlemen with whom 
 he proposed to ride on his journey as far 
 as Chester, telling him to be ready to start 
 on the morrow, should they call for him.
 
 252 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 Amid all the bitterness and humiliation of 
 his exile, for as such he reckoned his pro- 
 motion to the Deanery of St. Patrick's, it 
 added greatly to his depression, to think 
 that he must now part in a very definite 
 manner from these friends who had made 
 him a kind of home in London. Brilliant, 
 interesting, intoxicating as had been the 
 three years of his life there, to one of his 
 sensitive nature they would have been far 
 less happy without the back-ground of that 
 hospitable house of neighbour Van's, where 
 he might keep his gown when necessary, 
 and find It mended, and dine on a wet day, 
 and pass those odd hours when he could 
 not love his own company, chiding, instruc- 
 ting, being chidden and worshipped by three 
 women, each in her own way above the 
 common. The hour had come when these 
 pleasant relations must cease, and he delayed 
 to say farewell because like most English 
 people, he shrank from a set scene of 
 emotion, and also because in the back of 
 his mind there floated a vague consciousness 
 which he utterly refused to crystallise into
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 253 
 
 thought; a consciousness that there was 
 something more serious and complex in 
 these relations than he had intended, and 
 that breaking them off would not be quite 
 so natural and easy as he had always sup- 
 posed it would be. He was exceedi'ngly 
 sensitive to all claims upon him, and perhaps 
 for that very reason shrunk from allowing 
 them to be set up. This feeling was not 
 the source of his resolution against marriage, 
 but it helped very much to strengthen it. 
 He imagined that by avoiding that particular 
 bond he avoided giving to any one person a 
 dominant claim upon his life ; his mind 
 accepted this superficial reasoning, but his 
 heart had too much *' intelligence of love' 
 to be wholly deceived by it. He had taken 
 the responsibility of a woman's life when 
 he had brought Esther Johnson, then a 
 beautiful and attractive girl, to Ireland ; 
 when he had made himself so completely 
 and obviously the centre of her existence 
 that her marriage with another was im- 
 possible from her own point of view and 
 from that of any lover but one of very dull
 
 254 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 perceptions. On the appearance of such 
 a lover, he had, while pretending to listen 
 to his application for Mrs. Johnson's hand, 
 practically discouraged him, and In private 
 ridiculed him to the lady of his choice with 
 all the bitterness of a jealous rival. He 
 would not for the world have acknowledged 
 that In acting thus he had given her at least 
 as strong claims upon him as he would have 
 done by making her his wife. Yet when 
 he said to himself that his return to Ppt. 
 meant the end of his intimacy with the Van- 
 homrlghs, it was to those unacknowledged 
 claims that he yielded. 
 
 He had not yet made up his mind in 
 what fashion he might best let Esther Van- 
 homrlgh know that this was in all probability 
 their last meeting, when Mrs. Stone brought 
 up several relatives to be introduced to the 
 Dean of St. Patrick's and to congratulate 
 him on his promotion. Others who were 
 slightly acquainted with him, but had not 
 met him since the news of it was public, 
 came round to add their congratulations, 
 which he received with a genial grace, as
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 255 
 
 though he were indeed Immensely pleased 
 at his own good fortune. Esther had seen 
 this little comedy before, but continued to 
 be impatient of it. She herself neither could 
 nor would dissimulate her sentiments or 
 opinions, and it seemed to her undignified 
 for this greatest of men to be pretending 
 gratitude for, delight In, what was really a 
 slight, almost an Insult. For had not his 
 obscure predecessor In the Deanery been 
 put Into a Bishopric merely to keep him 
 out of it ? So she loudly declared herself 
 unable to congratulate Dr. Swift on an 
 appointment so unequal to his deserts^ 
 banishing him as It did from the civilised 
 world, and unable to believe him so ignorant 
 of his own merit as to be content with. 
 Swift was as proud as herself in his way, 
 but more worldly wise, and he was evidently 
 displeased at her intervention, though It 
 brought him in a harvest of hollow compli- 
 ments from the bystanders. 
 
 Mrs. Vanhomrigh standing at a little 
 distance, could not perceive this jar; she 
 only saw the Dean and Esther the centre
 
 256 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 of an animated group, and Molly at the 
 harpsichord in the back parlour with a 
 contingent of emulous admirers, each and 
 all bent on turning over her music. If any- 
 thing could have put her in higher spirits 
 than before, these two sights would have 
 done so. Now that she had made Mrs. 
 Stone every possible compliment on the 
 appearance, manners and prospects of the 
 bride and bridegroom, she observed : 
 
 "My stars ! How w^e shall miss the good 
 Doctor — Dean, I should say — when he 
 crosses that nasty puddle yonder ! He's 
 the good-naturedest man in the world, as 
 you may have seen for yourself, sister." 
 
 " Well, you know him best, Sister Van- 
 homrigh," replied Mrs. Stone bluntly. '' But 
 he seems to me a rather sour-spoken gentle- 
 man. 'Twas enough to terrify anybody, let 
 alone a bride, the way he spoke to Sarah." 
 
 *''Tis just his downright way," returned 
 Mrs. Vanhomrlgh. " He's all candour, all 
 straightforwardness, Susan — not one of your 
 mealy - mouthed gentlemen that's full of 
 slipperiness and deceptions. When a woman's
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 257 
 
 been as much in the world as I have, she 
 will not trust your smooth fellows." And 
 Madam Van shook her pretty bright-eyed 
 head wisely, as one who lived in a deep 
 and continual state of suspicion of her fellow- 
 mortals. 
 
 '' Well, sister, 'tis an odd thing to hear^ 
 a clergyman speak so of holy matrimony. I 
 hope your Esther may bring him to better 
 dispositions." 
 
 '* He might be in better. Sue, and he 
 might be in worse, for he might not consider 
 the matter at all," replied Mrs. Vanhomrigh. 
 " However, I'm not one of them that's 
 anxious to rid themselves of their dear 
 daughters, and I believe there's no man 
 they can marry but I shall often wish 'em 
 at home again." 
 
 '' I must bid you farewell. Madam," said 
 the Dean, coming up with an artificial air of 
 ease, **and that very like for a long time. 
 I am told to hold myself in readiness for a 
 start to-morrow, if it should prove convenient 
 to my friends who purpose to ride with me. 
 I will not make long speeches and talk 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 25 S ESTHER VANHOMRIGH, 
 
 wisely, lest Moll there should overhear me 
 and laugh. Farewell, madam, and God bless 
 you and yours ! " 
 
 He shook hands warmly with the Van- 
 homrighs, bowed to the rest of the company 
 and vanished, saying to himself as he went 
 down the stairs, that partings being dis- 
 agreeable things it was better for all parties to 
 get the business done as quickly and publicly 
 as possible, so that there might be neither 
 time nor place for tiresome compliments and 
 conventional expansions of sentiment. 
 
 So he went home to Bury Street, pleased 
 to have got the thing over and determined 
 to resist the tide of black and bitter melan- 
 choly which was rising in his mind at the 
 prospect of his departure. 
 
 Meantime in St. James' Street his leave- 
 taking did not give such satisfaction. Mrs. 
 Vanhomrigh was in a few respects the 
 woman of the world she loved to think 
 herself in all, and after the first loud ex- 
 pressions of surprise and regret, she let the 
 company know that she was not in reality 
 very much surprised, and felt sure the Dean
 
 ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 259 
 
 would be back again before long. And this 
 was not far from the truth, for Swift had 
 already delayed going to Ireland longer 
 than was expected, and no one believed he 
 would stay there. For Esther, it was as 
 though the world had suddenly shattered 
 round her. He was gone. It was incredible. 
 Another might still have considered the 
 company present, but for her whose nature 
 it was to be always concentrated on one 
 point, they did not exist. She stood where 
 he had left her, deadly pale and mechanically 
 opening and shutting her fan. Some one 
 spoke to her, but she did not return any 
 answer, and Molly observed the speaker, 
 who was Aunt Stone's younger son, exchange 
 a sneering smile with his sister Anna. Moll 
 came up to her sister, and rearranging a 
 knot of her ribbons said : '' You should not 
 have been standing all this while, when you 
 was so poorly yesterday. Come into the 
 back parlour, for Cousin Edward and Mr. 
 Tom Harris are setting out a table for 
 * One and Thirty.' Do you not love a 
 round game, Anna '^, "
 
 26o ESTHER VANHOMRIGH. 
 
 The Vanhomrigh ladies were too fond 
 of conversation to be ardent card-players, 
 though for fashion's sake they were obliged 
 to set out tables when they had company. 
 Esther hated a round game, but she sub- 
 mitted to being put down to the table, where 
 she played with conspicuous inattention to 
 her cards and her money. Before the game 
 was half over there came an urgent message 
 from the Dean, saying he had dropped a 
 folded slip of paper from his pocket, and that 
 it was of the utmost importance it should be 
 found. He sent a tiny note to Esther, which 
 she opened with a throb of expectation, but 
 it only contained the words — '' Lost the key 
 to a cipher. Seek ! Seek ! ! Seek ! ! ! " 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS=
 
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