L I B RARY 
 
 OF THL 
 
 U N I VLR5ITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 823 
 
 v.l
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 VOL. r.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 YOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY 
 1868.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO. 
 
 CITY ROAD.
 
 T7S- 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The youth described in the following volumes 
 under the name of Perth Preston was a living 
 character. The author is indebted to a valued 
 friend, who, when a boy, saw Perth Preston on 
 his return from Egypt, for the account of his 
 adventures, which are for the most part " True to 
 the Life."
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/truetolife01lond
 
 TKUE TO THE LIFE, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 *' The childhood shows the maiij 
 As morning shows the day." 
 
 MiLtON. 
 
 A BROAD straggling piece of ground formed one 
 of tlie outskirts of a park, within wliicli stood a 
 noble mansion, called " The Holmes/' Stately oaks 
 shadowed the sides of this open space, which was 
 still spoken of as ^'The Chase," from its original 
 use ; but no herds of deer now sharpened their antlers 
 against the rugged bark of the forest trees, striking 
 terror into the hearts of villagers by their mysterious 
 tappings in the cold moonlight hours. 'The oaks 
 were gnarled, and showed symptoms of decadence ; 
 one half still indicating the influence of spring and 
 sunshine by putting forth their green leaves, ten- 
 derly tinted with pink at the edges, whilst the bare, 
 skeleton branches on the opposite side stood out 
 abruptly against the sky, emblems of death in life, 
 and crowning the hollow centre of the trunks like 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 ghosts of the departed hucks which had been dragged 
 down in former days under their shadows. Dilapi- 
 dated cottages, in twos and threes, stood, in defiance 
 of order Or grace, on each side of this woodland of the 
 past, which was hardened into a road in its centre, 
 one end leading further into the forest, therefore but 
 little frequented, excejot by visitors from the great 
 house, and the other opening into the high road. 
 
 Before this could be reached, a better class of 
 cottage intervened — a cottage important in the 
 dignity of outbuildings, of sheds for carts, sheds for 
 coals and wood, a stable containing an old blind 
 pony, and a blacksmith's forge. 
 
 This cottage, on the side next to the road, was 
 adorned by a sign, which, raised high on two posts, 
 creaked in the wind, and represented the family 
 arms of the owner of " The Holmes ; " consisting of 
 an elephant's head, argent, and plain coloured gules, 
 with two eagles regardant as supporters, which twisted 
 their necks painfully, and seemed eager to abandon 
 their constrained position : the motto, Occurrent nubes. 
 The other side of the cottage opened into one of 
 those scenes of wild beauty which ought to make 
 the despair of ornamental gardeners, so completely do 
 they snatch a grace beyond the reach of art. Over the 
 narrow path, shaded b}^ old apple trees with lichen- 
 covered stems, cabbage and moss roses nodded their 
 perfumed heads from neighbouring bushes of sweet 
 southernwood and lavender, whilst wild convolvuli
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. B 
 
 twined ttemselves round tlie rose-stalks, and mixed 
 their fragile white bells with the rich beauty of those 
 garden queens. 
 
 A tortoiseshell cat blinked her eyes in the sun, 
 indifferent to the fact that a strange dog, a wiry- 
 haired Scotch terrier, was accosting the bobtailed 
 cur who attended in the smithy. Pussy was tranquil 
 in the consciousness that she could, at a moment's 
 notice, attain an impregnable fortress, as she be- 
 lieved, in the topmost branch of the old apple tree, 
 at the foot of which she usually slept or dozed her 
 hours away ; too well fed to care to put her velvet 
 paw on the little imprudent shrewmouse, who came 
 out from his retreat in the box border, and cleaned 
 his sharp nose with his fore feet, enjoying the sun- 
 shine. 
 
 Great results arise from small causes. Had pussy 
 been less confident, the events I am about to relate 
 would probably never have occurred ; for presently 
 the wiry-haired terrier smelt, not a rat, but a cat, 
 and rushed through the little moss-grown gate into 
 the garden, followed — alas for friendship and old 
 acquaintanceship ! — by the bobtailed cur who had 
 drunk of pussy's saucer, and eaten of her food, and 
 had been to her a brother till the evil example set 
 him by the stranger brought out all the natural 
 antipathy of dogs to cats, and they both rushed on 
 Tortoise (as she was called), who escaped only from 
 the clenching of the terrier's teeth on her fur instead
 
 4 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 of her flesh. She raced up to the topmost branch of 
 her retreat, and looked down with anxious eyes and 
 piteous mewings on the dogs, who gave short barks 
 at the root of the trunk, indicative of mischievous 
 intentions. How she wished she had remained on 
 the quiet bed of her small mistress that morning, 
 and had not been tempted by the warmth of the sun 
 to change her place to the heated gravel of the 
 garden ! She did not believe, in her heart, that the 
 dogs could reach her resting-place ; but the sound of 
 their aggressive barkings, and the sight of their 
 vicious-looking white teeth, terrified her. "Wliere 
 was little Leah, who might have driven the brutes 
 away ? She, alas ! was gone to fetch eggs from a 
 neighbouring farm, and heard neither the threaten- 
 ing barkings of the dogs nor the piteous mewings of 
 her favourite. True, her young master was working 
 at the bottom of the garden in digging up early 
 potatoes ; but pussy had little reliance on his 
 assistance. Boys and dogs were equally her enemies ; 
 and this fact was speedily to be proved, for, coming 
 through the Chase from the interior of the woodland, 
 rode a party of young gentlemen and ladies, who 
 were taking exercise in the fashion most usual at the 
 period of my story — one thousand seven hundred and 
 ninety-seven — on horseback. They were dressed 
 tastefully and richly ; and the bright colours of their 
 coats, — scarlet, light blue, vivid green, or rich purple, 
 all being embroidered with gold or trimmed with
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 gold lace— made a brilliant appearance, as did their 
 small cocked hats, also bordered witli gold. They 
 were of different ages, varying from thirteen years 
 to twenty- seven. A girl was the youngest of the 
 party, the only daughter of Mr. Elliot, the proprietor 
 of The Holmes. Her hair was cut straight over 
 the eyebrows, and fell over her back in long curls. 
 Her head was surmounted by a coquettish little hat, 
 placed rather on one side, and ornamented by a 
 flowing feather. Her governess, demure and 
 starched-looking, was in close attendance, and was 
 — being twenty-seven — the senior by ten years of all 
 the equestrians. The boy who was digging up pota- 
 toes heard the clang of the horses' tramp, and stood 
 up, half in light, half in shadow, looking on the 
 youths whose lot in life was so much fairer than his 
 own. The loud laugh, which indicated as much 
 self-conceit as mirth, came mixed with the silvery 
 tones of the girl across the tangles of honeysuckle 
 and sweetbrier. Presently one of the youths looked 
 over the thick hedge of the garden, and saw his 
 terrier, in company with the bobtailed cur, demanding 
 the cat, with frantic barkings, to surrender herself 
 to the power of their teeth. 
 
 " Hey, cat ! To her. Gyp ! Fp with joii ! Jump, 
 old boy ! Worry ! worry ! worry ! Give her a 
 shake ! " 
 
 The dog, thus adjured, increased his efforts to 
 reach the trembling animal ; and his young master,
 
 6 TRUE TO thp: life. 
 
 Sir Edgar South, finding the efforts of his terrier 
 ineffectual, jumped off his horse, and, giving the 
 reins to one of his companions to hold, hegan to fling 
 stones at pussy to expedite her descent. One sharp 
 flint descended on her paw ; and she gave a dismal 
 mew, which reached the ears of her little mistress, 
 who had just arrived at her father's cottage by the 
 road, laden by her basket of eggs ; and, running into 
 the garden, she saw with grief and terror the peril of 
 her favourite, and began to shriek wildly for her 
 brother, '' Perth ! Perth ! ^"hy, Perth I " 
 
 Perth heard his sister's voice, and got over the 
 feeling of shyness which had made liini wish to con- 
 ceal himself, like the first gardener, and pretty 
 much for the same reason — that he had not on a 
 sufficiency of clothing. Yet Perth had no cause 
 to have been ashamed of a person which needed only 
 another lustre to bring it to the perfection of well- 
 developed manhood. His shirt was open over the 
 breast, and revealed a fair skin made pink by exer- 
 cise. His head was well formed, and covered with 
 light curls ; and the expression of his countenance 
 was unusually thoughtful and intelligent. He had 
 rather not have shown himself as a mark for the 
 derision of that fair company ; but he came forward 
 boldlj^ to the apple tree, and cried in a voice that 
 was heard above the din of those canine and feline 
 battle-cries — 
 
 '' Call that dog off, or I'll split his skull open with
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 7 
 
 this spade ! " and the spade was raised menacingly 
 to suit the action to the word. 
 
 " 111 split yours first," cried Sir Edgar ; and he 
 stooped and hurled a stone, not this time at the cat, 
 but at the cat's master. Perth bobbed his head, 
 and the stone fell harmlessly into a bush of southern- 
 wood. He raised his heavy-clouted shoe, and kicked 
 the dog in the mouth, which was extended and 
 directed towards the top branch of the tree where 
 pussy crouched on her insecure throne. Perth 
 was too cautious, being of Scotch parentage, to split 
 the dog's skull, as he had threatened ; but the kick 
 he had administered produced fearful results, for 
 the young aristocrats, always ready for a row when 
 it might be indulged in with impunity, jumped off 
 their horses, and, turning them loose into the park, 
 picked up as many stones as the unmacadamised 
 road could produce, and sent them in a shower at 
 the plebeian and the cat. The intervening branches 
 saved pussy and Perth from many blows ; but pussy 
 escaped best, for Perth, being a larger object, made 
 a better mark for the stones which *' hurtled through 
 the darkened air." The industry Perth had exercised 
 in his father's garden had deprived him of similar 
 weapons of defence : no stones could be found within 
 that cultured boundary. Little sister Leah, how- 
 ever, in her love for her brother and her cat, came 
 trembling to the root of the apple tree, unconsciously 
 carrying the basket of eggs in hor hand.
 
 O TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 ''What luck!" cried Perth. 
 
 There were four dozen of them; and he flung 
 them one after another with such right good-will, 
 that velvets, silks, satins, and superfine cloth were 
 all ornamented or disfigured by long streams of 
 yellow stripes. Leah saw with increased dismay the 
 destruction of her eggs. She went under the tree, 
 and tried to coax pussy to come down on her 
 shoulders; and pussy mewed, and put one paw 
 out, and withdrew it, and then another, with similar 
 indecision. Sir Edgar South, who was of the same 
 age as Perth, being irritated by the fact that his 
 nose was bruised by the egg in its perfect shape, 
 and his velvet embroidered coat with the contents 
 of it, as it fell broken by the contact on to his 
 breast, now rushed into the garden, and crying to 
 Gyp, "Seize him, dog! seize him!" ran to the 
 apple tree, with the intention of climbing it, and 
 throwing the cat to the dogs. 
 
 Then Perth closed with his noble adversary, 
 having set Bobtail on his former acquaintance. 
 Perth, seeing the rest of the young gentlemen follow 
 to the assistance of their friend, shouted aloud to the 
 inhabitants of the straggling cottages of Silver Ash, 
 as the small colony was designated. Jim Sutton 
 came running, with his cheeks unnaturally distended 
 with the luncheon of bread he had placed in his 
 mouth to make sure of it. George Pollice broke 
 away from the arms of his mother, who had been
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 9 
 
 cutting his hair, and presented an extraordinary 
 appearance, with long curls on one side and a close 
 crop on the other. Dick Crozier was trying on a 
 new pair of high-lores^ and had succeeded in lacing 
 one on, whilst the other foot was naked, when he 
 heard the summons to battle, and rushed to it with 
 right good- will. 
 
 The fair looks, the haughty bearing, and the gaudy 
 clothing of the young gentlemen had often raised 
 envy and disdain in the breasts of the boys of Silver 
 Ash, and they rejoiced at the prospect of relieving 
 their feelings in a manual eloquence of which their 
 tongues were incapable. 
 
 Miss Elliot and her governess, terrified at the 
 sound of oaths, and the sight of the blood which 
 streamed from the noses of the combatants, and 
 mixed with the yellow of eggs on the clothes of the 
 gentlemen, presenting an appearance both ludicrous 
 and frightful, passed through a small gate, and 
 galloped across the park towards the house. Of 
 Perth, as of Acman, it might have been said — 
 
 " Strong-sinewed was the youth, and big of bone." 
 
 A blow from his clenched fist, planted between 
 the eyes of Sir Edgar, sent the young baronet 
 sprawling amongst the southernwood bushes; and 
 Perth, thinking his adversary had had enough, 
 turned to aid one of his allies, Jim Sutton, who 
 was fighting single-handed with two young gentle-
 
 10 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 men, liis cheeks still distended with the crust he had 
 not had time to masticate. With his arm up he had 
 enough to do to defend his face against the blows 
 showered on him by his two enemies ; but he had set 
 his back against the trunk of an elm, and bravely 
 fought against odds. 
 
 " Cowardly scoundrels ! " cried Perth, striking out 
 at the boy nearest to him, who, not expecting the 
 attack, fell sideways on his friend, and both, losing 
 their balance, came to the ground. 
 
 The fight now raged between the Honourable Miles 
 Belvoir and Dick Crozier, who was getting the 
 worst of it, though he used the foot armed by the 
 high-low with great efiect on the shins of his antago- 
 nist, and always declared that he shoiUd have 
 finished him *' if so be he had had time to put on 
 both shoes;" but, as it was, Perth cried to him to 
 stand back whilst he took his place. 
 
 " No, I thank you ! I've had enough," said Miles 
 Belvoir, who did not admire the reinforcement. 
 
 " Be off out of my father's garden then," cried 
 Perth, who was quite aware of the importance of 
 holding a field of battle. Miles and his discomfited 
 companions retreated abashed from the enclosure, 
 with the exception of Sir Edgar, who had been 
 stunned b}^ the blow between the eyes, and felt, as 
 he sat up, the blood trickling from his swollen and 
 disfigured face. He sought in his capacious pocket 
 for his handkerchief, but not finding it, was compelled
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 11 
 
 to take the lace -trimmed ends of his cambric necktie 
 to wipe liis nose. His face was flushed with the 
 pain of his bruises and the shame of his defeat. His 
 dog Gyp sat up, holding one fore paw in the air, 
 in which the bobtailed cur had made his teeth 
 meet, and howling his griefs aloud, to which indica- 
 tion of distress pussy listened with awe and satis- 
 faction from her seat in the apple tree. Bobtail 
 had, like a prudent general, intrenched himself in 
 the recesses of the smithy, probably fearing that the 
 strange gentlemen might revenge the defeat of the 
 terrier by sundry kicks on his sides, human animals 
 not having alwaj^s a notion of fair play. 
 
 Of this they had just given proofs, as five of the 
 young gentlemen had attacked one plebeian, and 
 then encountered four in a pitched battle, in which 
 they had been worsted. And now Leah, who had 
 wept silently the probable fate of her cat, unattain- 
 able as pussy was by her mistress, and over the 
 crushed eggs which lay like so many humpty- 
 dumpties, defying all the king's horses and all the 
 king's men to reunite their shattered shells and put 
 them together again, saw with pity the once hand- 
 some young gentleman seated disconsolately under 
 the apple tree, with bare head and bloody nose ; and 
 going to an old walnut chest, she took from it a soft 
 towel, and, armed with that and a basin of warm 
 water, she approached Sir Edgar South, and placed 
 it between his knees, in the hope he would avail
 
 12 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 himself of it in bathing his face. But the stream 
 of blood came fast, and his lace necktie was soon 
 saturated, besides being uncomfortably rough ; so 
 he said in a lordly manner, '* A pocket-handker- 
 chief!" 
 
 Leah went back to the house, and brought out 
 one — her best handkerchief, curiously embroidered 
 round the border with different colours of marking- 
 cotton, and with her name, '*Leah Preston," worked 
 with the utmost perfection of stitch. It had occupied 
 little Leah for four months, and had been the admira- 
 tion of the pupils at the village school. It required 
 all the exercise of all her benevolence and philosophy 
 not to weep when she saw the indifference with 
 which her loan was treated. Mopping up the 
 trickling blood. Sir Edgar turned and twisted it 
 about, and unconsciously put it into his pocket when 
 he had finished. Then he began to bathe his swollen 
 face ; and having relieved the stunned feeling at the 
 top of his nose, he got up, and, looking at the child 
 for a minute, felt in his waistcoat pocket for some 
 silver, and flung half-a-crown at her feet, in repay- 
 ment of her civility. 
 
 " I don't want money, sir," she said, picking it up 
 and restoring it to the donor ; " but Lad you not 
 better go away ? Perth will be back in a minute 
 or two, and I am afraid father may come from 
 Stoneham." 
 
 '* Look about for my handkerchief, will you Y I
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 13 
 
 will not stay now ; but you may bring it up to tlie 
 house — 'tis somewhere in the road/' 
 
 The young gentleman, after picking up two or 
 three stones tolerably clean, had come to one taken 
 from the side of the road which had dirtied his 
 fingers ; and he had with his handkerchief wdped ofi" 
 the impurity, and in the ardour of the fight had 
 neglected to return it to his pocket. He left the 
 garden, followed by his limping terrier, just as Perth 
 ascended from the edge of a pond, by some 
 broken steps of old greystone, between which the 
 ground-ivy and long grasses had spread their 
 verdure. He had gone down to wash his face and 
 hands from the disfiguring blood stains, and returned 
 with a very shining face, the result both of blows 
 and friction. Leah, not certain that Perth would 
 approve of her kindness to his enemy, hurried off' 
 with the basin and soft towel ; for though she 
 could have uttered many texts of Scripture to prove 
 that she was right, she had a conviction that Perth 
 did not lay the same stress on the written word 
 which his father insisted on, in theory at least, if he 
 did not in his own practice, 
 
 Leah soon, however, heard Perth calling her, and 
 she descended the stairs in haste, in obedience to his 
 summons. 
 
 His face was troubled. " Leah ! what is to be 
 done about these eggs ? " 
 
 Leah went to the basket. They were all gone.
 
 14 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 She looked up in blank dismay. Slie had seen some 
 used by Perth as missiles, but had not believed that 
 he had committed the unheard-of extravagance of 
 throwing them all away. 
 
 "What will the father say? " she gasped out. 
 
 *'I don't know, and I don't much care," replied 
 Perth. "Perhaps he will not find it out," he 
 added, with a faint hope that belied his previous 
 boast. 
 
 " Oh dear ! " said Leah, " they use such a quan- 
 tity for omelets, now that they have company at 
 the great house. I promised the cook that I would 
 take' some up to-day; and if I do not carry them, the 
 boy is sure to be sent to fetch them." 
 
 "The father set me to dig up that piece of 
 potatoes before he went to Stoncham, or I would go 
 to Farmer Evans and get some more." 
 
 Leah desponded. 
 
 " I took every one the hens had laid this morning ; 
 besides, how can we pay for them ? " 
 
 Perth was silent. He felt himself aggrieved ; for he 
 was conscious that he was a strong boy, and earned at 
 least half the wages of a full-grown man, whilst his 
 father never gave him a sixpence for pocket-money. 
 He had none, therefore ; and Leah had but four 
 shillings and sixpence, which had been found amongst 
 the clothes of her dead mother, and which had there- 
 fore a sacred value in her ej^cs, which made her 
 unwilling to part with them.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 15 
 
 *' We must tell the father when he comes back," 
 said the boy gloomily. 
 
 "Why must we ? '^ rejoined Leah, looking 
 frightened. 
 
 " Because he will see the flowers trodden down, 
 and the egg-shells all about. Nothing but a soaking 
 shower of rain would put it right ; and there is no 
 chance of that," he continued, looking up. 
 
 Leah ran about the garden, trying to prop up the 
 broken shrubs, and picking up the bits of the egg- 
 shells, whilst Perth, moaning over the time he had 
 lost, returned to his potato-digging. Thus employed, 
 the}^ awaited with anxious hearts the return of their 
 father.
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 " In tKouglits from the visions of the night, when 'deep sleep 
 fallcth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all 
 tny bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face ; the hair 
 of my flesh stood up." — Job iv. 13 — lo. 
 
 Caleb Prestojsi had been employed, for some years 
 before be came into Essex, on the estate of a noble- 
 man in the north of England as gardener. He was 
 a Scotchman, and had been liberally educated ; and 
 being a clever and enthusiastic person, he had con- 
 gratulated himself on his unusual success in classical 
 attainments, which were a source of internal pride 
 and satisfaction, and which conduced to his regard- 
 ing with contempt others less fortunately gifted by 
 intellect or cultivation. He was outwardly of a cold 
 contained deportment, and it was whispered that his 
 opinions on religious subjects were of a character 
 rather erratic. His wife had been a very beautiful 
 woman, of a simple mind and deep religious feelings. 
 When after the birth of her second child she showed 
 symptoms of incipient consumption, her husband, 
 alarmed lest he should lose a treasure which he had 
 never felt to be one till he was threatened by its loss, 
 gave up his situation and came further south, in the
 
 ' TRUE TO THE LIFE. 17 
 
 hope that a climate less bleak might serve to restore 
 his wife's waning health. 
 
 This result did not follow : she faded by slow 
 degrees, and with a patient spirit bore her bodily- 
 sufferings, and prayed with trembling hope to the 
 Heaven in which she looked for her exceeding great 
 reward. Her husband observed with astonishment 
 the spectacle of a timid, gentle woman looking 
 steadfastly at the fate from which he, with all his 
 intellectual cultivation, shrank with dismay. 
 
 " She," he said, meditating, " has worshipped on 
 Mount Calvary, whilst I have wandered on Mount 
 Parnassus. She has chosen the right way, which has 
 led her over the dark mountains, where her feet 
 stumbled not, to the shining rivers and still waters 
 of paradise. She had been one of the elect— chosen 
 before the foundation of the world to be one of God's 
 peculiar people ; and he, was he one of those accursed 
 ones ordained to dishonour and wrath ? Alas ! 
 what could he do to be saved ? '^ 
 
 He asked this question of the inanimate form of 
 his wife, as he sat through the first dreary night of 
 his great sorrow by the bedside on which the corpse 
 was extended. 
 
 If, indeed, it were true that the blood of Christ 
 availed only for the salvation of those who from 
 eternity were elected and given to Him by the Father, 
 how did his chance stand ? 
 
 He knew not. He yearned to live ^again in u 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 future state with tlie gentle, long-suffering woman 
 for whose intellect, when she lived, he had felt 
 a profound contempt. 
 
 " Lucy ! *' he cried, apostrophising the corpse, 
 "has the light of eternal truth dawned on thy 
 mind ? Has that heen made clear to thy simplicity 
 for which all the philosophers, all the ecclesiastical 
 authorities of the world, seeking to know, grope 
 darkly and never find ? Lucy ! I wander in 
 gloom ! Monstrous shadows of unknown creatures 
 surround me ! I strive, as it were, in the darkness 
 of the pre- Adamite world. I try to catch at some- 
 thing solid and tangible, but all is misty and un- 
 certain. Why do I look on thee with such awe and 
 dread ? Alas ! my wife that was ! Did this cold 
 lump of earth ever rest on my breast in the warmth 
 of love and sleep ? Wilt thou not answer me, my 
 wife, from the distant land whither thy cold feet 
 have departed ? I, who never before called thee in 
 vain, implore thee now for an answer — for a sign. 
 I who, in the pride of intellectual cultivation, 
 scoffed at thy unlettered devotion, now entreat thee, 
 bow down to thee, as wiser than the wisest of the 
 earth. I put forth all the energy of my mind and 
 heart in this one prayer. Let me know from the 
 world of spirits if I may yet be saved, and how I " 
 
 lie knelt b}" the side of the low bed, and leant his 
 head on his clasped hands. " Human learning tells 
 me nothing. I am stopped at the barred door of
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 19 
 
 cleatli. I have squandered my mental force on a 
 pursuit which, has dissolved like a snowball in my 
 hand, leaving me chilled and benumbed. I languish 
 for knowledge, and the true wisdom is inaccessible 
 to me ! " 
 
 Sleepless nights and anxious days had diminished 
 the force of his physical powers, and he slumbered. 
 Memory and fancy mingled in the images pre- 
 sented to him in sleep. He was again in the noble 
 gardens in which his house had stood before he left 
 the service of Lord North. It was a twilight 
 deepening into night — for who dreamt ever of broad 
 daylight ? — and not finding Lucy in the house, he 
 had walked to a temple, of which the pillars were 
 clustered with climbing exotics of rare perfume, 
 and, in daylight, of resplendent colouring, but 
 dimmed now by coming night. She was seated on 
 a bench inside the porch, reading the Bible, as was 
 her wont. He approached her with eager joy — joy 
 more vivid from the indistinct sense that somethino* 
 had occurred to trouble it, and render it insecure. 
 He knew not what. 
 
 She seemed to hear his step, for she turned ; but 
 the face was not that of the Lucy who had sat in 
 those beautiful gardens. The great awe of death 
 was on it now. She pointed to the open page of the 
 Bible, from which this text stood out, illuminated in 
 letters shining like the noonday sun, and sheddino- 
 a glory over the book and the white dress of the
 
 20 TULE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 woman, and on the delicate hand which pointed 
 towards it — '' You hath He quickened, who were dead 
 in trespasses and sins." The vision faded ; but the 
 husband accepted the dream as a heavenly inspira- 
 tion of comfort. His trespasses and sins had been 
 his love of human lore. He was quickened now to 
 nobler asj)irations. The wisdom of the world had 
 become unto him as foolishness. The first j^art of 
 Tom Paine's "Age of Reason " he threw into the fire. 
 His only book in future should be the Bible. On 
 the evening when, after the afternoon service, the 
 body of his departed wife was consigned to the grave, 
 when the clergyman had left the burying-ground, 
 Caleb Preston stepped on one of the oblong graves 
 of solid masonry, and addressed those of the con- 
 gregation who still lingered in that summer twi- 
 light. There, looking sometimes at fresh mould 
 thrown up by the side of the grave into which the 
 coffin had been lowered, sometimes at the sky, in 
 which the sunken sun had left the reflection of his 
 glor}^ he spoke to them with the authority given by 
 his high-wrought sensibilities and newly-awakened 
 convictions. 
 
 He told of his own life — how, having been wise, 
 like the fool, in his own conceit — having been puffed 
 up by the conviction of his own great acquirements 
 — he had thought to reach to the skies, like the 
 builders of the tower of Babel, by the work of men^s 
 brains and hands, by the cunning of their crafty
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 21 
 
 inventions. He spoke of his dead wife, of her un- 
 obtrusive piety, her undoubting faith, her useful and 
 blameless life. Then, in tones lowered to those of 
 awe, he told of the vision which had come to him 
 as he lingered by her side in the watch of the dead ; 
 of th^ illuminated words which called him from the 
 bitterness of repentance to the hope of a happy 
 future ; for he was quickened who had been dead in 
 trespasses and sins. 
 
 The awakening from this living death had made 
 him eager to convey to others warning and exhorta- 
 tion. He began with an exposition of that doctrine 
 which, with all its startling terrors, appeals espe- 
 cially to the vanity of man. That the fate of each 
 of his hearers had been especially predestinated 
 before the foundation of the world, and had been 
 the subject of God's peculiar thought and decisions 
 thousands of years before this earth existed, was 
 an announcement both startling and agreeable ta 
 the inherent vanity of the human mind. In proof 
 of this statement the preacher quoted the text, 
 '^According as He has chosen us in Him before 
 the foundations of the world, that we should be 
 holy and without blame before Him in love.'* 
 Then came the thrilling inquiry. Are you of the 
 elect? have you been called by a certain and 
 unmistakable influence to the feet of Christ ? Can 
 you say that God's fear has entered into your 
 hearts so that you shall not depart from Him ? and.
 
 22 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 did this conviction come upon you in the hours of 
 night, or at mid-day ; when you were tran.sgressing 
 his commands, or praying for his clemency ; when 
 you were in the joy of boon companions, or in the 
 silence of your homes? To him that is called, to 
 him that is chosen, doubt liyes not. All fear is lost 
 in the glorious certainty which is the portion of 
 the elect of God. 
 
 His earnest pleadings excited, first astonishment, 
 then interest ; one or two of the farmers, who had 
 gone to get their carts from where they had been 
 put up during the service, pulled up their horses 
 and listened to the solemn tones, which sounded so 
 impressively through the still evening air. On the 
 following Sunday Caleb Preston addressed the con- 
 gregation, as they left the village church, from the 
 uprooted trunk of an elm tree. On the succeeding 
 Sabbath it rained, and one of the farmers offered 
 him the use of an empty barn, where many listeners 
 flocked to hear what they termed the words of 
 eternal life, not spoken in cold, measui-ed accents, 
 but poured forth with all the impassioned earnest- 
 ness of a man deeply impressed by the truths he pro- 
 mulgated. 
 
 Thus was Caleb Preston installed as a preacher 
 to a poor and scanty congregation, from whom he 
 received nothing, except some small offerings of 
 vegetables and fruit from the cottagers, or fowls and 
 eggs from the fanners.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 23 
 
 To eke out his income, lie kept a small general 
 shop, wliich was the help in need of the cook and 
 housekeeper at the great house, when they had ex- 
 pended their materials and forgotten to order more, 
 or had been disappointed in the execution of orders 
 which ought to have been forwarded by the waggon 
 from London.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 "Youth "what man's age is like to be doth show, 
 We may our ends by our beginnings know." 
 
 De^tham. 
 
 TVhex Caleb Preston returned, lie found Leah 
 twisting the corner of her pinafore in the excess 
 of her nervous trepidation, and Perth with moisture 
 on his forehead, not due entirely to the energy of his 
 manual and pedal operations. The boy came up, 
 however, boldly ; and if his heart beat faster, his 
 utterance was deliberate, and did not evince the 
 trepidation he felt. 
 
 " If you please, father, the yoimg gentry from the 
 great house stoned Leah's cat, and came into the 
 garden to set their dog on it. I threw the eggs at 
 them which Leah brought from the farm, and they are 
 all broken and destroyed. Also," after a pause, 
 " I knocked one of them down." 
 
 Caleb Preston looked at Leah. Luckily the ex- 
 pression of her face, so flushed and timid, reminded 
 him of his dead Lucy when the hectic colour had 
 tinged her face. She looked up at her fiither 
 nervously with a sidelong glance, as her head bent 
 over the fur of her favourite, which was purring a
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 25 
 
 paean of trmmph in her mistress's arms. The re- 
 proof he had intended to give died on his lips, and 
 he walked hastily into the house. 
 
 Perth looked round comforted, as one who, ex- 
 pecting a thunder-storm, sees it moving slowly to a 
 different part of the hemisphere. He heaved a sigh 
 of relief, and continued his gardening with a feeling 
 of self-gratulation 'that the next day was Sunday, 
 and he might rest from the labours of the week. 
 
 Sunday was a trying day at the Holmes, for 
 people whose wearying occupation consisted in the 
 search for amusement. Miss Elliot and the gover- 
 ness went to church in the morning at Stoneham — 
 there being only service on alternate Sundays at the 
 little church in the park — and the young men 
 " yawned their joys," and would have been glad of a 
 little animating vexation for a change. Sir Edgar 
 South, indeed, had it in an unpleasant mark of 
 knuckles between his eyes, and a headache also. The 
 lady's-maid, housemaids, and valets had been ex- 
 hausting all the resources of their skill to clean the 
 polluted suits and to raise the depressed pile of the 
 velvets. 
 
 As the afternoon wore on, the governess and the 
 young lady grew weary of the effort to read good 
 books, and to talk only on religious subjects, which 
 the elder of the two ladies considered the duty 
 of all well-educated females, and proposed a walk 
 in the park. The boys, also, had become weary
 
 26 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 of well-doing, and were making a tremendous noise 
 in the billiard-room. Mr. Elliot had retired to the 
 seclusion of his library, where he would have been 
 at peace but for the consciousness that a drawer in 
 his writing-table was crammed by a heap of letters 
 which contained often-sent-in accounts. He knew 
 the look of the coarse blue paper on which the 
 wafered letters were written ; and he knew they 
 were headed by bill delivered seventeen hundred and 
 ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two, — reduced by a few 
 sums paid on account, but leaving a frightful amount 
 in the aggregate of each demand. 
 
 Miss Bruce, the governess, and Miss Elliot put on 
 their hoods and wandered to the most secluded por- 
 tion of the park. 
 
 There was a bridge which spanned the waters, 
 over a weir dividing the lake from the stream, 
 which fretted and whimpered below it, after having 
 flowed from the higher ground through the body of 
 the water. It was a charming place for idle folks 
 to lean over the rustic bridge and listen to the mur- 
 mur of the small waves, and to observe them as 
 they leaped from moss-stained stone to stone in their 
 hurrying descent. The sides were fringed by fox- 
 glove and ferns, and blackberry brambles arched 
 their prickly stems, and displayed their purple fruit 
 where no rash hand could reach them. 
 
 On this Sunday afternoon there was stillness in 
 the air, excepting when the waters murmiu'cd on
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 27 
 
 their way, or a peal of cliurch bells came occasionally 
 on the gentle breeze, and then sunk into silence, as 
 the sounds were borne away by it in the distance. 
 
 The ladies lingered on the bridge ; and having 
 enjoyed the tranquillising effects of the sylvan in- 
 fluences, they began to talk, unconscious that Perth 
 Preston, who was wandering in the park to enjoy his 
 leisure, and who was aware that, after the events of 
 the preceding day, he might be treated as a tres- 
 passer, so soon as he saw the white dresses of the 
 governess and the little girl gleaming in the evening 
 sun, phmged into the thicket by the side of the 
 bridge, and let himself down into one of the re- 
 cesses, overhung by willows and laburnums, which 
 skirted the water-fall, where he was an unsuspected 
 listener to the conversation between the girl and her 
 governess. 
 
 " It is nice to be quiet here. I don't like Sir 
 Edgar: he's a wicked, cruelman. He was setting 
 two dogs to fight in the billiard-room. I heard the 
 growling as I passed the door." 
 
 " Oh, my dear Miss Elliot, you should not say 
 that ! He is very rich." 
 
 "Is he ? " said the girl, rather upset by the 
 idea that he must be agreeable because he was rich. 
 " I think he is a nasty man to throw stones at the 
 cat in the cottage garden, and I was glad when I 
 heard that the handsome boy had spoilt his nose." 
 
 " My dear ! my dear ! Young ladies should never
 
 28 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 think any man handsome who is not well bom and 
 well bred." 
 
 " lie may be well bom, that nasty man, but he is 
 not well bred ; for he took the last apple out of the 
 plate to-day, and left none for me. I like the 
 cottage boy much better who fought for the cat." 
 
 " Miss Elliot, remember you are a lady, and 
 should not have low tastes. ^Vh}^, that boy knows 
 nothing, of course — can't read or write ; and Sir 
 Edgar has been taught Greek and Latin, and all 
 sorts of things that gentlemen are supposed to know. 
 That boy will never be anything but a labourer. 
 Sir Edgar will be returned for Parliament when he 
 is one-and-twenty, and will be a great man." 
 
 "When he is," said the child, " I hope he won't 
 be so greedy and cruel." 
 
 " When he is," thought the governess, " I wish 
 he would marry me ; " and they passed on. 
 
 Perth listened with sullen grief. He cared for 
 what the governess had said in his disfavour. He 
 cared not for the praises lavished on him by the 
 child. He was never to be anything but a labourer. 
 The lady had pronounced that to be his fate. Could 
 neither read nor write, of course ! Perth had been 
 carefidly taught the rudiments of Latin by his father 
 before his mother's death. He had learnt with sur- 
 prising speed and accuracy, and his father had been 
 at the time pleased at the unusual progress the boy 
 had made : but when Caleb Preston had thrown
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 29 
 
 aside all liuinaii learning — that being as worthless, lie 
 said, as the crackling of dry thorns under the pot — 
 he had taken away the rudimentary books from Perth, 
 who was too young to feel the deprivation otherwise 
 than as a relief from lessons. 
 
 Now the contemptuous observations on his probable 
 ignorance, coming from the lips of a pretty young 
 woman who lived in the great house, made Perth 
 long to go and tell her that he could read and write, 
 and had read the Georgics and great part of the 
 ^neid in the original : the idea passed through 
 his mind that he would do so. Luckily, he was too 
 bashful to carry out his intention ; for Miss Bruce 
 would probably have thought that the Georgics were 
 poems in praise of the reigning king, and there- 
 fore written in English. 
 
 " I'll have those Latin books down before I sleep/' 
 said Perth to himself. 
 
 He remembered all his father's recent vitupera- 
 tions of learning as being utterly vain and foolish, 
 and causing the feet of the feeble-minded to stray 
 into dangerous paths ; but he recollected also that 
 when his father was brighter and happier he had 
 been eager that his son should be well grounded in 
 the dead languages, and had seemed to expect some 
 future good to result therefrom, both to himself and 
 to Perth. 
 
 •' If my father was right then, he is wrong now," 
 thought the boy ; "if he i» right now, he was wrong
 
 30 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 then. Other people look down on and despise 
 ignorant persons : I will not be ignorant. They 
 despise labourers : I will not be a labourer. They 
 despise poor people : I will make myself rich." 
 Grand schemes these, but very difficult to carr}^ out 
 for a boy of fifteen or sixteen, whose father was un- 
 willing to aid him, and who had not a penny in his 
 pocket that he could call his own.
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 " L'homme est toujours Tenfant, et I'enfant toiijours I'liomme." 
 ■ — French Proverb. 
 
 "When Caleb Preston burnt bis copy of Tom Paine, 
 and one or two books of similar character, be ex- 
 perienced tbe difficulty wbicb every one probably bas 
 found in destroying effectually any large quantity of 
 compressed paper by fire, without setting fire to tbe 
 cbimney and poisoning tbe bouse witb smoke. Tbe 
 idea of selling bis books flitted tbrougb bis mind, 
 but be dismissed tbe tbougbt ; for would be not in 
 tbis case be disseminating mischief, and sowing tbe 
 seeds of crime in hearts yet innocent, or encouraging 
 in yet deeper guilt those who were sinful ? 
 
 He therefore threw all tbe remaining volumes 
 into a large chest, and locked it, placing the key on 
 a nail in his own bedroom. 
 
 Perth had witnessed the consignment of bis old 
 school-books to this prison ; and when his father 
 stalked out, looking more stiff, angular, and wrapped 
 in his own thoughts than usual, with his Bible in his 
 hand, making his way towards the barn, whither be 
 expected Perth to follow him with little Leah, his 
 son stopped stealthily to tbe great chest, and, having
 
 32 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 unlocked it, knelt on the floor, and tossed out volume 
 after volume in his eager search for his long-lost 
 friends. 
 
 Like the young man who surreptitiously entered 
 the study of Cornelius Agrippa, and plunged into 
 the research of forbidden themes, Perth could not 
 forbear reading a few sentences here and there, and 
 grew so much interested that his occupation pro- 
 ceeded slowl3^ He started, at length, at a noise 
 behind him ; and turning with rather a pale face, 
 was reassured by the sight of Leah, in a clean, light- 
 coloured, gingham frock, with arms naked from the 
 elbow, and little black mittens, and a white linen 
 cap on her head, and a Calvinistic hymn-book in her 
 hand. 
 
 '' Perth ! what are you doing ? "What will father 
 say ? Oh ! please put the wicked books back, and 
 come to hear father discourse." 
 
 " Go on yourself. I will follow you presently ;" 
 and he went on more rapidly in his search for his 
 treasures. He had to remove nearly all the books 
 before he found the old Latin grammar, dark with 
 the thumb-marks of his childhood. He remembered 
 how he had been starved by his father because he 
 had sat all the afternoon, when he had been but 
 seven years old, unable to master, because he could 
 not understand, one sentence in tlie adjectives. 
 Starving had been a favourite punishment with 
 Caleb Preston. Luckily for Perth, he earned his
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 33 
 
 breakfast, after his troubled brain had rested in sleep 
 for seven hours, by repeating verbatim the obnoxious 
 sentence which had been his stumbling-block on the 
 preceding day. He looked at the worn pages with 
 affection, and then putting the book on one side, 
 seized the Latin dictionary which had been placed 
 near it in the trunk. 
 
 Not satisfied, he continued his search for a Greek 
 grammar, of which he had never yet had possession, 
 and carried off" that and a lexicon. After he had 
 replaced the books, locked the box, and hung the 
 key on the nail, with careful observation to let it 
 hang precisely as he had found it with the wards 
 pointing to the right hand, he proceeded to hide 
 away his treasures as he best might, and concealed 
 them under the bolster of his small bed. He was 
 not afraid that Leah would betray him ; and his 
 father, should he miss the volumes, which was very 
 unlikely, would never think of seeking for them under 
 his son's pillow. Then he put on his cap, and hurried 
 off" to the barn, which he luckily found so crowded 
 that his father could not have discovered his absence. 
 
 Caleb Preston had been very energetic that day in 
 his discourse on predestination, the first of the five 
 points, choosing for his text, *' Whom He did pre- 
 destinate, them He also called ; and whom He called, 
 them He also glorified." Perth listened and medi- 
 tated ; meditation begot doubt of the correctness of 
 his father's judgment. That God should have pre- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 destined, before the creation of the world, the 
 majority of his creatures to an existence of eternal 
 torture seemed to him to be making the Supreme 
 Being a fiend. 
 
 " I have some silkworms at home," argued Perth, 
 "in their cocoons. I may bring them to life or 
 leave them dead. If I bring them to life for the 
 purpose of putting them on the bars of the grate 
 and roasting them to death, I do a wantonly cruel 
 act ; but if, by so doing, I keep them burning to all 
 eternity, what a monster I should be ! " Perth did 
 not disbelieve the Scriptures, but only his father's 
 interpretation of them. 
 
 Caleb Preston brought a strong array of texts to 
 bear out his arguments ; but Perth observed that 
 they were nearly all selected from the Epistles, and 
 not from the Gospels. Perth had rather not have 
 thought on a subject so abstruse ; but being compelled 
 to attend, he battled with the difficulties in his own 
 mind as he best could. With the profound respect 
 which was extorted by parents in the last and at 
 the beginning of the present century, Perth would 
 never have ventured to propound his doubts to the 
 paternal ears ; but they tended to discredit his father*s 
 judgments, and induce him to rely on his own. 
 
 As he returned home b}^ the park, through which 
 there was a right of way, he passed the governess 
 and the young lady, and felt his face flush at the 
 memory of the scornful words he had overheard
 
 TRITE TO THE LIFE. 35 
 
 applied to him by the taller of the two. To the 
 other he paid no heed. She was but a child. In- 
 voluntarily he touched his cap in reverence as they 
 met. Well-bred persons would have acknowledged 
 the salutation ; but the governess was not well bred, 
 and passed the youth with her nose in the air. The 
 child made a slight inclination of her head, from her 
 inbred refinement of 'feeling, and then, scared at her 
 temerity, looked furtively at her companion, and 
 blushed crimson. Perth saw it not. With a boy's 
 nascent feeling of devotion to the sex, he was inclined 
 to adore the slim icicle who scarcely was conscious 
 that a clown was treading the ground beside her. 
 This creature of delicate form, draped in white 
 muslin, with her dark hair surmounted by a black silk 
 hood, appeared to the ignorant youth a masterpiece of 
 nature, enhanced by the refinement of education and 
 culture. She had despised his ignorance : he would 
 no longer be ignorant. She had derided his poverty : 
 he would find his way to that which was better 
 than house and land, and might lead to the possession 
 of both. And she had counted him as nothing com- 
 pared with that insolent aristocrat whose face, he 
 remembered with satisfaction, he had disfigured ; but 
 he would win fame, and distinction, and wealth, and 
 prove his nature superior to that butterfly youth 
 whom she admired so unboundedly. " I wonder if 
 she saw him when he went back first, with his swollen 
 eyelids and his shiny nose ?" said the boy, meditating.
 
 S6 TRUE TO THE I.IFn. 
 
 Perth was not of a nature to spend Lis time in 
 vain reveries. His father would have taken pretty 
 good care that he should not resemble Beattie's 
 Edwin. He was meant for something better than a 
 philosopher only ; he was to be a man of action, 
 prompted by a keen intellect. Perth would have 
 preferred sitting under one of the trees in the park, 
 and giving himself up entirely to his study of the 
 Latin grammar, which he had partly forgotten 
 during the years that his father had ceased to give 
 it to him as a task : now he repeated his declensions of 
 substantives, as he drove the spade into the ground 
 by the force of his foot, and turning up the moist 
 earth, shook out the potatoes, dividing the large from 
 the small ones, to use the latter and clump the 
 former for winter, or when their scarcity should 
 compel the buyer to give Caleb Preston such a sum 
 as might remunerate him, and thus aid his efforts to 
 eke out his small income. Perth had forgotten his 
 former lessons, because nothing had reminded him 
 of them, like Pousseau, who twice committed to 
 memory the science of botany in vain, because he 
 was so short-sighted that in his countiy walks he 
 did not sec the flowers that grew in his path, and 
 was never appealed to by objects of which he would 
 gladly have been reminded. But Perth was young, 
 and had been younger when he had wept and been 
 starved over the comparative and superlative degrees 
 of adjectives. His mind had been like the parch-
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 37 
 
 ments once overwritten with valuable information, 
 which had been obliterated by rude hands, and 
 inscribed with words comparatively worthless, — now 
 by the magic wand of memory their palimpsest re- 
 asserted itself in all its valuable integrity. The 
 self-imposed lessons were a great happiness to 
 him. They gave him a secret spring of enjoyment ; 
 the greater, perhaps, because it was like the stolen 
 waters, and partaken of in solitude. 
 
 Perth was a real character. I am aware that a 
 youth who pays stolen visits to his Latin grammar, 
 and fears his father's anger should he be detected, 
 will seem to my readers a faultless monster that the 
 world never saw. Teachers now cease to insist on 
 the acquirement of those languages, the mastery of 
 which made so valuable a foundation for the acquire- 
 ment of other branches of learning. They lose sight 
 of the fact that the mental effort necessary for such 
 a triumph over difficulties strengthens the mind of 
 the pupil as much as athletic exercises do the body. 
 Caleb Preston considered learning as foolishness in 
 his newly- awakened and narrowed religious tenets. 
 Masters at present think it difficult to teach that 
 which, as a rule, boys do not like the trouble of 
 learning. "When Perth had struggled through the 
 Latin grammar, he pined for some Latin book, on 
 which he might try his newly-acquired skill. 
 Accident aided the accomplishment of his wishes. 
 He was sent by his father to Stoneham to purchase
 
 38 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 waste paper in which to envelop ^oceries. This 
 was to be obtained at a farthing per pound, and 
 consisted of imperfect proof sheets from printers, 
 old copy-books from schools, and sometimes old 
 school-books. The master of the shop, when he 
 weighed out his goods, took up a small edition of 
 Yirgil, minus its original covers, and observed with 
 contempt that, from the diminutiveness of the leaves, 
 it was only fit for lighting fires, and would be useless 
 for wrappers. The boy took it up with sparkling 
 eyes, and was absorbed in the attempt to remember 
 how he used to render into English the passage 
 beginning — 
 
 " Quid faciat Isetas segetes, quo sidere terrain 
 Vertere," 
 
 when the owner of the waste paper, being impatient, 
 said, '' I'll throw that old book into the bargain, as it 
 will not be of much use to me." Perth thanked him 
 so warmly that the man half repented his generosity, 
 and fancied that he had unconsciously parted with a 
 treasure. However, the mischief, if any, was done, 
 and he let the boy retain the prize. 
 
 The studies of Perth went, on vigorously. Thoy 
 were a secret source of unsuspected pleasure. "S\^ien 
 Latin was no longer a mystery to him, he took in 
 hand the Greek grammar, which he handled reve- 
 rently ; for, besides that he considered the book as 
 the vestibule of a noble building, the frontispiece 
 represented a succession of medallions, containing
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. d9 
 
 pictures of tlie different arts and sciences, and in 
 the tiny profile of Arithnetica he fancied lie saw a 
 likeness to the haughty and cruel governess who was 
 the object of his silent adoration. 
 
 Three years passed away, and Perth had required 
 all the consolation bestowed by the likeness in Arith- 
 metica ; for Mr. Elliot had removed to London, and 
 taken all his household with him. The venerable 
 Hall was tenanted only by a woman engaged to air 
 the rooms. Probably keeping an open house, which 
 seems inevitable in the country, made inroads too 
 great on the purse of the unfortunate owner. At 
 length the death of an aunt reKeved him from some 
 of his most pressing embarrassments ; he returned to 
 his favourite residence, and determined to signalise 
 his advent by a rustic party, which should, if possi- 
 ble, give a day of recreation and delight to the poor 
 in his village — a favour for which his little daughter 
 had pertinaciously petitioned. 
 
 Rumour^ of this rare entertainment preceded it 
 
 for some weeks, and " Is everybody to be asked ? " 
 
 was the often-repeated question, as constantly 
 
 answered in the affirmative. In vain Caleb Preston 
 
 preached on the vanities ' of the world and the lusts 
 
 of the flesh ; in vain did he give out the hymn — 
 
 "Why should onr garments, made to hide 
 Our parents' sin, provoke our pride ? " 
 
 The thoughts of the female portion of the congrega- 
 tion wandered to possible adornments for the momen-
 
 40 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 tous day of the coming entertainment, and the fear 
 lest they shouhl be as unworthy in appearance as he 
 who had not on a wedding garment ; whilst the men 
 thought of abundant feeding on meat and pudding, 
 and getting drunk on strong ale, which was then, 
 as now, the supreme happiness of an Essex yokel. 
 
 It is fortunate that preachers are often in happy 
 ignorance of the ineffectual efforts they make to 
 insure the attention of their hearers. Caleb Preston 
 saw a new member in his congregation, and rejoiced 
 accordingly, all the more as the stranger was an old 
 man, and, being head gardener at the Hall, had 
 formerly said many disparaging things of Caleb 
 Preston, whom he suspected of having settled in 
 his present abode with the idea of superseding him. 
 Many persons had suggested it to Luke as a likely 
 circumstance, and he had only got rid of his suspicions 
 from observing how utterly careless was his neigh- 
 bour of everj^thing unconnected with his vocation as 
 preacher of the Gospel. lie wanted Preston to do 
 him a favour now, and he thought the best way of 
 bringing this about was to spend the evening in 
 listening to his neighbour's doctrine, in the hope 
 that Preston might accord him his request. 
 
 He therefore waited till the little congregation 
 liad left the barn, and joined the preacher, as, with 
 parched lips, a face pale with emotion, and a brow 
 moist with the energy of his denunciations, Preston 
 walked in the twilight back to his cottaire.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 41 
 
 "A fine discourse, neighbour. You got to the 
 root of the matter, if I may use a professional phrase. 
 Such powerful teaching is wanted to touch the hearts 
 of men who were born in sin, and shapened in ini- 
 quity." 
 
 Preston's angular countenance relaxed not a jot 
 from its cold severity of expression, whilst he said, 
 in a voice singularly harsh and discordant with the 
 sense of the words he used — 
 
 " I would not only wield the scourge ; I would 
 tempt with the description of heavenly joys. I 
 would bring luscious fruits from the promised land to 
 refresh the weary, even such as my namesake Caleb, 
 the son of Jephunneh, bore on his shoulder from 
 the land of Canaan, having followed the Lord.'' 
 
 Preston was jealous of the fame of his oratory, 
 and Luke had praised his threatenings, but not his 
 promises ; and he felt as a mother who hears one of 
 her twins commended, whilst nothing is said of the 
 other. 
 
 Now Luke saw that he had not made a favourable 
 impression, so he tried another tack. 
 
 •' Wonderful grapes they grew in that land of 
 Canaan, if the Bible speaks truth. Can't say I ever 
 got any bunch so large as to take two men to carry 
 in these hothouses ; yet I do all I can. Maybe you 
 were more lucky up in your country ; for I heard 
 say you was head gardener to some great lord." 
 
 " Yes, to Lord North. I suppose the country and
 
 42 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 climate were favourable to the grapes and other 
 fruits by the brook Eshcol, in Canaan ; for the men 
 brought, also, specimens of figs and pomegranates." 
 
 Here Luke's face worked with anxiety to inter- 
 rupt the speaker, but Preston liked to hear himself 
 talk, and went on ruthlessly — 
 
 " A sacred fruit borne by the punica, and ordered 
 to be worn as ornaments, weighted with golden bells, 
 on the border of the priest's robe ; also likened by 
 Solomon to the temples of his beloved." 
 
 " The very thing I wanted to speak to you about, 
 neighbour. You see, I am not so young as I used 
 to be, and rather stout." 
 
 " The flesh-pots of Egypt," muttered Preston. 
 
 " Well, though Solomon's fair one must have 
 been a bit sallow to have her forehead like pome- 
 granates, yet I must say a pomegranate tree '" 
 
 " Punica," suggested Preston. 
 
 " Well, a punica tree in full bloom is as pretty a 
 sight, when it is well trained, as any in England. 
 And this is my trouble. The wind has blown down 
 the pomegranate branches that cover the south side 
 of the house ; and they grow so high that, to tell the 
 truth, I don't like the job of going up to nail them 
 to their right place. I thought, neighbour, that, as 
 you are a spare man, you might do it for me ; and I 
 would give you anything reasonable for your trouble, 
 besides standing treat for ale and brandy at the 
 Stag's Head or the Elliot Arms."
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 43 
 
 Preston flushed at the proposal, but said nothing 
 for a few minutes. At length he replied that he 
 took no fermented liquors ; and when he had left 
 Lord North he had determined to own no master, 
 and to earn no wage, unconnected with the great 
 work he had in hand as God's minister. " But," he 
 continued, " my boy Perth is young, active, and 
 intelligent. He shall do your bidding ; and his earn- 
 ings, I pray you, to put into my hands, as I would 
 not place a knife in the hands of my son that might 
 slay him." 
 
 '* If you mean a pruning-knife," said his prosaic 
 neighbour, " he must take one up in his apron when 
 he mounts the ladder ; but as it will be a clasped one, 
 I do not see why he should cut himself with it." 
 
 " He shall be with you at live to-morrow morn- 
 ing, friend," concluded Preston, who turned into his 
 cottage, whither, as he drank no spirituous liquors, 
 Luke was not anxious to follow him. 
 
 '' A pragmatical, stuck-up fellow," was the judg- 
 ment passed by Luke on his neighbour. " If that 
 son of his be like him, I shan't be sorry when the 
 job is done." 
 
 Caleb Preston thought no more of Luke volun- 
 tarily, excepting when a little secret satisfaction 
 lurked in his mind that a new member had been 
 added to his congregation. He, in tlie blindness of 
 his self-love, attributed Luke's attendance in the 
 barn to the fame of his preaching, not suspecting
 
 44 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 that his neighbour's object had been to obtain secular 
 assistance only. So he came into the little sitting- 
 room, where Leah had prepared her father's evening 
 meal, with a softened feeling towards her and the 
 world generally, which did not show itself in the 
 severe, harsh lines of his ascetic features. 
 
 Leah had made the rosemary tea^for the Chinese 
 leaf was too expensive an article for the use of Caleb 
 Preston — and had purchased a pat of fresh butter 
 by exchanging it for some brown sugar from the 
 shop, for her father's enjoyment. Some milk had 
 been obtained by similar means ; and now she sat 
 at the table, having poured out his tea, gazing down 
 demurely at her little clasped hands, which looked 
 white from opposition to her black mittens. 
 
 Leah was nearly sixteen, fair, with dark brown 
 hair and arch blue eyes, a small nose, more turned 
 up than straight, but which promised to become so 
 at the age of twenty, when the bridge should assert 
 itself. Her mouth was the beauty of her face ; it 
 was such a rosebud mouth, so small, full, and fresh- 
 looking, just revealing the sparkle of her white teeth 
 when she smiled. Caleb gave her all the love and 
 more than he had bestowed on his wife, and he 
 looked on her now with natural pride in her come- 
 liness, and with tender anxiety for her future hap- 
 piness. 
 
 " I saw thee not, Leah, at chapel," he said, 
 doubtfully, at length.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 45 
 
 '^ I was there, father, near the door, between 
 Perth and Dick Crozier. I heard all thy discourse. 
 It seems strange that thou shouldst be gifted beyond 
 other men in the power to stir the heart." 
 
 " I had it not till it was given to me from on 
 high," her father replied, with an intent look in his 
 eyes. 
 
 He spoke only at intervals during his meal ; and 
 Leah was too timid to start any subject before her 
 father, though she would have liked to tell him of 
 the post-chaise, filled inside by servants, and outside 
 by their luggage, driving up to the back of the hall, 
 indicating the speedy approach of the rest of the 
 family. 
 
 When Caleb Preston had finished his meal, he 
 remembered that Perth had not appeared since the 
 evening service, and he looked disturbed when Leah 
 said her brother had not returned. 
 
 He waited for half an hour ; and finding that his 
 son was still a truant, he knelt and praj^ed with 
 his daughter, and finished the evening with the 
 following hymn : — 
 
 " Father in heaven, to Thee we pray, 
 Now night sinks on the dubious way. 
 Thy holy light from heaven we crave. 
 Our steps to guide, our souls to save. 
 
 " As evening flowers their perfumes hlcnd 
 With night-winds that to heaven ascend, 
 So would our prayers sweet incense make ; 
 Keep us this night for Christ's dear sake."
 
 46 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 "Poor motlierless girl!" said lie to himself, as 
 she left the room for her bed-chamber ; " how can I, 
 even by incessant watchfulness, take the place that 
 Lucy would have occupied in conducting her safely 
 through the dangers of life — so fair and comely as 
 she is ?" 
 
 Caleb had a transitory satisfaction in the idea 
 that for the present, at least, she was safe in her 
 sleeping-room ; and he walked into his garden, 
 pretending even to himself that he was watching 
 the growth of his fruit trees, but, in reality, with 
 every sense alert to observe the approach of Perth. 
 Some idea that his daughter was a plant too tender 
 for rough usage made him approach her feeling's 
 with some reserve and delicacy ; but his own con- 
 viction of how a son should be governed had been 
 bought by the ex^^erience of his own youth, and 
 the result was excessive severity. At present Perth 
 was dutiful, but Caleb knew not how long he would 
 remain so. The young men of his own age worked 
 for the neighbouring farmers, and had the inde- 
 pendence which arose from the possession of ready 
 money. They could go to the public-house and treat 
 a friend to a pint of beer, whilst Perth was not 
 permitted to drink fermented liquor himself, and 
 had never a sixpence to bestow anything on another. 
 Thus, however, had Caleb been educated, and h*e 
 knew of no other safe recipe for making an honest 
 man.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 47 
 
 It was a relief to the anxious father when he saw 
 Perth lounging home alone, twitching off the seeded 
 heads of the hemlock, and thinking that angelica 
 belonged to the same family — a belief which he 
 ventured to suggest to his father, so soon as he met 
 him. 
 
 This led the conversation to the point Caleb had 
 at heart — that Perth should perform the duty he 
 had promised for him to the gardener at the hall. 
 The father had the notion in his head that Perth 
 would stipulate that he should receive the sum which 
 would be due for the job ; but the thoughts of the 
 youth rushed onwards to the chance of being nearer 
 to the beautiful vision which had haunted his memory 
 for more than three years. It would be strange, he 
 argued, if, with such opportunities, he should not 
 see her again. . The thought, too, possessed him that 
 he would show her, in some way, that he was 
 acquainted with Latin and Greek, of which she had 
 surmised he knew nothing. He assented, therefore, 
 with an alertness which pleased Caleb, who put 
 down the willingness shown by his son to a dutiful 
 disposition. 
 
 At five o'clock on the following morning Perth 
 might have been seen placing a long ladder against 
 the wall, which was thickly covered with living and 
 dead foliage, this last having lodged in the transverse 
 branches for years undisturbed. It took some hours 
 to clear away the rubbish which occupied the place
 
 48 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 where green buds should have expanded, and long 
 tendrils have clung ; then the truant branches had 
 to be reclaimed, and fastened to the old stone walls 
 in a neat and business-like manner. Perth liked his 
 occupation, busied as he was amongst the sweet 
 jasmine and climbing roses, fanned by tlie fresh 
 morning air, and cheered by the newly-risen sun. 
 
 Presently he moved his ladder to the side of a 
 small window. All the windows Vera small in this 
 old house. The casement was thrown back, and inside 
 were preparations for breakfast for two persons. 
 Could she be one of those two ? He had heard that 
 part of the family had arrived on the previous 
 evening ; but he had not heard that the young lady 
 and her governess had been of the party. His work 
 would occupy him a week, however, in going all 
 round the old mansion, and before the expiration of 
 that time he trusted he should see her. This hope 
 had lightened his step, and flashed in his eyes, as he 
 had approached the hall that morning. 
 
 Whilst he worked and speculated, and conducted 
 the fragile branches, with a tender hand, to bloom 
 round the window-sill, he heard the door of the 
 room open, and a light, soft step fall on the carpet. 
 He stopped his hammering involuntarily, and looked 
 into the room. A girl, with soft, light hair flowing 
 over her shoulders, and with the outline of her deli- 
 cate pink cheek turned away, had walked to the 
 harpsichord and struck a few notes without sitting
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 49 
 
 down. She accompanied them with the fragment of 
 a song, which she murmured, seemingly, with the un- 
 consciousness of idleness. Perth could scarcely 
 believe that the little child he had last seen in the 
 park should have grown up into such graceful girl- 
 hood. He thought he should like to see the whole 
 of her face ; but a sudden recollection that he was but 
 a job gardener, and had no right to look at ladies, 
 made him clutch at and shake a branch laden with 
 roses, the sudden bending of which across the 
 window attracted the attention of Miss Elliot, who 
 came to see what had occurred. She looked out, 
 and flushed with surprise at seeing Perth so near 
 her. The sunbeams, striking through the abundant 
 climbing plants, illuminated her head and face in 
 capricious lights and shadows. She formed a charm- 
 ing picture of youth, beauty, and innocence amongst 
 those summer flowers. 
 
 Perth twisted a rose branch from the tree in his 
 nervousness, and began to knock in nails most 
 assiduously, whilst the young lady turned away to 
 salute her companion, who had just entered. Perth 
 felt his heart beat tumultuously at the conviction 
 that the governess, his worshipped Aritkmetica, was 
 in his neighbourhood. lie dared not look, and was 
 content for a few minutes to listen to the voice, the 
 tones of which had haunted his dreams since he had 
 last heard them. 
 
 Memory plays strange metamorphoses in the 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 TRUE TO THE T.IFE. 
 
 brains of the absent. The voice which had seemed 
 so sweet to Perth in imagination was now deeper 
 and somewhat querulous. 
 
 " The tea is cold," said the elder lady ; " the 
 toast is flabby ; the eggs are hard ! " 
 
 The voice of the younger girl uttered in extenua- 
 tion that the breakfast had been ready for more than 
 an hour, on which the governess — who did not pay 
 for it — ordered the tea and the eatables away, and 
 that fresh eggs and toast should be brought. 
 
 Presently the lull in the room that followed the 
 exit of the servant allowed the strokes of I'crth's 
 hammer to become audible. 
 
 " What is that horrid noise ? " inquired the elder 
 of the two. 
 
 " Only the gardener nailing up the flowers," re- 
 plied Miss Elliot. 
 
 '' A very inconvenient time to choose — ^just as we 
 are having our breakfast ! " 
 
 " Shall I tell him to leave ofi"? " 
 
 '' Ko ; 'tis no matter." 
 
 As Perth heard the door opening, and the clatter 
 of the renewed tea-service, he thought he might 
 seize the opportunity of this diversion to look at the 
 face of his adored. 
 
 Alas that memory and fancy should have again 
 combined to cheat him ! The lady did not look so 
 young as she had done three years previously. Her 
 figure was thicker, her eyelids were somewhat
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE, 51 
 
 shrivelled, and, instead of the wavering bloom whicli 
 came and went over the downy skin of Miss Elliot, 
 there was on the cheek of the governess a bright 
 pink spot, composed of what looked like little broken 
 veins of red under the skin. The expression, also, 
 was sullen and discontented. 
 
 She helped herself to the largest egg by the aid 
 of an accurately-measuring eye, and, as she broke 
 the shell, went on with her grumblings. 
 
 " 'Tis so provoking that Mr. Elliot should have 
 come down so much sooner than I had intended. I 
 am sure I don't know who can do plain work in this 
 stupid village, and my morning dresses are all cut 
 out, but not made.'' 
 
 "We will inquire," said Miss Elliot gently; 
 " probably Margaret may know of some one." 
 
 " I don't see how she should, when she was never 
 here before," retorted the governess, determined to 
 have a grievance. 
 
 " We need not despair till we have tried," rejoined 
 the young lady ; " and at Stoneham we might cer- 
 tainly obtain a sempstress to do your work." 
 
 Perth listened and pondered. The shock his 
 romantic aspirations had received did not prevent 
 his natural acuteness from foreseeing benefit to Leah 
 from the involuntary confidence reposed in him by 
 the governess. 
 
 When he dismounted from his ladder at eleven 
 o'clock to eat a crust of bread and drink some water, 
 
 UBRARI 
 
 UNIVERSmr OF lU«W»if
 
 52 TRUE TO THK LIFE. 
 
 having refused the offered beer at his father's wish, 
 he asked leave to speak to the lady's-maid, and sug- 
 gested that his sister Leah was an expert needle- 
 woman, and would be happy to work for the young 
 ladies if required.
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 " Of all the griefs that harass the distress' d, 
 Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest ; 
 Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart 
 Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart." 
 
 In tlie course of the morning the intelligence liad 
 reached the ears of the governess, and a boy was 
 despatched to fetch Leah from her father's house to 
 receive orders. 
 
 Caleb was within when the messenger arrived, and 
 hesitated whether to permit his daughter to go. But 
 a conviction that he should be unable to leave her an 
 adequate provision at his death induced him to con- 
 sent to a proposition which his jealous love would 
 have led him to negative. 
 
 " Thou may'st go, Leah ; but remember that thy 
 task must be performed under this roof. Thou must 
 bring the work home." 
 
 Leah was quite willing to promise this. There 
 was nothing very attractive to her in the aspect of 
 the great house, filled by strange servants fresh 
 from London, who would probably scoff at Leah's 
 country dress and rustic manners. So she said she 
 would go up in the evening and receive her direc- 
 tions, and return with her task immediately.
 
 54 TRUE TO niE LIFE. 
 
 Accordingly, after she had attended to her father's 
 evening meal, she put on a clean gown and white 
 apron, and walked across the park to the Hall. She 
 had not put on her hat, not thinking it necessary 
 for so short a distance ; yet when she reached, the 
 back of the house she regretted that she had not 
 done so, so many were the observations made by the 
 newly-arrived servants on her appearance. 
 
 She had knocked at the old oak door, without 
 being able to produce much sound by her small 
 hand, not seeing any knocker or bell. A carving 
 of oak, blackened by age, bordered the door- sill ; and 
 Leah examined the rudely-carved figures of Pru- 
 dence, Temperance, Charity, and some other virtues, 
 till she had need to invoke the one of Patience. At 
 length she ventured to lift the latch, and passed into 
 a paved passage, on one side of which the sounds of 
 loud voices and boisterous laughter gave indications 
 of a lively life. Leah hesitated for a moment, and 
 then tapped at the open door — a slight sound which 
 was unnoticed amidst the uproar within. After a 
 few moments of delay, Leah walked in, and dis- 
 covered the housekeeper half obscured by the steam 
 of a boiled round of beef which she was carving, and 
 which gave out a grateful snu41, accompanied by 
 that of cabbage and suet pudding. She was too 
 busy to notice the intruder ; but one of the footmen, 
 putting down the empty tankard of ale which he 
 IkuI been finishing, started up with an exclamation
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 55 
 
 of wonder at tlie vision of Leah, as she stood bhish- 
 ing beautifully under her little Pamela cap at the 
 end of the table. Now, Pamela caps had gone out 
 of fashion in cities, and had been succeeded by the 
 Poissard cap, which was not half so becoming, and 
 had been imitated by Englishwomen from the ori- 
 ginals worn by the French mob at the Revolution. 
 The women- servants saw that Leah was beautiful, 
 and began to feel spitefully, and to speak tauntingly. 
 
 "Where do you come from, my dear?" said the 
 fat butler. 
 
 '* Fresh from Noah's ark ! " cried the housemaid. 
 " Been and robbed her grandmother's chest afore she 
 walked out ! Pray, mem, are them curls your own 
 hair, or a wig?" 
 
 Aghast and ready to cry at the vexation she felt 
 — when, if the truth were to be told, she had been 
 rather pleased at the reflection in her small looking- 
 glass before she left her father's cottage — Leah 
 could scarcely mutter a few words of explanation, 
 which were greeted by roars of laughter, she knew 
 not wherefore, when a fresh actor appeared on the 
 scene — no other than Sir Edgar South, who, having 
 rung his bell with no visible result for half an hour, 
 during which time the ill-managed merriment had 
 prevented its being heard or attended to, had de- 
 scended to see how his servant was occupied, that 
 he might have the luxury of swearing at him twenty 
 minutes sooner than if he had waited for his advent.
 
 56 TRUE TO THE llFE. 
 
 When lie reached the servants' hall, he understood 
 at a glance the situation, even without the aid of the 
 few murmured words which he caught from the lips 
 of the terrified and perturbed Leah. There were 
 the men, jocular and insolent ; the women-servants, 
 with greasy lips, shooting out from them '' arrows, 
 even bitter words." 8ir Edgar had witnessed such 
 scenes, under diflferent and softened phases, in polite 
 society, when some unfortunate Freshman had 
 found himself in the company of the well-ostabli«hed 
 two and three- year men at college. He was reckless 
 and good-natured, notwithstanding the attack for- 
 merly made on Leah's cat ; and he felt every chival- 
 rous sentiment rise in his breast at the vexation and 
 mortification visible in the countenance of so sweet 
 a girl. 
 
 " Scoundrel ! What do you mean by your inso- 
 lence in not answering the bell ? Madam, allow me 
 to conduct you to some society more fitted to your 
 deserts than that of these ill-bred cubs." 
 
 He took her hand respectfully as he spoke, and 
 led her away, leaving the servants dumb with dis- 
 may at the unexpected interference. 
 
 "VVTien he had thus rescued her from an embarrass- 
 ing position, he felt much puzzled what to do with 
 Leah whilst he announced her arrival to Miss 
 Bruce. Slie looked too refined for the kitchen, too 
 plainly dressed for the drawing-room. ^Ir. KUiot 
 was in the librarv ; and he did not like to lead her
 
 TRUE* TO THE LIFE. 57 
 
 to the school-room, where the ladies were sitting, 
 unannounced. The glimpses he took of his com- 
 panion showed him that her share of beauty might 
 make enemies in other scenes than in the servants* 
 hall. She had given way to the tears which her 
 shame and anger had prevented her shedding whilst 
 in the presence of her tormentors ; and Sir Edgar, 
 good-naturedly concerned, led her to the billiard- 
 room, and fetched a glass of water, which he held to 
 her lips, uttering all the time such topics of consola- 
 tion as he could think of at a short notice. 
 
 " Pray do not cry ! "Why should you care for what 
 these ill-bred folks say ? You are too pretty to need 
 the adornment of fashion. Hang it ! you're beau- 
 tiful ! Don't cry, there's a darling girl ! There's 
 your pocket-handkerchief," for Leah had dropped 
 it. " Eh ! what's this ? I've seen this handkerchief 
 before. ' L. P.,' and all this fine needlework ! Why, 
 you are not — no, jou can't be — the little girl who 
 lent me the handkerchief to wash my face when the 
 young lout thrashed me ?" 
 
 " It was not this handkerchief, but another one 
 like it," said Leah, sobbing. 
 
 '' Of course it was not this one. Do you think I 
 have not treasured that token of your girlish kind- 
 ness. Miss Preston ? I have it now, up in my 
 drawer, and always carry it about with me." 
 
 Of this, the first part of the speech was true, the 
 second false. The handkerchief had returned from
 
 58 TRUE TO THE \tFE. 
 
 the wash before Sir Edgar South left the Hall ; and 
 his valet, knowing it did not belong to his master, 
 had left it in the wardrobe. When he had returned, 
 thither on the preceding day, he had looked wonder- 
 ingly on the strange waif amongst his property, and 
 remembered the thrashing he had got from the boy 
 Preston. 
 
 He was a handsome young man, with a quantity 
 of soft brown hair, curled as carefully over his 
 shoulders as that of Petrarch, when he avoided 
 turning corners of streets lest the wind should 
 derange the clusters ; a macaroni in his dress, as 
 those gentlemen were called who made the study of 
 their persons their primary occupation ; reckless and 
 extravagant, and selfishly intent on the gratifica- 
 tion of every transient inclination ; but bold and 
 brave, and, by fits and starts, generous and kind- 
 hearted. 
 
 Men and women are never wholly consistent, but 
 must be judged by the general colour of their lives 
 and actions. Nero must sometimes have been gentle 
 and loving, or flowers would not have been strewn 
 on his tomb ; and Charles I., the most uxorious of 
 monarchs, was known to quarrel with his wife occa- 
 sionally. 
 
 The sound of a distant stop aroused 8ii' Edgar 
 from his contemplation of so much of the white 
 bosom of Leah as gleamed through the folds of her 
 decent muslin handkerchief, and he loft her, whis-
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 59 
 
 pering that lie would return and conduct her to 
 Miss Bruce. 
 
 " There is a poor little awkward girl crying down- 
 stairs. I think the servants have been making jokes 
 at her expense. She says she wants to see you about 
 some sewing/' said Sir Edgar to the governess in 
 as careless a tone as he could assume. 
 
 " Oh ! I'm glad she is come. Where is she ?" 
 
 " I am going down-stairs, and I will send her up," 
 said the young man ; and, descending the stairs 
 whistling, he proceeded to the billiard-room, where, 
 taking Leah's hand, and begging her not to be 
 afraid, he led her up to the door of the school-room, 
 and with a low bow and a tender pressure of her 
 fingers he bade her adieu. 
 
 The unsuspecting governess was soon immersed in 
 the eagerness of issuing orders, which Leah listened 
 to without understanding a word. Her soft eyes 
 sought those of the lady inquiringly ; but she had 
 been so fluttered, first by the raillery of the servants, 
 and then by the respectful consolation of the young 
 gentleman, that no word uttered by Miss Bruce 
 made the slightest impression on her understand- 
 ing. 
 
 '' This is to be seamed, and this hemmed, and the 
 other back-stitched," said the governess for the third 
 time. *' I fear j^ou are very stupid," she added 
 angrily. 
 
 " I will do my best, miss."
 
 60 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 " Well, do one dress first, and let me see how you 
 contrive it/' 
 
 Thus commanded, Leah picked up her wits, and 
 havinp^ repeated the directions to be sure that at 
 length she understood them, left the room with a 
 low courtesy. 
 
 As she passed down the stairs she looked alxjut fur- 
 tively, in the half-expectation of seeing Sir Edgar. She 
 was not disappointed ; no duchess could have received . 
 a more respectful bow than Sir Edgar executed for the 
 benefit of the beautiful needlewoman. She flushed 
 all over with pleasure, and hurried onwards. Sir 
 Edgar saw the accession of lovely bloom, and smiled 
 triumphantly when she had passed out of sight. 
 
 The servants' hall was empt}^ and silent as Leah 
 went out, and she escaped any more rough jests a.s 
 to her champion. Sir Edgar. She hurried through 
 the park, glad of the cool evening breeze that swept 
 over her flushed cheek, and grasping her bundle of 
 needlework as if her success in life depended on its 
 safety. The delay had been greater than she had 
 anticipated, and when she reached the little garden 
 she saw her father watching for her approach. A 
 vague presentiment of evil had weighed on his 
 spirits. Perth was safe at home and in bed, but his 
 dearer child was out far too late. He had just deter- 
 mined to get his best hat and go to the Hall to seek 
 her, when he saw the gleam of something white 
 amongst the distant clumps of trees, and his heart
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 61 
 
 began to beat with feverish hope. The spot became 
 more distinct, and presently he detected the little 
 figure on whose happiness, here and hereafter, all his 
 hopes were centred. 
 
 Then he turned into the house, ashamed of his 
 anxiety, and, after a few quiet words exchanged 
 between the father and his child, Caleb Preston 
 knelt down with her, and uttered his evening prayers 
 for the protection of Heaven during the gathering 
 darkness and for their future lives. 
 
 Leah told her father nothing of the rough treat- 
 ment she had received from the servants, nor of the 
 interference of Sir Edgar South. The habits of 
 deference exacted by parents in those days made 
 those of confidence impossible. Thus Leah missed 
 the cautions and the interference which might have 
 overshadowed and protected her from the storms 
 w^hich threatened her onward life.
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 " Youth at the prow, and pleasure at the helm.' 
 
 Gray 
 
 Sir Edgar South wanted but a few months of 
 coming of age. He was heir to a fine fortune, and 
 there had been an agreement between his guardian 
 and Mr. lillliot that an alliance should be formed, 
 when the parties had arrived at a suitable age, 
 between the young baronet and his cousin, Miss 
 Elliot. It was for this reason he came so frequently 
 to make long visits to Mr. Elliot's family. He 
 looked on the young lady with the indifference felt 
 by all men towards any article whicli they know they 
 may possess if they please — an indifference so evident, 
 even through the courtliness of his manners, that 
 the governess, seeing it all, conceived hopes of cap- 
 tivating the young heir herself. He considered her 
 as utterly beyond the possibility of marriage with 
 him, and expended on her the attentions which he 
 feared to lavish on her pupil, lest he should be 
 thei-eby compromised. He was fooling rather dull, 
 notwithstanding IMiss Bruce's attentions, when the 
 sight of tlio young needlewoman gave him what he 
 considered an object of legitimate pursuit.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 63 
 
 Her beauty reconciled him to his residence at the 
 Hall ; and her youth, simplicity, and evident inno- 
 cence made him more eager to deprive her of the 
 last of these advantages. 
 
 Leah worked industriously to get one of the 
 dresses finished, that she might have an excuse for 
 going again to the Hall. Sir Edgar saw the slender 
 figure approaching through one of the avenues, but 
 he knew too well that to show anxiety to speak to 
 Leah would be to spoil his own game. In fact, the 
 girl had made up her mind that she would not have 
 anything to say to him if she did see him. Her 
 imagination had pictured to her various interviews, 
 in which he should be tender and consolatory, as on 
 the previous occasion, and in which she should dis- 
 engage her hand from the gentle pressure of his, 
 and beg him to keep his distance. While her fingers 
 fled over the delicate fabric of Miss Bruce's gown, and 
 small stitches succeeded each other in quick preci- 
 sion, her memory painted to her the pitying face of Sir 
 Edgar, and she unconsciously murmured some of his 
 unforgotten words. He had said, too, that he had 
 kept her handkerchief. What might that mean ? 
 Something, no doubt, too delightful to be defined ; 
 so she did not attempt to explain to herself his 
 meaning. And now she wore her best frock and an 
 embroidered white apron which had belonged to her 
 mother, as she walked demurely under the shadow-
 
 64 TRUE TO TIIK LIFE. 
 
 trees to the Hall, with her work neatly folded, and 
 covered up in a clean handkerchief. 
 
 Sir Edgar had seen her approach ; and lounging 
 into the school-room, where Miss Elliot was prac- 
 tising her music-lesson, he challenged the governess 
 to take a turn with him under the trees. Miss Bruce 
 looked at her pupil doubtfully, who said quietly, " I 
 can goon very well bymj^self ;" on which the gover- 
 ness arose with a thrill of delight, believing that the 
 auspicious hour had arrived for which she had been 
 anxiously waiting for the last fifteen years, and that 
 Sir Edgar was about to declare his passion, and 
 throw himself and his title and wealth at her feet. 
 
 When Leah obtained an entrance to the Hall, she 
 was told that she could not speak to Miss Bruce, as 
 that lady was walking with Sir Edgar somewhere in 
 the park. She might sit down and wait, if she liked, 
 in the servants' hall. 
 
 She preferred, she replied, to call again ; for the 
 recollections of that room were not pleasant ones, 
 and she did not like to remain there as a mark for 
 more insolent expressions. As she returned, she saw 
 in the distance Miss Bruce standing on a terrace at 
 the end of an avenue, looking down at the distant 
 landscape, as it was illuminated in golden patches by 
 the setting sun ; and leaning on the marble balustrade 
 by her, with his face looking into hers with intense 
 earnestness, was Sir Edgar. 
 
 " Experiment uin fiat in corpore vili," said the
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 65 
 
 youth to himself. "This young woman wants to 
 marry my acres, and to take me as part of the live- 
 stock. I make use of her to carry out my plans on 
 that prettiest of Dissenting ministers' daughters. I 
 mean her to love me for mj^self before I have done 
 with her. As for this woman, she is ten years older 
 than I, and I believes she is twenty years more know- 
 ing : we shall see." 
 
 Leah looked once at the pair, who seemed full of 
 love-talk from their relative positions, and turned 
 away. She walked more slowly, and, with the irre- 
 sistible desire possessed by those who are attracted 
 towards one of the opposite sex for self- torment, 
 she turned and looked again. This time she suf- 
 fered an added pang ; for Sir Edgar looked at her 
 and said something with a light laugh to his com- 
 panion, who laughed also — that subservient echo 
 which the inferior gives to the higher in wealth or 
 social position. Leah hurried away as if driven by 
 the Furies. What could he have said to turn her 
 into ridicule ? She hated him ; she loathed the 
 thought of him ; she would never see him again. 
 Hot, angry tears were wet on her face as she drew 
 near her home ; and she had to stoop as if to pick a 
 wild flower, that she might dash them away miper- 
 ceived, lest her father should be watching for her 
 return. 
 
 Caleb was in the little garden, dai-kencd by twi- 
 light shadows, and wet with rising dew, waiting till 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 DO TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 lie should hear the step of her who was the very sun 
 of his existence, and who had the power, by her 
 presence, to make for him light out of darkness. 
 The homage paid by the aged to the young is \eT\ 
 touching. They pour out so much of love to their 
 idols ; they receive so little in return. But, sooner 
 or later, love is its own avenger. If we live on to 
 age, we go through the same torture as we in 
 our youth inflicted. We then in turn carry our 
 withered flowers, thinking to mingle them with the 
 blooming coronals of youth, and turn away mortified 
 if we find them cast aside and forgotten. How 
 should the young care for love such as age can 
 give, when they have that blessing in abundance 
 from their coevals ? 
 
 The dying savage is placed under a tree, and left 
 there, whilst the stream of life flows on. He sees 
 his warrior sons wielding the arms his withered 
 hands can no longer grasp ; he sees his grand- 
 children rushing onwards in pursuit of their prey, 
 forgetful of the hand that first guided their small 
 feet over the desert. His daughter clings to her 
 husband, and remembers her father with a faint 
 afi*ection. All have their pursuits, their pleasures, 
 their cares; and the solemn silence of solitude falls over 
 the scene, on which will shortly be the deeper hush of 
 death. It is not much otherwise in civilised life : and 
 if tlie aged look for sympathy, it must be from their 
 contemporaries, and not from their descendants.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 67 
 
 Caleb's quick perceptions and jealous love soon 
 perceived the trouble in Leab's countenance, and 
 tried to win from ber its cause. 
 
 " Was tby work approved, cbild ? '' 
 
 *^I do not know, fatber. Tbe lady was not at 
 borne." 
 
 " Tben tbou wert disappointed of tbe praise tbou 
 didst expect ? " 
 
 Leab tried to smile to comfort ber fatber. 
 
 '' No, fatber ; tbat is, not mucb. I sbould like to 
 bave beard, if it was rigbt, about doing tbe rest. I 
 bad better step up again to-morrow evening to 
 inquire,'' sbe said, wi^b tbe quick indecision of a 
 loving beart ; and Caleb, wbo, tbougb be disliked 
 tbese visits to tbe Hall, saw a gleam of comfort in 
 Leab's face at tbe idea, and bad not tbe beart to 
 tell ber not to go.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " Oh ! how this t\Tant douht torments my breast ; 
 My thoughts, like birds when frighten' d from their nest. 
 Around the place where all was hush'd before 
 Flutter and hardly settle any more." 
 
 Otwat. 
 
 The hostages to fortune given by Caleb were 
 becoming a double source of anxiety to him. The 
 only rule of which he approved was the iron ride ; 
 and children as well as nations will sometimes rebel 
 against coercion, and oppose to iron rule an iron 
 will. Perth's vanity was bringing him into trouble 
 which, with less of that failing, he might have 
 escaped. A large collection of plants had arrived 
 from London, part being intended to ornament the 
 Hall, and part to be planted in the borders or in the 
 kitchen garden. Perth had been kept late by the 
 head gardener to assist in unpacking these, and to 
 carry them under the shelter of the greenhouse till 
 they could be placed in the most advantageous posi- 
 tion. In the faint desire for some new interest felt 
 by idle folks where novelty is rare, as in a country 
 house nearly empty. Sir Edgar, accompanying the 
 two young ladies, strolled to the grounds where the
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 69 
 
 gardeners were taking the plants from the cart. 
 Perth turned as he rose from placing some heavy 
 pots on the earth, and saw his ancient adversary 
 standing by the side of his divinity, whom he could 
 not endure to see in such a place, though reality had 
 in some degree revealed too much to admit of the 
 ancient amount of his worship. He remembered 
 all the lady had said of his ignorance, and recollected 
 with pleasure how his fist had become acquainted 
 with the delicate nose of his rival. His hand closed 
 involuntarily as he thought how much more forcible 
 would have been his blows now. 
 
 Sir Edgar looked at Perth doubtfull}^ The richly- 
 attired, handsome young man, with wealth at his 
 command, could afford to forget the mortification of 
 the past, and to forgive its infliction, if he thought 
 of it. It was one of many battles he had fought ; for 
 fighting at public schools was more common then 
 than now. Perth did not understand this. He was 
 swelling with anger and mortification at being seen 
 in his ordinary clollie.s, his face flushed and em- 
 browned by labour, and his brow showing symptoms 
 of the primeval curse. 
 
 " Dear me ! what a queer plant ! " said Miss Bruce, 
 " What can be the name of it ? " 
 
 " Some of these plants are intended for the herb- 
 garden, miss,'* said the head gardener, avoiding an 
 answer. 
 
 "But what is the name of this one ? "
 
 70 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 " Herba Paris^ Triphjllos Braziliano, or true-love 
 of Brazil," said Perth, after a slight pause, finding 
 that either his principal did not hear or could not 
 answer. 
 
 "Bless us, boy ! " said Sir Edgar, somewhat con- 
 temptuously, ** where did you get such long words ? 
 Can you spell them ? I dare say not." 
 
 Perth spelt the words deliberately. 
 
 " This young fellow cuts you out, Mr. Luke," 
 continued the young baronet, stooping and picking 
 off the white flower from the head of the plant. 
 " It bears a pretty name, however ; but why of 
 Brazil? Should not true love bloon in our own 
 climate ? " and he presented the blossom to Miss 
 Bruce. 
 
 Miss Elliot now addi'essed a few words to Perth, 
 and asked the names and properties of several other 
 plants and shrubs, which he answered more modestly, 
 having felt the ridicule with which Sir Edgar had 
 assailed him. He gave the English and botanical 
 names, and their derivations from either the Latin 
 or Greek language. Miss Elliot listened with 
 politeness. She had always liked Perth for his 
 defence of the cat ; and she ranged herself on his 
 side now, feeling that her betrothed had offered her 
 an unintentional slight in giving the true-love 
 flower to her governess. She was too simple- 
 minded to guess that the apparent devotion on the 
 part of Sir Edgar to Miss Bruce was unreal.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 71 
 
 Whilst Sir Edgar coquetted about the flower true- 
 love with the governess, and Miss Elliot was listen- 
 ing to the names and explanations uttered by Perth, 
 there was another auditor, whose breast was filled 
 with rage and mortification. Luke, the head 
 gardener, had been put to shame before his under- 
 lings by a youth of eighteen ; and he determined 
 that in future the most ignorant of his staflp should 
 maltreat the punica rather than keep so conceited 
 an upstart in his grounds. Accordingly, he told 
 Perth that he should not require his services on the 
 morrow, and that he would call on Mr. Preston on 
 the following day, and settle with him for his son's 
 services. In vain Perth urged that he had only 
 done a small part of the nailing up climbing plants 
 round the house. The plants might all die for what 
 he cared, retorted Luke angrily, rather than that he 
 should keep such a jackanapes on the premises. 
 
 Perth went home crestfallen. He was too proud 
 to ask Luke not to tell his father of his knowledge 
 of Greek and Latin, though he knew the information 
 would raise such a storm or such a freezing chill in 
 the household as would end by driving Perth from 
 it. He took his beloved books from their hidden 
 place under the bolster of his bed, and, going into 
 the forest, he dug a hole in an open space, where the 
 roots were least entangled, and buried them. 
 
 He had told his father that he had been dismissed, 
 and that Mr. Luke would call on him next day.
 
 72 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 "What fault did he find with thee?" said Caleb, 
 who, though he had not been eager for his son's 
 eraploymcnt at the Hall, was provoked that Perth 
 had been dismissed. 
 
 " The young ladies asked the name of one of the 
 plants," said Perth ; " I gave it, because he was so 
 long in answering that I thought he did not know 
 what to say." 
 
 Caleb knew that one story was good till the other 
 was told, and waited for the other version of it. He 
 did not doubt what Perth had said was substantially 
 true, but small circumstances often throw a different 
 colouring on facts. 
 
 Perth was working on his father's land when he 
 
 saw Luke approaching, and felt his heart beat faster. 
 
 " I have brought your son's wages for the days he 
 
 worked for me, neighbour Preston. I shall not want 
 
 him again." 
 
 " In what way did he displease you ; or have you 
 no further need of his services? You found him 
 hard-working an J '..tclligent, I suppose?" 
 
 " Too clever by hair for an old-fashioned man like 
 myself. I don't want to be put do-svn before all my 
 men for not knowing Latin and Greek; the old 
 English names are enough for me." 
 
 " I am sure Perth could not put you dovni by his 
 knowledge of Latin and Greek. He knew but little 
 even of Latin, and that he has forgotten ; and of 
 Greek he does not even know the alphabet."
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 73 
 
 " Then more shame on him for pretending to what 
 he knows nothing about, and putting an honest man 
 out of countenance by such artful ways," said Luke 
 with great indignation. " I have often rejoiced," he 
 continued, " that I never married, and had a pack 
 of children to bring me to trouble." 
 
 '' I do not think Perth would pretend to what he 
 does not know," said Caleb Preston, trying to keep 
 his temper under control, so that he might not 
 aflPront one of his congregation, or exhibit himself 
 in Tinbecoming heat; ''however, we will call him, 
 and hear what he has to say for himself. You see, 
 neighbour, I can be more certain of my son's 
 ignorance on the points of ancient literature," he 
 continued, " because I was myself caught in the 
 snare in former days, and gave up my hours to the 
 study which leadeth to destruction. My days and 
 nights were given to unrighteous literature, and I 
 thought not of those books which only contain the 
 words of eternal life. I have put them aside for 
 ever, and forbidden my son to read therein. I know 
 they are hid from his sight, and would convey no 
 more information to his eyes than Egyptian hiero- 
 glyphics would to thine." 
 
 '"Tis all very well, neighbour, but I wish my 
 father had bestowed on me a little of the learning 
 you make so light of. Bless j'-ou, man, a fellow need 
 not get drunk if he likes a glass of good beer, nor 
 be puffed up with learning because he can gi^'e
 
 74 TRUE TO TH?: LIFE. 
 
 the Latin name of a flower wLen a lady a-sks 
 him!'' 
 
 " Touch not ; taste not ; handle not ! Let all 
 such abominations be put away far from the elect 
 of God," said Caleb solemnly. 
 
 ''Well, neighbour, I don't owe the young man 
 any grudge, and I will not stay and hear your 
 discourse to him ; but I think you will find that 
 your children know a thing or two which you never 
 taught them ; " and, with that Parthian dart, Luke 
 left the preacher's cottage. 
 
 Luke had heard of the rough greeting given by 
 the servants at the Hall to Miss Preston, and of the 
 interference of Sir Edo-ar ; and his knowledo^e of 
 human nature had supplied the rest of his sugges- 
 tions to his neighbour. 
 
 They had sufficed to make Caleb generally uneasy, 
 the more as they pointed to some unknown and 
 unlawful knowledge possessed by Leah as well as 
 Perth. This gave double asceticism to his voice 
 and manner when Perth obeyed his summons. 
 
 "I have heard that of thee, Perth, which I am 
 loath to credit. It is said that thou didst pique 
 thyself on the display of knowledge which, I feel 
 assured, thou didst never possess. Hemembcr, my 
 son, that the ass which wore the lion's skin, and the 
 jay which pilfered the plumage of Juno's bird, both 
 excited ridicule and provoked punishment." 
 
 ** I did not, my father," was all the reply made
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 75 
 
 by tlie 3^outh, who would neither tell a lie nor 
 criminate himself needlessly. 
 
 " Then why did our neighbour Luke object to thy 
 speech?" 
 
 " I told the name of a flower which he had for- 
 gotten." 
 
 "He said thou didst give the Latin and Greek 
 derivations." 
 
 Perth was silent. 
 
 "Was it true?" 
 
 "Father, it was!" 
 
 " How didst thou become acquainted with such ?" 
 
 Perth looked to the window, whence the decaying 
 light streamed into the dusky room, and to the low 
 ceiling, for some form of words by which he might 
 turn aside his father's wrath ; but a young warrior 
 thrust suddenly into a combat without his weapons 
 could not have felt more utterly helpless than Perth. 
 At length he gained courage from despair, and 
 said — 
 
 " Father ! I know a little Latin : you taught it to 
 me yourself some years since. I know a little 
 Greek : I taught myself that." 
 
 " Whence did you get the books ? " said Caleb, 
 a dire expression of anger settling itself in his eye- 
 lids and knitted brows ; for the reference to his 
 former tuition had provoked doubly his ire. 
 
 " I was ashamed of my ignorance, and I took the 
 books from the chest."
 
 76 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 " AYere the books mine or yours ? '* said Caleb 
 Preston with frightful clearness and precision. 
 
 " I think I might justly consider the Latin 
 grammar, out of which I used to learn, as my own," 
 said the boy. ** The dictionary was yours of course, 
 and tlie Greek grammar and lexicon also." 
 
 "Whilst his son spoke, the knowledge that he had 
 been deceived let loose a torrent of rage in the breast 
 of the father, which perturbed him the more from 
 the outward calm which he compelled himself to 
 assume. 
 
 "So you have become a thief, and robbed your 
 father. I have nourished at my table one who, for 
 j^ears probably, has been deceiving me — eating my 
 bread, and outraging my commands in every thought 
 of his heart and every action of his life. x^ow hear 
 the sentence you have brought on yourself. Bring 
 back the books you have stolen, and ask pardon of 
 God, and of your father, for your sin ; or never again 
 come into my presence, or sit at meat in my house, 
 or sleep under my roof." 
 
 The young man rose up, stunned by the enimcia- 
 tion of his father's wrath. He had not thought 
 that to take his father's books could have been 
 counted as theft. All his nascent manhood rose 
 against the injustice of the accusation and the harsh- 
 ness of the penalty. He reeled towards the door, 
 and passed out into the night, without any observa- 
 tion on the sentence pronounced against him. At
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 77 
 
 the moment when he went out into the darkness he 
 heard the click of the lock, as his father turned the 
 key, as if he had determined that the exclusion 
 should be final. Perth turned and looked at the 
 sullen-looking door, which seemed as obstinate and 
 determined as his father ; then at the window, 
 through which the fire still flashed, giving a notion 
 of warmth and comfort he was forbidden to enjoy ; 
 and his heart was full of bitterness. He could not 
 know that the heart of Caleb Preston yearned to 
 recall him. His father persuaded himself that Perth 
 would return and show him where the books were 
 concealed, and beg his pardon ; and Caleb felt the 
 warm tears rush into his eyes when he thought that 
 there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that 
 repenteth than over ninety-and-nine just persons 
 who need no repentance.
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 " Anger is L'ke 
 A full hot horse ; allow hira but his way, 
 
 Self-mettle tires him." 
 
 If anger raged in the bosom of the father, it 
 triumphed over every feeling of duty in the breast 
 of the son. He had been turned out of his father's 
 house for a fault which other men would have 
 considered a virtue. The summer evening was not 
 chilly ; and he went into the stable, where it was his 
 duty to feed and bed down the old blind pony. The 
 creature heard his step, and turned round with a 
 whining of satisfaction. Then Perth fiung his arm 
 over the pony's neck, and wept out all his bitterness 
 and wrongs. " Old friend ! I must share thy bed 
 to-night," he said, throwing down a bundle of straw 
 in a corner of the stable for a pillow. He lay down 
 and tried to think ; but his throbbing pulses and the 
 hot tears that streamed from his eyes banished alike 
 continuous efforts of memory and sleep. 
 
 " When thousand thoughts begin and end in one, 
 The refuge sought fi-om each is found in none." 
 
 He only could feel on the present ; not reason on the 
 past, nor plan for the future. At length he wept till
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 79 
 
 he was calm ; but this state of mind lie did not attain 
 till the stars were fading into the grey haze of a 
 summer dawn. Then he remembered that he must 
 have a change of clothes. To such he had an indubit- 
 able right ; for had he not given the labour which had 
 purchased them, and many comforts in the little 
 household besides ? His mind was made up. He 
 climbed into the window of his bedroom silently, and 
 put together the few articles of dress which belonged 
 to him. He had nothing else there ; for his other 
 treasures were buried in the forest. He was deter- 
 mined not to give them up — determined never to 
 admit himself to be in the wrong when he did not be- 
 lieve that he had been guilty of any sin. As he moved 
 about his room noiselessly, he heard his father's 
 voice in tones of anguish. He listened, and ex- 
 postulations of fervent prayer were poured on the 
 silent calm of night : — 
 
 " Thou who madest and order est all things, look 
 down, I beseech Thee, on this my erring son ; bring 
 him by a sense of his crime into the paths of holiness 
 and jpeace. Grant that he may be one of Th}^ elect — 
 a brand plucked from the burning — a peculiar 
 creature marked out by Thy grace to show forth Thy 
 glory and power in this world, and to be united to 
 those made perfect by Thy presence in eternity." 
 
 Perth heard. " My poor father ! " was his thought. 
 ''What mistaken views of life are his ! " Anger had 
 nearly subsided into pity ; for Perth, like all clever,
 
 80 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 energetic youths, thought all wisdom foolishness, 
 excepting that which his own opinions decided to be 
 wise. He commiserated his father for his narrow 
 sectarian prejudices, and, taking a lofty view of the 
 subject, could afford to forgive him. Yet the stronger 
 this feeling became, the less was he disposed to sue 
 for pardon himself. Nature suggested that he had 
 no right to disobey his father, nor to possess himself 
 of his father's property illegally ; on the other side, 
 he argued that his father was wrong in theory and 
 tyrannical in practice, and that at eighteen he had a 
 right to think and act for himself. He knew not 
 where to go to obtain another meal, nor how to get 
 work by which he might be fed ; but one feeling 
 overrode every other — he would never admit he was 
 in tlic wrong. lie made his clothes into a small 
 bundle in a handkerchief, and left the room, as he 
 had entered it, by the window. He would sell one 
 suit of his clothes, he thought — for he had two ; and 
 with the money thus obtained he would travel 
 towards the sea-coast, and get eniplo}Tnent as a farm- 
 labourer. 
 
 He returned to the shed, dignified by the name of 
 stable. The blind pony knew all about the warm and 
 cold corners in it more than his young master, who 
 flung himself on the straw, and, wearied by many 
 emotions, slept at length, or rather, slumbered ; for 
 he was conscious that a slender figure in white 
 garments, with her dark hair floating over her
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 81 
 
 shoulders, stood at the opening of the shed, partly 
 in shadow, partly revealed by the moonlight. He 
 dreamed that the spirit of his mother was standing- 
 there, looking down on him, and weeping. He 
 fancied he heard the sound of stifled sobs. Presently 
 the figure came to his side, and stooping down, kissed 
 him tenderly on the forehead, and placed a small 
 piece of twisted paper in his hand. She went to 
 the door and turned back once more, with a lingering 
 look of love, and disappeared into the moonlight. 
 
 It was Leah, his sister, who thus bade him a long 
 farewell. She had stolen down- stairs, and listened 
 with terror and sympathy to the denunciations of her 
 father, and had crept up weeping to bed when Perth 
 left the house. 
 
 Poor Leah had griefs and mortifications uncon- 
 nected with Perth, but she was full of sorrow for his 
 irritated brain and wounded pride. Her father had 
 never excited any feeling of afiection in the heart of 
 his son. Perth had felt admiration of, and reverence 
 for, his father ; but the severity of his rule had stifled 
 all feeling of love. To Leah his manner had been 
 more indulgent. She saw through his smaU foibles, 
 and recognised his integrity, his virtue, even his 
 tenderness, through the rough and frozen exterior 
 with which those qualities were iced over. 
 
 Leah, whose heart overflowed with sympathy for 
 every living creature, had the strange power of 
 placing herself at once, and without previohs con- 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 sideration, in the situation of the object who called 
 it forth. 81ie never could have preached to a cold, 
 careless, or inattentive congregation ; yet when his 
 flock were unmoved by Caleb Preston's eloquence, 
 Leah suffered far more for her father than he ever 
 felt mortified himself by his failure to touch their 
 feelings or to convince their reason. On these occa- 
 sions Leah was always ready to drop some remark, 
 picked up in returning from the evening service, to 
 prove that by some, at least, of his congregation his 
 powers had been felt and appreciated. 
 
 I do not suppose that a person as near to per- 
 fection as anything created could become would ex- 
 cite much love. It is the weaknesses united to the 
 strength in the human character which endear a 
 man to his fellows. To others Caleb was a hard man 
 — severe to himself, and not indulgent to others — of 
 strict integrity, but exacting his due with more 
 precision than mercy. Leah saw in him, besides 
 these qualities, a secret love of applause, and that 
 i'eeling of vanity which came out more strongly in 
 his love. The consciousness of this failing, which 
 lie had felt to have mingled with his love of profane 
 learning, had been one of the reasons for which he 
 had put aside that cause of stumbling and rock of 
 offence ; but Caleb was unconscious the evil spirit 
 had only taken another form — that his spii'its rose 
 or fell in proportion as his barn, now called a chapel, 
 was w6ll or ill attended.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. ©3 
 
 When Leah had listened to the examination of 
 Perth, she had been deeply moved for her father's 
 outraged authority, and still more deeply for her 
 brother's grief. She thought Perth was hardly 
 treated. When her father's voice arose in prayer, 
 and he, deeply moved, was too much occupied to 
 attend to any trivial sounds in the house, Leah had 
 listened to the movements in Perth's room, and, 
 having put on a few garments hastily, she entered 
 his bed-chamber just after he had left it. She saw 
 at once that the old oak chest was nearly empty, and 
 knew that Perth meditated flight. She was too well 
 acquainted with the force and obstinacy of his cha- 
 racter to expect that any entreaties of hers would 
 change his purpose ; so she twisted up in a bit of 
 paper the four shillings and sixpence found in the 
 pocket of her dead mother — the only money to 
 which she had any right — and, finding Perth sleep- 
 ing in the pony's shed, placed the money in his 
 hand. She would not awake him whilst he could 
 forget some of the bitterness of his mortification in 
 sleep. Thus she parted from him without the fare- 
 well kiss for which her heart yearned ; for she felt 
 that, when she saw her father on the following day, 
 she should be forbidden to hold converse with one 
 under the ban of Caleb Preston's displeasure. 
 
 The next day Perth's place was empty at the 
 breakfast- table, and that no morning meal would be 
 spread for him made the big tears gather fast in
 
 84 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 Leah's eyes. The father's heart was not unmoved ; 
 but he was convinced that, after a little struggle, 
 hunger would bring back the truant to the paternal 
 roof, full of contrition and promises of amendment, 
 with the disputed abstracted books in his hands to 
 be placed at his father's disposal. 
 
 Leah had no such expectation, and but a feeble 
 hope that he might still be sleeping in the pony's 
 shed ; or, if he had left it, that he might return 
 there. 
 
 She, therefore, took her portion of bread and mug 
 of milk, of which she purposely had not partaken, to 
 the stable, not unseen by Caleb, who loved her 
 the more for the tenderness she showed towards her 
 disgraced brother. It was a comfort to the old 
 man's heart to think that Perth shoidd not be 
 without food ; and he had not the grief of knowing 
 that an hour after the old pony had smelt out the 
 bread and eaten it, and, knocking over the mug of 
 milk with his nose, had crushed it to bits with his 
 hoofs. Perth, having left the stable early, had 
 never seen the oifering left for him by sororal affec- 
 tion.
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 " Some small reserve of near and inward love, 
 Some unsuspected hoard of darling griefs." 
 
 The anxiety and sorrow which had come upon 
 Leah about her brother had neutraKsed in some 
 degree the grief she felt with regard to Sir Edgar 
 South' s seeming ridicule, after the tender champion- 
 ship of his manner towards her. She was ashamed 
 of thinking so much about him — ashamed of her 
 anxiety to see him again. She had sufficient self- 
 conmiand not to go up to the Hall for further orders ; 
 but with infinite care and trouble, after four foul 
 copies, she produced the following note. Leah had 
 been taught to write well and to spell perfectly by 
 her father, but she had never exercised the power ; 
 and though the note was a perfect specimen of cali- 
 graphy, every flourish being in the right place, it 
 wanted the easy flow which graces the epistles of 
 female servants in the present day, who, as a rule, 
 write and receive more letters than their mistresses — 
 the reason being obvious : the servants waste time 
 which belongs to their employers; the mistress 
 economises time which is her own.
 
 86 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 Thus ran Leah's letter : — 
 
 *' To Miss Bruce. 
 
 "Madam, — Will you kindly inform me if the 
 dress was made properly, and if I am to go on with 
 the others according to the same pattern ? 
 
 " Your dutiful sers'ant, 
 
 " Leah Preston.*' 
 
 The little boy on whom Leah expended a penny 
 to take this to the Hall brought back a bit of 
 paper, on which was written hastily, " Half an inch 
 too small round the waist." 
 
 Leah thought this was permission to go on with 
 her work, taking notice to avoid the mistake in the 
 circumference of the lady's waist. 
 
 She sat at her bedroom window, stitching away 
 with imremitting industry. The finishing of one 
 task after another was the ambition of the hour. 
 Women have an advantage over men in this small 
 employment of their fingers — employment with an 
 object that docs not tax their intellects. Leah forced 
 her mind away from the recollection of JSir Edgar 
 by industry which made her brain reel, at length, 
 by the quick and incessant movement of her right 
 hand beneath her eyes. She felt that she had 
 resisted the temptation of going to the Hall, and 
 was proud of the strength of mind she had thus 
 evinced.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 87 
 
 She pondered deeply on her brother's fate. Poor 
 Perth. ! She was glad she had given him those four 
 shillings and sixpence. She could not have made 
 up her mind to part with them on any occasion less 
 urgent. Whilst he had that sum, he could not be 
 without food ; and he was so strong and able to 
 work, that she comforted herself with the hope that 
 he would soon obtain occupation. She did not know 
 how difficult it is, unless at a period when hay is to 
 be got up, or the harvest to be gathered, for a 
 stranger to obtain emploj^ment by farmers, who have 
 their regular labourers, of whose powers for work 
 and characters they have had experience. 
 
 Perth walked to Stoneham on the mornino^ after 
 the night he had spent in his father's shed. He 
 hoped his father would get Dick Crozier to clean 
 out the stable, and feed the old pony up at night. 
 He was very grateful to Leah for the four shillings 
 and sixpence, and, from a strange confusion of 
 thbught and feeling, it seemed to him as if his 
 mother had given it to him, and approved of his 
 conduct. So like did Leah appear in that moon- 
 light scene to the image of his dead mother, as 
 he had last seen her, stretched out in the sad calm 
 of death. 
 
 He wanted to save the silver, to which he at- 
 tached an adventitious value ; and the object of his 
 visit to Stoneham was to dispose of a suit of his 
 clothes, whereby he might obtain money enough to
 
 88 TRUE TO TIIK LIFE. 
 
 travel with less anxiety about the means of subsist- 
 ence. The clothes, his best suit, would be cumber- 
 some to carry, and the money was indispensable. 
 
 He went to an old-clothes shop, and presented the 
 suit for sale ; but the sum offered by the master of 
 the shop seemed to the youth so far below its value, 
 that he tied up the clothes again in a parcel, and 
 walked away. A young man who had been stand- 
 ing at the door, and had heard the discussion, un- 
 observed by Perth, touched him on the arm, and 
 asked for a few words with him, proposing a neigh- 
 bouring public-house as the best place for an inter- 
 view. Perth said shortly that it was not his custom 
 to frequent such places, and he had better communi- 
 cate what he had to say then and there. 
 
 Outside the town of Stoneham there was a vene- 
 rable avenue of elms, through which the public had 
 a right of way, and under these trees rustic seats 
 had been placed. Towards one of these the youth 
 conducted Perth, and told him that he should like 
 to become the purchaser of his clothes, on two con- 
 ditions. One was, that he might try them on, to 
 see if they would fit; another, that Perth should 
 wait for a fortnight, till he should be able to pay 
 him the money, which he expected to receive on the 
 15th of the following month, which was the day 
 appointed for the, fete at the old Hall. He tried on 
 the coat at once, and thought it would do. Certainly, 
 there was no glass near to see his own reflection, nor
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 89 
 
 any still water, so tlie becomingness the young man 
 was obliged to take for granted ; but be expressed 
 anxiety to complete tbe bargain, and Perth assented 
 to the proposal, for he knew not to whom to apply 
 to purchase his property, now that he had left the 
 old- clothes shop in disgust. He only stipulated that 
 the clothes should remain with him till the money 
 was forthcoming, to which his customer agreed will- 
 ingly. 
 
 This plan had its disadvantages. It compelled 
 Perth to remain longer than he wished in his own 
 neighbourhood ; and he felt an invincible dislike to 
 apply for work to the farmers, who were many of 
 them members of his father's congregation, and who 
 would inquire into the cause of the rupture, and feel 
 but little sympathy with Perth for his love of the 
 dead languages. 
 
 He must expend some of Leah's gift in buying 
 bread ; for his appetite was that of a youth who had 
 not yet finished growing, and he required more than 
 a small amount of nourishment. Moreover, he had 
 been accustomed to a comfortable bed every night, 
 with snowy sheets, smoothed by Leah's neat hands ; 
 and though the pony's shed had not been a bad sub- 
 stitute for one night, Perth felt he should prefer 
 sleeping without his clothes, of which he felt the un- 
 pleasant constraint in the hours set apart for repose. 
 So he engaged a bed, for which he was to pay 
 threepence each night, not being able to get any-
 
 90 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 thing at all clean at a cheaper rate. This would 
 amount to three shillings and ninepence for the 
 fifteen nights, paid in advance, and would leave him 
 only ninepence for food for fifteen days, which must 
 elapse before he received pajTnent for his clothes. 
 The bed, however, was a place where he could leave 
 the encumbering suit, as none other was placed in 
 the small closet in which it stood ; and when he 
 asked permission of the master of the house to leave 
 his clothes there, he good-naturedly advised him to 
 lock the door when he went out, and place the key 
 in his pocket. 
 
 Perth was not at first unhappy in his compelled 
 inactivity. Luckily for him, the weather was de- 
 liciously balmy, the sun ha^-ing just power enough 
 to warm, and not to scorch ; for it was the last day 
 of May, and all nature seemed redolent of perfume 
 and instinct with sparkling life. He had eaten some 
 bread for his breakfast, and was on his way to the 
 avenue, with the intention of going over for the 
 fiftieth time the rules of that fatal Greek grammar 
 which had been the cause of his expulsion from 
 home, when temptation assailed him, as temptation 
 does assail, in different ways, both the young and 
 impulsive and the old and ease-loving. 
 
 The article, the contemplation of which made 
 Perth pause and linger as he passed down the street 
 of Stoneham, and at which he looked back with the 
 5'earning fondness with which a mother eyes the toy
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 91 
 
 she longs to purchase for her first-born, when her 
 empty pocket forbids the indulgence^ was nothing 
 more than a tattered old copy of Homer's Iliad. 
 It was lying on the counter of the grocer's shop, where 
 Perth had purchased the waste paper for his father's 
 stores. The master of the shop, seeing Perth pass- 
 ing, had called him in, and asked what he would 
 give for the old book. The eagerness the boy had 
 shown, three years previously, to purchase the records 
 of some unknown tongue had given him the hope 
 that he might get some money out of the boy's 
 pocket to reimburse him for his former generosity 
 in giving away the small copy of the ^neid. 
 
 The mercenary tradesman saw the eyes of Perth 
 sparkle as he touched reverently the well-worn 
 paper, made yellow and fleecy by age. 
 
 "What is the price?" 
 
 " Two shillings." 
 
 " Two shillings ! " exclaimed the boy in dismay. 
 
 " I'm told," said Mr. Reece, the grocer, '' 'tis a 
 very fine edition. Mr. Grogram, the schoolmaster, 
 said so." 
 
 " 'Twas a pity he did not buy it himself, then," 
 retorted Perth, not knowing that the schoolmaster 
 had sold it, as being the property of a departed 
 usher, with the boys' old copy-books, to Mr. Eeece 
 for a very small amount. 
 
 '* Does not your father want some more waste 
 paper ? " said the grocer.
 
 92 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 " I believe he will in a day or two. They had 
 come nearly to the bottom of the box when they 
 sent for lard from the Hall,'^ replied the youth. 
 
 "Shall you fetch it, or will he come himself?" 
 
 " He will come himself, probably, and pay for it 
 at the same time." 
 
 " Ah, well ! He is not so keen at a bargain as 
 5'ou are. Poor man ! His thoughts are always 
 wool-gathering in the Promised Land, as they call 
 it in the Bible. You may take the book at two 
 shillings, and I'll charge him the two shillings on 
 to the waste paper : he'll never be the wiser." 
 
 Perth heard the murmur of the grocer's voice ; 
 but he had opened at the second book, where the 
 poet has described the march of the innumerable 
 armies to battle — the splendour of their armour, 
 which shone like fire — the order which evolved from 
 disorder, as they formed like swans on the springs 
 of Cayster, preparing for flight — and their multi- 
 tudes and eagerness for their prey, as swarms of 
 flies which gather round the shepherd's cottage 
 when milk first moistens the pails. 
 
 There was something that struck Perth particularly 
 in the nature of the last simile. Thou^-li a courtly 
 poet might have been shocked at the bathos, Perth 
 had seen the fact sufficiently often to value the 
 truth of the resemblance. 
 
 "Well?" said Mr. Reece interrogatively, angry 
 at not having received any answer to what he con-
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 93 
 
 sidered a most generous proposal. "I can't stand 
 here all night, young man, whilst you're fingering 
 my property about." 
 
 " I beg pardon, sir. It is rather difficult to make 
 out, for I am a poor scholar," with a sigh; "but 
 will you kindly repeat what you said ? I did not 
 hear a word." 
 
 " Well, I said that you are a sharper hand at a 
 bargain than your father ; and if you will be reason- 
 able in the future, I'll just charge the book in the 
 next bundle of paper I sell him, and you'll get the 
 book for nothing, do you see ?" 
 
 Perth dropped the book as if it had burnt his 
 fingers, and, restraining the indignation which rose 
 to his lips, he passed out of the shop into the street, 
 and took the road to the avenue, possessed by the 
 longing which the rules of the Greek grammar 
 stimulated rather than repressed. How he thought 
 over his means, or rather, the want of them ! How 
 happy the two shillings would have made him ! 
 With what zest he would have toiled over the 
 loving task of evolving the sense of the author into 
 English ! But he would have but ninepence left 
 when he had paid for his lodging, and that would 
 never support him at his present rate of hunger. 
 He was astonished, now that he had to pay for his 
 food, to find how much he required to satisfy the 
 gnawings of appetite. It was terrible to battle with 
 that internal wolf.
 
 y* TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 It was strange to Perth, who was ignorant of the 
 fickleness of a boy's fancy, that the desire to possess 
 this tattered copy of Homer was greater than any 
 longing he had ever experienced to see the face 
 of his divine Arithmetica ; but then, he had for- 
 gotten a great part of the past devotion to his deity 
 since the cure produced on hira by nearer proximity. 
 To possess his treasure by the means proposed by 
 the grocer would be an act too base to think of. 
 That night he could not forbear to pass the shop 
 before the shutters were put up, to see if any more 
 fortunate man had possessed himself of the book. 
 No ; fortunately for his peace of mind, he saw the 
 brown, ragged corner of the darkened calf cover, 
 thrust aside as it was by paper bags of soft sugar, 
 by bars of brown soap and half-consumed cocoa- 
 nut. Then he went home sighing to bed, and said 
 his prayers, praj^ing for Leah, and, after a bitter 
 struggle in his mind, for his father also. On the 
 following afternoon, fortune favoured him. 
 
 As he was walking down the street in order to look 
 once more at Mr. Recce's shop, he heard shouts of 
 terror behind him, and the quick rebound of hoofs 
 from the stone pavement. Turning quickly, he saw 
 a horse galloping down the street, with a middle- 
 aged man on its back, who had lost his stirrups and 
 his hat, and was borne along helplessly, and seemed 
 in imminent danger of being dashed to pieces. 
 
 To try to interpose any check to an animal like a
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 95 
 
 horse in full speed requires a cool mind, a steady 
 hand, and a correct eye. Perth decided at once on 
 his line of action. At one place the street narrowed 
 considerably, and he saw that the animal, almost 
 maddened by terror and accelerated speed, was 
 making for this point. Perth placed himself as 
 near as possible to the wall, where the out-jutting 
 of one house and the standing backward of another 
 had formed a little recess, that the sight of him 
 should not make the horse swerve, and awaiting 
 the rush of the infuriated beast, he darted out, seized 
 the bridle, and was thrown down and dragged a few 
 yards on the ground, before the animal, whose head 
 was forced down by the weight of Perth, slackened 
 his speed, and ultimately stopped. 
 
 Panting and terrified, the rider flung himself off", 
 and was for a few moments too breathless to thank 
 the youth who, having saved his life, had now 
 scrambled to his feet, and offered the reins, of which 
 he still retained hold, to the late rider. 
 
 " Take him to the George for me, there's a good 
 fellow. I might have had a nasty accident but for 
 your catching the head of the brute. I shall not 
 ride him again. There's half-a-crown for you. 
 Tell the groom at the George to put him into 
 the stable." 
 
 The half-crown did not compensate Perth for 
 his damaged clothes and excoriated skin. He 
 looked ruefully at his garments, thinking how
 
 96 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 mucli more important to him were the rents in his 
 clothes than the cuts on his hands and knees. 
 Nature would heal these in a few days ; but, alas ! 
 Perth had no sister Leah now to mend the others. 
 The roughened skin smarted, and the cut« ached, 
 whilst Perth led the quivering, smoking horse to 
 the inn stable. 
 
 The ostler received him with a grin. 
 
 " I always said that Mr. Sharpin would rue the 
 day when he bought that nag. Tried to catch him, 
 I suppose, and got dragged, by the look of your 
 hands and knees ; not but that Sally looked out of 
 the window and told me something about it." 
 
 " May I wash off the blood and gravel in this 
 pail?'' said Perth. 
 
 " Yes, you may, if you empty and fill it again 
 with clean water. There's a piece of soaj), and you 
 may wipe your hands on that rubber." 
 
 The cold water and the consequent cleanliness were 
 pleasant to the boy, and putting his hand to his 
 waistcoat pocket to be sure that the half-crown was 
 safe, and had not fallen out when he stooped over 
 the pail, he went with a light heart to buy his book. 
 
 When Mr. Reece saw him coming, he thought 
 of a compromise, as he could not know that Perth 
 had received any replenishment of pocket-money 
 since the previous evening, when he had seen the 
 lonffinff looks directed to his comitcr bv the vouth 
 as he passed the house.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 97 
 
 " I have been thinking, as you seem so keen on 
 this volume/' he said, putting his large hand over 
 it, " that you might pay me a shilling now, and a 
 shilling two months hence/' 
 
 This threw a new aspect on the affair ; for Perth 
 knew that he should want to eat up eighteen-pence 
 out of the stout gentleman's half-crown, and the 
 loan of the shilling, as he considered it, from the 
 grocer, he could repay when he got the money 
 for his clothes. He was more ready to accept of 
 the accommodation, as he felt he could not walk 
 about with triangular rents on his knees, and a 
 large white sj)ace imder one of his arms, which had 
 been torn in his struggle with the runaway horse. 
 So he thanked Mr. Reece, and paying down the 
 half-crown, received eighteen-pence in return, which 
 the grocer gave back grudgingly, seeing that his 
 customer might have paid him at once in full. 
 However, before he had made up his mind to fight 
 for the immediate payment of the second shilling, 
 Perth had placed the eighteen-pence in his pocket, 
 and, clutching the book, had gone to fetch his 
 grammar and lexicon before he settled himself in 
 his favourite seat in the avenue. 
 
 We left Leah stitching away at her weary task 
 at the window of her bedroom. No one entered 
 this room but herself, and it was a very temple of 
 neatness and quiet. There was a little keeping- 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 TRUE TO ttip: life. 
 
 room, as the Essex folks call that part of the house 
 where the family generally live ; but sewing required, 
 Leah knew, the most scrupulous cleanliness, and both 
 Perth and her father would come in sometimes with 
 shoes which showed contact with summer dust and 
 winter mud. Should her work have fallen on 
 ground subjected to such pollution, Leah would 
 have been a wretched girl, for she prided herself 
 that her hems and seams should be as pure-looking 
 as if they had been part of the original woof, and 
 subjected as such to all supplementary bleachings, 
 which produce the dazzling effect in the original 
 piece. 
 
 She occupied a small bed with white dimity 
 curtains, which were seldom drawn, as the window 
 was so obscured by climbing plants in the summer, 
 that the Ught was by no means inconvenient, and 
 during the winter months the rays of the sun were 
 too pleasant to be excluded. She had her treasures, 
 too — a Bible and Prayer-book of her own, a small 
 framed engraving of Lord North's seat, and one of 
 the village church belonging to their parish, in the 
 churchyard of which her mother reposed. Leah 
 remembered little of her mother but a dim vision of 
 attenuation and suffering ; but she knew the reve- 
 rence in which her father held the memory of his 
 departed wife, and Leah honoured her accordingly. 
 She had one more book, "Pamela," then in the 
 plenitude of its fame, and considered by our plain-
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 99 
 
 speaking ancestors as the most moral of the works 
 of fiction, though no publisher of the present day 
 would dare to reproduce its ponderous impro- 
 prieties. 
 
 There are some natures which accumulate im- 
 purities, and some that repel them. Leah's was of 
 the latter type ; and though it was possible that some 
 thought that Sir Edgar might marry beneath him, 
 
 as Squire B had done, 'passed through her mind, 
 
 her innocent fancy never dwelt on the preparatory 
 scenes which led to the desired result. 
 
 In the meantime, whilst Leah exercised her 
 womanly virtue by keeping her room and exe- 
 cuting her task. Sir Edgar was repenting his last 
 experiment, and longing to see the pretty needle- 
 woman again. Miss Elliot he did not choose to 
 marry, because he had an idea that he ought to 
 fulfil the contract made by his dead father ; besides, 
 he was sure he might marry her if he pleased. 
 " This other woman," he said to himself, " with her 
 transparent artifices, her greediness, and her selfish- 
 ness, is intolerable. If I cannot see my wood- 
 nymph again, I shall bolt off the course before the 
 fete-diQ,j. What pleasure can any rational creature 
 feel in seeing those of the same species eating and 
 drinking to repletion ? It would be degrading 
 enough to watch swine similarly occupied, if one 
 were expected to feel pleasure at the exhibition.*' 
 
 A sudden thought flushed his cheek.
 
 100 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 " By Jove ! she will come to the fete, no 
 doubt. I must be careful in speaking to her, or 
 that great fellow, her brother, may give me as 
 thorough a licking now as he did three years since ;" 
 and his right hand went up and caressed his ill-used 
 nose involuntarily. 
 
 It still wanted some days to the feast, and he 
 wearied to see Leah again. He had been so very re- 
 spectful in his manner to her on that memorable occa- 
 sion when she was crying in the billiard-room. He 
 would have kissed her if he had followed his own 
 wishes. He might as well have taken that oppor- 
 tunity, if he were to have no other. " How would 
 she have taken it?" he wondered. He had never 
 seen a girl seemingly so retiring and modest, and 
 the thought that she might have been distressed 
 consoled him for not having made the attempt. 
 
 After walking up and down the billiard-room 
 restlessly, seeing in the whole of the heavy furniture 
 only the chair in which Leah had sat in her brief 
 stay at the Hall, he ordered his horse, and went to 
 his bedroom, having arranged his dress with more 
 eare than he had ever exercised to captivate a high- 
 born beauty in the park. His intention was to ride 
 slowly through the forest paths, come out at the 
 Chase, and then passing Leah's cottage, return to the 
 Hall across the park. 
 
 Would the reader have a glimpse of this Adonis 
 of 1800, as he came under some old cedar trees, a
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 101 
 
 bright bit of colour contrasted witb tbeir dull, plat- 
 form brancbes of dark green, with brown, unreflect- 
 ing barks ? The sunshine of May illuminated the 
 foliage around them, which was of the soft yellow of 
 oak-leaves newly emancipated from their furry 
 winter coverings of buds, and waving at every 
 breath of the balmy air their tasselled blooms. At 
 the back of Sir Edgar appeared a long vista, where 
 the trees in their different tints were repeated and 
 softened by distance, with one exception, which was a 
 solitary Judas tree of the brightest lilac, every slender 
 branch being so covered with bloom that the flowers 
 seemed hung in air rather than supported on their 
 proper stems. Sir Edgar's coat was of bright scarlet, 
 his hair flowed over his shoulders, and was sur- 
 m.ounted by a black beaver cocked-hat, trimmed 
 with gold and adorned by a white feather. His 
 open coat showed an embroidered waistcoat of white 
 silk, over which flowed his lace necktie ; but how 
 shall we speak with profane lips of the matchless 
 perfection of the garment which clothed the lower 
 part of his person ? We heard from the best autho- 
 rity that it arrived from London on the previous 
 night, and that two valets, standing by a chair, held 
 what the author, being a simple-minded person, 
 dares to call a pair of leather breeches, into which 
 Sir Edgar stepped, and was duly shaken, no other 
 manner being possible of pulling them on. From 
 the side of each knee fluttered fourteen ends of
 
 102 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 green ribbon, wlicreby the leather was united, in 
 the place of buttons ; top-boots, the upper part being 
 of the whitest leather, completed the dress. 
 
 As soon as he appeared in the distance the old 
 dog, whose memory still lingered on past triumphs, 
 and who scented the battle afar off, began to utter 
 short, aggressive barks. Knowing that Gyp was 
 not far oJBP, Sir Edgar at a distance heard the sound, 
 and observed a delicate figure in white lean out of 
 the small window to see what had disturbed the old 
 dog, who had become more crusty and irascible with 
 added years. '* She is there," he thought, and took 
 his decision as to his line of action immediately. He 
 rode slowly past, without turning his head towards 
 the cottage, and, calling his dog, put his horse at a 
 weak part of the fence, scorning the little gate 
 through which he might have ridden, and disap- 
 peared over the park. He knew he should produce 
 more effect by showing himself to Leah without 
 seeming to know she was there, or appearing to seek 
 her notice by a bow, or even a look. 
 
 The poor girl felt somehow injured and insulted, 
 and shed a few tears without knowing why. 
 
 She could not tell what she had expected him to 
 do. He might have looked towards the house 
 surely ; but wherefore ? He had been kind and 
 good-natured when she had been in trouble with 
 those bold men and women servauls at the Hall, yet 
 there was no reason wliv he should ever think of
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 103 
 
 her again ; and at that probability the tears streamed 
 over her peach-downy cheeks. 
 
 "I shall never — never forget him," said she, ''if 
 I should live to be a hundred ! " 
 
 Poor girl ! Thus vows the heart of youth, not 
 knowing how dim and colourless are the shadows of 
 our past lives, and their joys and sorrows, after a 
 lapse of fifty years, and how the actors seem like 
 the phantoms in a troubled dream to the aged. 
 
 It was hard upon poor Leah that she should have 
 captivated the fancy of a licentious young man, who 
 had never denied himself, or been denied by fortune, 
 any object on which he had set his mind. 
 
 There were women in London more beautiful, 
 possibly, with their charms heightened by fashion- 
 able attire, with natures practised in refined allure- 
 ments ; but the untaught innocence, and the modest}?- 
 of every look and gesture, combined with the strong 
 emotion from which she sufiered when Sir Edgar 
 first saw her, made Leah an object of greater attrac- 
 tion to the libertine than any beauty he had ever 
 before seen. 
 
 The constancy with which she stayed in her cot- 
 tage, continuing her occupations, irritated Sir Edgar, 
 who had been accustomed to the part of the pursued 
 rather than of the pursuer. 
 
 " I really don't think the stupid girl cares whe- 
 ther or not she ever sees me again," he said to him- 
 self, and he registered a vow that she should care.
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 " Many waters cannot quench love, 
 Neither can the floods drown it." 
 
 Solomon's Song. 
 
 One of the strongest phases of love is that the yictim 
 to that untcnder passion is always anxious to speak 
 of the object of it, even when there is little to be 
 said, and to persons who must be necessarily in- 
 different to the subject. 
 
 As Sir Edgar could not ride past Leah's cottage 
 that day a second time, he could not help intro- 
 ducing her into his next conversation with the two 
 ladies. 
 
 " I think you had some work done by some village 
 girl, madam,'* he said, addressing the governess. 
 " May I ask how she did your bidding ? T\"as her 
 work tolerably neat ?" 
 
 " Well enough," replied Miss Bruce. " She did 
 not quite fit me roimd the waist." 
 
 " Ah ! I've no doubt she had no conception of the 
 
 refined delicacy of that beautiful circle : — 
 
 ' Give me but what that ribbon bound, 
 Take all the rest the sun moves round,' " 
 
 he said gallantly, kissing the band which had fallen
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 105 
 
 off, as, fitting the action to tlie word, site had clasped 
 her waist with her two spread hands, and unfastened 
 the snap of the girdle by the pressure. 
 
 Miss Bruce tried to blush and look displeased, as 
 Miss Elliot was present. " It was very provoking," 
 she thought, " that Sir Edgar never said such pretty 
 things when they were alone." She feared Mr. 
 Elliot, though he troubled himself but little as to 
 what was going on around him, would be obliged at 
 last to ask Sir Edgar if he meant to insult Miss 
 Elliot hj his open advances to another lady, if he 
 continued to say such distressing things, to which 
 she could attach but little value, as they were never 
 repeated under circumstances when they would have 
 indicated some reality of feeling in the speaker. 
 
 Miss Elliot spoke at length, quietly, but with a 
 rising flush which enhanced her beauty. 
 
 "I don't know whether you had any particular 
 reason for making the inquiry. Sir Edgar, but the 
 young girl to whom you allude is an excellent 
 sempstress, and is very highly spoken of, as are her 
 father and brother." 
 
 She felt herself insulted, but resolved to show no 
 pique in her manner, which might indicate that she 
 was heart- wounded by his preference for her gover- 
 ness. So soon as she could without showing ill 
 temper, she meant to signify to her father lier wish 
 to break off an engagement which the gentleman 
 seemed only to use as a pretext for insult.
 
 106 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 Sir Edgar was pleased by the younger lady's 
 praise. 
 
 "Thank you," he said. ''I have some French 
 cambric which I should like to have trimmed with 
 lace for neckties. If Mistress Preston has fingers 
 sufiicicntly delicate for such fine work, I shall be 
 glad to employ her." 
 
 " I am sure, Sir Edgar, you need not give your 
 cambric to a paid sempstress ; / should be most 
 happy to trim the kerchiefs for you," returned Miss 
 Bruce. 
 
 " Alas, madam ! do you think I would consent 
 to occupy those delicate hands, or distress those 
 speaking eyes, by any requirement of mine ? Let 
 those who are less fair remain at their daily tasks ; 
 * we frolic whilst 'tis May! ' " 
 
 " Sir Edgar, I never can tell how long your good 
 intentions may last," said Miss Elliot, smiling. 
 '* Suppose you give me the cambric and the lace, 
 and I will carry them myself to Leah Preston, and 
 explain how you would like them to be made." 
 
 " Suppose we all go ? " exclaimed Sir Edgar gaily. 
 
 "By all means!" agreed Miss Bruce; for she 
 thought, " Miss Elliot will go into the cottage, and 
 I shall have a stroll with Sir Edgar in the park in 
 the mcai>time." 
 
 " Pardon me, if you two arc going, I think I will 
 leave you to convey the cambric, and Sir Edgar 
 will be able to give his own directions."
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 107 
 
 " Oil ! if the party is to be broken up, I bave no 
 desire to go, and I can send my yalet with the work 
 at any time/' 
 
 To walk alone with a forward woman of whom be 
 was heartily tired was too great an effort for the 
 young man. Miss Bruce could not urge the scheme, 
 as her pupil, who showed a strong determination to 
 emancipate herself from feminine control, had refused 
 to accompany her, for she lived in daily terror lest 
 Miss Elliot should represent her conduct with regard 
 to her affianced husband to Mr. Elliot. 
 
 In the meantime, Caleb Preston was heavy in 
 heart for the absence of his son. Having, under the 
 influence of violent anger, banished the youth till 
 he should admit his fault, he yearned for his return 
 with restless suffering, the pain being more acute 
 in proportion to the Spartan reticence of his manner. 
 
 If he could have admitted his heart- ache to Leah, 
 he would at least have had her sympathy ; but he 
 felt that he should thereby have lessened his dignity, 
 and consequent influence on his remaining child. 
 
 He had been accustomed every morning to hear 
 Perth's step on the stairs, just as the old clock struck 
 five, and since the boy's absence he awoke at one 
 o'clock, and remained awake, thinking of his son, 
 pondering as to where his young head was rest- 
 ing, and irritated by a faint hope that he would 
 return to breakfast that morning, in time for the 
 prayers that preceded the meal.
 
 108 TRUE TO THE LIEE. 
 
 Caleb had never been in the habit of going to 
 Stoneham, and now his disinclination to do so was 
 stronger than ever, lest he should have questions 
 asked as to the absence of Perth, who usually trans- 
 acted Caleb* s business for him. 
 
 Had he gone, he might have heard and seen what 
 would have melted his heart into unconditional 
 forgiveness, and induced him to pardon Perth for 
 his unnatural preference of the Latin and Greek 
 grammars. 
 
 "Whilst the father sat in his little room, pretending 
 to read, but in reality watching with tremulous 
 heart-beatings every sound of Dick Crozier's feet on 
 the stone-paved path outside the window, as he came 
 and went to minister to the necessities of the blind 
 pony — a proceeding of which, on each occasion, the 
 old dog expressed loud disapprobation — whilst Caleb 
 allowed the food placed before him to remain scarcely 
 tasted, because his heart yearned towards his absent 
 son, and he longed for the sound of his voice and 
 the sight of his comely head, the object of his 
 solicitude was suffering bodily pangs for the want 
 of the sustenance which his father's anxiety pre- 
 vented his consuming. 
 
 He had but nincpcnce left to keep him alive for 
 fifteen days, I have before stated. It seems to him 
 he had never been so outrageously hungry in his 
 previous life, simply because he had never known 
 such continued privation, nor observed how much
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 109 
 
 he had really consumed in his father's house. He 
 limited himself to half a penny roll daily, and for 
 two days he ate only the proper share, but on the 
 third morning, the vulture in his maw would not be 
 appeased with the sacrifice of his resolution, and 
 he swallowed the whole greedily. 
 
 The weather was unusually dry and bright, so 
 that Perth could sit on the seat in the avenue, and 
 study his Homer, forgetting for a time, in the 
 living scenes represented by the poet of the con- 
 fused voice of battle and garments rolled in blood, 
 the gnawing pain in his stomach, and the sickness 
 which accompanied it, which made the dim Greek 
 characters weaker before him, from the faintness 
 which arose from want of food. 
 
 One day a nurse, with one child in her arms, led 
 another, who was eating a bun. The child, from 
 caprice or repletion, flung it away, only partly 
 consumed ; a dog following smelt at it and refused 
 it, and Perth, having waited to see if the nurse 
 would return to pick it up, darted at it, overwhelmed 
 by shame, and ate it eagerly. 
 
 If it were but the season for carrots or turnips, 
 Perth thought he might help himself to a few with- 
 out thinking it much of a sin ; and he ran over in 
 his mind all the fields sown with those vegetables 
 in the neighbourhood of Stoneham ; but, though the 
 weather was now so genial, the earlier part of the 
 spring had been backward, and he knew there were
 
 110 TRUE TO TTIE TJFE. 
 
 none worth pnllinp^. At length tliere came a day 
 of soaking rain, and Perth was compelled to remain 
 shut within his little room, irritated about one 
 o'clock by the savoury smell of baked meat, of which 
 his landlord was partaking with his family, which 
 made the involuntary saliva rise to Perth's lips, and 
 increased his faintness. 
 
 The division was but lath and plaster between the 
 rooms, and he heard the woman of the house suggest 
 whether, as that poor boy was kept in by the rain, 
 he should not be asked to take a bit of dinner with 
 them. Perth started up with a sudden hope, but 
 sank down disappointed on hearing the ungracious 
 reply of the husband, who told her that if she was 
 going to feed every good-looking boy who lodged 
 there, his pocket would not suffice to pay for her 
 folly. 
 
 That day was a very dreary one, for the prepara- 
 tions for tea, accompanied by the odour of broiled 
 bacon, brought on again the sick yearning for food. 
 
 He went out when at night the rain ceased, and 
 purchased, just before the shops were shut, a small 
 quantity of rice with his last three-halfpence. He 
 did not mean to ask his laundress to boil tliis ; it 
 would have been an admission of his great need, 
 for she would never credit that any human being 
 could be content with so small a quantity of nutri- 
 ment, divided into three portions : moreover, Perth 
 imagined rightly that by swallowing the rice un-
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. Ill 
 
 cooked, tlie expansion of the grains in his stomacli 
 would relieve, in some degree, the gnawing sense of 
 emptiness and pain. 
 
 In the meantime Perth grew hollow-eyed and 
 stooping in his gait. He bent forward, partly to try 
 to relieve the distress of his stomach, and partly 
 from lack of strength to hold himself up. He had 
 tried to extract a shilling in advance from the 
 promised purchaser of his clothes ; but the youth 
 told him truly that he should not himself have a 
 sixpence tiU the morning of the 15th, when he 
 would pay him the whole. With this promise 
 Perth was fain to rest content. 
 
 When the conversation with regard to the visit to 
 Leah Preston had ceased, Miss Elliot, disappointed 
 of her kind intentions towards the young needle- 
 woman, determined to look out for some work, either 
 for her father or herself, which might afford Leah 
 employment. In the meanwhile she strolled to the 
 gardens ; for her father, having presented her with 
 a recently-published work on ornamental horticul- 
 ture, she was eager to exercise her newly- acquired 
 accomplishment. 
 
 She was met, however, by difficulties which she 
 did not anticipate, and which irritated her. Luke 
 was unwilling to alter his old-fashioned waj^s, and 
 though he knew but little of his art, his knowledge 
 was greater than hers, and he could bring the results 
 of his experience to negative all her little plans
 
 112 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 about artificial moulds and budding roses, which she 
 desired to experimentalise upoti. Accordingly, when 
 she saw him go oiF to his elevens, she called a little 
 boy who was employed in weeding the borders, and 
 desired him to fetch Perth Preston immediately, 
 remembering how intelligently he had spoken to 
 her on a former occasion. 
 
 The boy grinned, and put his hands to the back 
 of his head, as if to rest it whilst he looked up in the 
 young lady's face. 
 
 '' I count I must go a good step to fetch hCf 
 miss." 
 
 " Where is he working, then — in the north planta- 
 tion ?'' 
 
 " He ain't working here at all." 
 
 " Not working here ? " 
 
 *' "Why, didn't you know ? !Mr. Luke turned him 
 away 'cause he told the names of the flowers — Latin 
 they were — what master didn't know himself." 
 
 " Where is he now, then ? " 
 
 "I seed 'un last Sunday, when I went to my 
 aunt's at Stoncham. He did look bad ; they said he 
 was 'most starved, they counted, for he didn't seem 
 to have anything to eat. He lodge at my uncle's 
 house." 
 
 Miss EUiot turned away sad at heart, full of pity 
 for the youth, who seemed to have suftercd so im- 
 justly, and determined to make an eflbrt to have 
 Perth Preston reinstated in his former situation. She
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 113 
 
 called the boy, and desired him to tell Luke to come 
 to her so soon as he had finished his luncheon in the 
 summer-house near the acacia tree, and she seated 
 herself there, growing more angry, as time went on, 
 at her own wrongs and those of Perth Preston, and 
 with the author of both, Gilbert Luke. 
 
 " Where is that boy '^ — the young lady chose to 
 ignore his being a full-grown youth — ^'that boy 
 — Preston I think you called him ? " 
 
 '^ I can't rightly say, miss. He had finished his 
 job. He was only took on for a job. I believe he 
 fell out with his father, and Mr. Preston turned' 
 him out of doors. He was a young man that had a 
 wonderful notion of himself: no one was good 
 enough for him in his opinion.'' 
 
 " I wish him to be taken back again to work 
 here. I choose it," said the young lady, usually so 
 placid, with her eyes flashing fire. 
 
 " 'Scuse me, miss, that must be as master pleases. 
 You see, mum, that I can't have young folks put 
 over me, that might be my son in years, for the 
 matter of that, and if your papa pleases, I can leave 
 his service ; but I must be master over the young 
 men in the grounds so long as I do stay." 
 
 Here was a state of afiairs ! The young lady had 
 not anticipated such a result of her remonstrance. 
 She walked away, saying she should speak to her 
 father on the subject,* with a firm step and her head 
 well elevated, to give Luke the idea that she was 
 
 VOL. 1. I
 
 114 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 fully determined what course to adopt, whereas she 
 was both perplexed and crest-fallen. She doubted 
 very much her father's choosing to interfere between 
 the old gardener and his underlings. Mr. Elliot 
 loved his ease, and preferred being badly served and 
 somewhat cheated, to the annoyance of having to 
 look after his own affairs. Miss Elliot could imagine 
 what he would say, should she apply to him : — Xo 
 doubt Luke was right, and that the boy was imperti- 
 nent. He must be a bad sort of fellow, or his own 
 father would not have turned him out of doors. He, 
 her father, could not interfere between old Luke and 
 the people he chose to hire or to dismiss. 
 
 Before she proceeded further, she would get 
 together some work and send for Leah Preston, to 
 gather from her, if possible, the true cause of Perth's 
 expulsion from home.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 " love ! in such a wilderness as this, 
 Where transport and security entwine, 
 There is the empire of thy perfect bliss." 
 
 '* You sit too long in the house, child, over thai 
 needlework,** said Caleb Preston, observing the pale 
 cheeks and heavy eyes of bis darling. 
 
 " I must finish tbe lady's dresses, father," was the 
 reply. 
 
 " Certainly you must finish them ; but you must 
 be in the open air more," replied Caleb Preston, 
 seized with a sudden dread that the seeds of the dis- 
 ease which had deprived him of his wife might lurk 
 in the veins of his daughter. *' You should walk out 
 an hour every day," he continued. 
 
 Leah was silent. She thought she could compro- 
 mise the matter by taking her work with her into 
 the forest, and sitting on the trunk of a fallen 
 tree. 
 
 She had often sat there before. An acacia, having 
 been uprooted in a winter tempest, had fallen over 
 a cluster of wild cherry trees, and bowed them to 
 the earth in its descent. Life still lingered in the 
 acacia, and it had brought forth its spring foliage.
 
 116 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 The cherry trees had bent, but not broken, in their 
 neighbour's descent, and now made a close covert 
 round the acacia's rugged trunk. A small expanse, 
 unoccupied by timber, but surrounded by it, was 
 covered by a blue carpet of the wild hyacinth, and 
 the pendent branches of the elder rendered the air 
 heavy with perfume. Wild parsley, in full white 
 blossom, added its scent, and was varied in colour by 
 the pink geranium. Here Perth had cleared away 
 the obtrusive branches, so as to afford Leah a rustic 
 seat, and here she had been accustomed to sit with 
 her sewing or knitting, and sing her simple songs or 
 evening hymns. The seat was at some distance from 
 the paths cut through the forest for the equestrians ; 
 and if a thought of the horseman in scarlet passed 
 through Leah's mind, she dismissed the idea, as she 
 felt that, once in her leafy retreat, she should be 
 invisible to any passer-by. 
 
 On the day following Sir Edgar's proposition to 
 walk with the ladies to the cottage of Caleb Preston, 
 he placed some cambric and lace in the capacious 
 pocket of his walking suit of grey cloth trimmed 
 with silver, and went out by a circuitous route he 
 knew would lead him to the other end of the forest, 
 which he must traverse before he reached Leah's 
 cottage. He preferred walking, because he was 
 determined this time to enter her house, and give 
 her the commission himself — his inclination to see 
 her having been increased by the care she took to
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 117 
 
 exclude herself. But she was betrayed on this 
 occasion by her dumb companion. The old dog who 
 had accomjDanied her, after having made strenuous 
 efforts to possess himself of a portion of her work to 
 repose on, had been at length compelled to rest on 
 the hem of her gown, and on the soft turf under 
 her feet. 
 
 He was exhausted with his exertions — exertions 
 of which his mistress had been unconscious, pre- 
 occupied as she was with all the poetry of love and 
 youth. 
 
 Dick Crozier's mother, for a consideration, 
 received from the cook at the Hall the contents of 
 the wash-tub for the sustenance of her pig. The 
 sty was out of sight at the back of her house, and 
 at the end of a fairly large garden ; and, the contents 
 of the pail having been cast into the trough, the old 
 dog, to whom butcher's meat was a rarity, used to 
 steal down, and, with utter disregard to the remon- 
 strances of the pig, and to his grunted indignation, 
 possess himself of various mutton and beef bones, 
 which, when he had satisfied his hunger, he used to 
 bury in the ground. When he had seen that his 
 mistress was bound for the forest, he crept down to 
 the trough and selected the bone of a leg of mutton, 
 with which he trotted after her, with his tail de- 
 pressed, and casting backward glances from the 
 corners of his eyes, to see if he were pursued by any 
 rival claimant, or dreading the vision of Mrs. Crozier
 
 118 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 armed with a birch -broom. Ko such misfortune 
 befell him, however ; but his teeth were broken, and 
 the bone being a weary weight, he was glad to lay it 
 down before he reached Leah's seat, and having 
 scraped away the leaves and moss by the side of the 
 road, he deposited the prize in the hole he had made 
 for it. Leah sat down and worked, glad that the 
 attention she gave her stitches in some degree 
 abstracted her mind from the thought of Sir 
 Edgar. The dog on the hem of her di-ess kept one 
 eye open, even when he slumbered, and one ear 
 occasionally pricked up to listen to any passing 
 footsteps, and the one only thought in his dog mind 
 fixed on the buried bone. 
 
 He was now refreshed by rest, and he hesitated 
 whether it would not be better to bring the bone into 
 closer proximity to his young mistress ; but his 
 nose was somewhat excoriated by the aid it had 
 given his paws, and at the point where his claws 
 were set in his toes, the sheaths were tender by 
 reason of his scraping, so he dozed away and tried 
 to forget his anxious blessing. 
 
 Presently his di'cams were troubled by a distant 
 scent ; he started up with a low growl, then rushed 
 away with vociferous barkings. Leah was not 
 alarmed till she heard the voice of another do?, and 
 was aware, by unmistakable sounds, that her veteran 
 was engaged in combat witli one or more adversaries. 
 Then she threw down her work, and rushed to the
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 119 
 
 scene of battle, for she knew that, however valiant 
 her old favourite might be, his powers were faiKng — 
 his teeth broken and incapable of much harm, and 
 his back-bone stiffened by age. So when she saw 
 the teeth of Gyp at the throat of her dog, whose 
 utterance was reduced to choked sounds of suffoca- 
 tion, she knew of no better way of releasing him 
 than to try and o]3en his adversary's jaws, after the 
 manner of Samson's dealings with the lion; but 
 which attempt, as she lacked the strength to carry 
 it out, was a failure. 
 
 Luckily for Bobtail's life, a more effectual ally 
 was near in the person of Gyp's master, who called 
 off the dog just as his jaws, having released the 
 throat of Bobtail, had seized on Leah's arm. 
 
 She was much alarmed, though a vigorous blow on 
 the head from the switch Sir Edgar carried sent 
 the animal slinking to his master's heels, without 
 daring again to dispute the possession of the mutton- 
 bone, which he had disinterred, and thus made the 
 original cause of this renewal of strife. Leah stood 
 pale with pain, and trembling too much with bodily 
 apprehension to be shy about the presence of her 
 lover. Her mitten was torn, and the blood had 
 sprung from several of the punctures made by Gyp's 
 teeth in her arm. She turned away mechanically to 
 go back to the seat where she had left her sewing, 
 too much scared to remember her courtesy to Sir 
 Edgar, and feeling sujfficiently faint to be glad of a
 
 120 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 resting-place. He followed her with mucli concern, 
 and seated himself by her side. Drawing down the 
 black mitten, he looked with pity on the bruised and 
 bleeding arm. 
 
 *' There is a stream close by," he said ; *' let me 
 take you there and bathe the wound." 
 
 He wondered whether she had any apprehension 
 independent of the present pain ; and though he 
 wished the punctures to be well saturated with 
 water, he did not choose to suggest any reason for 
 the proposition. Leah had no objection, excepting 
 that she was giddy and sick, and would have pre- 
 ferred sitting still till she was better. She obeyed 
 the suggestion, however, and Sir Edgar supported 
 her to the bank, where she knelt and allowed the 
 water to flow over her delicate arm. 
 
 As Sir Edgar saw how the interrupted stream 
 sparkled against the submerged hand, and seemed 
 to caress the intruder, he thought of the legend of 
 fairj^-land, where the purity of the person immersed 
 is tested by the reception it meets in the immortal 
 rivers. 
 
 She knelt on the brink of the stream, stooping her 
 arm that the waters might flow over it, half con- 
 cealed by tall meadow-sweet, and ferns with buds 
 like crumpled horns. He was fearful that she 
 might overbalance herself, and placed his arm round 
 her waist. 
 
 He loved this innocent, simple country girl with
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 121 
 
 a tenderness wliicli redeemed many of his vices. 
 Had she been coarse in her person, with the buxom 
 beauty of only a peasant, he could not have been 
 attracted as he was ; but not Miss Elliot, the de- 
 scendant of a noble family, could be more graceful 
 in her person, or more correct in her expressions : 
 the intonation was perfect — the surest test of 
 refinement. As he knelt by her side supporting her 
 as she leaned over the water, his soft curling hair fell 
 over her neck and swept her face. Looking down, he 
 saw their heads in close proximity reflected in the 
 margin of the smooth stream — a beautiful personifica- 
 tion of youth and love. Her face seemed brightening 
 into a smile as the ripple'of the water disturbed the 
 image, and Sir Edgar, emboldened by the fancied 
 expression of amusement, drew her more closely to- 
 wards him and kissed her cheek, which, hitherto 
 pale with terror, now glowed with troubled pleasure. 
 
 Nothing was said for a few moments, for Leah 
 rose up so soon as she could disembarrass herself 
 from Sir Edgar's encircling arm. He bent over the 
 wounded arm, and folding his handkerchief carefully 
 round it, led her back to the seat. 
 
 The kiss given and received had troubled them 
 both into silence. When Sir Edgar found his voice 
 he began to talk hurriedly about cambric and lace, 
 producing them from his pocket, and asking her 
 doubtfully if she would make his neckties, having 
 intended, when he left the Hall, to give her an
 
 122 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 order in a lordly manner. Somehow the love passage 
 between them had in his mind elevated the needle- 
 woman into an equality with himself, and he could 
 not bear the idea of offering her money for her 
 work. She looked into his face with troubled eyes, 
 seeking to understand his directions, but with a 
 sense of happiness in her heart, which some of us 
 may remember to have felt when the first conviction 
 of being beloved dawned on the mind, but of which 
 no pen can record the evanescent sweetness. His 
 countenance seemed invested with a glorious light. 
 The consciousness of the nobility of a pure affection 
 gave dignity to the expression of his features. She 
 tried to continue her work, but the material dropped 
 on her knees, and whilst one hand, which she had 
 raised to remove gently his arm from her waist, 
 was there imprisoned by his more determined grasp, 
 the other was clasped by his over the fallen folds of 
 the cambric and lace. 
 
 Hours sped away in this eloquent and honeyed 
 silence. The sunshine sparkled over the polished 
 leaves of the pendent holly trees, as the wind swept 
 them into alternate light and shadow. The small 
 birds twittered, and the wood-pigeons cooed their 
 songs of passionate and tender love. The stream 
 murmured in the distance — all things spoke of 
 enjoyment — all sentient creatures seemed to feel it, 
 with one exception : Gyp, crouched at his master's 
 feet, felt he had been unjustifiably interfered with in
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 123 
 
 reference to the disputed bone. Could any one have 
 presented him at the moment with another of equal 
 value, he would have disdained the compromise — 
 unless, indeed, the stranger had showed a disposition 
 to appropriate it, when he would have fought again 
 on the new cause of war. 
 
 Bobtail had not ventured on another interment of 
 his stolen goods. The necessary turning of his hind 
 quarters on his antagonist in such an occupation, and 
 the employment it would afford to his paws and nose, 
 would have given Gryp an unfair advantage over him, 
 he considered; and, on mature consideration, after 
 he had sat crouched on the turf, with his fore-paws 
 on the disputed blessing, for some time, with short, 
 insulting yaps uttered at intervals, he set to work to 
 devour it, judging his internals to be the safest place 
 of concealment ; so he crunched the periosteum of the 
 knuckle, and sucked out the inward sweetness of 
 marrow, with an enjoyment which drove poor Gyp to 
 the verge of distraction, who testified his desire to 
 partake of the dainty by long pendent streams of 
 saliva from his moistened jaws. 
 
 Hesperus, that bringeth all good things, provided 
 consolation for Gyp. The dinner-bell rang out a 
 prolonged peal, for Miss Bruce had found out how 
 long Sir Edgar had been absent, and, after surrep- 
 titious peeps into the stable to see if he had ridden 
 or walked, had begun to be uneasy at his prolonged 
 stay, she knew not where.
 
 124 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 Sir Edgar had no desire to be detected in Ms stolen 
 enjoyment of Leah's society, so he rose hurriedly, 
 and whispering, "You will be here to-morrow," 
 walked briskly away, leaving his companion with 
 a flush on her cheeks, which told of a fearful joy and 
 a happy trouble.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 "There's a plague every morning with buckling shoes, garter- 
 ing, combing, and powdering." 
 
 Farquhar. 
 
 Leah, too, gathered up her occupation, and went 
 home with light steps, glad that her father's absence 
 in visiting a sick member of his congregation per- 
 mitted her to bathe her face and smooth her hair, 
 which was drawn off her face in loose tresses, and 
 fastened slightly by pins at the top of her head. In 
 the country, custom still retained, amongst females not 
 asserting themselves to be ladies, the full petticoat, 
 short sleeves, and tight bodice confining the ends of 
 a clear muslin handkerchief, as the usual costume ; 
 and this, as it revealed the perfect proportions of the 
 figure, was in reality far more becoming than the 
 short waist and the tightly- gored skirt, even with 
 its trailing train. 
 
 Leah Preston, however, decried the advantages 
 given her by this old-fashioned attire, and longed 
 for a dress as unbecoming as those worn by the young 
 ladies at the Hall. As she was aware that such a meta- 
 morphosis of herself would never be permitted by
 
 126 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 her father, she was compelled to limit her power of 
 adoraraent to a rose in the interlacings of her 
 bodice. 
 
 " Fine doings, Miss Leah ! " said old Molly, when 
 Leah entered the cottage. " "We're getting up in 
 the world, I think ! There has been such a sweet 
 young lady here after you ; and she has left a bundle 
 of muslin and sprigs — (I don't understand what they 
 are for) — for you to sew on for her. She seemed 
 troubled not to see you, and, when I knew not where 
 you were, she wanted master. Says I, ' Miss, if I 
 might be so bold, master knows no more about sprigs 
 and flowers — only them as grows out-of-doors, and 
 in them he is very clever — than the babe unborn.' 
 She gave a kind of smile, and said she should like to 
 see Mr. Preston for all that ; and I said that most 
 likely he was a-praying along with Mrs. Clark, as 
 was sick, and I showed her the cottage and she went 
 away. I don't know if she found him; but 'tis time 
 for master to come in to tea." 
 
 Leah was more troubled than pleased at the sup- 
 posed honour done her in Miss Elliot's visit. She 
 fancied, with a conscience guilty for the first time, 
 that it must have some reference to her meetine: 
 with Sir Edgar in the forest. 
 
 Far other thoughts occupied the young heiress of 
 the Hall. She was disturbed at having been uncon- 
 sciously the cause of Perth's dismissal from home, 
 though she could not understand what umbrage Mr.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 127 
 
 Preston could have taken against his son on account 
 of Perth's dismissal from occupation at the Hall bj 
 the head gardener. 
 
 Rose Elliot had often heard her father describe 
 his juvenile sufferings in the acquisition of Latin 
 and Greek, and his firm conviction that no boy ever 
 became a scholar who was not thoroughly flogged 
 through all the parts of speech, from the articles to 
 the interjections. Flogging was kept up in a lively 
 manner at the conclusion of the last century, yet 
 Mr. Elliot was of opinion that the birch was getting 
 into dishonourable disuse, and that the boys of the 
 then day were not so fundamentally grounded as 
 they had been fifty years before. 
 
 " A son foredoomed his father's soul to cross " 
 
 by an overweening attachment to the dead lan- 
 guages was a phase of human nature which had 
 never before presented itself to the young lady. 
 
 When she left home her intention had been to 
 speak to Leah Preston, and learn as much as she 
 could of the facts of the case from her. 
 
 Perth Preston, grown pale and thin from starva- 
 tion, was, however, an image which admitted no 
 delay, and she resolved to see the father himself, and, 
 after representing his son's state, to urge him to 
 recall the wanderer to his home. 
 
 Whilst youth and love held holiday in one place, 
 an aged and lonely woman was passing away to the
 
 128 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 unknown land, in the village where the old Hall 
 stood. She had been a domestic servant there, but 
 she had been dismissed for some misconduct, real or 
 pretended, and now she was going where she would 
 no longer require charity or fear human justice. 
 
 It was by the bedside of this woman that Mr. 
 Preston was engaged in prayer when Eose Elliot 
 soujrht an interview with him. A small knot of 
 village children had gathered round the cottage- 
 door in awe- struck silence, with their fingers in their 
 mouths, for they had an idea that old Betty Clark 
 was dying. 
 
 Miss Elliot had only heard that the woman was 
 ill ; she was accustomed to carry relief to the sick 
 of the parish, and occasionally [to join the clergy- 
 man in prayers uttered for the dying ; consequently, 
 when she heard the voice of Mr. Preston raised in 
 supplication, she passed into the room through the 
 half- opened door, and reverentl}^ stood by the side of 
 the bed. 
 
 Death, which is often beautiful in childhood and 
 early youth, and grand in manhood and middle life, 
 is almost always terrible to the sight in age. 
 
 Betty Clark was no exception to the lot of 
 humanity ; her ej^es seemed fixed in the upward 
 glare, and she appeared to be holding converse with 
 individuals in the invisible world, of which she would 
 soon form a part. 
 
 ''0 Thou who secst and ordcrcst all things in
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 129 
 
 heaven and earth, look down on this miserable 
 woman, weary with the contest between death and 
 life ! Give rest to her labouring frame — give rest to 
 her trembling soul, now fearful to seek Thy presence. 
 Grant that she may in no way be ashamed when her 
 moral deeds are brought to light ; that no unre- 
 pented sins may give the unclean spirits power to 
 bear her to their torments. Pardon her offences — 
 comfort her weary body — spare her a little from 
 these contentions of the flesh, that she may re- 
 cover her strength, and raise her heart to Thee 
 in prayer before she goes hence and is no more 
 seen." 
 
 *' I cannot die ; I dare not ! " said the woman, 
 scarcely articulate from the parching of her lips, and 
 speaking now after having been considered speech- 
 less many hours. 
 
 " Woman," said Mr. Preston, " if thou hast anj" 
 secret sin unrepented of, seize on the short time that 
 yet is left to thee, and make thy peace with God, 
 and restitution, if thou hast wronged any one, to thy 
 neighbour." 
 
 The sounds seemed to rouse the woman to the 
 renewal of some of her waning faculties. She turned 
 her eyes, and seeing Pose Elliot standing in the 
 narrow beam of light which darted through the 
 upper part of a high window, with her hair flowing 
 over her shoulders, without a hat (which she had 
 taken off in a feeling of respect to the prayers), 
 
 VOL. I. K '
 
 130 TRUE TO TITE LIFE. 
 
 dressed in white, without ornament, she gave a faint 
 cry, and said — 
 
 " Is it an angel ? Oh, save me ! " 
 
 Full of divine pity, and with a heart that yearned 
 to grant the impossible boon, Hose bent over the 
 bed, and took the dying woman's hand. 
 
 " I am Rose Elliot," she said. 
 
 " Hose Elliot ! Miss Elliot ! What have you come 
 about?" the woman cried suspiciously. "Did they 
 say I took anything ?" 
 
 "No ; no one said you took anything," said Eose 
 soothingly. 
 
 " Woman ! if thou hast any sin imconfessed on 
 thy conscience, make restitution whilst it is yet day, 
 lest the death of thy body be but the forerunner of 
 the death of thy soul, from which there is no release, 
 but the wrath of God abideth on it for ever." 
 
 A terrible convulsion distorted the dying woman, 
 and Rose Elliot turned away, whilst Mr. Preston 
 strove to still the agitated muscles of her limbs. 
 When the violence of the fit was past, and the eyes 
 regained their speculation, speech had left her ; but 
 she pointed to a small oak box which stood under 
 her Bible on the table. Mr. Preston brought it to 
 the bedside, and she pointed that it should be given 
 to Rose. "V^Hien Miss Elliot had taken it in her own 
 hands, the woman nodded her head ; and Rose whis- 
 pered that it was an old box her grandfather had 
 used to keep important letters in, but it had not been
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 131 
 
 seen since his- deatli till now. The purloining of 
 this had probably been the sin which had disturbed 
 the last moments of Betty Clark, for she turned her 
 face to the wall, and slumbered away the last half- 
 hour of her life. 
 
 They waited in silence till the last breath was 
 departed, and then the grave minister rose, and 
 accompanied Miss Elliot into the evening sunshine. 
 
 " If you will allow me, I will carry the poor crea- 
 ture's legacy to you, Miss Elliot, to the Hall." 
 
 " Thank you ; I shall be glad to say a few words 
 to you," said Rose ; and then she stopped, feeling 
 awkward about beginning the subject. 
 
 Caleb Preston was not gifted with any of the 
 natural or acquired graces of society. If the young 
 lady had anything to say, she would say it in due 
 time, no doubt ; and in the meanwhile, he was 
 meditating how he could turn the scene he had just 
 witnessed to account in the delivery of his next 
 Sunday's discourse. 
 
 Rose stole a glance towards his spare, rigid out- 
 line, as it stood out against the grey sky, and 
 fancied she had never seen any countenance so un- 
 bending. 
 
 She began at length in desperation, for they were 
 passing the first trees of the long avenue which led 
 to the Hall, and she thought she should be unable 
 to say all that she desired to enforce on him before 
 they reached the house. To ask the Dissenting
 
 132 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 minister to come in would have been an act which 
 might have ruffled the well-powdered wig which 
 covered the head of her proud father. 
 
 *' Mr. Preston — pardon me if I give you pain in 
 what I am going to inquire, but — you have a son 
 who was employed by my father's gardener, and who 
 was dismissed by him for a trifling fault, or for no 
 fault at all ; in fact, because he knew more than his 
 temporary master. As the questions asked by Miss 
 Bruce, my governess, and myself, were the primar}' 
 cause of his dismissal, I feel much disturbed by the 
 punishment of which we have been the unwitting 
 cause. Where is your son now ?" she said at length 
 boldly ; *' and is it true you turned him from your 
 door?" 
 
 "Young lady," said Caleb drily, ''I have yet to 
 learn by what right you interrogate me as to what 
 passes within the sanctuary of my home ; but I am 
 willing to believe that you are kindly intentioned in 
 this matter. ^ly son was cast out from amongst my 
 household because he was not of us. There was a 
 time," he continued — for Caleb Preston was not free 
 from the temptation to speak of his own experiences 
 — " when I was myself caught in the snare of carnal 
 knowledge. My heart was lifted up, and I said, 
 ' Who is like unto me in wisdom and imderstand- 
 ing ?' I drank deep of the waters of affliction. It 
 was told to me from the invisible world, by one 
 whose infinite love brought her to me in the visions
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 133 
 
 of tlie night, that I was set apart to work God's will, 
 and preach His word ; and I came, not in excellency 
 of speech nor of man's wisdom, for I desired to know 
 only one Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I had 
 loved to believe Plato inspired, and Socrates half 
 divine. Now I sat at His feet only, where the 
 Magdalen wept and worshipped, and said, * His are 
 the words of eternal life.' Then I took the per- 
 nicious books of Greek and Roman lore, and hid 
 them in a deep chest. The old man was not so 
 crucified in me that I could endure to burn them, 
 as they should have been burnt. For is it not said 
 * Many of them which used curious arts brought their 
 books together and burned them ? ' (Acts xix. 19.) 
 I put them away. I hid them for their beauty, as 
 the housewife hides the poisoned sugar run into 
 enticing forms and gaudily coloured, of which she 
 dares not let her children partake, but which she 
 grudges to destroy. I had forbidden my son to 
 continue his study of the Latin language, which, 
 when in the bonds of iniquity, I had begun to 
 teach him. In an evil hour he robbed me of -my 
 books. He has studied for years by himself. His 
 deceit and dishonesty have half broken my heart. 
 I said, ' Bring back the goods which are not thine 
 own. Confess that thou hast sinned, and be for- 
 given.' He answered not, but went out — even as 
 he went out, the arch-traitor who betrayed his 
 Saviour."
 
 134 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 *' Stop ! " said Rose. " Let me understand. What 
 did your son steal?" 
 
 " Four books — two grammars and two diction- 
 aries," replied Caleb. 
 
 "Gracious heaven!" said the young lady, "did 
 you turn your son out of doors because he stole 
 elementary books for the purpose of learning out of 
 them?" 
 
 " Swear not," said Caleb impressively, " by 
 heaven, for it is God's throne." 
 
 " Never mind the swearing, Mr. Preston. 'Tis 
 enough to make a saint swear to think that you 
 should turn a fine young man out of doors because 
 he did of his own good- will what my papa tells me 
 all the boys at public schools — about two thousand, 
 allowing each school five hundred — are flogged every 
 day of their lives to make them do." 
 
 " Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil," 
 said Mr. Preston. 
 
 " Which multitude do you mean — the masters who 
 flog, or the boys who won't learn ? According to your 
 idea, those blessed boys must all be martyrs to their 
 religious feelings, I suppose ?" 
 
 The young lady was losing her temper, and Caleb 
 Preston, though she spoke too rapidly for him to fol- 
 low her meaning, was conscious of the irony of her 
 tone, and fliished slightly. She was near the Hall- 
 door now, and flung a Parthian dart as she took 
 the oak chest from his hands, and entered the house.
 
 TRUE TO THE I.IFE. 135 
 
 "Well, Mr. Preston, you may think yourself a 
 good man, and inspired by God. I do not believe 
 God inspired you to turn your son out of doors to 
 starve — yes, sir, to starve ! He was seen, by one 
 who told me, pale and shrunken and feeble for want 
 of bread — bread, sir ! bread ! Now go home, and 
 eat your supper, and say your prayers, and believe 
 you have done rightly, if you can ! '' 
 
 Caleb Preston stood petrified as the folds of her 
 white dress fluttered round the pillar, and then were 
 lost to view as the massive door closed on her 
 receding figure. His lips formed one word — 
 " Where ? " but the sound was unheard. He 
 would have liked to knock at the door, peal 
 the bell, and compel the young lady to answer 
 him by urgent entreaties ; but Caleb Preston 
 knew how separated he was from persons in her 
 rank of life. He had not served Lord North for 
 nothing. 
 
 Everything near him marked the difference of 
 position between him and the fair young crea- 
 ture he reverenced and loved for the sympathy 
 she had shown for the son whom his wrath had 
 driven from him. Evening was closing over the 
 landscape — evening, more dreary from a gathering- 
 thunder-storm which shrouded the western sk}^ in 
 purple gloom ; but, as he passed the window of the 
 Hall, he saw the lighted dining-room, the rich folds 
 of crimson damask curtains, the glitter of the massive
 
 136 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 silver plate, and j^llmpses, half revealed, of valuable 
 paintings by Snydcrs and Hondikooter, which his 
 familiarity with the picture- gallerj^ of Lord Xorth 
 had taught him to appreciate. This impression on 
 his mind was felt, not thought about. He had no 
 claim for sympathy there. Miss Elliot had given 
 hers to the victim of his harsh notions of virtue. 
 He walked away swiftly, possessed by a sudden 
 dread lest any of the liveried servants should see 
 him lingering, and ask him why he was there. The 
 thunder muttered in the distance, and increased the 
 feeling of depression from which Caleb Preston was 
 suffering. He was hastening to his home, and 
 hoped to reach it before the storm came on in in- 
 creasing violence. But where was Perth, whom he 
 had by his rigour deprived of a home ? Pale, ill, 
 starved for want of bread, Miss Elliot had stated 
 him to be, and now perhaps wandering on some 
 lonely hill-side exposed to all the turmoil of the ele- 
 ments. " But," he repeated to himself, " he might 
 have returned and owned his fault and been forgiven. 
 He is obstinate, contumacious. He deceived me ;" 
 and he walked on more determinedly, and with a 
 firmer step. Then he began to consider that Perth 
 might have returned had he chosen to do so. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding this, he thought he would 
 find out from Leah, if he could without showinir too 
 much eagerness, whether she had heard or seen any- 
 thing of her brother since he had left home. He
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 137 
 
 quickened his steps, for the tempest increased in 
 violence, his path being sometimes illuminated by 
 the blue blaze of the lightning, and at length sheets 
 of water seemed driven against him from the over- 
 charged clouds. He walked on streaming with wet, 
 his hat pressed over his forehead to shield his eyes 
 from the lightning, when a slight form rushed up 
 and clung to him with a cry of " Father ! " 
 
 " Leah, my child ! '' he said, pressing her to his 
 heart with a gush of love, " what madness to come 
 out on such a night ! " 
 
 '' Oh, father, I thought the lightning might kill 
 you ! It has riven the old walnut tree in the Chase, 
 and you were so late ; and I went to Mrs. Clark's 
 house, but she was dead. Then I wandered about, 
 and presently all the park was lighted up for an 
 instant, as if the last day had come, and I saw a 
 dark figure under the trees, and felt I must get 
 close to you. Oh, father ! get home fast. You are 
 so wet," she continued, forgetting the streams of 
 rain which fell on her, and soaked the muslin ker- 
 chief which covered her bosom. 
 
 " I have one child still," murmured Caleb Preston, 
 as he pressed her arm closely to his side as they 
 struggled on together. " She will never be aught 
 but a comfort to her old father." 
 
 Thus prophesied one who had never been tempted 
 from the path of reason and rectitude by any strong 
 impulse of the passions or the aif'cctions.
 
 138 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 We are happy frequently on insecure grounds. 
 We are unconscious that the small pinnacle on 
 which we stand has reached its elevation by the 
 combustibles hid in its depths. 
 
 Leah's terror for her father had derived some of 
 its intensity from the idea that, having done wrong 
 in remaining so many hours ^N-ith Sir Edgar, she 
 might be punished by Heaven in the person of her 
 natural protector. Moreover, her emotions were all 
 alert from the newly- awakened sensibilities of her 
 nature. 
 
 Caleb knew nothing of this when he blessed and 
 dismissed her for the night, that she might get rid 
 of her saturated clothes. At the door he retained 
 her hand for an instant. 
 
 " Leah, have you heard aught of Perth ? Do you 
 know where he is gone ? " 
 
 " No, father," and a look of pain came across her 
 sweet face ; '' I do not know, and I have heard 
 nothing. I put some food in the stable the first 
 morning, but he never came back, and the old pony 
 ate the bread." 
 
 Caleb turned awa3^ He had lowered his dignity 
 in inquiring after the runagate, and had received 
 no satisfaction for the sacrifice. He would go over 
 to Stoneham the next day, however. Molly had 
 told him that " the sugar and salt butter was getting 
 low, and that there was scarcely a sheet of wrap- 
 ping paper left in the drawer. AVhon the feast-day
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 139 
 
 comes, them servants will be a- running down here 
 every half-hour for things the cook has forgot to 
 order from Stoneham.'^ 
 
 Perth had been in the habit of transacting most 
 of his father's business, and Mr. Pre'ston sighed to 
 think how much he had been saved in his transac- 
 tions by his son's activity an,d acuteness. '* I may 
 hear something of him," he thought, " at Stoneham. 
 Very likely what Miss Elliot said may not be true ; 
 or, at any rate, it may have been exaggerated ;" and 
 the father laid his anxious head on his pillow, and 
 tried to sleep away some of his anxieties. 
 
 In these efforts he was unsuccessful, for the pour- 
 ing rain, and the previous depression of his spirits, 
 which had predisposed him to malign influences in 
 the atmosphere, united to give him a feverish 
 attack, which began with more than the usual amount 
 of shivering, and which continued sufficiently long 
 to make Caleb Preston fear that he was about 
 to be seriously ill. Then came the hot hands and 
 restless head, as fever succeeded, and b}^ morning 
 an acute pain in one ankle and knee betokened an 
 attack of rheumatism, which would make his jouiney 
 to Stoneham impossible. At the dawn he summoned 
 old Molly, and requested her to call Dick Crozier 
 before he went to his work, and ask him to obtain 
 permission from the farmer for whom he worked to 
 go to Stoneham and fetch the stores required for 
 the shop.
 
 140 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 80, after having first lighted the kitchen fire 
 to heat water for fomentations for her master's knee, 
 Molly proceeded to Mrs. Crozier's cottage, gave 
 the message to Dick, and desired him, if he were 
 permitted to * go, to come to Mr. Preston for 
 orders.
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 " Dreams in their deyelopment have breath, 
 And tears, and tortures, and a touch of joy ; 
 They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts, 
 They take a weight from off our daily toils, 
 They do divide our heing." 
 
 Leah, in the meantime, slept, and recalled in 
 sleep the circumstances of the past day. 
 
 " Go then, and dream o'er those joys in thy sliunber, 
 Hours so sweet again ne'er shalt thou number," 
 
 that poet has said who was best entitled to record 
 how evanescent is the enchantment of love's young 
 dream. 
 
 But the halo round her lover still glowed in Leah's 
 sleeping hours. Again she was seated by his side in 
 the forest retreat. She felt her hands imprisoned by 
 his. She felt her cheeks flushing under the pas- 
 sionate fervour of his dark eyes. Presently the sun- 
 shine was gone ; the tempest swept along the 
 groaning branches ; there was the vivid flashing of 
 the lightning, and a riven tree came down with a 
 crash on the stricken form of her lover. Leah 
 started up with a cry of agony, and heard the 
 thunder rolling away in the distance, and was filled
 
 142 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 with thankfulness that it was a dream. But her 
 terror and anxiety even in sleep had shown her how 
 very dear 8ir Edgar had become to her. She got 
 up and looked out, partly to dispel the horrors of 
 her sleep, partly to try to judge if the weather on 
 the following day would be fair. 
 
 " You will be here to-morrow," she repeated to 
 herself with a loving smile. She delighted to dwell 
 on the remembrance of his eager, impassioned 
 glance as he spoke the words, and tried uncon- 
 sciously to imitate the tones of his voice. 
 
 She was hopeful about the brightness of the 
 following day, and laid her flushed cheek on her 
 pillow again with the consciousness that she was 
 beloved. 
 
 After Mr. Preston had had his knee duly fomented 
 he wrote his orders for Dick Crozier to execute, and 
 placed them by his bedside. He had desired that the 
 youth might come and speak to him before he went ; 
 for, without having any settled intention, he fancied 
 that something might arise to turn the conversation 
 to Perth, and it might end by Caleb's asking Crozier 
 to inquire if he could hear anj'thing of his son at 
 Stoneham. 
 
 In the meantime the pain in his knee abated 
 under the warm fomentations, and the result of his 
 weary, restless night was that Dick found the pastor 
 in a quiet sleep, from which he was careful not to 
 disturb liim ; and, taking the notes from the chair by
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 143 
 
 the side of the bed, lie went down softly, with shoe- 
 less feet, and knowing the different shops where Mr. 
 Preston dealt, resolved to offer the notes to the 
 owners in succession till every saddle was put on 
 the right horse, as he fittingly observed — Dick Cro- 
 zier not being blessed by '^ larning," as he termed 
 reading and writing. 
 
 He lingered for a moment after harnessing into 
 the cart the blind pony, in the hope that Leah might 
 come down and give him some commission ; but his 
 delay only brought a sharp rebuke from old Molly, 
 who wondered how ever the ladies and gentlemen at 
 the Hall were to get their luncheons cooked properly 
 without a bit of lard to be had in the village — and 
 anybody might tell that the pastry would be like 
 flint when there was nothing but butter in it, and 
 the weather so hot and all. 
 
 " Is there nothing more wanted, Mrs. Molly ? 
 Nothing for youself— nothing for Miss Leah ?" 
 
 " No, no ; be off with you. Look how the flies 
 are tormenting that poor brute while you are gab- 
 bling away here ;" and, with one more stealthy look 
 at Leah's window, Dick Crozier was compelled to 
 depart. 
 
 Leah was greatly disturbed by the news that 
 greeted her, on getting up, of her father's attack. 
 Had he been in any danger, she thought she 
 could have given up the hope of seeing Sir Edgar 
 willingly, but she dreaded lest the attendance hei"
 
 144 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 father would require might interfere with her ap- 
 pointment, without any great necessity for the sacri- 
 fice. 
 
 But it was not thus ; our griefs seldom come from 
 the point at which wc watch for them. They dart 
 round comers unexpectedly, and are all the more 
 unbearable from the circumstance that they strike us 
 unprepared for the sudden shock. 
 
 Mr. Preston was tenderly nursed by Molly and by 
 his daughter during the morning hours, and feeling 
 better, he got up and sat in his room, and desired 
 Leah to bring his pen and ink and note-book, that 
 he might prepare his sermon for the following Sun- 
 day, and not to let him be disturbed. He was sorry 
 not to have seen Crozier ; but his knee was better, 
 and on the following day he hoped, if the bKnd pony 
 was not too much exhausted by his load, to drive 
 him again to Stoneham, and learn some news of his 
 truant. 
 
 Leah, released from a great anxiety, hurried to 
 the seat in the forest. It was later than on the pre- 
 vious day, and she had a fluttered hope that Sir 
 Edgar might be already there ; but she was disap- 
 pointed. She sat down and began her labours rather 
 crest-fallen, and with all her force of comprehension 
 settled in her organs of hearing. How irritating 
 was the sound of the sweeping branches of the forest 
 trees as they were swayed by the breeze ! Bobtail 
 sat at her feet. She looked to the old dog for aid,
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 145 
 
 for slie knew tliat his more acute sense would detect 
 tlie advent of his enemy sooner than her blinder 
 perception would recognise the footsteps of hiin she 
 loved. But Bobtail had selected a spot on the turf 
 where the sunshine seemed most constant and least 
 broken by intervening shadows, and there the vene- 
 rable and experienced animal reposed, and showed 
 neither by quiver of eyelid nor elevation of ear that 
 there was any mischief abroad that concerned him. 
 
 But Bobtail had to remove himself quietly from 
 the spot on the turf, which the warmth of his body 
 had made quite comfortable to himself, and follow 
 the warm sun spot to a more distant locality, before 
 any stranger came to disturb the too-peaceful glade. 
 Morning passed to afternoon, and Sir Edgar had not 
 come ; and Leah, who, fancying a whisper of love in 
 every whisper of the light breeze amongst the 
 branches, had tacitly called Bobtail a stupid old dog 
 not to announce her lover's approach by a furious 
 barking, leaned her neglected head on the polished 
 stem of the beech tree, which covered the encircled 
 ground like a gigantic umbrella, and allowed the 
 tears to trickle down her delicate cheeks imnoticed. 
 
 Oh, how happy she had been on the previous 
 day ! Should she ever be so happy again ? "Never!" 
 she said aloud, in her sorrow, and a faint echo 
 amongst the old trees replied, " Never ! " 
 
 She sat with downcast eyes, which fell on old 
 Bobtail. He was curled roimd, indulging in a deli- 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 cious dream of the contents of Mrs. Crozier*8 sow's- 
 trough, no doubt. " Dogs dream of bones/' Pope 
 has assured us ; but dreams of bones are as illusory 
 as other visions, and so Bobtail found. His mistress 
 saw one ear raised slowly, as unwilling to be dis- 
 turbed from that delightful reverie, where hope and 
 memory made a mingled joy ; then both ears pricked 
 up, the eyes opened. Leah held her breath with 
 re-awakened expectation. " If it is not Sir Edgar 
 now I shall break my heart," she thought, but she 
 dared not look up nor speak. Bobtail rushed for- 
 ward with a sharp bark and bristled hair, and Sir 
 Edgar sprang over him and Gyp, who had drawn 
 up ready for battle inconveniently just in the path, 
 and caught Leah to his breast, dearer than ever for 
 the tears on her cheeks, which he well imagined had 
 been shed for his absence — dearer for the small 
 impediments which had delayed his footsteps from 
 her side. It was a pleasure to speak of them to 
 her, and to describe how he had surmounted 
 them. 
 
 Miss Bruce had been very inquisitive, he told her, 
 as to how his previous morning had been spent. 
 
 "What did you say?" said Leah, opening her 
 blue eyelids to their widest extent, with anxiety. 
 
 " I told her that I had walked away into the 
 forest, and finding the weather hot, and the sense of 
 loneliness which haunts a bachelor very cheerless, 
 I had seated myself on the trunk of a fallen tree.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 147 
 
 and had had the most delicious dreams I ever 
 experienced in my life, from which I had been 
 roused only by the sound of the dinner-bell, which 
 brought me back to the Hall/' 
 
 *' Oh ! but you should not have said what was not 
 true, for I do not think you slept at all/' 
 
 ^' Should you have preferred my telling the 
 truth ?'^ said Sir Edgar, smiling. 
 
 " No,'' replied Leah, blushing ; *' but I am afraid 
 it must be \erj wrong, as I do not wish you to tell 
 any one of it." 
 
 " Wrong or not, Leah, it is happiness too great 
 for me to give up, unless you insist upon it." 
 
 Then, finding her silent, he told how, on seeing 
 him leave the breakfast-table. Miss Bruce had chal- 
 lenged him to meet her in half an hour's time in the 
 Hall to have a game of battledore and shuttlecock. 
 He could scarcely refuse, and flattered himself that 
 she would soon be too tired to wish to prolono- 
 the play. In pity to the lady, and in respect to 
 Leah's innocence, he did not tell her how attractive 
 to the senses she had made her attire of loose, soft 
 muslin; nor how, with seemingly blind eagerness 
 and arm raised with the battledore, and head thrown 
 back to watch the flying shuttlecock, she flung her- 
 self repeatedly in Sir Edgar's arms as he was simi- 
 larly occupied. On these occasions an embrace was 
 inevitable, from which the lady had freed herself 
 with simulated confusion and a murmured remon-
 
 148 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 strance of " Oh, Sir Edgar ! you ouglit to be 
 ashamed of yourself ! '* 
 
 On this phrase being repeated the second time, Sir 
 Edgar wickedly asked if they should not give up 
 playing ; on which Miss Bruce had replied that it 
 was a pity not to keep up as many as a hundred before 
 they left off. It was a long time, by Miss Bruce's 
 computation, before the players reached a hundred, 
 and when that was accomplished, she declared she 
 was so exhausted that she must request Sir Edgar to 
 procure her some iced strawberries. 
 
 He rang the bell, but there were none nearer than 
 the garden ; and when he said he would walk down 
 thither, she declared she would accompany him, as 
 the coolness of the lime avenue would be so refresh- 
 ing after their exertions that she could not really 
 permit him to enjoy it alone. They went together, 
 therefore, and he picked her so many that he won- 
 dered how many more it would take to satisfy her. 
 At length the luncheon-bell sounded, and they re- 
 turned to the house ; and while the lady was com- 
 pelled to go to her room to get rid of red stains on 
 her lips and her fingers. Sir Edgar had made polite 
 excuses to Miss Elliot for not attending her at 
 luncheon, and had hastened away through the forest 
 to Leah before his tormentor could pursue him a 
 second time. 
 
 *' And this tiresome creature detained me so long 
 from my darling ! " he continued at the conclusion
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 149 
 
 of the account of his detention, " and I am all tlie 
 more provoked because I do not tliink I shall be able 
 to come to-morrow till quite late — perhaps not till 
 dark." 
 
 Leah looked up piteously in his face, and her lips 
 formed the faint sound '' Why ? " 
 
 " I am deputed by Mr. Elliot to meet a guest of 
 his at Stoneham in the middle of the day." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Leah, relieved, for she had thought 
 some female influence might interfere with his visit 
 to her. " And then," she continued, "will he ride, 
 or do you fetch him in the carriage?" She did 
 not care how he came, but felt as if she must make 
 some remark to show that she was not too much 
 disappointed at the prospect of not meeting Sir 
 Edgar next day. 
 
 " It is not a he at all," he said, smiling, with a 
 little consciousness, however, that he had wilfully 
 led her into the mistake. " It is a young lady, a 
 friend and cousin of Miss Elliot, Lady Barbara 
 Westeura ;" and he felt uncomfortable v/hile he 
 told Leah of her coming, as if he were aware that 
 he was introducing an element of discord into the 
 heavenly harmony which had reigned between them. 
 
 Leah's sweet face fell. " Are you acquainted with 
 the lady?" she said. 
 
 " Yes, I know her pretty well," replied Sir Edgar, 
 and for a man of the world, his admission was almost 
 awkward ; but, worldling as he was, there were some
 
 150 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 mortifying recollections connected with Lady Bar- 
 bara which altered the tone of hie voice when speak- 
 ing of her. 
 
 Leah, with the quick intuition of love, felt there 
 was a mystery, and a painful one. She had not 
 sufficient self-command to change the subject which 
 she perceived perplexed her lover. She felt how 
 wretched she should be so soon as she was alone in 
 the wild surmises she should make as to his relation 
 with that titled lady. 
 
 " Was she pleasant ? Did you like her ? '* 
 
 " She is very agreeable when she chooses, and 
 sometimes I liked, sometimes — and more frequently 
 —I disliked her." 
 
 Leah breathed with less constraint, — the lover 
 spoke truthfully. It was so difficult to lie to Leah. 
 He fancied that her mind was like the fabled glass 
 of Venice, which would detect any poison poured 
 into it. 
 
 **Is she good-looking?" And of this feminine 
 question, which she had longed to ask at first, she 
 listened breathlessl}' to the answer. 
 
 " She is not regularly handsome, but is considered 
 by some pcoi^le ver}' attractive. She has been a 
 spoilt child all her days, being the only heir to her 
 father's immense wealth, and is, I believe, rather 
 inconsiderate of the feelings of others, having never 
 had to consult any but her own inclinations." 
 
 Leah was almost satisfied, and smiled in her lover's
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 151 
 
 face, and they were very happy together for some 
 time, till Leali remembered that it was time to 
 return home and see if her father wanted anything. 
 
 " Could you not go for a little time and return to 
 me?" said Sir Edgar anxiously. " You perceive that 
 I cannot be certain of seeing you to-morrow." 
 
 Leah hesitated. " If he should give me anything 
 to do for him I could not return immediately, and 
 I should be so grieved to keep you waiting." 
 
 " Then stay with me now," said the reckless lover ; 
 but Leah withdrew herself gently from his encircling 
 arm, for the thought of Mr. Preston troubled her. 
 
 " May I tell my father," she suggested timidly, 
 " that I have met you once, twice, thrice before ? 
 I should be easier if he knew how happy I am in 
 your love." 
 
 "What simplicity !" thought Sir Edgar. "My 
 child," he replied aloud, "do you think Mr. Pres- 
 ton would permit our meetings ?" 
 
 " I think he would," replied Leah, "if he knew 
 how good, how noble, and how generous you are ! " 
 and she smiled in her lover's face with perfect con- 
 fidence in the perfections with which her imagina- 
 tion had invested him. 
 
 When Sir Edgar had first been attracted by Leah's 
 beauty and simplicity, he had meant only to amuse 
 himself in an idle summer in a transient connection 
 with a lovely girl, but some halo of generous emotion 
 still lingered in the breast of this youth, who had
 
 152 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 not yet attained his majority, and he had found 
 himself engrossed hy the reciprocity of a true 
 affection where he had intended only to reap the 
 fruits of one that was simulated. This feeling had 
 shown itself in the respectful consideration with 
 which he treated his innocent companion, and 
 which, as it created no alarm in her bosom, had 
 given her the conviction that he could have no 
 objection to her father's cognizance of their mutual 
 love, though sJie must feel guilty that their ac- 
 quaintance had not been already confided to him. 
 It was the concealment she was disturbed by, not 
 that she felt there could be anything disgraceful in 
 the fact of which her father had been kept in igno- 
 rance. Sir Edgar had told her that he loved her 
 with beautiful and repeated iteration; aud had not 
 her father thus loved her departed mother, and 
 would not her Edgar cherish her living and mourn 
 her dead, as did the pastor the memory of his 
 wife? 
 
 Sir Edgar did not see the matter in the same 
 light. He loved the beautiful sempstress, but to 
 take her by tlie hand and lead her to her father's 
 presence, and request permission to become the son- 
 in-law to the man who kept a little chandler's and 
 general shop, was a step with regard to which he 
 felt some not unnatural hesitation. Could Leah 
 have seen what was passing iu his mind, she, cogni- 
 zant of the hesitation, would have judged him to be
 
 TEUE TO THE LIFE. 153 
 
 utterly base, for she could not have felt his per- 
 plexities, nor understood his position. 
 
 In this she would have been uncharitable. 
 
 " To gently scan tlieir brother man," 
 
 is not the custom of the young who have not seen 
 enough of society to be able to appreciate its 
 cramping customs, which incapacitate those under 
 its influence from walking easily in the paths they 
 would like to tread, as completely as the Chinese 
 lady is crippled by pressure brought to bear on her 
 feet from the earliest infancy. 
 
 Sir Edgar temporised, and then took a determined 
 position.! 
 
 " My child," he said, " I cannot go to Mr. Preston 
 and tell him of our love at present, as I should desire 
 to do. You must understand that I am not yet of 
 age, and if I married against the consent of a great 
 man in London, called the Lord Chancellor, I should 
 be separated from you and put into prison." 
 
 Leah clung closer to Sir Edgar's arm. She had 
 never seen the inside of a prison, but her memory 
 recalled the black hole into which drunken and 
 refractory men were sometimes thrust before they 
 were brought before the magistrates on the following 
 morning, and the notion that her beautiful Sir 
 Edgar should be subjected to such treatment filled 
 her with horror. 
 
 " When I am of age, my sweet one, I shall be
 
 154 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 my own master, and can then do that justice to 
 your merits which they so well deserve. My Leah's 
 grace and virtue would adorn any rank of life." 
 
 Sir Edgar flattered himself that in talking these 
 generalities he had not committed himself. It was 
 a kind of temporising with his conscience ; yet he 
 knew that his intention was to lead Leah into the 
 conviction that he would marry her so soon as he 
 became of age, whilst he took credit to himself that 
 he had not entangled his honour by any promise. 
 
 Leah was not so well satisfied as she would have 
 been had Sir Edgar said in a few words, " ^Vhen I 
 am of age I will marry jou in spite of every one." 
 She had sad recollections of having set her heart 
 ten years before on the beauties of a waxen baby in 
 one of the shops at Stoneham, and of crying for its 
 possession, and of the mysterious comfort Molly 
 had striven to impart by informing her that she 
 should have the doll " some day never come time." 
 She had striven to comfort herself by the half- 
 understood predictions of the sibyl, taking the first 
 part of the sentence that she should have it. At length, 
 some more fortunate and wealthier little girl appro- 
 priated the beautiful wax baby, and Leah Mas com- 
 pelled to be content with a penny doll, of which the 
 eyes squinted like those on the countenances of court 
 cards, and whose head was covered with a small 
 heap of tow fastened on by a Siseraan nail. No 
 similar horrors arc j^reparcd for children in the
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 155 
 
 present day. Was this past fact to be prophetic of 
 the future to Leah ? 
 
 She was very sweet and gontle, but discouraged. 
 
 ^' I do not think I can go on meeting you, Sir 
 Edgar," she said, ''without my father's knowledge." 
 
 His first feeling was one of impatience. 
 
 " Then you cannot care much for our interviews," 
 he replied. But, touched by the sorrow brimming 
 in her eyes, he went on to say — "Do what will 
 make you happiest, my angel. I would not earn 
 my hours of enjoyment at the price of your peace 
 of mind. Act as you think best, and I will abide 
 the consequences." 
 
 " After all," he thought, " if I find I cannot be 
 happy without her, I can always marry her when I 
 please. A very imprudent match, no doubt ; but a 
 man is surely the best judge of his own happiness 
 in such matters." 
 
 In this Sir Edgar reasoned like other unwise per- 
 sons. People are the best judges of the portion 
 of their lives immediately before them, in their own 
 opinion ; but they, entangled by the obstacles and 
 tempted by the sweet flowers in their path, cannot 
 judge for themselves as do the elder and more dis- 
 passionate travellers, who have reached by age a 
 higher circumspection. T/ie?/ see that the flowers 
 will have faded when they have borne fruit, and that 
 a life, to be judged of, must be judged by the whole, 
 and not by a small portion of it.
 
 156 TRUE TO T7IE LIFE. 
 
 Sir Edgar's consolation was unconsciously a selfish 
 one. He could claim Leah as his wife or not, as he 
 felt disposed; but she must watch and wait, and 
 perhaps feel, at the close of a wasted life, that her 
 love had been unvalued, and her devotion given in 
 vain. 
 
 He thought he had been very noble and generous 
 in giving her permission to deprive him of the plea- 
 sure of meeting her, by informing her father of their 
 interviews. 
 
 He was not. He reasoned thus: — "If she loves 
 me, the dread of not seeing me will be greater than 
 her sense of duty to her father ; but she does love 
 me, and will come as usual to our trysting-place." 
 
 " How do you decide P" he said to Leah at length. 
 
 "I cannot tell yet,'' she replied with a choked 
 utterance. 
 
 " Then good-bye, my sweet one," he said. " To- 
 morrow I shall be unable to come to the forest by 
 daylight. I could be there at eleven o'clock at 
 night." 
 
 " No, I could not meet you then," she replied. 
 
 " In that case, I must hope for a favoui'able oppor- 
 tunity on Wednesday. On Thursday is the village 
 feast : shall you be there ?" 
 
 " I fear not," replied Leah with a faltering 
 voice. 
 
 " \)o come if you can, for I ynust attend it," said 
 Sir Edgar ; and, whistling to Gyp, he strode away
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE; 157 
 
 through the rustling branches, crunching the blue- 
 bells and arums under the heels of his boots. 
 
 Though Leah had been content to leave her inter- 
 views with Edgar concealed from her father when she 
 was full of the first triumphant sense of being be- 
 loved, yet now that, she scarcely knew why, her 
 confidence was abated, she wished to have the sup- 
 port of her father's affection. 
 
 'No doubt she had been wrong in concealing the 
 first interview, and that had made a revelation of 
 the second more difficult. 
 
 She felt very depressed. She was not to see Sir 
 Edgar to-morrow. If she confessed her fault to her 
 father to-day, should she ever be permitted to see 
 him again ? 
 
 She shrank from that conviction. Then, with the 
 indecision of a feeble mind, she determined " to see 
 how things went" — namely, to be guided by circum- 
 stances. These were not propitious to her con- 
 fession. 
 
 " I'm glad you've come in, miss. Master seems 
 very touchy." 
 
 *' Is he worse, Molly ? " 
 
 " Can't say, miss. He've got that grey-white 
 look about his face that he have when things go 
 wrong with him. I believe 'tis all along with that 
 idle fellow, Dick Crozier. Something about money." 
 " Only about money! — not about Perth?" cried 
 the girl, with a fresh anxiety that deadened for the
 
 158 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 moment the remembrance of her old grief, and with 
 that ignorant disregard of money troubles which 
 those feel who have never experienced them. 
 
 She must face it, whatever it was, she thought, 
 and she went slowly up into his room. He looked 
 up as she entered, with a feeble attempt at a smile 
 on his worn features, that died away like a gleam of 
 wintry sunshine. She shook up his pillows, and 
 asked whether he had finished the notes for his 
 sermon, but he scarcely responded. She dared not 
 inquire what had grieved him so deeply. There 
 were no habits of confidence between parents and 
 children in those days, unless indeed amongst rare 
 exceptions. She went on with her sewing by his 
 side till it was time to pour out his rosemary tea. 
 Towards evening the pain came back in his knee, 
 and he was glad to return to the rest of his bed. 
 
 " Perhaps I may sleep," he said, " if I am left 
 alone.'' 
 
 And Leah went down, and sat outside the door, to 
 catch the last gleams of waning light ; for her love- 
 talk had considerably interfered with the progress 
 of Miss Bruce's dresses, and she wished to make up 
 for lost time, and to have an excuse for beginning 
 Sir Edgar's neckties.
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 " Fain would I sing what transports storm' d his soul, 
 How the red current throbb'd his veins along, 
 When like Pelides, bold beyond control, 
 Without art graceful, without effort strong, 
 Homer raised high to heaven the loud impetuous song." 
 
 Beattib. 
 
 Leah had scarcely sat there five minutes before Dick 
 Crozier lounged up to the gate. 
 
 " Miss Leah," said he, ^' I wouldn't have done it 
 for all the world if I had knowed it, for your brother 
 and me was always good friends. I could not tell 
 I was going to put my foot on a cracker, and get 
 my face and eyes nigh put out." 
 
 "What is my father's trouble, E-ichard?" said 
 Leah anxiously. 
 
 " Well, miss, he's angered agin his son — that's the 
 truth on it, and 'tis my doing ; but I didn't go to 
 do it. I went to Mr. Recce's for shop-paper. Says 
 he, * Tell Mr. Preston there will be eleven and nine- 
 pence to pay for the wrappers, and there is half-a- 
 crown owing for a book young Mr. Preston had, and 
 said his father would pay for it.' I asked Mr. 
 Reece to put the name down on a bit of paper, and
 
 160 TRUE TO TTIE LIFE. 
 
 I gave it to your fatlicr, and he turned white all 
 over." 
 
 *' What book wa3 it ?" said poor Leah. '' A bad 
 book?" 
 
 " I don't know ; very like some book of witchcraft. 
 * How to raise the Devil,' I should not wonder." 
 
 " I suppose it was Latin or Greek. Poor dear 
 Perth ! " said Leah with a sigh,. " he is always get- 
 ting into trouble with his learning." 
 
 " Ah ! miss, he'd better have stayed for the hay- 
 sell. He might have got took on by Farmer Giles, 
 where I work ; the farmer wants hands." 
 
 " Did you see or hear anything about Perth, ex- 
 cepting about the book, at Stoneham?" 
 
 " No, miss ; no one said nothing about him to me." 
 
 " Thank you, Dick. I must go in now. If you 
 should hear anything about . Perth, pray come and 
 tell me at once." 
 
 Leah went up to say her prayers by her father's 
 bed, and, if she could summon courage, to confess 
 her love for Sir Edgar. 
 
 He was lying awake, and having heard the mur- 
 mur of voices, in which he recognised that of Dick 
 Crozier, he guessed that the conversation had turned 
 on Perth. He began, therefore, after appealing to 
 Leah to know whether his surmise was just — 
 
 " Of what didst thou speak to that youth under 
 the window, Leah ?" 
 
 " Of Perth, my father/'
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 161 
 
 " Of that Tinliappy boy ! who has chosen to act all 
 uncleanness with greediness ! — who is made desolate 
 because of his sins ! See, my daughter, the evil of 
 deceit. Thy brother disobeyed my wishes ; he robbed 
 me, and deceived me. He continued to deceive me 
 for years ; his habits of deceit have ripened into dis- 
 honesty practised on a stranger. He buys one of 
 those evil and forbidden books, and being without 
 money to purchase the object of his desire, he lies, 
 saying I will pay the cost of it. Let him hunger 
 and thirst, and let no one feed him, or give him to 
 drink. Then, being brought low, it may be, per- 
 chance, that he returneth to the home that he left 
 in the pride and arrogance of his heart, and may 
 humble himself in the dust, and pray for forgive- 
 ness. I might pardon, but I never could again trust 
 one who has deceived me. Leah ! '^ he said, turning 
 to her suddenly, and grasping her wrist — stung by 
 a sudden remembrance of Luke's innuendoes as to 
 both his children — ^' if I ever find thou hast de- 
 ceived me, I will send thee from my home, never 
 to return ! '^ 
 
 " Oh, father ! do not, do not ! " shrieked poor 
 Leah, on whose pale lips a confession had been 
 trembling for the last ten minutes. " Do not 
 threaten to send me from thee, whatever faults 
 I may " 
 
 " Fear not, my own Lucy's daughter. Sin never 
 dwelt in so pure a tabernacle," said Caleb Preston, 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 touched by tLe agitation which the possibility of 
 his displeasure had created, and little knowing the 
 cause of her excessive emotion. " I have none but 
 thee, my daughter. Let no dissensions darken our 
 dwelling, from which the evil-doer has departed." 
 
 "Father! father! forgive him — recall him. Thou 
 hast said that we are all born in sin. Surely it 
 was ordained, for some wise purpose yet unknown, 
 that Perth should err in this matter, and yet be 
 brought back to the fold of the true Shepherd at 
 last ! Think of him, my father, without food or 
 shelter, exposed to the noontide heat and the even- 
 ing dews. He is the son of thy dear wife, my 
 glorified, saintly mother ! Let inquisition be made 
 for him. Let his sin be blotted out." 
 
 " Hush, child ! touch not the ark of the Lord 
 with profane hands. Mix not thyself with matters 
 too high for thy comprehension. Leave me, that 
 I may seek counsel in prayer from on high." 
 
 " Father, thou wilt not send me from thee ? Say 
 that thou wilt not ! " 
 
 " Thou hast not deceived me, child. Let that be 
 thy answer." 
 
 The anger felt by Caleb Preston at his son's 
 apparent deceit and dishonesty in leaving his father 
 to pay for the indulgence of a taste which he con- 
 sidered sinful, had taken from him tlie desire which 
 Miss Elliot's statement had awakened in his mind 
 to seek Perth out and bring him home. He could
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 163 
 
 not be suffering from hunger and thirst, Caleb 
 believed, if lie could obtain goods under false 
 pretence — become a swindler, as tbe stern father 
 chose to term the transaction, for the sake of a 
 forbidden pleasure. So he hardened his heart 
 against the starving youth who was too proud to 
 beg, and knew not in the few intervening days how 
 to obtain employment. It was fortunate that no 
 manual labour exhausted the powers of life, thereby 
 increasing the inevitable craving for food. 
 
 As in the boat containing a famine- stricken crew the 
 sufferers for a time forgot their pangs of hunger whilst 
 one well read in Bible lore retailed the story of Joseph 
 and his brethren, so Perth partly forgot the gnawing 
 sensation in his stomach whilst engaged in unravel- 
 ling the meaning, by slow degrees, of the Iliad, which 
 his imperfect knowledge of Greek made an anxious 
 labour of love. He little knew how the unprincipled 
 grocer had increased his father's anger against him 
 by the reflection on his honesty. He was stung, not 
 by any injury inflicted on himself, but by the just 
 reproaches showered by Hector on the panther-decked 
 beauty of his brother Paris, and had glowed with 
 shame when the nobler warrior speaks of the charms 
 of the flowing tresses and the silver lyre of Paris, 
 and tells him he is a warrior only amongst women. 
 Perth had never seen a translation of Homer, and 
 the beauties of the poet came upon him with a 
 sense of surprise. One feeling rose paramount to
 
 164 TRUE TO TIIE LIFE. 
 
 every other in the breast of Perth — a longing desire 
 to see the scenes in which such battles had been 
 fought, such stirring war-cries uttered, such noble 
 words sung. Perth knelt on the ground in the 
 avenue, and made a resting-place on the seat for his 
 Iliad and lexicon ; where, when the twilight made 
 the pale, ill-printed Greek characters dazzle before 
 his weary eyes, he covered them with his hand, 
 and saw in fancy the blind old man in Chios' lonely 
 isle, with his inartificial shell and inspired counte- 
 nance, and round him groups of youth of both 
 sexes — of the rich and the poor, of the jewel- 
 crowned chief, and the wine-treaders, and the 
 fishermen who lingered from their boats, and 
 dropped the coils of rope from their unconscious 
 hands. All had faded from the world but the 
 memory of the words uttered by that poet half 
 divine. Perth longed to witness the scenes where 
 Homer had lived and sung. He might, perhaps, 
 reach the Grecian isle, but he feared that the 
 locality of Troy was too doubtful to offer much 
 enjoyment in the anticipation of going over its 
 foundations. 
 
 In a few days (he coimted the hours, poor feUow ! 
 for he was very hungry) he should receive the 
 money for his clothes, and then he would start for 
 some seaport, and try to get employment on board 
 a vessel bound to the Mediterranean. 
 
 Time dragged his flight very slowly, in Leah's
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 165 
 
 opinion, during the day wlien Sir Edgar had said 
 he could not see her in the morning. She had not 
 told her father, and so she might have met him as 
 usual. It was very wicked not to have confessed 
 her sin ; but her father's anger at the comparatively 
 innocent denial practised by Perth, in learning 
 against his knowledge, had terrified her when on 
 the point of confiding her grief, and had frozen the 
 flowing words as they rose to her lips. And now 
 she felt wickedly rejoiced that she had not confessed, 
 for if this day dragged so wearily without him, how 
 could she bear never to see him again ? Whatever 
 Mr. Preston might think with regard to their 
 marriage, she knew he would admit of no com- 
 munication till Edgar was of age — nine months ! 
 "How could I live nine months without seeing 
 him, when this weary day seems never likely to be 
 over ? " 
 
 The dresses were finished and had been sent home. 
 Leah had rather a hope that Miss Bruee might pay 
 her at once, that she might try to find Perth, and 
 give him the greater part of the money ; but, though 
 the boy had been told to wait for a message in case 
 there should be any answer, the governess did not 
 care to take the trouble to get the money from her 
 writing-desk. So Leah stitched away on the delicate 
 fabric of Sir Edgar's cambric and lace, and presently 
 heard a conversation between the scullions and old 
 Molly.
 
 166 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 *' Three pounds of lard directly, Mrs. Molly. 
 Dear me ! 'tis hot coming along the road." 
 
 " Why don't you come across the park, then P " 
 said Molly, who was weighing the lard. " ^Tis 
 cooling enough under the trees." 
 
 " Well, you sec, His a bit shorter by the road ; 
 and then I thought I might see Dick Crozier mow- 
 ing the other side, on Farmer Giles's land ; but. 
 Lord's sake, make haste. Pound and half of soft 
 sugar. We've got a fine kit of folks to-day. Sir 
 Edgar is gone to fetch a young lady ; must get a 
 wonderful lunch for her — everj'thing of the best." 
 
 '' Lor ! " said Molly; '' what's she like ? " 
 
 " Don't know ; haven't seen her. Lady's-maid 
 is a fine stuck-up thing. Came early this morning. 
 * This my room ! ' said she. ' Where's the wax 
 candles for the dressing-table ? ' and she whipped 
 them ofi" her lady's toilette-cover, and carried them 
 to her own bed-chamber. Says she, ' You'll be sure 
 to get more for her afore she comes.' There's im- 
 pudence for 3'ou ! " 
 
 Moll}^ was silent, meditating that Mr. Preston 
 might increase his profits by laj-ing ui a store of 
 wax as well as of tallow candles. 
 
 " Well, neighbour, I must be off". You can put 
 the things down to the bill." 
 
 A pretty long one it was, for Mr. Preston was 
 very sparing in his family expenditure, and had 
 saved a few hundreds during his servitude with
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 167 
 
 Lord IN'ortli ; consequently lie was not reduced to 
 the expedient of small tradesmen in the neighbour- 
 hood of giant proprietors, who sometimes declare 
 themselves bankrupt that their assignees may- 
 demand the payment of their account, which they 
 could not do themselves without offending their 
 customers.
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 ', " Now air is hush'd, save where the weak-eyed bat, 
 With short, shrill shriek, flits by on leathern wing, 
 Or where the beetle winds 
 His small but sullen horn." 
 
 Collins. 
 
 When night came — or ratlier evening, for night 
 seems rather to throw the shadow of her dark robe 
 over the summer landscape than its substance — 
 Leah stole out to the forest trj^sting-place. She 
 had said she would not meet him, but he ??ifr//it hope 
 she would change her mind, and go thither on the 
 chance. 
 
 The owl skimmed over the distant oj)enings 
 of the park with long, tremulous cries ; and Leah 
 saw a timorous hare, with one ear thrown back and 
 watchful eye, steal through the fence of her father's 
 garden, and nibble the young vegetables, no longer 
 protected by the care of Perth. The distant objects, 
 blinded b)^ shadows, deceived the swimming sight 
 of the girl in her way through the woodland walks, 
 but every other sense was gratified. The woodlark, 
 poised in air, sang its enamoured song with a soft 
 reiteration of notes, as if seeking to recall some frag-
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 169 
 
 ment of forgotten minstrelsy by repeating again 
 and again the preliminary melody. Ttie moon gave 
 a misty, subdued radiance, and swept with its light 
 the half- mown hay-fields, from which the perfume 
 floated across the evening air. Occasionally Leah 
 heard the distant sheep-bell, and as she listened — 
 batno t for that sound — she stepped aside that she 
 might not crush the glow-worm, that insect Hero 
 who lights her evening lamp to lure her Leander 
 to her side. 
 
 'No Leander, however, was in that misty forest 
 that night. Leah walked on faster as she drew near 
 the seat. She was a little frightened by the dark- 
 ness, and thought she should have the protection 
 of her lover's presence. By dint of hoping, she had 
 persuaded herself he would certainly be there. She 
 felt her heart sink at the emptiness of the glade. 
 Bobtail was sleeping quietly by the remains of the 
 kitchen fire. His mistress had shut him in lest he 
 should have ofiered to accompany her, for she dreaded 
 the indiscretion of his bark. Now she wished she 
 had brought him, as a kind of protection against the 
 feeling of loneliness which weighed her down. 
 
 She returned slowly, the heav}^ heart refusing 
 elasticity to her feet. No fastening on this occasion 
 forbade her returning at any hour she pleased. In 
 five nights out of the seven the inhabitants of the 
 cottage left the doors imlocked from forgetfulness. 
 She did not feel as if she could sleep did she retire
 
 170 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 to licr bed-chamber, and, after a moment's delibera- 
 tion, she resolved to walk to the Hall, and look at the 
 outside of the grand old pile, which contained him 
 to whom every thought of her heart was given. 
 
 Once determined, she went swiftly ; for was there 
 not a good chance of her seeing Jam? There was 
 an undefined jealousy of Lady Barbara. It was 
 strange that she felt none of Miss Elliot, who was 
 beautiful, nor of Miss Bruce ; but then he had told 
 her he loved her^ and had shown that he preferred 
 her society, when he might have remained at the 
 Hall with either or both those ladies. Ladj- Barbara 
 was a new comer, and on the first day of her arrival 
 Sir Edgar had omitted to meet Leah. 
 
 She began to ask herself what excuse she could 
 make should the servants see and recognise her. She 
 was not ready with an untruth, and declared to herself 
 that she would keep within the shadow of the shrubs. 
 There was a right of way across the park, but no 
 one would think of going near the mansion who had 
 not business there. Leah's restless desire to see Sir 
 Edgar drove her to disregard every suggestion of 
 reason or prudence. 
 
 Lights were visible in various parts of the Hall, 
 and from the heat of the weather, the many windows 
 of the drawing-room, which opened on a colonnade 
 composed of light pillars, fragrant with their weight 
 of climbing flowers, were thrown back, and revealed 
 the refined comfort of the interior. As the sides of
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 171 
 
 the house were flanked b}^ laurels, Leali, after a 
 hurried look to see that she was not followed or not 
 noticed, placed herself near enough to see and hear 
 or guess what passed. How gorgeous the scene 
 appeared to one who had witnessed no other than 
 her father's frugal cottage ! The pendants of the 
 glass chandeliers were quivering with the reflected 
 lights of numberless wax candles. The draperies 
 of yellow satin received the warm illumination. A 
 middle-aged man was seated opposite a small table, 
 playing chess with Miss Bruce. He seldom chose to 
 appear in the drawing-room, but having been obliged, 
 as he thought, to pay his homage to his titled guest, 
 he indemnified himself by challenging Miss Bruce 
 to a game which permitted of his silence. That 
 industrious spider, who fancied that the web she had 
 spun to catch the young baronet had been swept 
 away by the advent of Lady Barbara, though dis- 
 couraged, yet unsubdued by failure, began to attack 
 the subtile fibres in another direction, and to dart 
 piercing glances in the direction of the stately wig 
 which covered the head of the master of the house. 
 
 She was a cunning woman, and fancied that to 
 allow herself to be beaten was the best way to win 
 the liking of her adversary; but she soon detected 
 the concealed yawn, repressed by politeness, and 
 made haste to recover herself by careful play. Mr. 
 Elliot, who had been thrown ofi" his guard by what 
 he called child's play, was astonished by a skilful
 
 172 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 move, whlcli he believed at first was accidental. It 
 was succeeded by another and another equally good, 
 and the gentleman's attention was riveted to the 
 game. Now this was only a degree better than the 
 weariness which threatened to make her antagonist 
 refuse to play any more ; for though, when Miss 
 Bruce had played her piece, she leaned her head 
 on a very round white arm, and regarded Mr. Elliot 
 languishingly, that was the very moment when, his 
 soul in arms and eager for the fray, he kept his eyes 
 fixed on the board ; and when his move was made, 
 she had so much to do to coimteract it, and avoid 
 the disgrace of a defeat, which would have ended 
 the game, that she could not find out whether he 
 ever looked at her or not. Certainly she never found 
 him giving her even a transient glance. 
 
 Once or twice she encountered his hand when 
 they changed pieces, but the blood of middle-aged 
 gentlemen does not precipitate itself onward on the 
 touch of a pretty woman, as it would have done 
 thirty years before. 
 
 She did not find that she had made an}' progress, 
 and hesitated whether to beat or be beaten at the 
 end of the evening. At length she took the former 
 of the two alternatives, feeling that if Mr. Elliot 
 were victorious he would be content ; if defeated, he 
 would be determined to play again on the following 
 evening with her : and she had the happiness of 
 hearinor him demand liis reven^-e when thev rose
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 173 
 
 to retire for tlie night, he having lost a skilfully- 
 played game of two hours' length. 
 
 Leah, who was looking in in a way very ill-bred, 
 no doubt, but for which her intense interest in one of 
 the persons contained in that luxurious apartment 
 must plead some excuse, took little or no interest 
 in the chess-players ; neither did her eyes rest long 
 on a lovely vision sitting in one of the windows^ in 
 an easy- chair, with her light hair flowing over her 
 shoulders, and robed in a white muslin dress, fastened 
 at the breast with a knot of blue ribbon. Miss Elliot 
 was looking up placidly at the sky, in which there 
 was the soft light of stars, and might be engrossed by 
 her own thoughts, or listening to the light laughter 
 or lively talking of a young lady seated at the harp, 
 to the accompaniment of which she frequently added 
 the charm of her voice. This lady was richly dressed 
 in pink satin, which looked amber-coloured in the 
 mellow light. 
 
 " Look ! " she cried to her companion, "at that — 
 
 " ' Pensive nun, devout and pure, 
 Sober, steadfast, and demure, 
 With looks commercing with the skies, 
 Her rapt soul sitting in her eyes.' 
 
 Of what is she thinking? Cannot you guess. Sir 
 Edgar?" 
 
 Lady Barbara had heard of the engagement ; and 
 though she had had good reason for believing that 
 Sir Edgar's aflections were not given to Miss Elliot,
 
 174 thue to the life. 
 
 she was ready to attribute that young lady's silence 
 and preoccupation to her despair of enchaining the 
 heart of tlie man to whom she was betrothed. 
 
 Sir Edgar was incapable of giving Lady Barbara 
 the idea that Miss Elliot's preoccupation was to 
 be attributed in the remotest degree to him, so he 
 answered — 
 
 " Your cousin is a broken-hearted maiden. She 
 has set her desires on that solid bliss which nothing 
 can destroy, except a snail, a cat, or idle boy. She 
 is devoted to horticulture — or rather to anthoculture, 
 if there be such a word. Her spirit is fretted by 
 the ignorance of the venerable gardener, who coun- 
 teracts all her little plans, and she pines for a de- 
 parted youth who was too well educated for old Luke, 
 and dismissed by him for that cause ; and, since the 
 learned boy left the Hall, grubs have devom^d the 
 buds, and aphides the rosebuds. '' 
 
 Lady Barbara laughed, and said something in a 
 lower voice to Sir Edgar ; and as he stooped to listen, 
 a spasm of jealous)' contracted the heart of Leah. 
 She had seen the lady hitherto behind the glistening 
 strings of her harp, which gave a magical charm to 
 her appearance as she was made half visible through 
 their fretwork ; but now she rose, and came forward 
 and stood near the window, and Leah, seeing her 
 distinctly, was almost consoled by her want of 
 beauty, especially when seen by the side of Miss 
 Elliot. Ladv Barbara herself was bv no means
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 175 
 
 troubled by tbe tlioiigbt tbat any one could make 
 odious comparisons between ber and tbe most perfect 
 beauty ever created since Eve adorned tbe garden of 
 Eden. Sbe bad been always taugbt to believe ber- 
 self irresistible — bad always found berself so. Young, 
 tbougb six years older tban tbe youtb at ber side, 
 noble by birtb, and inordinately wealtby, witb a fair 
 amount of cleverness, sbe bad found berself an object 
 of worsbip from ber earliest cbildbood. Being 
 assured always tbat tbere was no one so wortby of 
 love as berself, sbe gladly adopted botb tbe idea and 
 its results, and expended tbe wbole of ber devotion 
 on ber own little person. Sbe was never grateful for 
 love, because sbe considered it to be a debt owed 
 to ber, of wbicb sbe was determined to exact tbe 
 uttermost fartbing — if sbe bappened to tbink of ber 
 debtors at all ; but tbe numbers were so large, tbat 
 tbey migbt go witbout ber ever missing tbem, and 
 return again witbout a welcome. Tbe world was to 
 ber one vast baby-bouse full of toys ; sbe felt tbey 
 were all bers, and trying to grasp tbem all, dropped 
 balf witbout perceiving it, or caring for tbose sbe no 
 longer grasped. Leab bad reason to be comforted 
 in ber lack of beauty. Her complexion was sallow ; 
 ber nose straigbt and tbin ; ber eyes narrow and 
 dark ; ber moutb so expansive, tbat wben, standing 
 towards tbe spectator full face, sbe laugbed, tbe 
 corners went out of sigbt altogetber ; tbe tcctb were 
 large and wbite, and sbowed nearly tbe wbolc row,
 
 176 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 top and bottom ; her figure slight and flat, but agile 
 and graceful. Leah pronounced her, in her mind, to 
 be '' quite ugly;" but, a moment after, she was aware 
 of a strange fascination in her face, which made her 
 hesitate as to whether she was plain or good-looking. 
 The poet, speaking of his heroine, says she was — 
 
 " Bless' d with that charm — the certainty to please." 
 
 Lady Barbara had the charm that consisted in 
 being perfectly pleased with herself, though I do 
 not think this was the idea meant to be conveyed by 
 the poet of human life, who meant to refer to the 
 conviction in the lady's mind that all she said or did 
 would be pleasing to her lover ; but as Lady Barbara 
 believed the whole world to be her lovers, it came 
 very much to the same result. 
 
 " Pray sing that song once more, my lady," said 
 Sir Edgar gallantly, "that I may go to bed and 
 dream of the charming melody." 
 
 " The harp-strings will break if I have it 
 brought so near the window, and 'tis too hot in the 
 room." 
 
 " Then sing without music," said Miss Elliot. " I 
 admire your singing so much," she said simply, and 
 witliout the slightest admixture of pique at Sir 
 Edgar's seeming admiration of her guest. 
 
 Then Lady Barbara leaned on the back of the old 
 cliair of carved oak, and sang, without accompani- 
 ment, the following words : —
 
 TKIJE TO THE LIFE. 177 
 
 " Katie ! my queen ! art thou sleeping ? 
 
 Cold shadows have sunk on the lea ; 
 From her nest the small shrewmouse is peeping, 
 
 Lest shriek-owl or pussy may see. 
 But no one is watch o'er thee keeping, 
 
 Then steal from thy bower, love, to me. 
 
 " Each flower its small folds closer bringing, 
 
 Shuts out the cold breath of the air ; 
 Ah ! would that my arms round thee clinging, 
 
 Might keep off the chill of each care, 
 And Loves shelter o'er thy life flinging, 
 
 Make it bright as thy beauty is rare." 
 
 " Very pretty indeed," said Mr. Elliot, rising 
 after receiving his checkmate. 
 
 Miss Bruce had looked very earnestly at her anta- 
 gonist as Lady Barbara sang the last verse, hoping 
 he would ap]3ly the words to herself; but he mis- 
 understood the look, and thought the governess was 
 only anxious that he should say something civil to 
 the songstress at the conclusion of the lay, as he 
 might be supposed to have neglected the lady during 
 the chess-playing. Lady Barbara bowed carelessly 
 and put out her hand, saying good night, which Mr. 
 Elliot kissed with an elaborately-executed bow, and 
 then, touching the tips of her fingers daintil}^, he 
 conducted her to the door, whither she was followed 
 by his daughter. Then he returned with more 
 natural ease to the drawing-room, and informed 8ir 
 Edgar that that woman had made his head whiz un- 
 pleasantly with her confounded chess, and he should 
 be glad to go to bed. Thus Sir Edgar was left 
 alone in the luxiu-ious room. Leah watched him 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 with her heart heating wihlly ; she wondered how 
 often he had thought of her during that evening — if 
 he had dreamed of her in that scene of wealth and 
 refinement. She hegan to understand something of 
 the cLaims made on him hy the society of his equals, 
 and that he could hardly, without observation, have 
 dashed away to the forest to meet her. But the 
 conviction depressed her ; she felt like a child who 
 has leaped over a succession of small pools on the 
 seashore, and finding them unaccountably broadened 
 by the returning tide, trembles lest she should be 
 swept away by the inevitable ocean. 
 
 Sir Edgar came and leant against the window- siU, 
 and looked out thoughtfully on the parterre. " Oh, 
 Sir Edgar ! " poor Leah's heart was murmuring, 
 " why cannot you guess that I am near you ? " She 
 was withheld by shame from the audible whisper 
 of his name, which would have brought him in an 
 instant to her side. 
 
 He whistled gently a few bars of the air Lady 
 Barbara had just sung, and then hummed a few of 
 the words : — 
 
 "Then steal from thy bower, love, to me." 
 
 It almost seemed as if he had known she was there. 
 A conviction came on her mind that he was loving 
 her and thinking of her with a constancy which not 
 even the life that surrounded him, in which she 
 had no part, could deaden or destroy. She knelt
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 179 
 
 on the turf, and stretclied lier arms towards him. as 
 lie leant in tlie soft moonlight against the flowering 
 shrubs on the window-sill, and then raising them to 
 the star- lit sky, she said, " Bless him ! bless him ! " 
 When her fervent prayer was uttered, and she 
 looked again, Sir Edgar had turned away, and had 
 rung the bell. The footman came and shut the 
 glass doors and closed the shutters, and Leah felt 
 that she was doubly excluded, by the difierent cir- 
 cumstances of their daily lives, from the creature 
 for whom her attachment had become almost idola- 
 trous. 
 
 But she went back more hopefully, from the echo 
 of his words on her heart. She was sure he had 
 thought of her, and of the night-tryst she had 
 refused to grant him.
 
 CHAPTETl XYI. 
 
 *' He who stems a stream with sand, 
 And fetters flame with flaxen band, 
 Has yet a harder task to prove — 
 Ey fii-m resolve to conquer love." 
 
 Morning came, with breath all incense and cheek 
 all bloom, and it shed its light on no creature more 
 delicately lovely than Leah Preston. "When the small 
 arrangements of her household were concluded, she 
 took her work-basket and sped away over the moss- 
 covered paths to her bower in the forest. Bobtail 
 accompanied her ; for she was grateful for the more 
 acute instinct which could tell of her lover's ap- 
 proach before her sense apprised her of his coming. 
 She had not long to wait before he came crashing 
 through the bushes, and caught her to his breast. 
 
 He had had a little doubt whether Leah would tell 
 her father or not, in which case he knew he should 
 never be allowed to see her again. The anxiety had 
 made his greeting more tender than usual. 
 
 He did not mention his half- formed fear ; he 
 would not remind her of the omitted dut}' by any 
 reference to their conversation on the previous occa- 
 sion.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 181 
 
 " Put down your sewing and let me liold both your 
 hands. Oh, Leah ! I do love you so ! " said the 
 youth, looking on her sweet downcast face. ^' You 
 can do that stupid herring-bone after I go. I shall 
 have to leave you when the luncheon-bell rings." 
 
 " Why must you ? " Leah asked jealously. 
 
 " My child, I am engaged to ride with Lady 
 Barbara after luncheon ; but 'tis only nine o'clock," 
 said he, taking from his pocket a watch, large 
 according to present idea, but a perfect marvel of 
 minuteness then, and embossed with finely-executed 
 gold figures of Cimon and Tphigenia, " and that will 
 give me four hours with one with whom I would 
 gladly spend my whole life." 
 
 " Were you amused last evening, sir ? " said 
 Leah. 
 
 " Yes, madam,''^ he said, mocking the formality of 
 her address to him. 
 
 " Oh ! " she said. 
 
 " You deserved that answer," said Sir Edgar, 
 " for thinking I could be amused in your ab- 
 sence." 
 
 " And I believe I was not far wrong in my 
 thought," said Leah, with a little quaver in her tone, 
 remembering how gaily she had heard him laugh as 
 he leant over Lady Barbara and her harp. 
 
 " I am sure I don't know by what right or on 
 what ground you arrive at that conviction," said Sir 
 Edgar, a little ofiended ; but his anger softened into
 
 182 TRUE TO TIIE LIFE. 
 
 tenderness as he saw the tears falling from her melt- 
 ing blue eyes on those purely-tinted cheeks. 
 
 " Oh, my love ! do not doubt me," he said, 
 tightening his arm round her slender waist, and 
 kissing the half-averted face. "I do not think," 
 he continued, " I was amused at all. I was 
 glad when they were all gone to bed, and I 
 was left to my own thoughts, which were then 
 uninterruptedly given to you. One is forced by 
 politeness to appear haj^py when others strive to 
 amuse you, or to show oneself ungrateful for, or 
 inattentive to, their efforts. Miss Elliot is a very 
 silent person. Miss Bruce and Mr. Elliot played 
 chess." 
 
 " And the strange lady ! What did she do ? " 
 
 " Oh ! she played on the harp and sang." 
 
 " Does she sing well ? " 
 
 " Yes ; her voice is very fine, and she has been 
 perfectly taught." 
 
 " Tell me the words of the song." 
 
 Sir Edgar repeated them; he had often heard 
 them in former days, and knew them perfectly. He 
 uttered them with the "^tendcrest expression in lips 
 and eyes directed to Leah. Ecndcred careless by 
 her sense of intense happiness, she said softly — 
 
 '' When you sang that line, standing by the win- 
 dow, were you thinking of me ? " 
 
 When there is a secret, the shrewdest and most care- 
 ful amonjT'st us will do well never to let the convcrsa-
 
 TEUE TO THE LIFE. 183 
 
 tion turn to the mj^sterioiis subject, lest, in an 
 evil moment, we should betray our own counsel, or, 
 what is far worse, that of another. 
 
 " How do you know I stood by the window and 
 repeated any line ? " said Sir Edgar wonderingl^^ 
 " Surely you cannot have learned anything from the 
 servants ; " and the possibility of her conversing with 
 them gave him an unpleasant sensation, which he 
 did not stop to analyse. 
 
 " I never talk to any servant excepting old 
 Molly," said Leah, rather hurt. 
 
 '' Then how could you know that I stood by the 
 window ? I remember now, perfectly, that I did 
 do so. Yes, I was thinking of you, and you only. 
 But how did you know it ? " 
 
 Then Leah concealed her glowing face against the 
 lace- embroidered ends of the handkerchief which 
 was passed round his neck and fell over his breast, 
 and faltered out her confession — that she had 
 watched him from the shrubs at the side of the 
 house, because she could not let the whole day pass 
 without seeing him. Sir Edgar kissed her pas- 
 sionately on eyelids and lips, but was somewhat 
 troubled by trying to recall all that Leah might 
 have seen and heard. lie knew that he loved her 
 better than any one in the world, but felt that she 
 might fairly have taken umbrage at his manner to 
 Lady Barbara. 
 
 However, Leah seemed as happy as her over-
 
 184 TRUE TO TTTE LIFE. 
 
 whelming shame at the confession she had been com- 
 pelled to make permitted her to he. She, being then 
 quite satisfied as to the amount of Sir Edgar's affec- 
 tion, dared not look beyond the enjoyment of the 
 present hour. She would tell her father all, but not 
 now ; not till after the^^V^-day, she thought, as Sir 
 Edgar called it, instead of the feast-day, as the 
 labourers expressed it. They were most right, 
 because they used their own language ; but Leah did 
 not think of that. 
 
 Leah had a passing hope that her father might 
 not forbid her going. He had recovered sufficiently 
 to look forward to proceeding to Stoneham on the 
 following day to pay his bills, and to inquire after 
 Perth, and into the secret of that disgraceful transac- 
 tion by which he was left indebted to the extent 
 of half-a-crown to Mr. Eeece, incurred by his son. 
 He was not sorrj^, either, to avoid the scene of riot 
 which the stately old park would probably become 
 at a period when gentlemen were generally picked up 
 by their footmen from under the table after dinner, 
 and when, for one day in the year at least, plough- 
 men might hope for an opportunity of signalising 
 themselves in a similar accomplishment.
 
 CHAPTEH XYII. 
 
 " Hither let the village swain repair, 
 
 And light of heart the village maiden gay, 
 
 To deck with flowers her half-dishevell'd hair, 
 And celebrate the merry month of May ; 
 And when mild evening comes in mantle grey, 
 
 Let not the blooming band make haste to go." 
 
 The proceedings were to begin with a dinner at one 
 o'clock in tlie day, and a supper at six. "Women 
 were to liave tea provided for them at four o'clock, 
 to supply a sufficient amount of which Miss Elliot 
 and the female servants at the Hall had been making 
 muslin bags, containing a quarter of a pound each, 
 which were to be boiled in a large brewing-vat. 
 Mr. Elliot had expressed a faint wish for an ox 
 roasted whole, which he imagined would produce a 
 great effect in the county papers, but his practical 
 daughter was of opinion that the meat would be 
 more thoroughly cooked, and more easily carved, 
 when it had been previously cut into joints; so she 
 kissed her father's forehead, and reminded him that 
 he had given the party to please her, and that she 
 must have her own way. From the numbers to be 
 provided for, it was found impossible to supply them 
 with hot joints, the cooks having been roasting
 
 186 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 sirloins and ribs, and boiling rounds of beef, for some 
 days before the festal entertainment. Plum puddings 
 were in great abundance, and hogsheads of good 
 ale were placed under the trees, with a responsible 
 servant to draw it for the guests. Tarts were 
 avoided, for the want of dishes was found to present 
 insuperable difficulties, as the housekeeper objected 
 to the use of her china, and Miss Elliot had not 
 thought of purchasing common tart-dishes till it was 
 too late. Of beefsteak pies, and those made of 
 rabbits, chickens, and pigeons, there was an ample 
 supply. Miss Elliot had desired every guest to 
 bring his own plate, knife, fork, and spoon, as 
 she anticipated that if her father provided them the 
 plates would be recklessly smashed, and the knives, 
 forks, and spoons less recklessly, but most ■ dis- 
 honestly pocketed. 
 
 " For what a set of people you are providing I " 
 said Sir Edgar, somewhat contemptuously. 
 
 "That is to say," replied the young lady, *' that 
 you underrate temptations j'ou have never felt ; but 
 are you so perfect that you never succumb to the 
 sins that so easily beset the wealthy ? " 
 
 '' I am a man of honour," said Sir Edgar. 
 
 " Do you never deceive man or woman ? You 
 are a man of honour, no doubt. Will your honour 
 stand in the way of your inclinations, if they should 
 be base ? You may reply that the inclinations of an 
 honourable man arc never base. If this be so, I
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 187 
 
 fear tlie race is a rare one. It seems to me tliat a 
 man of honour may act as he pleases, if he pay 
 to a fraction his losses at play, and can rightly 
 calculate every degree of affront, to wipe it out at the 
 point of his sword by the blood of his adversary." 
 
 Thus spoke Miss Elliot, who had carefully gauged 
 the character of the man to whom she had been 
 from childhood betrothed. 
 
 "Is this your deliberate opinion of me, Miss 
 Elliot ? " said the young man with a heightened 
 colour. 
 
 " It is," answered Rose Elliot calmly. 
 
 "In that case, I think we may consider any 
 engagement which may have existed between our 
 parents and guardians, with regard to our future 
 union, to be at an end." 
 
 " Bless me ! " said Hose, smiling, " I came to that 
 decision some months since. Now, pray do not de- 
 prive us of the pleasure of your company, in con- 
 sideration of 3^our outraged sensibilities and wounded 
 affections. Who is to amuse Lady Bab, if you do 
 not, I cannot imagine, and I do not see why we 
 should not be good friends and cousins, though we 
 can be nothing more to each other." 
 
 She held out her hand frankly, and looked so 
 handsome and spirited as she spoke, that, notwith- 
 standing his love for poor Leah, he felt a pang of 
 regret that he had not appropriated Rose as his wife. 
 A man who is dismissed by a lady from an engage-
 
 188 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 ment which he wished to be dissolved sometimes 
 looks exceedingly foolish, and Sir Edgar was no 
 exception to this custom. 
 
 Miss Elliot pitied his awkward position, and asked 
 him to assist her in making some roses of white and 
 pink paper, to hang in wreaths round the pillars 
 in the ball-room. There Lady Barbara found them, 
 in the afternoon of the day on which the pealing of 
 the luncheon-bell had separated him from Leah's 
 side. She was as ill-tempered as gentle ladies can 
 be when, in the course of their smooth lives, they 
 feel the crumpling of the rose-leaf. A horse and cart 
 had been despatched to Stoneham to bring back a 
 sacred box of millinery, which was expected from 
 Lady Barbara's dressmaker in town, and had re- 
 turned with his cart empty — no parcel for Lady 
 Barbara having arrived by the mail on the j^receding 
 evening. 
 
 " I shall not have a dress fit to appear in," she 
 said snappishly, " even before these stupid louts of 
 count r}^ squires and their families.*' 
 
 Miss Elliot felt that the lady was ill-bred ; but 
 suggested, as a topic of consolation, that the box might 
 arrive on the following evening in time for the ball. 
 She would write a note to request the people at the 
 coach-office to send it over by their horse and cart, 
 as her father's men were naturally all counting 
 on — 
 
 " One long summer's day of indolence and mirth."
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 189 
 
 Witli this liope, whicli Lady Barbara declared to 
 be ratber a forlorn one, sbe was compelled to be 
 content, so sbe sat down, and taking a pair of 
 scissors, began to snip tbe paper roses to pieces as 
 fast as Miss Elliot cut them out and sewed tbem 
 together. Rose's patience was trembling on tbe 
 verge of extinction; at length she was struck by a 
 fortunate idea. 
 
 " Are you going to dance the minuet to-morrow 
 night. Sir Edgar ? " 
 
 " That will depend on whether Lady Barbara will 
 honour me by her acceptance as a partner,'' he 
 replied, not sorry to offer a parting slight to the 
 young lady who had dismissed him so peremptorily. 
 
 "In that case, you had better walk through the 
 steps together, to see that you are in accord. I will 
 sing the Minuet de la Cour to you. I can do that 
 and sew my roses at the same time." 
 
 Sir Edgar immediately fetched his hat, when 
 Lady Barbara rose, and presenting her hand to the 
 young gentleman, he conducted her to the top of the 
 room, and they began the movements of one of the 
 most graceful dances ever performed by youth and 
 beauty. To this followed the Gavotte ; but here a 
 difference of opinion took place between the lady 
 and the gentleman, and Rose was obliged to 
 repeat the air again and again, till her voice failed 
 her. 
 
 " I really hope my new ball-dress will not be
 
 190 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 SO scanty as this morning wrapper, or the folds 
 will look very poverty-stricken/' said Lady Bar- 
 bara. 
 
 " I think it looks very charming/' said Rose, 
 who admired the wonderful grace of her ladyship's 
 pliant figure, and was generously pleased to praise 
 her. 
 
 Sir Edgar, thinking he had performed his duty 
 sufficiently well for that day at least, now sauntered 
 to the stable to look at his horses. 
 
 Lady Barbara, flinging about firebrands, like him 
 mentioned in the Proverbs, who said, " Am not T in 
 sport ? " inquired — 
 
 " Are you engaged to Sir Edgar, Miss Elliot ? " 
 
 " No, I am not. Why do you ask ? " 
 
 " Oh, only because he proposed to me a year ago ! '* 
 
 " And you accepted him ? " 
 
 " I ! that is likely indeed I / accept a simple 
 baronet of moderate fortune ! My dear, of what 
 can you be thinking?" 
 
 *' I beg pardon for my simplicity ; but, with my 
 rustic notions, I fancied his manner to you was that 
 of an accepted lover." 
 
 The young lady winced, for propriety in those 
 days was not entirely expunged from the necessities 
 of female conduct, and Miss Elliot had thus paid ofi" 
 on her guest some of the insulting speeches the 
 little lady had indulged her ill temper in on that
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 191 
 
 Bose wanted some little consolation, for stie was 
 so weary with her incessant toil in preparing for 
 her village feast that she could hardly sit up 
 through a rather tedious dinner, and the party 
 broke up early, to be ready for the genial labours of 
 the following day. 
 
 However gentle and sweet Leah's disposition 
 might be, she had the truly feminine wish to 
 appear dressed in the costume of a higher rank 
 than that to which she was by her position en- 
 titled. The pattern of Miss Bruce's new dresses 
 threw a temptation in her way Leah could not 
 resist, and she bought herself some muslin for a 
 white gown, and some of a thinner quality for a 
 clear handkerchief, which was surrounded by a frill, 
 and finished by long ends which passed under her 
 arms and were tied behind. The light bodice showed 
 to advantage a full bust and slender waist ; it was 
 of moderate length, in a peak in front, from which 
 depended full folds before and behind, whilst the 
 muslin set tightly over the hips. When Leah had 
 dressed herself, after her father and the blind pony 
 had departed to Stoneham, she was conscious of a 
 guilty joy that he could not see nor disapprove of 
 her costume. He was quite capable, she knew, of 
 making her take it ofi", and dress herself again in 
 the ordinary chintz with large flowers, open in front, 
 and showing a dark petticoat, rather short, and 
 only partly concealed by a coarse white apron. It
 
 192 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 was true that Sir Edgar had first seen — had loved 
 her in this attire; but she looked forward to being 
 his wife, and wanted to appear more, in her dress at 
 least, as his equal. Not satisfied with the hair 
 drawn to the top of her head by pins, she went to 
 bed with her soft locks in curl-papers, and when she 
 was ready to go to the feast, she released the curls 
 from their durance, and allowed them to fall over her 
 shoulders and bosom. 
 
 ** I can pin them up again to the top of my head," 
 she told old Molly, " should they come out of curl 
 and look untidy." 
 
 Her little efibrts to attain to a ladylike appear- 
 ance were very sad. There was one deficiency 
 in her attire which made the tears gather in her 
 eyes. She had no gloves such as ladies wear, and 
 her forefinger was covered with dark prickings from 
 her needle. She wished so much that she had 
 gloves ; for, though her hands were slender and 
 white, she could not tell how to conceal the 
 mourned-for deficiency of their clothing. She took 
 out a clean pocket-handkerchief and held it partly 
 over the left hand, but she saw it looked like a 
 pretence, and returned it to her pocket. 
 
 *' Lor' ! you do look beautiful, Miss Leah ! " cried 
 old Molly, who saw there was grief in the girl's 
 face, and essayed her small powers of consolation ; 
 " quite like a lady." 
 
 Leah burst into tears.
 
 TRUE TO THE l.IFE. 193 
 
 "What is it, my dear?" said Molly, with sym- 
 pathetic water rising in her withered eyelids. 
 
 " I have no gloves, Molly — all ladies wear gloves ; 
 and look at that ugly grey-looking mark which 
 won't come off my forefinger." 
 
 Women understand each other's feelings with a 
 quickness of apprehension which the most devoted 
 masculine attachment cannot reach. Caleb would 
 have laid down his life for his daughter, but he 
 would have been utterly without sympathy for this 
 trivial distress. 
 
 " Oh ! Miss Leah, I am so glad — 'tis quite lucky ! 
 The lady's-maid up at the Hall sent a box of gloves 
 to be returned to Stoneham by your papa this 
 morning, and he was gone before they came, so 
 the boy left them till further orders, and you can 
 fit yourself to a pair." 
 
 Leah's tears began to give place to a smile. 
 " Oh, Molly, I am afraid they cost a great deal ! 
 Look, there is the mark — four shillings and sixpence. 
 I must not have them." This was uttered with a 
 faltering voice. 
 
 Molly said, '' Don't vex yourself, nor spoil your 
 pretty face with crying ;" and leaving Leah with the 
 delicate white gloves in her hand, united at the 
 wrists by a few striches Leah did not dare to sever, 
 Molly went up- stairs, and the girl heard a tremen- 
 dous scraping, made by her pulling her box from 
 under tlie bed. At length she reappeared with the 
 
 VOL. 1. O
 
 194 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 money in sixpences and coppers, screwed up in a 
 piece of paper, to the proper amount, and deposited 
 it in tlie place of the abstracted gloves ; then kissing 
 Leah, she bade her " go and enjoy herself with the 
 best of them."
 
 CHAPTER XYIII. 
 
 " A great family, 
 That with strong "beer and beef the country rules." 
 
 Rochester. 
 
 On the morning of the eventful Thursday, " up rose 
 the sun and up rose Emily," or, in prosaic language, 
 Miss Elliot emulated Dryden's heroine, but with 
 graver cares than those of the fair creature who 
 did " observance to the lively May." Her first 
 anxiety was dispelled by the glory of the morning. 
 Had there been a cloud on the horizon, the quantity 
 of awning provided would have been insufficient, and 
 the servants' hall must have been sacrificed to the 
 accommodation of the old people ; as it was, they 
 could sit in the tents and be sheltered from draughts, 
 which would do no damage to the younger and stronger 
 portion of the community. Mr. Elliot had put no 
 limitation to the expenditure of money on this 
 occasion, but he declined to be troubled by any 
 details of trivial difficulties, and Rose Elliot could 
 obtain neither sympathy nor assistance from Sir 
 Edgar, who might have aided her by his exertions 
 had he felt it to be his vocation; but the selfish-
 
 196 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 ness of giving way only to his own desire of occu- 
 pation had overcome him too thoroughly to admit 
 of his making himself useful in the way by which 
 he might have benefited his young hostess. Thus 
 Rose had to see that the waggons went out in good 
 time to collect the infirm people, who were for the 
 whole of their lives compelled to move only from 
 chimney-corner to bed and back again, unless on 
 some occasion as exceptional as the present. It was 
 important that this should be completed at an early 
 hour, otherwise Miss Elliot knew that the horses 
 would neither be fed nor watered by the impatient 
 carters, who would be eager to wash their hands 
 and faces, and don their Sunday best, to be readv for 
 the one-o'clock feeding-time. The butler and foot- 
 men, Avith the steward, gamekeepers, coachmen, 
 grooms, and all necessary or unnecessary male 
 members of a great man's establishment, were 
 busy in setting out the tables with heavy joints — 
 which, as the distance was considerable to which 
 they were carried, the females declared they would 
 not do. Even the scullions had their own little 
 vanities to consult on this occasion, and after send- 
 ing away, denuded of their calico coverings, the last 
 of many dozen handsome plum puddings, they seized 
 on any spoutless and handlcless jugs, which, though 
 cracked, might yet be capable of carrying hot 
 water, and ascending to the attics, took squares of 
 brown soap to destroy the marks of the toil by
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 197 
 
 whicli the guests were to benefit. There they 
 scrubbed their shining faces, observing their reflec- 
 tions in triangular bits of looking-glass, by which 
 they arranged their caps, ornamented by the brightest 
 of ribbons — scarlet, orange, purple^ and green. Being 
 servants, they were compelled to wear the distinctive 
 dress which on that occasion Leah had set aside. 
 Their gowns were open in front, with sleeves tight 
 to the elbows (small ruffles being worn on holi- 
 days), and a white apron in front ; the hair drawn 
 back and covered with a round cap, like those pre- 
 ferred at the present day. 
 
 Miss Elliot was dressed, as usual, in white soft 
 cambric muslin without a train, which she knew 
 would have very much interfered with the necessary 
 celerity of her movements, however carefully fast- 
 ened up. Her hair fell over her shoulders without 
 powder, and was surrounded by a gipsy hat, in 
 which she looked very lovely; but the effect \vas 
 unstudied, for she cared not a rush whether she 
 looked well or not. She was a person of active 
 mind and a healthy frame, not given to " allicholy 
 and musing.^' She had never felt any preference 
 for one man more than another, and should the 
 whole male creation have been swept away from 
 the surface of the earth — with the exception of her 
 father, for whom she felt the tenderness born of 
 that sense of protection which is usually given by 
 the elder to the younger of the two relations, but
 
 198 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 which, in the present case, was reversed — she would 
 have considered the world greatly benefited by the 
 change. 
 
 " Men were always obstructives," she said. " There 
 was Sir Edgar, a selfish youth, only caring for his 
 own comforts. There were the men-servants always 
 robbing their master, or deceiving the maids, or 
 quarrelling amongst themselves. There were the 
 grooms neglecting the horses ; — had she not seen 
 them bedded-Tip when their feet had not been pro- 
 perly washed out ? and deprived of water when the 
 pump was out of order, because the grooms were too 
 lazy to draw it from the well ? And, worst of all, 
 there was that stupid old man, Luke, who would do 
 nothing himself, and permit nothing to be done, and 
 had dismissed the only person who had a grain of 
 sense or information in the whole establishment, to 
 the utter destruction of her new flower-garden and 
 greenhouse.'' 
 
 " Allow me to give you some cold chicken," said 
 Miss Elliot to Lady Barbara at luncheon-time. "Sir 
 Edgar, cut that tongue. You must excuse me if I 
 eat like the Israelites, with my loins girded, for I 
 must return to the ground and represent paj^a at the 
 first table." 
 
 " Thank 3'ou," said Lady Barbara superciliously ; 
 '* but I do not care for cold food at luncheon. I 
 will wait for something hot." 
 
 " I fear you will have to wait till to-morrow, then,
 
 True to the life. 199 
 
 unless yon can induce your maid to make you a cup of 
 tea and a piece of liot buttered toast. All the servants 
 — at least, all my father's — arc holiday-making." 
 
 " Really, Rose, I wish you had taken some other 
 time for this merry-making than my visit. I don't 
 care to be a martyr to the general good." 
 
 "Is'ever mind for once," said Eose, laughing. 
 " You will be amused by-and-by, no doubt." 
 
 " In what way ?" 
 
 " Oh ! we shall have some games between dinner 
 and supper. The men and boys will run races in a 
 part of the park which will be seen from the tent 
 where the old men will sip their ale and smoke 
 their pipes. Of course each veteran will swear by 
 the perfections of his sons and grandsons, and 
 criticise the performances of his neighbour's descend- 
 ants ; but, whilst they enjoy their children's success 
 with reflected pride, they will make a reservation in 
 favour of their own superior performances in past 
 years. There will be prizes given to the swiftest 
 runners in the races — one to the men, one to the 
 boys. The honour will be far greater if Lady Bar- 
 bara presents them. They will be of little value : 
 the charm will be in the success. A necktie for 
 the men ; a wonderfully-painted kite, with string to 
 fly it, for the boys." 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 " Then the women will run a race. There will be 
 quintain for the men and cockshy for the boys. By
 
 200 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 this time they will have become hungry again, and 
 there will succeed the scramble at the cache.'' 
 
 " What is the cache?'' said Sir Edgar. 
 
 *' It is not cache at all, only called so. There is a 
 considerable dip in the park on the north side ; at 
 the bottom of this slope there is a large open pit 
 dug, in which will be deposited half a dozen pies 
 baked in tin dishes, a dozen of wine in greased 
 bottles, and a half-dozen gallon kegs of spirits, also 
 greased. The candidates having stripped off coats, 
 waistcoats, and highlows, will be conducted to the 
 top of the hill, preceded by a man with a sack full 
 of currant cakes, which he will fling out on each 
 side of him as he walks on. The calics will be round 
 at the sides, having being baked in tins, and will roll 
 down the hill pursued by the anxious runners, who 
 will probably find their heels in the air and their 
 heads in a pie-dish in the cache at the bottom of the 
 declivity. Besides this, there will be some jumping 
 in sacks amongst the women for flannel and calico, 
 and a donkey- race for the boys, in which the riders 
 will have their faces to the tails of their beasts, and 
 where the last comer will win half-a-guinea ; the 
 festivities of the evening to conclude with a dance 
 on the green. At eight o'clock the park will be 
 cleared, as far as orders on such an occasion can be 
 carried out, for the servants will be wanted to attend 
 to our own party in the ball-room. Luckily all our 
 preparations are complete '*
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 201 
 
 " !N"o, indeed, they are not," interrupted Lady- 
 Barbara ; '' my dress is not come. But I trust it 
 will liave arrived by tbat time. I have ordered 
 it to be brought from the coach- office, and should 
 it not come " 
 
 " That was a magnificent pink satin you wore on 
 Tuesday night; could you not wear that one?" 
 Rose suggested cautiously^ for she expected the 
 retort which leaped from between Lady Barbara's 
 vicious-looking teeth. 
 
 " Beally, my dear, you should not ^iyq opinions 
 or make suggestions on subjects of which you know 
 nothing. Fancy me, Sir Edgar, wearing satin in a 
 ball-room not enlivened by gauze or lace ! " 
 
 " I cannot fancy you in any attire in which you 
 would not be very charming," said the gentleugian 
 gallantly. 
 
 " Good-bye," said Bose. *' You can settle that 
 point without my presence;" and she ran off to 
 the dinner-tables under the trees. Here she was 
 speedily occupied in conducting the most infirm to 
 the most comfortable places,, and seeing that some 
 responsible persons belonging to the establishment 
 were placed at different parts of the table to carve 
 the joints and distribute the pudding, whilst one of 
 the footmen served the ale from the neighbouring 
 cask. As the chaplain had not yet arrived, Bose 
 Elliot, with beautiful simplicity, said " grace " stand- 
 ing at the head of the table, and then the most
 
 202 TKUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 interesting business of the day began to the hungry 
 multitude ; who, though their means had not per- 
 mitted the custom by which Julius Caesar prepared 
 for a festival at liis friends' expense, had done 
 their utmost by eschewing the lump of dry bread 
 with which, on ordinary occasions, they satisfied the 
 cravings of appetite at breakfast- time. 
 
 Whilst Rose moved quickly round the table from 
 person to person, piling their plates with cold 
 meat, or, the gravest and most blooming of human 
 Hebes, poured the amber ale into the pewter pints 
 for her venerable guests. Lady Barbara and Sir 
 Edgar strolled into the park, towards the moving 
 mass of gay colours collected under different 
 clumps of trees. Even amongst the refined and 
 educated gay and vivid colours were the rule, and 
 the lower classes naturally delighted to follow a 
 fashion that accorded so well with their own 
 tastes. So the appearance, especially where the 
 scene was reflected on the surface of the tranquil 
 lake, might have afforded opportunities worthy of 
 the painter's toil, had any artist been present to — 
 
 " Catch ere they fade the Cynthias of the minute." 
 
 " I wonder whether any of the county families 
 will drop in this morning." 
 
 "Probably not," replied Sir Edgar ; '* their car- 
 riages will be wanted to bring parties to the ball 
 to-night."
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 203 
 
 " Oh ! *twas the men I was thinking of, not their 
 wives and daughters," replied her candid lady- 
 ship. 
 
 ''You should have been called Alexandra Tiarbara, 
 or Barbara Alexandra,'' observed the young man. 
 
 -Why, pray?" 
 
 ''Because you are always pining for fresh con- 
 quests, as did that boy-warrior. Why cannot you 
 leave the poor Essex squires alone ?" 
 
 Lady Barbara laughed triumph an tl}^. 
 
 " It is very well to laugh, Lady Bab, but " 
 
 "Well! but what?" 
 
 " It cannot be very pleasant for you to observe 
 that men shot through the heart by glances from 
 those eyes, though they fall insensible at j^our feet 
 at the instant, or only sensible to the agony j^ou 
 have inflicted, get up again and feel none the 
 worse, and go about their usual avocations and 
 amusements as if there were not a Lady Barbara in 
 the world." 
 
 Her ladyship looked provoked, but made no 
 answer, whilst Sir Edgar hummed a verse of the 
 following song : — 
 
 " In sleep now no longer thine image I see, 
 Nor the first of my thoughts when I wake are of thee ; 
 
 I When from thee, no more of thine absence I plain ; 
 "When with thee, I feel neither pleasure nor pain." 
 
 Lady Barbara smiled a sinister smile, and said, 
 " When my groom assures me, without any ques-
 
 204 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 tion asked, that my horse is * quite sound now,' I 
 always feel disposed to doubt the fact. I did not 
 care to ' speer,' as the Scotch say, as to the state of 
 your affections, young man." 
 
 " Of that I am quite aware, madam, but when I 
 heard you * e'en in penance planning sins anew,' and 
 wanting fresh victims for your altar, I could not 
 help asserting my cure, as those poor wretches do 
 whose letters are published at the end of advertise- 
 ments of quack medicines." 
 
 *' Perhaps you mean to insinuate the asseverations 
 of being in perfect health are easily made by those 
 who have not been ill ?" 
 
 "By no means, madam. TThen I was a poor 
 Freshman at Cambridge, and was admitted, with a 
 crowd of other neophytes, to the drawing-room of 
 the wife of the Master of Trinity, and there was 
 dazzled by the sight of Lady Barbara's charms, I 
 prostrated myself and worshipped ; and when I ex- 
 pressed my adoration, the lady gave me a cool stare, 
 and wondered at my impertinence. I suffered, but 
 without shame ; for the number of woimded around 
 me kept me in countenance, notwithstanding the 
 grimaces I made, and the undignified complaints I 
 uttered. The long vacation came — the sick went off 
 for change of air and scene. Lady Barbara, when 
 term recommenced, had been forgotten for tutors' 
 daughters, and even (mention it not) for pretty 
 chambermaids at the Lakes. See how we learn to
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 205 
 
 prey on garbage, and to relisli it, even after feasting 
 with the gods on ambrosial food ! " 
 
 "And here is food b}^ no means ambrosial or 
 barmecidal," said Lady Barbara, walking up to the 
 table at whicb Rose was serving her guests, and not 
 sorry to escape from a conversation which was very 
 disagreeable to her vanity. 
 
 Hose gave her ladyship a quick smile and recog- 
 nition as she came, conducted by Sir Edgar ; but she 
 was too busy to wait, and her ladyship finding that, 
 till the rage of hunger -was assuaged, there was no 
 chance of her winning any admiring glances from 
 chaw-bacons, turned away to inspect the prepara- 
 tions for the sports which were to take place after 
 dinner. 
 
 As they walked in the direction of the Pleasaunce, 
 the pair passed by the old shrubbery, which in 
 former days had been a favourite resort for the 
 ladies of the family. When in Italy, many years 
 before, Mr. Elliot had purchased some antique urns, 
 which had ornamented, hundreds of years previously, 
 the garden of a Roman emperor. When the fancy 
 to place them in his own grounds had been gratified, 
 he had ceased to care for them, and in the absence 
 of the family, the gardeners had neglected to tend a 
 portion of the grounds so remote from the house 
 and from probable inspection. So the red roses had 
 supported themselves by the side of their imitated 
 sisters in soft-tinted yellow marble, and the ivy
 
 206 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 lovingly embraced the pediment of the urn, on 
 which were sculptured forms in mimic acts of joy 
 and passion, strangely bringing to the spectator, 
 after the lapse of two thousand years, records 
 of human existence as fugitive as the living 
 flowers that clustered round those memories of the 
 past. 
 
 A single figure, dressed in white, stood by the 
 side of the urn, seemingly to regard it earnestly; 
 her soft hair flowed over her shoulders, and only 
 the outline of a delicate cheek was visible to the 
 two spectators. 
 
 Sir Edgar hardly repressed a start when he re- 
 cognised Leah in her unaccustomed dress. He felt 
 the awkwardness of the moment, but was too loyal 
 to shrink from what was due both to a woman, and 
 to one to whom he had given his love. When, 
 therefore, Leah, hearing the rustle of leaves near 
 her, turned her head. Sir Edgar, letting Lady Bar- 
 bara's hand dro]) for an instant, and taking off" his 
 hat, bowed as respectfully to Mr. Preston's daughter 
 as he could have done to one of the royal princesses, 
 or to Queen Charlotte herself. Probably Leah Pres- 
 ton received even a deeper expression of reverence : 
 homage for her beauty and aflcction was mingled 
 with that of deference for her sex, and pity for the 
 lack of those accidents of station and fortune which 
 would have commanded attention from all. 
 
 Lady Barbara saw that Leah Preston was very
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 207 
 
 different from jierself in appearance ; and as she 
 considered lier own face and form tlie standard of 
 beauty, slie was not disturbed at a style so very 
 opposite to her own. In one point only was tbere a 
 resemblance. Tbey were about the same beigbt, 
 and could tbeir w^eigbt have been tested, it would 
 scarcely bave varied more than a pound or two. 
 Leab was younger by ten years, and ber bones, 
 equally slender with those of the little lady, were 
 lighter from being less compact. 
 
 Leah courtesied first to the lady and then to Sir 
 Edgar in silence, whilst a beautiful colour flushed 
 her cheeks to a deeper rose dye. 
 
 Then they passed on, leaving her in a state of 
 fluttered happiness, though she heard Lady Barbara 
 ask the question, "Who is she?" but could not 
 catch the answer made by her lover. 
 
 It was the flrst moment of enjoyment Leah had 
 experienced since she came into the park. The 
 tables w^ere all filled by the aged and infirm, who 
 were taken care of by Miss Elliot ; or by those eager, 
 hungry cottagers who fought and hustled to get 
 good places for themselves and their children. Leah 
 was too far above them in position, and immeasur- 
 ably so in feeling, to scramble for a place at the 
 already crowded tables. One of the footmen, taking 
 her, from the refinement of her appearance, for a 
 lady come to look on or assist, asked her to be kind 
 enough to carry a basket of rolls to a distant table ;
 
 208 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 wliicli having accomplislied, she took one and re- 
 treated under the trees to eat it undisturbed. 
 
 8he was fortunate enough to be near Miss Elliot 
 as that indefatigable young lady, with a wine-glass 
 in one hand and a bottle of port in the other, was 
 giving a little extra treat to the most aged and in- 
 firm of her guests. 
 
 Rose recognised the daughter of Mr. Preston, and 
 with quick comprehension of her undefined supe- 
 riority and pity for the fragility of her beauty, dipped 
 the wine-glass in a pail of water, and, filling it with 
 wine, gave it with a smiling grace which made the 
 gift very pleasant to the recipient. The small atten- 
 tion of washing the glass for her, when a similar 
 nicety was not practised for the others, Leah was 
 comforted by and grateful for. Moreover, the wine 
 exhilarated her sinking spirits. 
 
 The races were now to take place, and the old 
 folks were conducted to the position which com- 
 manded the best view of the course. They were 
 followed by a large crowd of several hundred people, 
 in the good temper which results from satisfied 
 appetite and a sufficiency of malt liquor. Ropes 
 were placed to avoid the pressure of the crowd, and 
 fifteen young men were candidates for the prize. 
 
 Leah did not see Sir Edgar. She had lost him 
 and Lady Barbara in the cro^Vd soon after he had 
 bowed to her ; and, though she watched the eager 
 multitude till she became o-iJdv at the sea-like
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 209 
 
 movement of tlieir heads, slie could not distinguish 
 liim or his companion. 
 
 "It is not half so nice as having him all to myself 
 in the forest/^ said poor Leah ; and she felt very- 
 dreary, notwithstanding the pretty dress and the 
 delicate kid gloves. 
 
 There was one amongst the runners who thought 
 Leah the most beautiful creature in the world, and 
 was only restrained by his reverence for Mr. Pres- 
 ton's daughter from expressing his opinion to any 
 who would listen to him. This was Dick Crozier, 
 who came up to where she was standing, and 
 said — 
 
 '' I'm going to be one to run. Miss Leah. Don't 
 you wish a poor fellow success ?" 
 
 " That I do," said Leah heartily. " I had rather 
 you should win the prize than any one, now my 
 poor brother Perth is not here." 
 
 " If Perth was here, I don't think I should try. 
 I thought he was here a bit ago. Look at that 
 fellow there ; surely that's Perth ! " 
 
 " Not Perth, but " And she did not continue, 
 
 for she was going to say, "But he has on Perth's 
 best suit of clothes." 
 
 " I see it is not your brother, now that he turns 
 his face this way, only he is about the same height 
 and size." 
 
 The spectators now seated themselves on the ac- 
 clivity, and round the booth in which the old fulks 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 TRUE TO TJIE L[FE. 
 
 were smoking their pipes, and ready to pass judg- 
 ment on the qualities of the youths about to run. 
 
 *' There is one that don't belong here — that chap 
 with red hair. He's no business to run along with 
 our lads," said one old man. 
 
 " Don't say nothing about it — the more the mer- 
 rier. The great folks don't grudge their vittles at 
 such times as these, and he's my sister's grandson, 
 so he don't seem strange-like." 
 
 "For all that, I say he don't live in the parish, 
 and that I shall speak up about it if he goes to take 
 the prize away from the rest of 'em." 
 
 The other veteran did not reply to this ; for the 
 result of his observations on his grand-nephew was 
 that he had already taken enough ale to prevent his 
 running in a line sufficiently direct to take him to 
 the goal, and it was useless to make a fuss over a 
 circumstance never likely to come to pass.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 " This famine has a sharp and meagre look — 
 'Tis Death in an undress of skin and bone, 
 "Where age and youth, their landmarks ta'en away, 
 Looks all one common sorrow." 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 We must now turn from a scene of plenty to one of 
 privation, and from satisfied appetites to the sick 
 craving of hunger. The small quantity of rice 
 which Perth allowed himself daily — though, from 
 its expansion in his stomach, he was saved from the 
 terrible feeling of gnawing in it — had been in- 
 sufficient to keep up his strength. He would have 
 sunk utterly, but that, on the evening previous to 
 that on which he must leave his lodgings — the 
 period for which he had paid having elapsed — the 
 door of the keeping-room opened suddenl}^, as Perth 
 came in to pass up to his bedroom, and a pale, sad- 
 looking woman came out, and, seizing his hand, 
 brought him into the room, and placed him at the 
 table, where supper was set out. 
 
 " He won't be in yet for an hour and a half — 'tis 
 his club night. And now you shall have a bit of 
 supper with me, for you are the quietest, cleanest
 
 212 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 lodger I've had for many a day." And whilst she 
 talked, she piled his plate with slices of cold salt 
 round of beef, and unlocking a cupboard by a key 
 concealed in her pocket, she produced a bottle of 
 currant wine, and filled Perth's glass, and would 
 have refilled it, but that he placed his hand over it 
 as a signal that he had had enough. 
 
 He ate ravenously, and the woman looked at him 
 with an expression of half-divine pity and emotion 
 in her pale face. 
 
 " Thank you, ma'am," said Perth, when he had 
 concluded his meal. " I shall often think of your 
 kindness when I am far away from Stoneham." 
 
 " You are going away, then ?" 
 
 " Yes, ma'am ; I must go and earn my bread 
 somehow. I can't expect that any one but yourself 
 will be so generous as to feed me for pity's sake." 
 
 " Good night, then ; and," said she, with a great 
 gulp in her voice, to swallow her tears, "if j'ou 
 should ever meet a boy from Stoneham, pale and 
 thin, like me, who wants a bit of broad, think of this 
 evening, and share your crust with him." 
 
 *' I will ; and may Heaven deal with me according 
 to my sin if I keep not my word," said Perth 
 earnestly. 
 
 He put his hand out, and the woman wrung it. 
 This was their farewell. 
 
 On the following morning Perth went to the 
 place where he had appointed to deliver the clothes
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 213 
 
 to his customer, and found that he had left word 
 that Perth was to follow him to another address, 
 where he generally lodged. The first place was at 
 the shop in which he worked. This was a large 
 dilapidated old building, the landlady of which let 
 out rooms for the workers at the different manu- 
 factories ; and to one of these bedrooms Perth was 
 directed, and found his customer still in bed. 
 
 "It is a holiday," said he. "I am glad you are 
 come, for I want to see myself in your togs. I 
 shan't look such a fine fellow as you did, of course," 
 he continued, regarding Perth askance. 
 
 He got out of bed, and Perth's sense of cleanli- 
 ness was outraged by seeing him putting on his 
 clothes without making the slightest efibrt at an 
 ablution, and now felt himself insulted by this treat- 
 ment of his best suit. Perth was, however, impatient 
 for his money, and when the clothes were well fitted 
 on, he said he was in a hurry to be off", and should 
 be glad of payment. The young man put his hand 
 in the pocket of his old clothes, and produced more 
 than sufficient; but change was wanted, and that, 
 of course, Perth had not to give, so his customer 
 said he would ask the mistress of the house to change 
 him a guinea, and return there and give him the 
 money. Perth assented, and was left alone. Just 
 as the youth passed the front door, a cart drove bj^ 
 with young men smartly dressed, wearing their hats, 
 and singing with ill-managed merriment.
 
 214 TKUE TO TIIE LIFE. 
 
 " Hallo ! where are you going ?'* 
 " To the Hall. Just room for one ; jump in." 
 " Hang it ! I have not paid that fellow." 
 *' Never mind ; pay to-morrow. A month is ready 
 money ; money in pocket is a fine thing when one is 
 holiday-making. ' ' 
 
 Bill Summers jumped in, and the driver giving a 
 cut to the old horse, he sprang on, notwithstanding the 
 additional load, and was out of sight in a few minutes. 
 Perth waited patiently for five minutes, then with 
 some irritation for another five, after which he 
 walked down and began to look about in different 
 rooms for the wearer of his clothes in vain. A 
 dirtily-dressed woman, with long elf-locks falling 
 from under her tumbled cap, asked him, with some 
 asperitj^ for what reason he was poking about her 
 house — was he looking for lodgings ? Her lodgers, 
 she could tell him, were accustomed to keep them- 
 selves respectable, and she looked scornfully at the 
 mended knees of Perth's nether inteofuments. He 
 explained that he was looking for BiU Summers, 
 who had left him to get a guinea changed by her- 
 self ; on which the landlady told him to sit do"«Ti and 
 wait a bit, no doubt BiU would come back directly 
 — probably, not finding her at once, he had gone to 
 the next shop for change. So Perth waited, and 
 told the same tale, in answer to the same question, 
 to the master of the house, who had just come in 
 from the town.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 215 
 
 " You will have some time to wait for Bill 
 Summers," said he, "and I would not give you 
 much for your chance of the money. I saw him in 
 a cart, going to the Hall, in company with some 
 other larky chaps. If you want to be paid, you had 
 better follow him there. Your only hope is to get 
 hold of him before his companions get the coin out 
 of him. It won't be long before they do that ; first 
 come first served with Bill. I don't think he meant 
 to serve jou such a shabby trick — but that's poor 
 comfort when you want your money." 
 
 Perth, sick at heart, thanked him for his advice, 
 and prepared to follow it. As he had intended to 
 start on his travels so soon as he had received pay- 
 ment for his clothes, he had his small bundle in his 
 hand. 'Now he might as well take it back with 
 him, and recommence his journey from his old house — 
 if, indeed, he could obtain his due from Summers ; 
 if not, he must get as far as he could from his own 
 neighbourhood, and then ask for work or alms, till 
 work could be obtained from strangers. 
 
 Perth hesitated for a moment whether to choose 
 the high road to the village, or to take a shorter 
 cut across the fields. In favour of the former, there 
 was the chance that Bill Summers and his jolly 
 companions might stop at the sign of the Duke 
 of York, and drink. On the other hand, Perth 
 calculated that they would not stop for drink, which 
 must be paid for, when they might get all the
 
 216 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 refresliment they required for nothing by going a 
 few miles further on. Moreover, the meadows 
 looked green and inviting, and the road hot and 
 dusty, so he chose the former. 
 
 Had he taken the high road this story would never 
 have been written, for over that uninviting road the 
 old blind pony was toiling, his mouth dry and his 
 nostrils stuffed with the dust thrown up by his 
 shambling steps ; and driving the cart was Caleb 
 Preston, his cold grey eyes fixed on vacancy, and 
 clouded by troubled thought as to the fate and 
 delinquencies of his only son. It was strange that 
 Mr. Preston was so bigoted to his more recently- 
 formed opinions of the sinfulness of all human 
 learning ; that the point on which to others Perth 
 would have seemed most culpable, namelj^, the obtain- 
 ing goods under false pretences, sank into nothing 
 compared with the cause of his having run into debt. 
 The half-crown had been expended in the purchase 
 of one of those pestilent Greek poems, the knowledge 
 of which, in former years, had brought Caleb Preston, 
 in his own opinion, to the very gates of hell, from 
 which only the image of his deceased wife had 
 interposed, in a supernatural manner, to save him. 
 
 Perth had recognised the well-known tramp of 
 the pony's feet as he struck across the holds at a 
 right angle from the road. He stood still for a 
 few moments to see if his father had recognised him. 
 If he had been walking in the road, and Caleb had
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 217 
 
 ordered him to get into the cart and return home, 
 the old habit of obedience would have compelled 
 him to respect his father's commands ; but not 
 present starvation, nor the prospect of beggary, 
 could induce Perth to admit that he was in the 
 wrong when he did not believe himself to be so. 
 He looked with affection at the figure of his father 
 as it vanished in the distance — a feeling of which he 
 bestowed part on the old pony. He hoped the poor 
 brute was well fed, and properly attended by Dick 
 Crozier. It was a relief that he should not come 
 upon his father in going to the Hall festival ; for, 
 though he justly imagined Mr. Preston would not 
 attend it himself, he might have had an unpleasant 
 interview with him in the neighbourhood of his own 
 home, and would have had to explain that though 
 he would have been glad of the barley-meal with 
 which the swine were fed, he had no intention of 
 presenting himself in the character of the prodigal 
 son. AH his efforts now must be directed to over- 
 taking Summers, and getting his money. With 
 that he should be enabled to travel with comfort. 
 If he could not succeed, he must go as he could. 
 
 After Sir Edgar had passed Leah, and had pro- 
 ceeded on through the park with Lady Barbara, 
 he was strangely tempted to leave the titled lady, 
 and return to the young sempstress; but having 
 walked out with her, he would not desert her in the 
 grounds. He could only have recourse to the
 
 218 TRUE TO TIIE LIFE. 
 
 expedient of Sir Thomas More, who ceased to be 
 agreeable to the king when he wanted to be dis- 
 missed. Lady Barbara had sufficient reason, she 
 thought, for discontent ; for, of all the crowds 
 assembled in the park, no one individual had turned 
 to look at her. The perfection of her attire was 
 thrown away on folks who were ignorant of fashion, 
 and the charm of her clear olive skin was lost on 
 the lower classes, who see no beauty but in white 
 and red. So she declared that village feasts were 
 stupid affairs, that the sun was hot in the open 
 glades, and that the gnats stung her in the shade 
 of the trees. She should return to the house, she 
 said emphatically ; and she cast a sidelong glance 
 at her companion, to see if he were overwhelmed 
 at the proposition, but observed only a look of pre- 
 occupation, which might mean anything. Probably 
 he meant to remain with her alone after he had 
 escorted her back to the house. She had no inten- 
 tion of indulging him, if that were his wish, for she 
 longed to get to her own room, and take off a tight 
 pair of new stays, which had been sent from town 
 to do justice to the perfect fitting of the unarrived 
 ball-dress. Alas ! the buckler had come, but not the 
 bracelet ; and, like Tarpeia, she was half suffocated 
 by its pressure. 
 
 Sir Edgar had his own little schemes, though they 
 were not, like those of the lady, entirely selfish. 
 Whilst he talked platitudes to Lady Barbara, his
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 219 
 
 mind was full of Leah. Should he follow his inclina- 
 tion, and devote himself to her for the rest of the 
 day, in the face of all the crowd assembled, her 
 character would be materially damaged ; for, of all 
 the hundreds there assembled, there would probably 
 not be one, except Leah herself, who would believe 
 that his intentions towards her were honourable. 
 
 He was not prepared to say that they were 
 honourable — that he could consent to call the 
 chandler papa. He could not consent, either, to 
 inflict pain on that innocent child by separating 
 himself from her. He remembered how exquisitely 
 beautiful she had looked in that cool retreat in the 
 shrubbery, standing near the Grecian vase, which 
 had once ornamented the gardens of the Roman 
 emperor, but never, in the lapse of centuries, could 
 have been gazed on by a face more lovely or refined. 
 He wondered if she had had anything to eat that 
 morning. The others were all occupied at the tables, 
 but she stood alone, and seemingly neglected, in that 
 sylvan retreat ; she had not appeared to know 
 whither to direct her steps, and probably he should 
 find her there still. 
 
 He made his way to the housekeeper's room, to 
 ask for sandwiches, but she had gone out into the 
 park. He obtained a basket, however, and proceeding 
 to the hothouses with a knife, he contrived to unbolt 
 one of the doors by the fracture of a small pane of 
 glass, and filled his basket with leaves and purple
 
 220 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 grapes, tempting from their untouched bloom. 
 This young baronet was scarcely more than a youth 
 yet, and had .sufficient of boyhood left to enjoy the 
 notion of sharing the fruit in secret with Leah. He 
 went off with a very light heart straight to the 
 urn ; but she was not there. He concealed the 
 basket carefully amidst the shrubs, and then, climb- 
 ing up on one of the empty waggons, he looked 
 about him to seek to distinguish one white speck 
 amidst the crowd of gail}'- painted and large-flowered 
 chintzes. Probably she might be looking on at the 
 foot-races, and he went to the elevated part of the 
 park where the old men were smoking their pipes. 
 There he saw Leah ; and, as she was observing with 
 a perplexed countenance the untoward movement 
 of the limbs which were dressed in her brother's 
 clothes, a voice whispered behind her, ." Go to the 
 shrubbery where I saw you standing by the um, 
 and I will follow you thither." 
 
 Leah flushed with surprise and pleasure. 
 
 " Do not turn — do not look," the voice said, and 
 she obeyed. How happy she was ! The day had 
 been a failure hitherto ; she had not cared much to 
 see lean old women and fat boys cramming them- 
 selves to repletion w4th beef and pudding — 
 
 " For other sounds, alas ! her ears repine, 
 A difierent object do those eyes require." 
 
 The bow he had driven her was vcrv cfraccful, and
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 221 
 
 liis paying her tliat homage, as if she were his equal, 
 was very gratifying ; but it was but cold comfort 
 when her cheeks yet glowed with the memory of the 
 kisses he had impressed on them, and when she 
 longed to feel once more the tension of his glowing 
 arm round her waist. 
 
 She did not make this clear to her own mind by 
 any train of reasoning ; but, obeying the impulse 
 given by his words and her own inclination, she 
 returned to the shrubbery, which Sir Edgar reached 
 by a different path ; and her lover, with boyish de- 
 light, lifted the green leaves and showed the purple 
 treasures beneath them ; and then, taking her hand, 
 he conducted her to a secluded summer-house, where 
 they shared the stolen prize, and babbled their inno- 
 cent love-talk for a happy hour and a half, whilst 
 the busy crowd had been occupied, less agreeably, in 
 witnessing the sports provided by Miss Elliot for 
 their amusement. 
 
 Leah's absence from the spot on which she had 
 been standing a few minutes previously deprived 
 her of the sight of Perth, who, faint and weary, had 
 arrived just before the races had begun, and after 
 the tables had been cleared from the fragments of 
 the dinner. He saw, in the distance. Bill Summers 
 disgracing the clothes that were Perth's by the 
 irregular and purposeless movement of the limbs 
 which they covered. Perth had come too late to 
 catch him before the runners had started, but he
 
 222 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 consoled himself by the conviction that he should 
 meet him at the winning-post — to which, therefore, 
 he directed his steps. No one was allowed to 
 step within the rope which marked off the course, so 
 he would have gained nothing by attempting to 
 follow him, even could his weary and enfeebled 
 frame have offered a chance of his succeeding in the 
 effort. As the race-ground made a circuit of the 
 park, Perth crossed at once to the goal, and waited 
 for the candidates for the prize to come in. He 
 stepped back, however, for an instant, for, with 
 dilated nostrils, open mouth, flushed face, and 
 heaving chest, Dick Crozier was first at the winning- 
 post, and was greeted with shouts so loud that the 
 echoes in the old woods rang with the gladsome 
 sound. Dick looked very sheepish, and wonderfully 
 proud, when the silk neckerchief was presented to 
 him, and doubted whether he should present the 
 prize to Leah, or whether he should not produce 
 more effect by showing her how nice he looked with 
 it on on Sundaj^s at her father's meeting-house. 
 
 Perth did not like his old friend to see his down- 
 fall in circumstances. He was afflicted, more than a 
 young scholar devoted to classics should have been, 
 at the shabbiness of his own appearance compared 
 with that of his old playmate. Dick was dressed in 
 his best suit. His shirt was white as snow, and 
 well ironed by his grandmother, who had spun the 
 flax of which it had been woven, and had made the
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 223 
 
 garment herself— a perfect wonder of stitching. 
 Perth's shirt had, alas ! been washed by himself in 
 a running stream, and dried in the sun ; and, though 
 foreign nations contrive to obtain a dazzling bril- 
 liancy by this process, Perth was conscious that his 
 rough-dried linen was not a success : moreover, he 
 felt as if he had allowed himself to be overreached 
 in the matter of the sale of his clothes, and thought 
 that he could not bear the rough jeering of his old 
 companion. 
 
 He withdrew, then, for an instant, and observed 
 that Dick was self-occupied, and the spectators occu- 
 pied in observing him. Many compliments were 
 paid him on his performance, and he was recom- 
 mended to try his luck when the folks ran for what 
 was called the lucky pit — namely, the cache. 
 
 Perth now counted the runners as they came in, 
 but could not see Summers. Fifteen had started— 
 fourteen only had come in, and from this number 
 Bill was absent ; the truth having been that the 
 faster he ran the more his head spun round, and so 
 incapable was he to guide his steps aright, that he 
 rushed against the parting-rope, and clung to it for 
 an instant for support. Then, finding himself last, 
 he crawled under it and into a thicket, where he 
 trailed himself like a snake along the ground till he 
 found a convenient heap of last year's leaves, and, 
 making a pillow of them, he slept peaceably in a 
 resting-place unknown and unsuspected.
 
 224 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 Perth wandered about, dragging his weary limbs 
 — limbs more weary as his hope of finding Summers 
 grew less. 
 
 A sudden thought struck him that he would go to 
 the umpires who held the jackets or coats of the 
 runners, and demand from the man who had charge 
 of Bill's the money from the pocket, or such part of 
 it as was due to himself; but more mature delibera- 
 tion convinced him that he should not be permitted 
 to abstract anything from the pocket, even could he 
 prove that he was entitled to it. He was too tired 
 to try his chance of getting food by a struggle at the 
 lucky pit. He felt so weak that he was convinced 
 he should be thrown down by the first person who 
 ran against him. In this state of body and mind he 
 could not join in the hearty laughter with which the 
 accidents were greeted as one man rolled after 
 another down the hill, where the pit was a confused 
 mass of arms and legs and heads, in which mouths 
 roared for fair play, and hands clutched vainly at 
 the greatest dainties, which some more fortunate 
 possessor held for an instant before it was snatched 
 by some rougher or more tenacious hold. 
 
 The old men laughed till they cried ; the old 
 women were less hearty in their appreciation of the 
 joke, as they knew how difficult would be the stains 
 of grease and clay to obliterate, and were convinced 
 that the toil would come on them. Yet now the 
 most grumbKng dissolved in merry tears, when the
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 225 
 
 course which, had been occupied by the runners was 
 filled by the donkeys and their riders, whose faces 
 were turned to the tails of their beasts, which were 
 bestrode bare-backed — the last arrival at the goal to 
 be considered the winner, and to receive the prize. 
 As neither whip, goad, nor spur was permitted, 
 the riders who were on the best terms with their 
 donkeys had most chance of success, from their being 
 coaxed up to the winning-post. The asses, like 
 other asses, finding something unusual in the aspect 
 of afiairs, thought it their duty to mark their dis- 
 approbation of things in general, and a good oppor- 
 tunity of obtaining their liberty ; which they did 
 like enslaved countries — some by one grand and 
 successful kicking ofi' their riders, others by small 
 and repeated efibrts for the same good result. Five 
 minutes after the start the asses galloped about, 
 braying discordant triumph, and their former riders 
 were stretched on the green turf in various positions 
 betokening defeat ; but they soon reasserted the 
 right divine of proprietorship, and seizing the 
 truants by their tails, mounted once more, with 
 various fortunes, till the spectators could laugh no 
 longer for very weariness. 
 
 " 'Tis very good — very kind, surely," said the 
 former speaker amongst the old men, *' for Master 
 Elliot to spend his money in this merry-making." 
 
 '' That's all you know about it," said his neigh- 
 bour mysteriously. " You don't think he's such 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 a fool as all that, and no election coming off — nor 
 nothing ! '' 
 
 The old 8moker at his side was piqued by this 
 seeming monopoly of information, and would not 
 please the speaker by the expression of any curiosity 
 on the subject. After waiting in vain for an in- 
 terrogation, the old man said : — 
 
 " He've had a heap of money left him, but 'twas 
 said in the will that it was to be all took away from 
 him again if he did not spend five hundred pounds 
 a year in giving dinners to the poor of the parish. 
 So no thanks to him, says I. And there ought to 
 be somebody to look sharp and see it is all spent as 
 it ought to be, and none kept back for that fine miss 
 and hisself.'' 
 
 Such is the disposition of human minds to decry 
 the motives of the good deeds even by which they 
 are themselves benefited. 
 
 *' Only think ! " said the listener, much im- 
 pressed. " That's the reason they did not give all 
 prime pieces of meat, but the rounds were some of 
 them from the shank end — so mean ; but they think 
 angthing will serve poor fellows, and they must 
 wipe their mouths and be thankful." 
 
 *■ And did you see the piece of pudding miss cut 
 for me ? I declare the plums were a-holloaing to 
 each other, and could not hear because they were 
 80 far off.'' 
 
 " And the wine," said another, *' was home-made.
 
 TRITE TO THE LIFE. 227 
 
 'tis my belief; but for all that, after I bad bad my 
 glass, I moved down to tbe otber corner of tbe table, 
 and miss did not see wbo it was as beld out ber glass, 
 and that way, a- standing bebind tbe otbers, I got 
 five bumpers." 
 
 "More sbame for you, you drunken old bussy ! " 
 said one of tbe men, wbo envied tbe quicker wit 
 of tbe gentler sex. " I'll take very good care to tell 
 tbe young lady if tbere's any more gived out." 
 
 Tbe woman tbougbt tbat be would know better 
 tban to get a neighbour into trouble ; not tbat it 
 would matter mucb, as sbe beard tbe win« was all 
 drunk up. 
 
 In tbe meantime. Sir Edgar and Leab were in- 
 terrupted in tbeir soft love-murmurs by divers 
 unromantic grunts and snores, and on Sir Edgar's 
 searching at the back of tbe summer-bouse, be 
 found Bill Summers extended on, and partly con- 
 cealed by, the leaves — an animal as uncouth in 
 appearance as tbe delicate monster who startled tbe 
 shipwrecked sailors in tbe island of Prospero. He 
 would not or could not awake, though sundry 
 applications from the toe of the young gentleman, 
 not of tbe most gentle nature, would have roused 
 any one less bemused in beer. All things have their 
 uses, and Bill Summers, grunting in bis drunken 
 slumber, reminded tbe youthful lovers tbat there 
 was such a thing as a world beyond tbat peopled by 
 their day-dreams, beautiful as they were. Leah
 
 228 TRUE TO TirP LIFE. 
 
 remembered that the lengthened shadows told her 
 that her father might probably have returned, and 
 might inquire for her ; and Sir Edgar knew — what 
 he had almost forgotten — that there would be a ball 
 that night at which he was to move harmonious 
 measures with Lady Barbara, before a numerous 
 and, he hoped, an admiring multitude of ladies and 
 gentlemen, each of whom would be jealous of the 
 attention the dancers excited, and would painfully 
 and maliciously watch for every awkward angle in 
 his elbows, and every unsteady movement in the 
 sinking ajid rising of the lady's courtesy. Then he 
 had a half-thought as to whether Lady Barbara 
 would do that step right in the gavotte, about which 
 she had shown herself so obstinate on the previous 
 day ; a half-thought onl}^, for the other half was 
 given to the fair creature who moved by his side 
 with timid, imassured steps, but with the natural 
 grace supplied by the proportions of a perfect figure, 
 thouffh her feet committed the sin of moving with 
 
 'O 
 
 their toes forward instead of their heels — an action 
 then thought indispensable to beautiful carriage of 
 the body. When Leah should live with Sir Edgar 
 — whether as wife or mistress he did not then care 
 to decide — he was determined that she shoidd sit 
 with her feet in wooden frames to turn them out 
 duly, and that a dancing-master should give her 
 lessons in the art of standing in the fine positions to 
 produce the desired result.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 229 
 
 " Leah, I wish you were to be at the ball to see 
 me dance the minuet to-night," said he, wanting 
 her to be dazzled by the glory of his puce-coloured 
 velvet coat, trimmed with gold lace, his white satin 
 waistcoat, worked with pink silk roses and gold- 
 threaded leaves, and by the cocked hat wherewith 
 so much play was to be made, in the haughty 
 gestures with which it was flung on the ambrosial 
 curls when the lady was cruel, and the profound 
 respect with which it swept the ground when she 
 relented. All this, the result of eighteen months' 
 tuition and incessant practice. Sir Edgar wanted 
 Leah to see and admire ; and she was eager to look 
 at the dancers, for she knew that no sooner should 
 she be removed from the charm of his presence, 
 than she should be tormented by jealousy of Lady 
 Barbara. She fancied that Edgar loved her exceed- 
 ingly, but she saw how formidable was the rivalry 
 of rank and position. Lady Barbara had a right to 
 his homage. He had to go out of his way to bestow 
 any attention on her. Leah made no part of his 
 life. She knew that he was like a beautiful tro- 
 pical bird from the warm south, rich in plumage, and 
 requiring dainty feeding, who came and hovered 
 round her, and perched on her finger, caressing her 
 with his bended neck and half- shut eye, but that 
 she had no right to retain him as her own. He 
 belonged to another climate, and would droop his 
 wings and refuse his food, or beat himself to pieces
 
 230 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 against any bars by which she might try to imprison 
 him. But would he not take her to those enchanted 
 regions of warmth and luxury ? Should she not be 
 entitled, by the dearest social tie of womanhood, to 
 share every pleasure with her husband ? 
 
 Even this charming vision had its dark, im- 
 penetrable shadow, for in its gloomy depths she 
 fancied her father's form, lonely and helpless, full 
 of deep grief for her desertion, and grave disappro- 
 bation of acts which the rest of the world would 
 consider harmless. These reflections bent her head, 
 and filled her eyes with tears, as Sir Edgar pressed 
 her hand, and bade her farewell, at the extremity of 
 the last group of trees which availed for conceal- 
 ment, before she returned home. 
 
 In the doorway stood Molly, with her best Sunday 
 cap on, and a new blue ribbon pinned tightly round 
 it to keep it in its place. The last rays of the sun 
 illuminated her face, which was less wrinkled than 
 it had any right to be from her age. But Molly 
 had had originally a smooth, fair face, and a sweet, 
 placid temper had opposed no opposition to the 
 freaks of time or fortime. She bent to the irrita- 
 tions of circumstances without battling against 
 them; and having had neither brilliant beauty in 
 youth, nor gifts of fortune in age, folks did not care 
 to run down one who excited no envy in their 
 minds. Had Molly had a fortune left to her, or 
 had her master chosen to elevate her to the position
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 231 
 
 of Mrs. Preston, her neighbours would have dis- 
 covered that she had been " talked about " in her 
 youth, and even would have spoken mysteriously of 
 a certain pond which had been found useful in con- 
 cealing the indiscretion of that immaculate old 
 woman. But Molly was — ■ 
 
 " Secure beneath the storms 
 Which in ambition's lofty lands are rife." 
 
 Her master's asceticism was well known; and Molly 
 was rather an object of commiseration for being 
 compelled to partake his pinching self-denial. She 
 had a smile ready to greet Leah on her return. 
 
 " Well, miss, have you enjoyed yourself, my 
 dear ? I declare you haven't dirtied your gloves a 
 bit ; and only one little tear where the thumb is 
 sewed on in the palm of your hand,'* as Leah, fear- 
 less of the scrutiny, extended both hands towards her. 
 " Well, my dear, was it all very grand ? I heard 
 the band playing at a distance, and the bang, bang 
 of the big drum, and the squeaking of the fifes, and 
 I saw all the smart colours moving about, till my 
 eyes dazzled to look at them. I thought 1 would shut 
 up the house and just take a peep, as master was out ; 
 but it was lucky I thought better of it, for just 
 then the scullion's boy came in for six pounds more 
 of seven- shilling tea. He wanted me to make it up 
 in bags for the maids, but says I, * It must be 
 younger eyes than mine to do that.' Says he, 
 * There isn't one on um will hunt up the muslin
 
 232 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 and needle and thread now they^re out in the park, 
 and you've got muslin handy, so you can charge 
 it to master ; and shan't I get tongue-banged by 
 them all if I ask them to do it ! and Miss Rose is 
 a-waiting too ! ' Well, I got my spectacles, and run 
 up twenty-four bags ; for that young lady is such a 
 sweet creature, that I could not bear to vex her, and 
 so I said. And says ho, * 'Tis a pity they're not all 
 made alike, then — them young creeters ; for there's 
 the one they call Lady Bab — hasn't she been kick- 
 ing up the devil's delight in the house, 'cause some- 
 thing's wrong with her box from London ! Oh ! she 
 has a fine temper of her ovm — a nasty toad ! No 
 use to touch my cap to her. S/ie takes no notice. 
 Miss Rose alwaj^s nods her head to me. Says T, the 
 first time I touched my cap to Lady Bab, " She 
 didn't see me ;" the second time, " Maybe something 
 innard is a-wexing her, that she don't notice." Says 
 I, " I'll give her one more chance." So I saw her 
 a-looking at me, and I touched my cap, all himible 
 like, and she stared at me as if I was a mad bull. 
 Then says I, "No more civility will you get from 
 me, miss ! " And when they asked me to help her 
 box up, the hupper servants being merry-making in 
 the park, says I, *' I've got a bone in my leg," and 
 I used it to run away.' ' Then she've got her 
 box ? ' says I. ' Yes,' says he, ' she have ; but 
 there is something wrong with what's inside, the 
 scullion said what carried it up-stairs.' "
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 233 
 
 Sir Edgar stood for a moment or two looking with 
 a cynical smile at Rose's guests. Certainly the 
 supper was not so great a success as the dinner had 
 been. She had taken care that the infirm should be 
 first attended to ; and after being fed, she saw them 
 placed carefully in the waggons and conveyed to 
 their homes by the most sober of the carters, who 
 were bribed to their duty by the promise that they 
 should return, and have as much as they could eat 
 and drink when that task was accom^^lished. 
 
 Whilst Rose was thus employed, the spaces which 
 had been occupied by the aged and infirm were 
 refilled immediately by a noisy rabble, who had 
 forced or found their way into the park without 
 the privilege of belonging to the parish. The efibrt 
 to displace one or two, on the part of the footmen, 
 had created, on one occasion, a pitched battle of 
 several rounds, which occasioned frantic mirth to the 
 lookers-on, and was pronounced to be the best fun of 
 the day. So Rose decided it was better to allow them 
 to remain undisturbed, and cut ofi" the supplies of 
 food and ale. 
 
 Sir Edgar looked on and laughed maliciously. 
 He had not forgotten Miss Elliot's unceremonious 
 dismissal of himself, and felt very much like a foot- 
 man who, having been intending to leave and better 
 himself, receives warning one morning from his 
 mistress, before his plans are ripe for action, 
 
 '' Miss Elliot," said he, "I saw, when I was last
 
 234 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 in town, my friend ITtivvkins, who liad taken a 
 French vessel full of negroes, who had been captured 
 on the Gold Coast, to be carried to one of the French 
 settlements. He was so full of pity for these human 
 cattle, that he had them on deck daily, that they 
 might stretch their limbs and eat their rations of 
 rice in fresh air and comfort ; but he found them so 
 utterly unmanageable, so fiercely brutal — the strong 
 seizing the portions of the weak, and the weak 
 striving to circumvent, by fraud, the rights of the 
 strong, that each indulgence ended by the applica- 
 tion of the cat to the naked shoulders of the negroes, 
 who were thus flogged back to their lairs." 
 
 "Well?" said Miss Elliot, who did not choose to 
 see the application. 
 
 " Oh ! I only meant that you will want a horse- 
 whip or two here before the grounds are cleared." 
 
 It was getting dark, now ; but, whilst he had been 
 speaking, Eose had seen a pale, thin youth coqie up 
 to take a place at one of the tables. Before he coidd 
 reach it, some more nimble candidates had scrambled 
 in and filled up all the spaces, and the sick-looking 
 boy turned away without any further eftbrt, and 
 disappeared under the shadow of the nearest clump 
 of trees : these, however, stood at some distance 
 from any of the tables, and were in a part of the 
 park deserted by the eager revellers. Eose had a 
 bottle half full of the port wine she had been dis- 
 tributing in one hand, and a glass in the other.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 235 
 
 She did not feel disposed to devote any more atten- 
 tion to Sir Edgar's caustic speeches, and followed 
 the youth, whom she suspected of being in a state 
 to require assistance. Her search was a long one. 
 
 Perth's heart — for it was he — was full of bitter- 
 ness. He thought he should die, he was so faint ; 
 and he would, like an animal, go away to some 
 secluded spot and expire alone. 
 
 " Homeless amongst a thousand homes he stood, 
 And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food." 
 
 The world was full of hardness and dishonesty. The 
 reckless were fed — the honourable were suffered to 
 starve. Then, when he placed himself in the latter 
 category, he remembered that he owed a shilling, 
 and that he had no money to leave behind him 
 wherewith it could be paid. Leah would pay it, but 
 she had given him all she had — her four shillings and 
 sixpence. He wondered if Hector and Achilles had 
 ever been so faint and hungry as he was then. He 
 should never be able to see the Grecian isles or the 
 plains of Troy now. He did not think he would 
 care to eat anything if he had it at present — he 
 was so sick. Was the daylight all going, that it had 
 grown so dark ? And how very cold it had become ! 
 The sounds of the laughter and shouts of the men 
 had died away so suddenly ! But he must stumble on - 
 a little further, to get out of the way of every one. 
 How irritating were these transverse roots of trees !
 
 236 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 They were alwa3^s in the way. There was one more 
 insuperable than the others, and over it Perth could 
 not lift his heavy feet, so he fell forward on his face 
 on the soft turf, already moist with the rising dews 
 of evenin<>'. 
 
 Hose Elliot was a sensible young woman, and by 
 no means given to extravagant fears ; but she was not 
 quite easy when wandering over the loneliest por- 
 tions of the park after the sunlight had ceased to 
 penetrate between the thick boles of the trees, on an 
 evening when the shadows might be peopled by 
 men half drunken, and not willing to show that 
 respect to her position which she might have 
 claimed as her father's daughter from men in their 
 senses. This feeling made her move cautiously, and 
 she hesitated when she had nearly stumbled over 
 Perth's prostrate body. " Perhaps," she thought, 
 "it were best to leave sleeping lions alone;" but a 
 look at the back of the curly light hair on the head 
 from which the hat had fallen reminded her of the 
 young gardener whom she had watched as he stooped 
 over the flower-beds, and she called him softly, 
 " Perth ! Perth Preston ! " 
 
 Perth had fainted, and heard not the voice of the 
 charmer. 
 
 ^* Perth ! " she said, stricken with a sudden terror 
 that it might be some one else. But he made no 
 answer. 
 
 She stooped down and touched his hand, and
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 237 
 
 found it as cold as tliat of the dead. Then she stood 
 up again, and cried aloud for her servants — " John ! 
 Peter ! Harry ! " And the woodland echoes repeated 
 the softened sounds as the only response. John and 
 Harry were dancing a reel with Lady Barbara's 
 lady's-maid, and Peter was in a state of insensibility 
 as profound as that of Perth, though repletion was the 
 cause in one, and inanition in the other. Then Miss 
 Elliot, thrown on her own resources, remembered 
 the wine-bottle which she had grasped tenaciously 
 in all her wanderings, and, seating herself on the 
 turf by the side of the insensible youth, she managed 
 to drag over his body and j)lace the head on her 
 knees. Perth repaid the efforts made for his benefit 
 by moans, expressive of "Let me alone;" but she 
 raised his head on one arm, and with the right hand 
 filled the glass, and held the wine to his lij)s. He 
 swallowed some, and she waited patiently for life to 
 return again to his tingling veins. She was full 
 of divine pity for the poor skeleton she was trying 
 to succour. How small those hands had become ! 
 how white and feeble since she had seen him carry- 
 ing the heavy flower-pots for her greenhouse ! 
 " He is starved," she said, remembering the story 
 she had heard of his privations, with which she 
 had taunted his father. '' I hate that hard old 
 
 man 
 
 T '' 
 
 *' Drink the rest of this wine-glassful," she said, 
 " and promise not to move from here till I return."
 
 238 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 She was not sure that he understood her, and she 
 returned and knelt do^vn again by his side, and re- 
 peated the injunction. " Promise me that you will 
 stay till I come back. I cannot come directly ; it 
 will seem long to you, for the house is at some coq- 
 siderable distance. Kow do not try to move. I 
 will leave the bottle of wine and the glass. If you 
 feel faint again you must drink some more, but 
 not otherwise. Do you understand ?" and he looked 
 at her with large, hollow, wondering eyes, and bowed 
 his head.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 " Love! who lightest on wealth, and makest thy conch in soft 
 cheek of the youthful maiden, and roamest heyond the sea and in 
 rural cots, thee shall neither any of the immortals escape, nor men, 
 the creatures of a day." — Sophocles. 
 
 When Sir Edgar had returned to the house, he 
 thought it best to try to propitiate the capricious 
 lady who was to be his partner that night. He 
 had been very happy in the noontide hours spent 
 by the side of Leah, and now he might as well 
 amuse himself in a little coquetry with Lady Bar- 
 bara. Not that he had any remains of the early 
 devotion to this fascinating creature, to whom every 
 Cantab brought within her influence had bowed 
 down at the university. But Lady Barbara had 
 never cared for him, nor for any other man. What 
 was a well-to-do country gentleman to her, who 
 thought she ought to have princes of the blood- royal 
 at her feet ? She considered that the homage ofiered 
 to her by Sir Edgar and such-like was such as a 
 farmer might be supposed to feel for Miss Elliot — a 
 thing that was not to be thought of twice. But for 
 that conviction, she might have been brought to
 
 240 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 consider favourably a young man possessed of per- 
 sonal attractions so great as those which adorned 
 Sir Edgar. Now it happened that princes royal 
 probably felt the attractions of ladies in their own 
 sphere, or if such Jupiters, or other inhabitants of 
 Olympus, ever descended to meaner charms, they 
 did it in disguise, and with other purposes than 
 marriage. So that princes, and even dukes and 
 earls, had not hitherto thrown themselves at the feet 
 of Lady Barbara, though she had reached to the age 
 of twenty-seven, without an offer she had considered 
 worth a second thought. 
 
 However, there was no reason why she should not 
 coquet a little, just to keep herself in practice, and 
 with this good intention she had been going to meet 
 Sir Edgar when she heard of the arrival of her box 
 of millinery from town. The arrival of this box 
 had been the one point of interest in Lady Barbara's 
 life for some days past, and on hearing the sound of 
 lumbering feet in the ante-room to her bed-chamber, 
 she went in with steps alert and sj^arkling eyes to 
 see the new dress, and — 
 
 *' Hail'd in her heart the triumph yet to come." 
 
 When she opened the door she perceived the re- 
 treating petticoats of the scullion and laundry-maid, 
 who had volunteered to perform the duty of con- 
 veying the box to the lady's chamber, from sym- 
 pathy with the dancing maid, whose delinquencies
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 241 
 
 they wished to screen ; but more than that they did 
 not feel themselves equal to perform, and running 
 down as fast as they could, they avoided receiving 
 any more orders from the haughty lady, and were 
 deaf to the repeated peals of the bell. Moreover, 
 as they after alleged in their own defence, that bell 
 didn't ring kitchen- ways. Why should it ? 
 
 Lady Barbara looked at the cord-bound package 
 as a desponding general who invests an impregnable 
 city looks at its defences. She tried to untie the 
 knotted cord, but it hurt her fingers, and she left 
 off directly. She had no knife in her room stronger 
 than the penknife in her gold-mounted dressing-case, 
 and with this she essayed to sever the tough rope, 
 but the finely-tempered steel broke at the first 
 attempt. She stamped her small foot — no one heard 
 it ; she pulled the bell again, and broke the wire, 
 and then, in a flaming passion, she flounced into the 
 morning-room which led into her bedroom, with a 
 flush on her face and a fire in her eyes which might, 
 but for that fatal mouth, have made her handsome. 
 
 Sir Edgar was there, looking very cool and tran- 
 quil, and bowed to the ground when he saw the 
 ruflled lady. When one is angry the relief is enor- 
 mous to abuse some one, and the least cowardly way, 
 of course, is to abuse the absent, especially when 
 there are no defenders present. 
 
 **I never in my life," said the lady, " knew such 
 a surprising fool as Miss Elliot. This feast to the 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 lower classes is a perfect outrage on the rights of 
 social life. It has set the folks all mad. I can get 
 no servant to answer my bell, though I have rung 
 without ceasing for the last half-hour, and now " 
 
 *' Is there anything I can do for 3^ou, madam ? 
 You can have no servant so devoted as myself. Do 
 you require water ? I will go to the well and draw 
 it, if cold is required. Do you desire it hot ? I 
 will penetrate to the fountain that hangs on the 
 kitchen fire, and fill a jug, even at the chance of 
 incurring that caudal appendage with which in- 
 truders into those regions are disgraced. If you 
 want wine I will break open the sideboard ; if 
 fruit, I will pilfer from the hothouses. Speak but 
 your will, and it shall be obeyed." 
 
 " My box is come from Stoneham, and I can't get 
 it open, the cord is so tiresome," said the lady. 
 
 " Is that all ? I will undo it immediately. "WTiere 
 is it?" 
 
 " Oh ! but," said the lady coquettishly, " I cannot 
 think what is to be done. It is in the turret-room 
 to my bed-chamber, and I could not think of admit- 
 ting you there." 
 
 Sir Edgar smiled. He was, as a rule, too well 
 bred ever to distort his face by a laugh which might 
 exceed the Chesterfieldian regulation expression of 
 amusement. He knew the lady would admit him, 
 and he did not care to press it. He could wait for 
 the favour for which he was not impatient. She
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 243 
 
 was worried by his seeming indifference, and wanted 
 to see the contents of her box. 
 
 " Well, I suppose you must come, as I can get no 
 one else," said the lady. 
 
 Sir Edgar presented his hand, bowing low, and 
 the pair passed through the bedroom, and then into 
 the turret-room, in which there was a small bed 
 usually occupied by the lady's-maid. It was situated 
 in the turret of the tower which flanked that side of 
 the house, and the window, a narrow slit for arrows 
 in former days, was nearly covered by the clustering 
 ivy, and in that declining light did not illuminate 
 objects sufficiently to please the eager inspector of 
 the contents of her box. 
 
 " You must lift it carefully and bring it to my 
 room,'' said she. 
 
 Sir Edgar obeyed, giving a look, as he left 
 the turret, at the little bed usually occupied by 
 Bell. 
 
 " Of what are you thinking ?" said the lady. 
 
 " Of that small bed which I used to occupy when 
 I came here in the holidays, and the house was full 
 of guests. Wh}^ had I not proj)hetic dreams of one 
 who would murder sleep ?" 
 
 " I shall do that to-night as regards Bell. She 
 will not enjoy much rest, I imagine. But do come 
 away from there," she continued, *'for you talk 
 frightful nonsense." 
 
 Sir Edgar was leaning out of the window, and
 
 244 TRUE TO TITE LIFE. 
 
 looking down to the ground below — " Why do you 
 choose to sleep at such an elevation ?" inquired he. 
 
 " The room is more cheerful than the one just 
 under it," replied the lady. 
 
 " It would serve you rightly/' said Sir Edgar, " if 
 I were to threaten to fling myself out unless you 
 withdrew the cruel negative that wrecked my hopes 
 two years since.*' 
 
 Lady Bab laughed, and quoted the celebrated 
 lines — 
 
 " * When he drew near, obsers'ing how steep 
 
 The sides did appear, and the bottom how deep,' " &c. 
 
 " 'Tis very high, and you may repent your cruelty 
 one day, and have to fling yourself out to avoid the 
 recollection of it. No one could escape crushing 
 from such a height." 
 
 The lady took the dress from its intricate trans- 
 verse bars of tape, and placed it on the bed. 
 
 ** How very beautiful ! " exclaimed the beau, who 
 had experience enough to appreciate the expense 
 which must have been incurred in putting the dress 
 together, and the delicate beauty of the material, 
 which was of pink crape over white satin. The 
 crape was worked in elaborate flowers formed of 
 different- sized imitation pearls, which had been made 
 at Kome especially at Lady Barbara's order. 
 
 " If there be any pleasure which I deserve in 
 return for breaking my nails in undoing that cord, 
 seeing you adorn that dress will be reward enough."
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 245 
 
 "Yery civil, indeed/^ said Lady Barbara; "but 
 you must go at once, and I must try it on — or bow 
 can I tell it will fit to-nigbt ? — and, good beavens ! 
 how sball I try it on witbout my maid ? " 
 
 " I fear I am not qualified for tbat ofiice, madam," 
 returned Sir Edgar gravely. " Can I seek for Bell 
 anywbere ? '' 
 
 " Ob ! bow can I tell wbere sbe is ? Somewbere 
 out in tbe park. You will be ages finding ber. Is 
 tbere not a single woman left in tbe bouse ? " 
 
 " I fear not one. I saw Miss Bruce wandering 
 amongst tbe revellers as I came in, like tbe lady in 
 * Comus ; ' and I bebaved ' like a brotber,' and left 
 ber fair side all unguarded." 
 
 " Well, go away ; I must try to get it on in tbe 
 best way I can." 
 
 " May I not see tbe result ? " 
 
 " Yes, if 'tis successful — but do go now ; " and Sir 
 Edgar went. 
 
 In tbe meantime. Miss Bruce — wbose senses bad 
 been sbocked in various ways by sigbts and sounds 
 disagreeable to a well-conducted young woman, wbo 
 bad been asked for kisses by drunken men, and told 
 sbe was not " mucb to look at," nor so young as sbe 
 bad been, by tbose wbo were more in tbeir senses — 
 bad wandered back to tbe bouse. Sbe expected 
 tbat sbe sbould spend great part of tbe day witb 
 Mr. Elliot, wbilst tbe rest of tbe bousebold were 
 absent, but tbat wary old fox bad ordered a sufficiency
 
 246 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 of cold provisions and wine in his own librarj', to 
 which no one was allowed to penetrate, unless by par- 
 ticular desire. Miss Bruce could not go uniuA^ted, and 
 had received no permission. Mr. Elliot never even 
 gave her the opportunity of offering her services by 
 ringing his bell. Thus, weary of solitude when 
 others were social, and of dulness when others were 
 amused, she had wandered out, and dissatisfied, 
 wandered back, just as Sir Edgar had emerged from 
 Lady Barbara's bedroom. 
 
 Presently an impatient cry was heard to proceed 
 from the lady's chamber. 
 
 '' Sir Edgar ! " said the fair one, putting out her 
 head, and a throat adorned with a frilled dressing- 
 gown, " you 7?mst find me a woman to try on my 
 dress." 
 
 " Miss Bruce is here, if Yenus will employ one of 
 the Graces to adorn her," said he, bending gracefully 
 to the governess, and looking sweetly in her face, as 
 he feared, with good reason, she would rebel at the 
 proposed service. 
 
 " Certainly," said Miss Bruce, with an awkward- 
 ness which made a ludicrous comment on Sir Edgar's 
 compliment. 
 
 *' I really would not trouble you, ^liss Bruce, but 
 the dress must be tried on if I am to wear it 
 to-night, and I certainly shall not appear with- 
 out it." 
 
 Iler ladyship said this with the air of a Juno who
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 247 
 
 Lad stolen one of Jove's thunderbolts, and had 
 threatened to hurl it on the guilty world. 
 
 Sir Edgar, who wished to display his fine person 
 in the minuet, looked, as he really was, concerned. 
 Miss Bruce hated the lady, as she thought her 
 arrival had destroyed a promising chance of her 
 securing Sir Edgar for her husband ; and she would 
 have rejoiced sincerely at any accident which pre- 
 vented Lady Barbara's appearance that night. 
 However, she went into the bed-chamber, and in the 
 course of twenty minutes she came out with a 
 malicious smile on her face. She passed Sir Edgar 
 without speaking, but he judged that there was some 
 trouble about the dress yet unknown to him. 
 
 When Miss Bruce had retired altogether to a 
 retreat from which she hoped no one would dislodge 
 her to assist the great lady in her dilemma. Sir 
 Edgar stepped up to the door, and begged to know 
 whether he might be allowed to judge of the efiect of 
 the dress when on. Lady Barbara opened the door, 
 and said in a troubled voice, in which there were 
 latent tears — 
 
 " 'Tis so provoking, the dress does not fit." 
 
 " Not fit ? " 
 
 "'No, and if it were too large one might pin it 
 over, but it will not meet by three-quarters of an 
 inch." 
 
 " Surely that might be rectified by a needle and 
 thread — somehow by cutting it open and jDutting in
 
 248 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 a bit. I don't understand ; but a sempstress might 
 do it." 
 
 "Of course she might. I asked that stupid 
 governess, and she replied that there was but one in 
 the neighbourhood ; and though she took in needle- 
 work, she was incapable of altering such a delicate 
 material ; that her fingers were rough, and would 
 catch in the crape ; moreoTcr, that her father would 
 not allow her to leave home to go out to work ; 
 and, in addition to this, Miss Bruce observed the 
 men might not come in for another hour, and who 
 was to fetch her, even on the chance of her coming?" 
 
 " AMiat reward might I claim," said the gentle- 
 man, "if I become your messenger, and ask the 
 needlewoman to come — if I compel her attendance, 
 that I may not be deprived of the delight and 
 honour of appearing as your partner for one evening, 
 though you have for ever deprived me of all hope of 
 devoting the whole of my life to your service ?" 
 
 "Pray go without any more delay. Tell the 
 woman I will pay her any charge she may make, 
 either reasonable or unreasonable. You had better 
 add that she can sleep here. She will have to work 
 late before the di'ess can be finished. Now go."
 
 CHAPTEH XXI. 
 
 " Now friendly Pity, full of tender sighs, 
 Halts on her tongue, but softens in her eyes." 
 
 Leaving Sir Edgar to consider tlie best way of 
 carrying out his own. wishes that Leah should see 
 the ball, and Lady Barbara's that Leah should alter 
 her dress, we will return to Rose Elliot, whom we 
 left walking swiftly towards the house to obtain 
 some food for Perth. She did not fancy that which 
 had been hacked about by unknown knives, and 
 touched by profane fingers, but she proceeded at 
 once to the supper-room, the key of which she knew 
 where to find, and abstracted a chicken, some slices 
 of ham, and some bread. To this she added a plate- 
 full of sandwiches, and, after feeling in her pocket 
 for her purse, she returned to the tree where she had 
 left Perth. She called to him softly, for the gloom 
 filled her with awe and dread of some unknown 
 evil. He answered not, and, feeling her way care- 
 fully, she came to the tree under which he had 
 originally fallen, and on putting out her hand it 
 touched his face. This time his insensibility had arisen 
 from sleep, and not from fainting. The unaccustomed
 
 250 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 fluid had ascended lo his brain, taken as it had been 
 without any solid food. 
 
 He awoke, however, at hearing his name repeated 
 clearly, and sat up, seeing only through the dim 
 shadow a white figure with flowing hair. It re- 
 minded him in the darkness of his sister's visit to him 
 in the stable, and his lips formed the word " Leah! '' 
 
 " It is not Leah,'^ said a gentle voice. " It is Miss 
 Elliot. Listen ! I have brought you some food. 
 Take these first," giving him the sandwiches; ^' eat 
 them slowly, and you will feel better. ]N^ow tell me 
 what I can do for you. Shall I go to Mr. Preston 
 and ask him to receive you at home ? " 
 
 ^' No, I thank you, madam," replied the youth in 
 a feeble voice, but trying to rise as he found by 
 whom he had been addressed. 
 
 " Sit still, and tell me quietly. What do you. mean 
 to do?" 
 
 " Go away and work for myself a great way ofi", 
 where no one will know me." 
 
 Rose wondered whether he had come to the feast 
 in hopes of obtaining food ; but she did not like to 
 inquire in so many words. 
 
 " Did you come here to-day to see your sister ? " 
 
 " No, madam. I sold my best suit of clothes to a 
 young man who came here to-day, and I followed 
 him in the hope of getting the money of which he 
 defrauded me ; but I coidd not catch him, though I 
 saw him afar ofi"."
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 251 
 
 "Then you did not get the money you expected ?" 
 
 "No, madam; I feel so ill that I don't seem to 
 care much — not even for the food you have been so 
 kind as to bring me." 
 
 " You will be better to-morrow — nearly well, I 
 dare say. Go to one of the barns on the house-farm ; 
 they are empty now. Take some straw and sleep 
 till to-morrow. There is some money — not much, 
 but it will help you on your way ; and now God 
 bless you ! " 
 
 Perth tried to speak, but only inarticulate sounds 
 came for a few instants. Miss Elliot kindly returned 
 to catch his meaning. 
 
 '' If, madam, you would take back one of these 
 shillings, and ask my sister to pay Mr. Reece for a 
 book ? I have the receipt for eighteen-pence already 
 paid on it in my pocket. There ! I have wrapped the 
 shilling up in it. I hope you will believe I am 
 grateful. I don't seem to be able to say it aright." 
 
 " Yes, I quite believe it," said the lady softly, and 
 went away ; but returned, with an injunction well 
 befitting her practical character : "Keep the chicken 
 for your breakfast ; the sandwiches are as much as 
 you ought to eat to-night. Keep the half-bottle of 
 wine also." And she went away, and Perth strained 
 his weak sight to watch the white drapery that 
 shrouded her figure through the darkness, till she 
 disappeared, and he saw her no more.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 " The proverb holds that to be wise and love 
 Is hardly granted to the gods above ; 
 A general doom on all mankind is pass'd, 
 And all are fools and lovers, first or last." 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 When Eose returned to the house, with the Light 
 spirit of one who had dispensed happiness and re- 
 joices in the conviction, she met Sir Edgar walking 
 out with a perplexed countenance. 
 
 ^'What is it?'* said Rose, Avho was the person 
 ever referred to to untangle domestic knots. 
 
 "Oh, Miss Preston! — Miss Elliot, I would have 
 said — here is Lady Barbara, like Wordsworth's 
 Betty, ' in a great quandary.' " 
 
 " Indeed ! What is wrong ? " 
 
 " She has sent me to fetch Miss Preston to alter 
 her ball-dress ; and though I am not a coward, I 
 flatter myself, I do certainly shrink from receiving 
 * no ^ for an answer from that puritanical old prig, 
 the Methodist-parson father. Is there no one who 
 could go in my place ?" 
 
 " I am ashamed of you," said Rose. " You want 
 to obtain favour from the ladv, and vou 2:rudi?e a
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 253 
 
 little inconYenience to obtain it. "What is tlie real 
 difficulty? — a tight boot, or do you want to have 
 your hair recurled before the ball, and grudge the 
 time?'' 
 
 " It is not either of these reasons ; but it is so odd 
 an erratid for a gentleman not yet having attained 
 years of discretion, that I do not think I should 
 succeed if I went alone. Now, if you would accom- 
 pany me and bell the cat ! " 
 
 "The cat ! Ah ! what recollections must crowd on 
 your mind at that name ! I wonder you ventured 
 to remind me of your swollen nose and disfigured 
 face by the mention of that animal, that little cause 
 of a disastrous combat." 
 
 "You are very severe, Miss Elliot" — and in- 
 wardly, " What an infernally disagreeable girl she 
 is ! " — " but I can put up with your taunts if j^ou 
 will give me the pleasure of your company, and in- 
 duce Leah Preston to come and arrange Lady Bab's 
 dress for the evening." 
 
 "Well, I don't mind. I have a little commission 
 to execute myself with that young woman, and we 
 will go together. I saw her to-day near one of the 
 tables, but I did not attend to her much. Poor 
 girl ! she looked too refined for the surrounding 
 crowd, and altogether out of place." 
 
 '* She is rather good-looking," said Sir Edgar, 
 "is she not?" 
 
 " Good-looking ! Why, she is beautiful ! " was
 
 254 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 the honest tribute of the heiress to the charms of 
 the needlewoman. 
 
 " She is a nice girl, taking her all in all," was 
 the amended comment of the baronet to himself. 
 ** I suj^pose she is very rustic, like the rest of the 
 cottagers," continued the crafty youth, who wanted 
 to talk of Leah, and to obtain Rose's opinion. 
 
 ** By no means, I should imagine, though I know 
 little about her; but my father heard from Lord 
 North, when Mr. Preston first came to this neigh- 
 bourhood, that his late gardener was a highly edu- 
 cated man, and had married the beautiful daughter 
 of a gentleman, whose family had discarded her 
 for the misalliance. He left Lord North's service, 
 in the hope that a residence in a milder climate 
 might prolong her life. There is a great deal in 
 race ; and Leah's delicacy and charm of appearance 
 probably come from the high-bred mother." 
 
 Thus they talked till they reached the boundary 
 of the park, when Miss Elliot left him and went 
 softly up to the cottage, where there was but one 
 glimmering light shining through the ivy-covered 
 window; and, as that was upstairs, she concluded 
 that the inmates were, with one exception, in 
 bed. 
 
 When Molly had concluded her amount of limited 
 information, she asked various questions, and had 
 rejoiced in Dick Crozior's success at first, but was 
 afterwards fcarfid that it might make him too proud
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 255 
 
 for his work. No doubt Mrs. Crozier would come 
 in next day, and crow over her finely about it, say- 
 ing what a comfort sons are. 
 
 *'l don't think it no disgrace to be a single 
 woman — do you, Miss Leah?" 
 
 " 'No, indeed, Molly," said Leah. 
 
 " Not but that you are sure to be married, my 
 dear — so well to look at as you are. And then the 
 Leah in the Bible was married ; not that t/iat ever 
 seemed to be a comfortable way of going on, for one 
 man to marry two sisters. But they were a nasty 
 race, them Jews — stiff-necked, and wonderful dirty, 
 I reckon, or Moses wouldn't have made such a rout 
 about their keeping themselves clean. Anyhow, no 
 man can marry a sister of yours and you too, 'cause 
 you haven't got one ; unless your papa was to marry 
 again, and that's not likely. Hark ! there's master 
 come in. Won't you take off your nice gown. Miss 
 Leah, and come down and take j^our supper with 
 your pa? He can't be in yet, for he've got the 
 pony to feed and bed-up. No Master Perth now, 
 poor boy ! Master may go further and fare worse 
 before he gets such a servant again as Perth was ! " 
 
 Leah considered for a moment whether she should 
 remain, and show herself boldly in her new dress, 
 and decided that it would be cowardly and deceitful 
 to change it, according to Molly's recommendation. 
 So she put the bread and cheese and the cold meat, 
 which had been kept for Mr. Preston, and the cup
 
 256 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 of milk, by the side of the plate, and waited with 
 beating heart for the approach of her father. 
 
 He came in with a heavy footstep, and she knew 
 he was tired and depressed. He smiled feebly at 
 his darling when he saw the preparations she had 
 made for his supper, and sat down before it, but 
 evidently with little appetite. His preoccupied 
 mind took no notice of Leah's simple white dress ; 
 probably it looked to him like a dressing-gown, in 
 which, in former years, he had seen his wife during 
 her last illness. 
 
 Leah asked nothing of the result of his journey ; 
 he would tell her if he chose it. He had nothing 
 cheering to relate, and was silent. No one knew 
 anything of Perth's present locality. Caleb found 
 out where he had lodged, and heard from the mis- 
 tress how good and quiet a j^outh he was ; but she 
 spoilt the praise by adding that he was alwaj's 
 studying outlandish books. 
 
 " Poor lost boy ! " was the ejaculation of his father 
 on hearing this. 
 
 " Ah, sir ! if he's lost, j^ou had better try to find 
 him. Good sons ain't plentiful, and he is a thorough 
 good one." 
 
 Then Caleb Preston went to the grocer, who stuck 
 to the storj^ of the owing half-crown, though there 
 was a look in his face which made the shrewd 
 north-countryman doubt his veracity. He did not 
 doubt Perth's having had the book, but he suspected
 
 TRUB TO THE LIFE. 257 
 
 there was something wrong in the story of the pay- 
 ment. 
 
 Miss Elliot's eagerness to succeed in her mission 
 induced her to infringe the laws of good breeding 
 by reconnoitring the position before she attacked it. 
 In other words, she looked in at the window she 
 passed in going through the small portion of the 
 garden in front of the house, and saw Caleb's weary 
 face sitting over his scarcely-tasted supper, and the 
 graceful head of his daughter, illumined by a single 
 candle. Old Molly stood at the back of Mr. Pres- 
 ton's chair, to remove the remains of the meal pre- 
 vious to going to her bed. 
 
 Rose had some unpleasant memories of the heat 
 with which she had spoken to the preacher when 
 they last met, and feared that he might show his 
 resentment now by refusing to allow his daughter 
 to come to the Hall. She could not guess that the 
 father, outwardly so rigid, loved the charming crea- 
 ture for the warmth with which she had espoused 
 the cause of his truant son, and that he looked up at 
 her with a kind of hope that she might be come to 
 give him information about Perth of which he was 
 ignorant. 
 
 It was, therefore, with a chill of disappointment 
 that he heard her state her request that Miss Pres- 
 ton should come to the Hall, and exert her skill 
 in fitting Lady Barbara's new dress. His first 
 feeling was to decline ; but, as he looked at his 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 daughter's face, he saw in it such an expression of 
 joy and hope so vivid, that his heart melted. 
 
 " Poor girl ! " he said to himself, " I may have 
 heen too rigid to Perth. Let me not interpose a 
 dense shadow on the sunshine, which does not come 
 often on her young life." 
 
 He saw objections, however, and uttered them : — 
 
 " How long, madam, do you think my daughter's 
 services will be required ? I could escort her to the 
 Hall, but I should not choose that she should return 
 home alone, considering the state of the park at 
 present." 
 
 "Lady Barbara desired me to say," replied the 
 young lady, " that Miss Preston should have a bed 
 at the Hall to-night, as it must be uncertain at what 
 time the dress will be completed." 
 
 The father looked troubled. His child had never 
 yet slept a single night from the shelter of his roof. 
 
 "We will take good care of her," said the young 
 lady, smiling. " I will answer for her safety." 
 
 " Alas ! madam, her safety must be confided to a 
 stronger arm, and a more watchful eye, than even 
 your own — to that Being who neither slumbereth 
 nor sleepeth, and who is mighty to save all those 
 who call upon Him earnestly, and with a faithful 
 heart." 
 
 " Then trust her to Him," said Miss Elliot gravely, 
 ''and let your faith in His protection be shown in 
 this matter. Leah, will you come ? "
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 259 
 
 " If my father will permit," said Leah, looking at 
 him anxiously. 
 
 "Yes, Leah, you shall go," said Mr. Preston. 
 "Surely you have not come alone?" he added sud- 
 denly. 
 
 " No ; I have a friend waiting for me in the 
 park." 
 
 " Then," continued Mr. Preston, " I will remain 
 till Leah is ready, and walk with her to the Hall 
 door, from which moment I shall consider her under 
 your charge." 
 
 The father and daughter had risen on Miss Elliot's 
 first entrance, and now made respectful adieux. Then 
 Leah went up with Molly to put her night-clothes 
 together. 
 
 " 'Twas lucky you had not taken off your pretty 
 dress, miss. Now you are all ready to see the great 
 lady. I hope she won't show her nasty tempers to 
 you. But I hope you will behave pretty, and re- 
 member that 'a soft answer turneth away wrath.' " 
 
 " That will do, Molly ; I shall have enough of 
 that going along with papa," said Leah impatientty, 
 for she could not find her scissors, and was in a 
 hurry. But, being ashamed of her short-lived irri- 
 tability, she laughed and kissed Molly, sajdng, 
 " You see it is not only titled ladies who have 
 nasty tempers. Good night, old dear ! If I work 
 very fast, perhaps I may see the dancing, and Sir 
 Edgar, and all the beautiful ladies."
 
 260 TRtJE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 Mr. Preston was greatly troubled at the evidences 
 of original, unredeemed sin which met him at every 
 step. There came on his ear fragments of songs 
 which were meaningless to the pure-minded girl 
 that moved by his side, but which filled her father 
 with disgust. Men trying to rise from the ground 
 in vain, and sinking back in the helplessness of in- 
 ebriation, were frequently in their path ; and they 
 passed close to one prostrate form, and took care 
 not to tread on the sleeper, believing him to be, like 
 the others, a victim to intoxication, when they were 
 imconscious that one had passed a brother and the 
 other a son. 
 
 Perth had felt too feeble to find his way to the 
 barn, as Miss Elliot had recommended — too tired, 
 for the walk he had taken in coming from Stone- 
 ham, and the efibrts he had made to find Bill 
 Summers, had exhausted a frame weakened by 
 starvation. 
 
 Thus, after he had finished the sandwiches, he 
 felt comforted, and believed that he might sleep 
 without damage through the dark hours of that 
 warm summer night. So soon as morning came, 
 he would go to the place where he had hidden his 
 bundle, and go away for years, or for ever. He 
 thought all this dimh', and slept again. 
 
 It was late when Leah reached the Hall, and she 
 was shown at once to the bed-chamber of Lady 
 Barbara, who was in a tremor of impatience for the
 
 TUTJE TO THE LIFE. 261 
 
 arrival of the workwoman. She had indulged in a 
 scene of such violence against her maid, that Bell, 
 who had received offers of marriage from each of the 
 footmen, had returned railing for railing ; the wait- 
 ing-woman's tongue having been loosed from long 
 bondage by imbibing the best part of a bottle of 
 red port — a tender attention on the part of John 
 the footman. She dismissed herself then and there 
 from the service of Lady Barbara, fully expecting a 
 bribe from the great lady to return to her duty. 
 
 " I should like to know who she will get to put 
 on the stockings to those sharp, bony toes of hers, 
 or to put the pearl-powder on to the back of her 
 neck over her ugly yellow skin ! ^' Bell said in her 
 wrath, addressing Miss Elliot's maid, as she left 
 the presence of her mistress, who had the mortifica- 
 tion of hearing the observation. When Leah, there- 
 fore, was ushered into the presence of the lady, she 
 found her inclined to be sweet, to the point of caress- 
 ingness. Leah took off her hat and produced her 
 work-basket, and was soon immersed in the diffi- 
 culties of considering how the dress could be let 
 out so as to admit of Lady Barbara's wearing it. 
 Leah asked to see the box in which it had travelled ; 
 and at the bottom of it, partly concealed by the 
 pieces of silver paper which had fallen over from 
 the sides, she found what she had expected — one or 
 two small pieces of crape and satin ; bits which art- 
 ful dressmakers roll up and return to the owners,
 
 262 True to the life. 
 
 as if to assure them that every atom of the charged- 
 for number of yards has been used in the fabrica- 
 tion of the dresses ordered, reserving to themselves 
 a yard or two, of no consequence except to them- 
 selves, according to their own view of the case. 
 The bits returned were on this occasion very 
 useful. Whether Lady Barbara had grown stouter 
 under the influence of country air and feeding, or 
 whether the dressmaker had mistaken the measure- 
 ment, the result was the same — she could not get 
 into the dress as it was ; and Leah's nimble fingers 
 rectified the blunder so well that, when the dress 
 was fitted on a second time, her ladyship was 
 delighted by the appearance she presented. 
 
 " There! '* she said triumphantly, looking lovingly 
 at her reflection in the glass. " I wonder what Sir 
 Edgar will think of that ! '' 
 
 Then, turning to the timepiece on the chimney- 
 shelf, she told Leah, who had been impleasantly 
 afiected by the lady's unconscious query, that she 
 must get her some hot water from the kitchen, and 
 help her to dress. Bell had been so very insolent. 
 Miss Preston must take her place for this night at 
 least. 
 
 Leah had a half-hope of getting a glimpse of Sir 
 Edgar if she descended into other regions, so she 
 went willingly ; but it was some time before she 
 could get any vessel to carry the hot water, every 
 jug and tin can having been carried into the park
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 263 
 
 for tlie benefit of the beer- drinkers. She succeeded 
 at lengtb, but did not see Sir Edgar. He was in 
 his room, his once- flowing curls pinned up in paper, 
 awaiting the application of the tongs, whilst he 
 contemplated the rich suit laid out on the bed, 
 and smiled as he anticipated the triumph of the 
 night. 
 
 " I wish she would talk about him a little more," 
 thought Leah, as she poured out the water for her 
 ladyship's ablutions. 
 
 The lady was in high good temper with Leah, 
 whose cleverness had got her out of a difficulty, and 
 had enabled her to appear in added beauty and 
 magnificence that night. 
 
 "Did you see any one as you went for the 
 water ? " 
 
 " No, madam." 
 
 " Ah ! I thought you might have seen Sir Edgar 
 hanging about my room. He was so very anxious 
 about my dress ; and he would have been so relieved 
 to know that it was rectified, and that I was certain 
 of appearing to-night." 
 
 Leah was silent; and though she would have given 
 much to hear more, she was too respectful to ask 
 questions. 
 
 The lady had been evidently accustomed to talk 
 to her maid, and rather enjoyed a fresh auditor, 
 who could not but delight to hear of the lady's 
 conquests for the first time, when Bell had been
 
 264 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 obliged to bear the infliction of their repetition so 
 often. 
 
 " Sir Edgar is a fine-looking gentleman," Leah 
 uttered at last. 
 
 '' AVell enough. Some more cold crater to that. 
 Why, child! do you want to scald me like a pig ? " 
 
 Leah added the water. 
 
 " 'Now scrub the back of my neck. This fashion 
 of having the hair down is detrimental to the 
 beauty of the throat, I think. Sir Edgar says I 
 have the most graceful throat he ever saw, and as 
 slender as Anne Boleyn's." 
 
 "Your ladyship has known Sir Edgar some 
 time ? " queried Leah. 
 
 " Oh, my dear Miss Preston, he has been 
 devotedly attached to mc ever since he first saw me 
 at Cambridge, two years since ! Then he threw him- 
 self and his fortune at my feet, and swore he would 
 never marry so long as my single state permitted 
 him to hope that my determination was revo- 
 cable." 
 
 " And did youi- ladyship say * Xo,' then ? " said 
 Leah, wondering that any woman, even a princess, 
 should say " No " to her Edgar. 
 
 " Of course I did," said Lady Bab carelessly. 
 
 "And — does he love you still?" Leah gasped 
 out. 
 
 " Love me ! Of course he docs. If you could 
 have heard all he said to me in this room
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 265 
 
 Where's tlie comb ? the dressing-gown ? Let down 
 my hair, and brush it. If you could have heard 
 the tender protestations of devotion, the terror he 
 felt at the chance of my not dancing with him 
 to-night, you would not longer feel any doubt on 
 the subject." 
 
 " No ; only," sighed poor Leah, " follis did say 
 he was engaged to Miss Elliot." 
 
 '^And so he was," said the lady; ^'but he broke 
 with her for my sake only ; and this but a few days 
 since." 
 
 Leah revived. It might have been for her sake 
 that the rupture had been made. 
 
 " It was not an hour since," Lady Barbara con- 
 tinued, "that he threatened, if I would not listen 
 to his suit, to fling himself out of this window, 
 which would be certain death, from its distance to 
 the ground." 
 
 " "Was he in tliis room with your ladyship ? " 
 said Leah, scared at what seemed to her the im- 
 propriety of the fact. 
 Lady Barbara coloured. 
 
 " Oh yes ! Ladies who have lived abroad are 
 not so particular as those strait-laced prudes in 
 England. You need not look so frightened. When 
 I am dressed I shall send for him to judge of the 
 effect, and to fasten my bracelets on. You may go 
 into the turret-room and listen to what he says, if 
 you have any doubt of his devotion to me."
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 " Dresses laughed at in our forefathers' wardrohes and pictures, 
 ■when by the circulation of time and vanity they are brought about, 
 we think becoming." — Government of the Tongue. 
 
 "Whilst Lady Barbara discoursed Leah was try- 
 ing to fasten the hook of the satin dress. This 
 accounted for the deep flush on her face, doubtless, 
 when she raised her head again. The lady turned 
 herself first one side and then the other, to see the 
 effect of the glittering material before it should be 
 dimmed by the pink crape. 
 
 " Very becoming to my figure," was the satis- 
 fied observation. " He says I've the smallest waist 
 he ever — saw," the lady added ; but her attendant 
 knew she had only exchanged a more prudent ter- 
 mination for a truer one. " I am ready now for the 
 crape dress. Take care it does not catch in the 
 gold tiara," for Lady Barbara's head was dressed in 
 the Grecian fashion, which came in with the French 
 Revolution, when men affected heads like Brutus, 
 and ladies those of Diana. This stj^le of adornment 
 had not before penetrated into the wilds of Essex, 
 and Lady Barbara expected to make a sensation 
 therewith.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 267 
 
 Leah, wKo was rich in the quantity of her 
 own flowing tresses, saw with astonishment two 
 crisply- curled locks taken from a box, which, by 
 the lady's direction, were fastened at the back of 
 her head by the braid which Leah had previously 
 plaited. 
 
 "When the crape dress had been carefully put on 
 and fastened, the lady desired Leah to retire to the 
 turret-room till she called her. When the door had 
 been closed carefully and fastened by the mistress, 
 she proceeded to take a small packet from the 
 recesses of her dressing-case, and in an instant of 
 time a delicate bloom arose on her olive-tinted 
 cheek, which added roundness to its contour, and 
 gave renewed brilliancy to her eyes. 
 
 "Now for the bracelets," said Lady Barbara. 
 " Those men must have returned from their frolick- 
 ing by this time ; " and she rang the bell, which was 
 promptly answered. " Is Sir Edgar dressed ? " 
 
 "Yes, my lady. He is in the ball-room with 
 Miss Elliot. The guests are arriving." 
 
 "Send Sir Edgar to me." 
 
 The footman withdrew, and the lady retired to 
 her room, where, standing before the glass in a 
 position in which she received the whole brilliant 
 illumination of the wax-lights, she waited till she 
 heard the step of her former lover in the next room. 
 
 " Come here. Sir Edgar ; I want you to see my 
 dress ! " and the young man passed into the room.
 
 268 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 "Alas, madam!" lie cried with an accent of 
 expostulation, "why will you tempt me to repeat 
 the expression of an admiration which may never 
 bear fruit? AYhy allow me the favour of gazing 
 unrestrainedly on beauty so dazzling — unless, indeed, 
 you will withdraw the one word of two letters which 
 doomed me to despair ? " 
 
 " Indeed, Sir Edgar," said the lady coquettishly, 
 " I cannot believe that you have been very unhappy 
 in my refusal. Come, confess, whilst you fasten this 
 bracelet, that you have seen fairer women since those 
 happy days when we strolled together up and 
 down those broad lime-shadowed walks of Trinity 
 gardens ? " 
 
 "When I challenged Crawford, of St. John's," 
 said Sir Edgar, smiling, " for setting his terrier on 
 your poodle." 
 
 " And Mr. Crawford came and apologised to me,^^ 
 said the lady, " and led the terrier by a string, to be 
 dealt with according to my royal will and pleasure." 
 
 " Ah ! you drove us all to destruction in those 
 days;" and then, seeing a shadow coming on the 
 fair one's brows at the specified time, he felt he 
 had blundered, and hastened to add, " And the years 
 that have since passed have given even a richer 
 glow to your charms, a more intense expression to 
 your mobile features ; " and as Sir Edgar said this 
 he felt its truth, and spoke with the earnestness of 
 conviction.
 
 TRITE TO THE LIFE. 269 
 
 Leali, with, her throbbing head resting against the 
 door, heard the words and the tone. Had her lover 
 become faithless to her in thought ? 
 
 In truth, some drops of the old poison seemed to 
 circulate through his veins when he knelt to fasten 
 the jewelled band on to the round pliant arm, and 
 felt the touch of the velvety skin. 
 
 ^' Those who admire fair women,'' says Burke, " are 
 attracted by the eye, the captives to olive beauties 
 are swayed by the touch ; " yet Sir Edgar had no 
 idea of subjecting himself to the chance of another 
 refusal by any talk beyond the exaggerated 
 gallantry to whicb Lady Bab had been accustomed, 
 and by which he meant nothing beyond the amuse- 
 ment of the passing hour. He would not on any 
 account have made the lady less cruel, in fact. But 
 it suited him that he should appear to a numerous 
 and delighted assembly on the best possible terms 
 with the wealthiest and most fashionable ladj^ of 
 rank who would grace the meeting b}^ her presence. 
 The fact of his engagement to Miss Elliot had been 
 well understood in the county. The fact of her 
 indifference to him was patent. It was, therefore, 
 important to Sir Edgar, as a vain man, to show that 
 lie was the chosen suitor of a lady so admired, 
 and so rich in adventitious circumstances, as Lady 
 Barbara; and having little dread that she would 
 really wish to marry him, he played with the 
 danger, the extent of which he did not estimate.
 
 270 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 The love he felt for his innocent wood-nymph 
 was of a purer nature, and more unmixed with 
 earth's alloy, but it was removed from the tenor 
 of his daily life. "At Rome one must do as the 
 Romans," thought the youth. No doubt old Numa 
 felt this when he returned to the dust-defiled 
 dames of Kome after his vows paid to his spotless 
 divinity of the fountain, in her cool moss-covered 
 cavern, sweet with the scent of wild flowers, and 
 melodious with songs of birds. Had Sir Edgar 
 been obliged to choose then and there for the 
 rest of his life between Leah and Lady Barbara, 
 knowing that the decision was irrevocable, he 
 would have taken the single diamond of the 
 purest water — his village girl ; but he did not feel 
 that this was the case. The diamond could be taken 
 up at any time; and now, being about to appear 
 on a stage before a large assembly, mock jewels of 
 imposing size would produce a far more magnificent 
 efiect, and for the loan of these jewels he was now 
 negotiating. 
 
 " Now for the turquoise bracelet," said the lady, 
 holding out the other hand. " But why so silent 
 and thoughtful. Sir Edgar .P" 
 
 "I was thinking, madam, that whilst you will 
 be the sole object of my thoughts, and the only 
 creature in the gay assembly who will entrance 
 my senses, you will divide your smiles between 
 many, and tuim those radiant eyes on hundi'cds
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 271 
 
 who have not the claim of old devotion to put forth 
 for your favour. Give me some pledge that I may 
 be consoled, should I see some happier man leading 
 you away to the dance, whilst I am left devoured 
 by envy at his greater success. Let me feel that 
 the gloved hand, which yields to the pressure of 
 his, has received a token of warmer homage from 
 my lips — lips once so greatly blessed ! " 
 
 Lady Barbara tried to blush, and, at all events, 
 she contrived to turn aside her graceful head and 
 look down. Sir Edgar kissed her hand, and rising 
 to his feet suddenly, repeated the osculation on 
 her lips. 
 
 "How dare you?" said the lady, with real or 
 feigned indignation. 
 
 The previous conversation and the following pause 
 betrayed the truth to the unhappy Leah. 
 
 " Pardon me. Lady Barbara ! the recollections of 
 the past were too potent — the temptation of the 
 present too irresistible ; " and he threw an expres- 
 sion of the deepest depression into his handsome 
 face. 
 
 " I have a great mind to say that I will not dance 
 with you to-night," said the lady, seeming to pout. 
 
 " That would punish the whole assembly for the 
 fault of one," replied the gentleman. "Hundreds 
 are expecting the delight of seeing your graceful 
 performance in the minuet. Hark ! the musicians 
 are tuning their instruments ; the guests have
 
 272 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 arrived. "Will you not come ? Allow me to conduct 
 
 you." 
 
 " 1^0, go first, and I will follow you. I really 
 do not mean to commit myself by walking alone 
 with you into the room," replied the lady. 
 
 Sir Edgar bowed and retired, and then Lady 
 Barbara remembered, when she wanted the curl at 
 the back of her head refastened, displaced as it had 
 been by Sir Edgar's arm in the stolen caress, that 
 Leah had been a prisoner in the turret-room during 
 the whole of her conversation with Sir Edgar. 
 
 "Well, it does not very much matter," she thought, 
 remembering the rather comj)romising nature of the 
 interview. " I shall end by accepting him ; unless, 
 indeed, anything very much better should offer this 
 evening. After all, he is young, handsome, and 
 moderately rich. I can afford to indulge myself in 
 m}^ fancy for this boy. It is strange that, with my 
 rank, beauty, and wealth, I have not had a better 
 offer, during ten years of being before all the fashion 
 of town, and of all the watering-places." 
 
 She unlocked the door, but did not at first see 
 Leah stretched on the bed, as Leah's di-ess was 
 white, as was the coverlet. 
 
 *' Are you tired or ill? " said Lady Barbara, who 
 had no sympathy with fatigue which she never 
 incurred, or with sickness which she had never felt. 
 
 Leah started up. The darkness of the room con- 
 cealed her red eyelids and tear- stained cheeks.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 273 
 
 " No, madam. Can I assist you in any way ? " 
 
 "Another pin in the back hair. See if those 
 ringlets are firm." 
 
 Leah followed her to the toilette-table, and arranged 
 the curls to her satisfaction. 
 
 "JNTow,'' said Lady Barbara, ''give me that fan. 
 I am ready. I shall not require you again till one 
 or two o'clock to-morrow morning. If you find 
 • some of the servants, I dare say they will take care 
 of you. You may manage to see some of the dancing 
 if you get into the gallery." 
 
 She whisked out of the room, the pearl trimming 
 being dashed against the door- sill as she disappeared. 
 The weighty clusters of glittering beads gave peculiar 
 grace to the crape folds which hung round her 
 slender figure, giving full justice to the highly- 
 proportioned limbs. 
 
 " Oh, she is really beautiful ! " cried j)oor Leah ; 
 " and he loves her, and he has been making a fool 
 of me ever since I was so wretched as to see him. 
 Oh, Sir Edgar ! how could you be so cruel ? " 
 Then she longed to tell him that he should not 
 deceive her any longer — that she knew all his 
 double dealing. " Oh, father ! " she cried, ajoostro- 
 phising Caleb Preston in thought, " I ought to have 
 confided my weakness to your strength. I have 
 concealed my steps from you, and they have been 
 backsliding, and now I wander in outer darkness. 
 Alas ! I shall never see the dawn of happiness again.'* 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 She felt that any place would be less painful than 
 Lady Barbara's bedroom, where the love-scene had 
 occurred between her and Leah's faithless lover. 
 There were three doors in the room ; one led to the 
 back-stairs, one to the turret-room, and one into the 
 ante-room, through which Sir Edgar and Lady Bar- 
 bara had proceeded to the ball-room. 
 
 Leah did not venture to go into the ante-room. 
 " She had no business amongst ladies or gentlemen," 
 she said, gulping down her tears. She turned to go 
 down the back-stairs ; but they led up as well as 
 down, and on the top stood a dark, stout man, cry- 
 ing " Hi ! " to Leah as soon as he saw her. " I 
 am distress," said he, in broken English. "My 
 score is wrong. I want paper, I want ink, and 
 the plume. I cannot find any in this cursed great 
 house." 
 
 Leah told him to wait whilst she fetched some. 
 She had seen ink and writing materials in the 
 turret-room, and she carried the bottle and a pen to 
 him as he stood on the stairs. The harp-player 
 belonging to the band engaged to play for the ball 
 took the ink from Leah's hand. He was struck with 
 her pure delicate beauty, and the tint of her skin, 
 so unlike that of his countrywomen. She looked 
 like a lady ; but if so, why was she on the back- 
 stairs ? 
 
 " You go dance, mees ?" he said. 
 
 Leah shook her head.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 275 
 
 " You like music ? You come hear me play — see 
 dancing. I play the harp. Oh ! butiful ! " 
 
 Leah said, " Thank you/' and repaid the proflPer 
 by a smile. He beckoned her to follow him, and on 
 reaching the top of the stairs, they went through a 
 passage which led on to a gallery built over the 
 ball-room'. Here Leah hung back, for a great 
 number of musicians were occupied in tuning their 
 instruments, and she saw no place for herself. 
 Senhor Mongada, however, placed a chair for her 
 behind the curtain which flanked the orchestra, and 
 next to himself and his harp. 
 
 Luckily for the gratification of Leah's curiosity, 
 the moths at the Hall had had some private dinner- 
 parties on the cloth of the curtain, and one of the 
 empty spaces cleared by them allowed Leah to see 
 all that passed without being visible to the spec- 
 tators. Not that any cared to turn their eyes to the 
 music-gallery, occupied as they were by the dazzling 
 scene around them — unless when some beau of the 
 assembly shouted his orders to the musicians. At 
 first she could distinguish nothing in the blaze of 
 the chandeliers, the glitter of satins, the flutter of 
 gauze, and the quickly- shifting sparkle of gems. 
 The movement of the company, too, seemed to make 
 her head reel; they were all walking about, the 
 couples not having as yet formed for the minuet. 
 Everyone looked shorter from Leah's elevation with 
 reference to them ; and Lady Barbara, whom she
 
 276 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 first discovered by the quick instinct of jealousy, 
 did not seem half so attractive in form or so re- 
 splendent in attire as she had done when standing 
 a single female figure in her own bed-chamber. 
 
 She did not at first recognise Sir Edgar, for his 
 dress was difierent from his usual suit, and far more 
 costly. He was not talking to Lady Barbara, cer- 
 tainly, and Leah took such small comfort as she 
 could from that circumstance. Yet she could not 
 but remember that, though he had expressed the 
 greatest desire that she should have an opportunity 
 of seeing him at the assembly, he had not taken 
 any trouble to insure that result, and had seemingly 
 forgotten her existence altogether. "Yes, he must 
 have forgotten me altogether," she repeated to her- 
 self, as she wept bitter tears at the recollection of 
 the love- scene which she had overheard. 
 
 There was a pause now, and a space was cleared 
 for the dancers by the master of the ceremonies. 
 Those who wished to exhibit their grace and science 
 in the minuet had selected partners, and now led 
 them to their places — a nervous moment for those 
 not hardened by the experience of several seasons. 
 Probably the great-grandmothers of the present 
 beauties who act in private theatricals would have 
 blushed for their descendants could they have known 
 what they would do in the year 1868 ; yet the staid 
 charmers of 1800 stood up in crowded assemblies to 
 exhibit their persons where external accomplish-
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 277 
 
 ments were tlie only attraction. In tlie lady 
 who acts well, personal charms are secondary to 
 intellectual power. A beautiful young woman 
 enunciating good English sweetly may be a 
 pleasing object of observation, but a plain, clever 
 woman, though past her first youth, will attract a 
 far larger audience, and excite far greater enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
 Leah saw Miss Elliot led to the top of the room 
 by a gentleman in full uniform, so tall, so finely 
 formed, and so perfectly handsome, that Leah won- 
 dered as she gazed with speechless admiration. 
 Miss Elliot was looking very lovely in a white satin 
 dress covered with white lace ; her hair, as usual, 
 flowing over her neck in ringlets. She looked up 
 in her partner's face with some slight feeling of 
 awe, for his every gesture showed that he had been 
 perfectly taught dancing by some foreign dancing- 
 master, so graceful and assured were his move- 
 ments. 
 
 Leah seized the opportunity given her by the 
 breaking of a harp- string, and the lull caused by the 
 necessity of replacing it, to whisper to Senhor Mon- 
 ^ada — 
 
 " "Who is that gentleman going to dance with 
 Miss Elliot?'* 
 
 "He with the stars ? All grand here?" point- 
 ing to his breast. '* Ah ! the great general." 
 
 *'How beautiful!" said Leah with enthusiasm.
 
 278 TRUE TO TIIE LIFE. 
 
 '^ All ! you vimen always think of that," said the 
 foreigner, who looked with some degree of envy on 
 the fair-complexioned warrior. 
 
 " I meant the stars," said Leah — which was not 
 entirely true, for the girl thought the whole effect 
 very fine, and rejoiced that Miss Elliot should have 
 so suitable a partner. 
 
 " I hope," said that young lady timidly to the 
 gentleman, ^* that I shall not do anything very dis- 
 graceful to shame you. Sir John. This is the first 
 time I have ever danced the minuet, except with my 
 dancing-master, and I am so nervous ; " and Rose 
 became pale for the moment, in her anxiety not to 
 make any false steps. 
 
 "I do not fear for my fair partner's success," said 
 Sir John gallantly. *' The minuet," he continued, 
 " is a dance to teach prudence ; the performers know 
 that the eyes of the company are on them. They 
 are quick to criticise deficiencies in the amount of 
 respect the dancers should show to the assembly in 
 the proper depression of their bows and courtesies ; 
 quick to estimate the tremor of indecision in their 
 actions, and to watch with spiteful satisfaction the 
 slightest approach to a false step. Eeni ember to be 
 confident ; confidence is like charity, and covers a 
 multitude of sins." 
 
 "'Tis very well to tell me to be confident," said 
 Rose. " Confidence is a fine quality, doubtless, but 
 it requires a tolerably broad basis of merit to expand
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 279 
 
 itself on. Have you always been confident of suc- 
 cess, Sir John?" 
 
 " Of ultimate success, I think. Thus I feel con- 
 vinced that we shall get through this present business 
 successfully, and that all the world will think there 
 was never a more charming dancer than Miss Elliot, 
 or a happier man than him whom she has honoured 
 with her hand on this occasion." 
 
 The first bars of the Minuet de la Cour were 
 played, and the different couples arranged them- 
 selves to be ready for the repetition of the first eight 
 bars, which gave the signal for the commencement 
 of the dance. The company were partitioned off 
 by a gilded rope, which gave the dancers space for 
 the performance of the figure without their being 
 pressed upon. When Miss Elliot, after the sliding 
 step to the right, had to sink in her courtesy, there 
 was a little unsteadiness as she rose on the tips of 
 her toes ; but she recovered herself, and when half 
 turned away from the spectators, with her foot 
 pointed to the right, her graceful head inclined over 
 her shoulder towards her partner, her dress hanging 
 in light folds from her hands as she held it up, she 
 made a charming object to the spectator and to Sir 
 John — who, accustomed to the society of ladies of 
 different lands and various styles of beauty, thought, 
 notwithstanding, that he had never seen a fairer 
 creature, though he had met many more accom- 
 plished in the arts of polite society. This expression
 
 280 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 appeared in his eyes, when, in the course of the 
 minuet having arrived opposite each other, the 
 gentleman bowed to his partner, and the lady 
 courtesied in return. Rose saw it, and was satisfied 
 that so far she had not done anything very bad. 
 
 In the meantime. Sir Edgar and Lady Barbara 
 were making similar claims on the admiration of 
 the company. Here both were assured of doing 
 well from long practice, and neither was troubled 
 by any misgivings about false steps. '^ If I make 
 one or two," said Lady Bab to herself, " it won't be 
 the first time that my petticoats have concealed 
 similar lapses.'' On a first look the spectators 
 murmured, *' Is that Lady Barbara ? How very 
 plain she is ! Plain ! why, she is right-down ugly ! " 
 Yet, after looking with the fascination of dislike for 
 ten minutes, they exclaimed, " 'Tis a wonderful 
 countenance ! — so attractive ! " One gentleman re- 
 peated : — 
 
 " 'Tis not her face that love creates, 
 For there no graces revel ; 
 'Tis not her shape, for there the fates 
 
 Have rather heen uncivil ; 
 Her voice, her touch, might give the alarm, 
 
 'Twas both, perchance, or neither : 
 In short, 'twas the provoking charm 
 Of Caelia^altogether." 
 
 Exceedingly vain and egotistical, and only not 
 spiteful to others because she was so satisfied of the 
 power of her own charms, it might appear strange
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 281 
 
 that Lady Barbara should be so popular as she was 
 with her own sex. But women forgive everything 
 in a decidedly ugly woman. It is such a relief to 
 feminine feelings to see one who can excite only 
 agreeable comparisons with regard to themselves. 
 
 The closing acknowledgments made by the 
 dancers to the company elicited murmurs of ap- 
 plause ; and then they repaid themselves for the 
 constraint of the stately minuet by the lively gavotte. 
 After this was concluded, the company generally 
 formed themselves into lines for the enjoyment of 
 country dances. All seemed a fairy scene of wonder 
 to Leah, as she listened to the resonant harmony, 
 and watched the light movements of the dancers in 
 what seemed to her untaught eyes an inextricable 
 confusion, from which were evolved order and beauty. 
 She watched Sir Edgar and Lady Barbara standing 
 at the head of the dance, opposite to each other. It 
 seemed to her sad eyes that their movements were 
 typical of the events of their life. They seemed, in 
 coquetting or simulation, to give their hands to 
 others. They danced with the partners of others, 
 then in a moment they together pursued their head- 
 long course down the room between the two lines, 
 one of gentlemen and the other of ladies. They 
 seem to repent, to return — all is confusion, again 
 falling back into order; again and again this is 
 repeated. Miss Elliot and Sir John go through the 
 same movements. At length Lady Barbara, who
 
 282 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 never danced so much as to destroy tlie delicate 
 tinting on her cheeks, without regarding the desires 
 of those yet undanccd with to take their share in 
 the amusement, placed her hand in that of her 
 partner, and desired to be conducted to a cooler 
 apartment. 
 
 Leah saw them leave the room, and, wretched as 
 she had been in witnessing the seeming devotion of 
 Sir Edgar's manner to her rival, she was far more 
 miserable when they had passed altogether from her 
 observation. 
 
 She thought she would try to get away from her 
 position in the music- gallery, and go home. Why 
 stay here to be made wretched by the sight of 
 amusement in which she had no share, and to be 
 reminded of happiness which she could never again 
 enjoy ? Then she told herself that her father would 
 be very angry should she return alone across the 
 park on such an evening ; but, in the depths of her 
 heart, she knew that the real reason was her linger- 
 ing hope to be able to say a word or two of reproach 
 to her inconstant lover.
 
 CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 " 'Tis most certain 
 
 In their flirting 
 
 "Women oft have envy shown ; 
 
 Pleased to ruin 
 
 Others' wooing, 
 
 Never happy in their own." 
 
 Gay. 
 
 In the meantime, Lady Barbara was discontented. 
 She had Sir Edgar ; but what was that ? She had 
 had Sir Edgar's devotion for the past two years ; 
 and there was that chitty-faced thing Rose dancing 
 with General Sir John Moore, who had just returned 
 from the West Indies, surrounded by the halo of his 
 gallantry and intellect ; and, worst of all, he seemed 
 to have no eyes for any woman but his partner, and 
 had not once glanced at her. " If I can but once 
 engage him to speak to me," she had said, " I shall 
 enthral him ;" and in passing him, as he was lead- 
 ing Rose to the top of the room, she dropped her 
 handkerchief so near him that he must have trodden 
 on it, had he not picked it up and presented it to 
 her. lie did this with a sweeping bow, and without 
 giving her a second look.
 
 284 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 Lady Barbara flushed with anger, especially when 
 Sir Edgar, who had seen the manoeuvre, guessed 
 the motive that had prompted it, and made some 
 light jest as to the Eastern interpretation of such 
 an act. It hurt Lady Bab's conscience to be found 
 out. 
 
 As Sir Edgar saw that his value had gone down 
 in the barometer of Lady Barbara's favour, he 
 became more anxious to raise himself therein. 
 Eager in whatever trifle occupied him at the 
 moment, and mortified at the indifierence with 
 which Lady Bab received his homage — indiff"erence 
 which inspired the yawn, scarcely concealed by 
 politeness — he lost the presence of mind which 
 would have urged his withdrawal from her side, 
 and only abased himself still more in the hope 
 of winning some return to his gallantries of speech 
 and manner. So earnestl}^, indeed, did he urge 
 his renewed addresses — an earnestness born of 
 vanity, and the hope of evincing to the company 
 that he had won the prize for whom many in 
 that assembly had competed — that had Lady Bar- 
 bara accepted him on the spot, he could not, as 
 a man of honour, have withdrawn from his engage- 
 ment. 
 
 Was Leah forgotten in this strife of contemptible 
 motives ? As completely as if he had met her in 
 a dream, and been happy in her presence, as with a
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 285 
 
 fair creature in fairy-land, but, in returning to the 
 routine of every-day life, all circumstances connected 
 with, her had faded from his mind. 
 
 But, while his pleading lip trembled with earnest- 
 ness in his supplication for her favour, Lady Bab, 
 perceiving that the dancing had ceased for the 
 present, and that Rose was walking about on the 
 arm of her distinguished partner, was seized with a 
 sudden paroxysm of friendship for the lady in 
 whose house he was residing for the present on a 
 visit, and watching an opportunity as she passed 
 her, released herself from Sir Edgar's arm, and 
 taking that of Mrs. Mowbray, whispered to him — 
 " Go to my room and ask my maid for a pocket- 
 handkerchief." 
 
 Sir Edgar felt irritated and mortified, fully anti- 
 cipating what occurred a few minutes later, when 
 he saw Mrs. Mowbray, in passing Sir John, stop 
 and speak a few words, and when the courtesy of the 
 lady and the bow of the gentleman showed that the 
 desired introduction had taken place. He saw why 
 he had been despatched to fetch Lady Barbara's 
 handkercliief, and did not hurry himself to obey, 
 preferring to see how the lady's stratagem had 
 answered. This could not be determined then, 
 for the musicians had left their seats for refresh- 
 ments, and Sir Edgar went sulkily towards Lady 
 Bab's bedroom, expecting to find there Bell, to
 
 286 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 whom he understood Lady Barbara had intended 
 him to apply for it. 
 
 Before he got half-way, the thought that the band 
 were taking refreshments made him thirsty, and he 
 went down to the sideboard in the dining-room and 
 drank several glasses of iced champagne. The ex- 
 hilaration produced by the subtle spirit gave him a 
 don't-care kind of feeling. He had not really loved 
 Lady Bab, and, under the influence of the cham- 
 pagne, he defied her mentally to mortify him again. 
 He had a shrewd suspicion, also, that her somewhat 
 artificial grace would not produce so much effect on 
 a man of thirty- seven, who had in boyhood been 
 educated in the refinements of Marie Antoinette's 
 court, and had been the companion of dukes and 
 princes, and admitted to the toilettes of duchesses 
 and princesses, as the wild-rose bloom and un- 
 sophisticated beauty of Miss Elliot. There was a 
 charming simplicity, also, in the manner of the 
 young hostess, arising from the frankness of her 
 nature and the consciousness that she had nothing to 
 conceal, and. never pretended to be more, or to 
 know more, than she was certain she was en- 
 titled to be and to know ; and such an honest 
 look in her transparent eyes, that Sir Edgar, seeing 
 the unquestionable homage paid to her by a man 
 whose judgment was unimpeachable, felt that he 
 might have . had the pearl of great price, and if he
 
 TllUE TO THE LIFE. 287 
 
 had not tossed it away, had neglected to take it from 
 its shell, and was disgusted by his own want of per- 
 ception. The music recommenced, and he stole back 
 to the room to see how Lady Barbara was occupied, 
 and whether she had secured the partner she had 
 coveted. Miss Elliot, still leaning on the arm of 
 Sir John Moore, and listening intently to his voice, 
 forgot in the entrancing interest of the subjects of 
 his conversation that she was surrounded by well- 
 dressed crowds voluble in eager amusement, and 
 stood in thought by his side, where, in the thick 
 covert of "West- Indian plantations, in the silent 
 moonlight, listening to the hissing sounds made by 
 the cane-leaves as the night wind swept by them, he 
 had waited with a few indomitable spirits in ambush 
 to intercept the skulking Indians who, aided by 
 French marauders, waited to carry murder and 
 rapine into the homes of their late masters. 
 
 " I don't know whether she is dancing or \iot. I 
 only do know that she has not secured the partner 
 she coveted. I am sure His a matter of indifference 
 to me with whom she dances. I'll take another 
 glass of champagne." 
 
 In the meantime, when the musicians had left the 
 gallery to go to their supper, Leah felt lonely and 
 deserted by the absence of the only person in the 
 house who had shown her any consideration, and 
 rose, to avoid being seen by any of the servants, who
 
 288 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 miglit consider that she had no business there. She 
 would return to the turret-room, next to that of 
 Lady Barbara. She supposed that was the right 
 place for her till this weary night was over. In the 
 morning she would seek her father's cottage. 
 
 On finding her way back to the emj^ty rooms, she 
 discovered that one of the wax-lights had guttered 
 down, carrying with it a bit of lighted wick burnt fo 
 a snuflP, which was sailing down the miniature torrent 
 of wax, to the great danger of the toilette cover. 
 She was conscience-stricken at this, thinking that, 
 in her ignorance of the duties of a lady's-maid, she 
 had omitted to extinguish the candles when Lady 
 Barbara had left the room. She would try to make 
 up for the extravagance and carelessness by sitting 
 in the dark for the rest of the night, till her mistress 
 returned to her bed-chamber. 
 
 Leah extinguished the candles. The night was 
 unusually sultry, and she oj^ened the window and 
 leaned out of it. The sky was partially lit by the 
 moon, over which some dark masses of vapour rolled 
 slowly, concealing sometimes, and sometimes re- 
 vealing her cold rays. In contrast with that pale 
 illumination was the splendour of orange, and scarlet, 
 and purple reflections, thrown by the coloured glass 
 of the windows, which were made transparent by 
 lighted candles placed inside them. The rays 
 touched with capricious tinting the turf, which
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 289 
 
 gleamed into a golden splendour, or turned to cold 
 blue and green globes the drooping beads of tbe 
 cabbage-roses in the beds. Further off, the same 
 unnatural illumination fell on the herds of deer, 
 which had come up near the house to crop the 
 short, sweet grass when silence had sunk over the 
 deserted park. 
 
 Deep silence outside the old Hall; inside, the 
 sounds of inspiriting music came louder or softer, at 
 intervals mixed with the tones of merry laughter, 
 and the undistinguishable mixture of noises which 
 indicate the presence of a large multitude intent on 
 enjoyment. 
 
 The stillness of the night was pleasanter to Leah 
 than the sounds of mirth, with which her spirits were 
 not in accord. So she leaned out further from the 
 window, till she drew back with a shudder at the 
 contemplation of its great height from the ground. 
 She was too sad to care much whether she lived or 
 died, she thought, yet nature revolted from the idea 
 of her being dashed to pieces on the gravel below — 
 picked up half dead, perchance, to be a spectacle of 
 horror to beholders ; so she withdrew herself to a 
 safer position, still gazing out on the dark masses 
 of trees, of which the outline seemed continuous, 
 seen against the sky, and giving no variety of form 
 below the edge of their thick darkness. 
 
 Suddenly the whole clusters of forest trees were 
 
 VOL. I. u
 
 290 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 revealed in tlieir entire form by a vivid flash of 
 lightning. Leah held her breath with awe, awaiting 
 the burst of thunder which was to follow, but the 
 swift-winged arrows of light had long preceded the 
 slower indication of mischief, and the girl waited 
 for some time with a beating heart for those distant 
 mutterings of doom. To Leah, accustomed to a 
 puritanical view of the Holy Scriptures, these indica- 
 tions seemed the interpretation of God's wrath 
 against the reckless revelry going on in the house. 
 Were they all sinful in their mirth ? She knew not. 
 It was difficult to judge harshly of the fail' young 
 hostess and that tall, noble-looking man at her side ; 
 and Sir Edgar, the cruel man — the deceiver — ah I 
 towards him her heart yearned with intense tender- 
 ness, though it was half broken by his falsehood and 
 double dealing. 
 
 There was another flash, and then Leah, pale with 
 agitation, listened for the distant roar of heaven's 
 artillery. 
 
 "The powers of heaven shall be shaken," said 
 she, as the vibrating thunder gave a still distant 
 but prolonged peal. " Fearful sights and great signs 
 shall there be from heaven." 
 
 In the exaltation of her spii'it, the devout habit of 
 her mind returned to her. She took for the time a 
 sublime view of human life, its trials, its tempta- 
 tions, and its ultimate reward oi* punishment in 
 another state.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 291 
 
 In lier present state of feeling, whether, in the 
 short space which must intervene before the end of 
 all time, Sir Edgar was united to Lady Barbara or not, 
 seemed unimportant as compared with the question 
 of his ultimate salvation. The sound of the distant 
 music re-echoing through the old Hall appeared to 
 her to breathe a triumphant tone, which inspired a 
 feeling of profound melancholy. Let seventy years 
 pass over those young heads, and where would they 
 be ? Where the light step of youth, now chasing 
 the hours of night with flying feet? Where the 
 proud glance of beautiful eyes, and the homage of 
 willing hearts ? 
 
 Her eyes filled with tears thinking of the strange 
 forms that would fill the Hall, and of the desolation 
 that would have stolen over its courts. Occupied by 
 these reflections, she did not hear a step behind 
 her, till a voice, exclaiming as to the darkness of the 
 room, aroused her from her reverie. She turned, 
 for at that sound her heart seemed to stand still. 
 She had placed herself by that change of position 
 with her back to the window, so she could scarcely 
 have been recognised, unless by any one who knew 
 that she was in the room. Weak, loving woman 
 that she was, at the tones of his voice her devotion 
 to Sir Edgar returned ; her loftier thoughts fled. 
 She longed to fling herself into his arms, with tears 
 and reproaches, and to be gathered to his breast, 
 forgiving and forgiven. For women are always to
 
 292 TRUE TO TIIE LIFE. 
 
 be forgiven if they venture to tell their oppressors 
 the truth. But the first words which were intelli- 
 gible to Leah chilled her heart, and chained her 
 tongue. He had forgotten all about Leah, and 
 about Lady Barbara's quarrel with Bell, and ex- 
 pecting only to find the lady's-maid, he said — 
 " Give me a handkerchief for your mistress." 
 Leah did not move from her position, and tbat 
 inert form, which excluded what little light there 
 would have been shining through the window, filled 
 Sir Edgar, confused as his mind was by the cham- 
 pagne he had imbibed, with a mysterious dread. He 
 left the room, and returned with one of the candles 
 which lighted the ante- room, and walking up to Leah, 
 threw its light on her statue-like face and humid 
 eyes. It seemed as if he were suddenly brought 
 face to face with a dead love. He had courted Leah 
 when she was an impersonation of delicate bloom 
 and beauty. The bloom was gone, and the beauty, 
 instead of being as changing in expression as the 
 sunset clouds blown by the wind are transient in 
 hue and form, was fixed, as by the touch of 
 death. 
 
 "■ Leah ! " he said, with an awe-stricken tone. 
 " Leah ! " She did not answer ; but the immobility 
 was gone : the lip quivered, the dilated eyes filled 
 with tears, and the colour returned to her cheeks. 
 " Oh, Leah ! what a blessing it is to me to see
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 293 
 
 you again ! " and lie would have encircled her with 
 his arm, but she disengaged herself, and extended 
 her hand to keep him off. " Why is this, my 
 darling ? ^' he exclaimed. *' Do you not know that I 
 adore you — that there is nothing so dear to me on 
 earth as yourself? " 
 
 " Stop, Sir Edgar ! " Leah said, in a voice so 
 hoarse with emotion as to be hardly recognisable. 
 " Make no more protestations, for God abhorreth a 
 Har." 
 
 " Can you doubt my love, sweet Leah ? " said the 
 youth, in whose hot arteries the champagne had sent 
 the hurried blood from the heart in quicker pulsa- 
 tions. 
 
 " Stand off, Sir Edgar ! You do not love me ! " 
 
 " Will you hear me swear, my beautiful Leah ? 
 I love you — you only. I have never felt for any 
 woman the passion that burns in my breast for you. 
 I have never cared for any woman's affection as I 
 have valued that with which you have crowned my 
 life with joy. Be mine — mine, for ever ! '' he mur- 
 mured, clasping her madly to his breast. 
 
 " Let me speak for one instant," said Leah, who 
 had become calm in the depth of her despair, ai|id 
 disengaged herself at once and decidedly. '' Sir 
 Edgar ! you expressed a wish that I should be here 
 to see you dance. Did you ever think whether I 
 had carried out that desire of yours ? I believe you
 
 294 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 never thought of the caprice again. I was in that 
 room whilst you had an interview with Lady Bar- 
 bara, and I was desired by her to satisfy myself of 
 the extent of your devotion to her." 
 
 " The devil you did ! It was very dishonourable 
 of you to listen." 
 
 " Do you talk of honour, poor gentleman ? " 
 
 "Poor!" 
 
 " Yes ; poor — poorer than the penniless girl 
 whose peace of mind you have trifled with for your 
 reckless amusement. You have rank, and wealth, 
 and personal beauty ; and folks say you are clever, 
 in addition to these advantages. I have none of 
 these endowments, excepting the fairness which has 
 been your unconscious attraction, giving rise to a 
 caprice (for it is not worthy to be dignified by 
 the name of afiection) which will cloud the rest of 
 my life, whilst the remembrance will awaken 
 laughter in your breast, that the village girl should 
 have been so easily gulled. But I would not change 
 places with you. Sir Edgar, for my conscience is 
 unsullied by falsehood and deceit. Go, sir ! I never 
 desire to see you again. I refuse all future com- 
 munication with you." 
 
 Sir Edgar sat down and covered his face with his 
 hands. "She hits hard," he thought, "and she is right. 
 She is as far above me in purity of heart and con- 
 duct as she is inferior to me in station and wealth ;
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 295 
 
 and — heaven and earth ! how beautiful she is ! How 
 truly dignified ! How superior to that sinuous, 
 snake-like creature to whom I have been talking 
 nonsense the whole of the evening ! Leah ! " , he 
 said, starting up, *' will you forgive me ? Will you 
 not speak one word of pardon ? Leah ! " 
 
 But she had passed silently from the room whilst 
 his eyes had been covered by his hands, and going 
 into the turret-room, had fastened the door, and 
 refused to answer any petitions uttered through it. 
 
 Sir Edgar had returned to the ball-room after 
 taking his refreshments, and was arrested in his 
 onward progress through the room hj a sharp tap on 
 his arm by a lady's fan, and, looking round, he 
 perceived Lady Barbara leaning on the arm of one 
 of the officers from the barracks at Stoneham. He 
 was not worth powder and shot, the lady thought, and 
 she desired to have as many as she could as attend- 
 ants on her. "Where is my handkerchief ? '' she 
 said ; and Sir Edgar, bowing, said he would seek her 
 maid, for the purpose of obtaining it. It was this 
 renewed demand that had sent him to the lady's 
 chamber, and had resulted in his interview witli 
 Leah. Finding that his village love would not 
 answer any of his entreaties, he returned to the ball- 
 room, and told Lady Barbara that the room was 
 dark, and that there was no one in it. Miss Elliot, 
 coming up at that moment, and hearing the convcr-
 
 296 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 sation, begged Sir Edgar to look for one of the 
 servants, and desire him to tell her maid to get one 
 of her own for her ladyship. Kose had forgotten, 
 in the enchantment of her partner's conversation, 
 that she had promised Mr. Preston to make his 
 daughter her care. Now the reference to Lady 
 Bab's room reminded her of her neglect, and pro- 
 ceeding to the supper- room, she selected some grapes 
 and peaches for Leah, and took them up herself. 
 Leah heard the sweet voice, and opened the door. 
 
 " Poor girl ! I was very naughty not to think of 
 you before. I fear you have felt quite lonely here, 
 whilst we have been so happy. Will you come down, 
 and I w^ill place you where you may see the dancing ? 
 No ? You prefer being quiet ? Then you shall not 
 be disturbed." 
 
 Sir John Moore had observed the oflfering pur- 
 loined from the supper- table by Miss Elliot, and 
 watched her agile figure with regret when she left 
 the room. As she returned, he accosted her, and 
 hoped that the delicacies had not been carried to any 
 sick friend. 
 
 " I saw you robbing the table," he said, smiling. 
 
 " You saw me this time, but I had previously 
 defrauded my guests of a nice spring chicken and a 
 plate of sandwiches." 
 
 *' So after providing your friend with a dinner, 
 you gave him or her a dessert."
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 297 
 
 " They were different persons — brother and sister/' 
 replied Rose ; and she told Sir John of Perth 
 Preston's disgrace. 
 
 " You don't mean to say that a boy was turned 
 out by his father for his devotion to the dead 
 languages ? I shall make a note of it in my journal, 
 as the most incomprehensible conduct, both of father 
 and son, ever known." 
 
 Parties kept earlier hours seventy years since, 
 yet the day was breaking when the company left the 
 Holmes. Mr. Elliot looked out with satisfaction at 
 the last carriage that rolled away, and was thankful 
 ^Q Jete was over. Miss Bruce had followed him 
 about the house like a shadow, and had shown such 
 a wish that he should neither be too hot, nor too 
 cold, nor sit in a draught, nor over-fatigue himself, that 
 Mr. Elliot knew not whether to be most worried or 
 flattered. The worry was only in the present, but 
 the agreeable sensation of having been flattered 
 remained in his elderly head even when he laid it on 
 his pillow, and remained in his sleeping memory as 
 something indistinctly agreeable. 
 
 Sir John Moore lingered as he bade Eose adieu, 
 and thanked her for one of the pleasantest evenings 
 he had ever spent. 
 
 " It grieves me," he continued, " that I leave Mrs. 
 Mowbray's hospitable mansion to-morrow morning, 
 or rather to-day, for I see the streaks of light in the
 
 298 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 
 
 eastern horizon. Thus I shall be unable to call and 
 satisfy myself that your exertions for the entertainment 
 of your guests have not entailed any serious fatigue on 
 yourself or your father. Your ancestral home, Miss 
 Elliot, is enough to charm a soldier of fortune away 
 from his allegiance to the deity he has hitherto 
 worshipped — Ambition. Like a weary traveller, who 
 has a high mountain yet to ascend, and longs to 
 linger beside a clear spring, instead of encountering 
 the heat and toil of the ascent, it would seem 
 very delightful to remain in a home like this 
 always." 
 
 "I fear you might find the cold spring rather 
 insipid if you drank of it too often," said Lady 
 Barbara, who had come to Miss Elliot's side, deter- 
 mined to share in the adieux, though she had not 
 enjoyed much of Sir John's attention during the 
 evening. 
 
 " I doubt it," retorted the gentleman, gazing with 
 unreserved admiration on the unsophisticated beauty 
 which had stood the wear and tear of twenty hours' 
 fatigue without deterioration. " You see. Lady 
 Barbara, a pure, fresh stream is so refreshing — so 
 rare — and one may drink for ever, without the 
 intoxication which produces disagreeable effects." 
 Thus sajdng, he made a profound bow to the ladies, 
 whilst the slightest possible curl in his lip gave sign 
 that he spoke with intention, and left the house.
 
 TRUE TO THE LIFE. 299 
 
 " She Is a sweet girl — as honest and candid as she 
 looks, I am sure. But a successful soldier, should have 
 no wife ; and as I am a soldier, I will be a success- 
 ful one, or die." And Sir John Moore determined 
 to think no more of the pleasant evening he had 
 spent at the Holmes. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 VIKTUK AND CU., I'JilNTKRS, CITY ROAD, LU>I>i».V.