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 'LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 K\Z73 
 
 V. \
 
 -?'
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERING: 
 
 BEING 
 
 CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY 
 OF A FAMILY. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF "THE VERNEYS," 
 
 &c., &c. 
 
 " No coward soul is mine. 
 No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere: 
 
 I see heaven's glories shine, 
 And faith shines equal, arming me from fear. 
 
 O God, within my breast, 
 Almighty, ever-present Deity! 
 
 Life — that in me has rest, 
 As I— imdying life— have power in Thee ! " 
 
 IN THREE VOLmiES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN 
 
 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1861. 
 
 The right of Translation is reserved.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY R. BORN, OLOUOESTKR STREET, 
 
 BEGENX'S PARK.
 
 i 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 V. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 5^ 
 
 I 
 
 J
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The first mention of the name of Haver- 
 ing, as recorded in British history, occurs 
 on the occasion of a sanguinary battle, when 
 a Saxon, till then unknown to fame, having 
 twice saved the life of his sovereign, and 
 performed prodigies of valour, received the 
 order of knighthood under romantic circum- 
 stances. The fight, which commenced with 
 unusual fury at six o'clock in the morning, 
 raged incessantly until sunset and the gather- 
 ing darkness put a period to the horrid strife ; 
 when, of those great hordes which had met at 
 the dawn to give battle to each other, scarce 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 a handful remained on either side, so thorough 
 had been the carnage ; and each commander, 
 under cover of the night, hastened to organize 
 a swift retreat unknown to his adversary. In 
 a curious okl book of heraldry — half prose, 
 half poem — we have particulars of this 
 battle. This authority tells quaintly of **' the 
 many hundreds of the corpses,'* late the 
 flower of the combatants, that, packed and 
 piled over hill and dale, invited the attacks 
 of those scavengers, who have ever the first 
 news of a battle — birds of prey, the which, 
 screaming in the distance, waited but the 
 advent of the rising moon to indulge their 
 natural instincts. 
 
 " A river wound by devious routes through 
 the pasture lands where the battle had been 
 fought." *" It was not now the shining stream 
 in which the herds did lave themselves, but a 
 dull monstrous tide of human gore, which, 
 meandering on to other counties, told the tale 
 ere ever messenger could reach them." ''Not 
 a war-chariot but was left upon the field,
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 3 
 
 which murderous bladed cars, crushed or dis- 
 mantled, would work no further havoc/' 
 
 Weaponless soldiery, whose last sad shrive 
 no priest had given — " bold, gallant warriors, 
 who had crossed the border, or risen from 
 southern lands, armed both for freedom's 
 cause, shared the vast bluidy bier with 
 masses of dead horse : " a carnage pile, from 
 which the Saxon king drew off his followers 
 at dead of night, leaving — though he did not 
 know it — the vulture and the cormorant 
 sole masters of the field ; ^* and not a man of 
 all those wild cohorts, who, marching noisily, 
 essayed to place dim distance 'twixt himself 
 and his own handiworks, glanced back behind 
 his tall high-marshalled pike aslant the ban- 
 ners," fearing the sight of spirits such as 
 haunt a graveyard." 
 
 Bearing neither victory nor defeat in their 
 arms, on, on they tramp, the small band led 
 by their king, till after four hours' march they 
 halt for a brief repose. Hitherto moonlight 
 has environed them ; now the one hour of 
 
 b2
 
 4 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 darkness, ere the morning breaks, covers the 
 land. When it is past, and each raan starts 
 in the grey indefinite dawn at sight of his 
 near comrade, in the small circle closing 
 ronnd the king is instituted a knighthood — 
 which upon ten successive fiercely-contested 
 fields worthily marked the knightly qualities 
 of him who won in fateful hour that honour- 
 able badge. 
 
 This historical event dates A.D. 927, nearly 
 nine hundred years, therefore, before the battle 
 of the Nile. No record is preserved of the 
 early life of this young captain, who, bravest 
 of the brave, thus won a knight's white 
 plumes and silver spurs. Where he was nur- 
 tured — whether by a fane of the Druids, or 
 at some Saxon stronghold, or in a boor's rude 
 cot, perhaps no one cared to guess, for the 
 young adventurer, upon whose track good 
 fortune hung, carried the Saxon banners into 
 many a district of the insurgents, bore off 
 many a noble captive, did great deeds of 
 prowess. Nor did he dying fail to bequeath
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 5 
 
 his fame ; from sire to son descends his un- 
 broken line, a martial house, whose one good 
 name is found in the wars of all the times ; 
 from the stormy, turbulent and barbarous 
 fights occurring before the Conquest, down to 
 the battle of Aboukir Bay, which left the old 
 name and all its honours, with accumulated 
 wealth and unencumbered manors, to a boy of 
 fourteen years, motherless as well as father- 
 less. 
 
 He, contrary to all precedent, evinced no 
 taste or talent for a military or a naval life ; 
 and all the afflatus of their house's bygone 
 chivalry had fallen to the inheritance of a 
 girl, the second sister of this Rupert Haver- 
 ing, who, one year younger than the boy- 
 heir, had more es])rit in one little finger than 
 existed in his whole constitution. An elder 
 sister. Miss Havering, a young lady of nine- 
 teen, completed the numbers of the family 
 when the whole place fell into mourning for 
 the ravages of the French. 
 
 As the old coach of Sir Allenne Seybright,
 
 6 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 her late mother's brother, rolled into the court 
 below, bringing dolefLil news to the Bower, 
 Alicia, the eldest daughter of the Haverings, 
 on other thoughts intent than sorrow, sat with 
 her lover in the octagon-room of the ancient 
 mansion of her forebears. 
 
 From what more weird pastime the 
 younger sister came, on receipt of the summons 
 of her uncle, her biographer doth not chronicle. 
 Probably from the study of some ponderous 
 volume, too big and erudite for the hands of 
 a girl — for Magdalen was great at books. 
 And whence came Rupert we do not know. 
 Sir Allenne recognized his nephew in the dis- 
 tance, strolling through the Pleasaunce, gun 
 in hand, when met by a servant from the 
 house. Troubled in his mind for the well- 
 being of these orphans, the good baronet was 
 unconscious of any person's approach, until his 
 younger niece, throwing her arms round his 
 neck, kissed him boisterously. 
 
 The sad tidings were imparted to her, and 
 to the affianced bride, and with an anguish
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERNIG. 7 
 
 which belongs not to youth in its ordinary 
 carelessness, the affectionate girls believed at 
 length that they were orphans. 
 
 Perhaps the unexpected presence of his 
 uncle, perhaps his sisters' tears, told the tale 
 to the boy who presently joined them, for 
 his cheek grew pale, and he stood as one ' 
 transfixed, before a word passed either of their 
 lips who heard the story before him. Then 
 Magdalen, rising from the couch, on which she 
 had flung herself, broke the suspense with — 
 
 " Boy ! boy ! do you know you are Sir 
 Rupert Havering of the Bower ? " 
 
 " I knew it," burst from the cold lips of 
 the heir — " I knew it when I saw your face, 
 Magdalen. '^ And fixing his eyes upon the 
 bearer of grievous tidings, he listened to the 
 manner and the means by which his father 
 perished ; and perhaps the most martial senti- 
 ment that at any time animated his breast 
 found tongue at that moment in the words — 
 
 " He died, then, in his harness, like the rest 
 of them."
 
 8 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 And then there fell on him also the black 
 cloud which the death of our people brings us, 
 whether or not we love them ; and this boy 
 had loved his father better than all else in 
 the world. 
 
 We will quit this mournful scene as did 
 Alicia Havering, who felt not alone in her 
 grief, like Sir Allenne, Magdalen, and Rupert. 
 She flew to her abiding place, her dependency 
 and hope, her betrothed, and her first poig- 
 nant sorrow waned in an hour, for it was 
 shared by him. Henceforth, he is all-in-all 
 to her — more, he has told her, than he could 
 have been had her parents survived to share 
 her heart. Alicia was a dutiful daughter — 
 she is an affectionate sister, but at this period 
 of her career certain points in her character 
 necessitate that she exists but in her love, 
 and that by no fault in her disposition, but 
 simply because she is carried captive, dazzled 
 by her single eye. It is comparatively a 
 small thing to her, who rejoins Philip Monck- 
 ton in the octagon-room, that her sister has a
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 9 
 
 stormy destiny written in the vague light 
 of her own deep dark eyes, in every song that 
 escapes her lips, in her very step — beautiful 
 strange Magdalen ! And that on her brother 
 devolve, while a minor, manhood's gravest 
 demands. 
 
 She sees not, as Magdalen sees, how frail is 
 the authority Sir AUenne will exert — how 
 slight are the reins by which the heir of all the 
 Haverings is now to be guided in his hazar- 
 dous career, in which, Magdalen already sus- 
 pects, himself will be his foulest enemy. 
 
 The provincial gossips were scandalized that 
 a marriage should so speedily follow a death in 
 the family at the Bower, when, three months 
 after the action which was fatal to her father, 
 Alicia gave her hand away, becoming Mrs. 
 Monckton, of Hazlewood. But Philip bore off 
 his wife to make acquaintance with his Irish es- 
 tates, his Irish tenantry, and his family, and for- 
 tunately something more notable fed the appe- 
 tite for scandal in the environs of Havering 
 and Hazlewood — so that the subject of the
 
 10 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 hasty bridal somewhat prematurely died out. 
 
 Sir Allenrie Seybright placed servants in 
 the manor-house which adjoined his small 
 estate in Cheshire, and came to reside at 
 Havering Bower. It was a sacrifice which 
 few expected, when the good baronet, 
 whose advancing age appealed against any 
 inroad upon a privacy habitual for twenty 
 years, changed the tenor of his life, and 
 quitting the compact residence, the accus- 
 tomed avocations, and the deep quietude in 
 which he delighted, set himself, at sixty years 
 of age, to erect some species of a home amidst 
 the great pile of matter comprised by 
 Havering Bower. But the necessity was ur- 
 gent for such a course, since, besides himself, 
 the children of his deceased sister possessed 
 no near relation, and he rightly felt it incum- 
 bent on him to endeavour to fulfil the great 
 trusts w^hich, as their guardian and sole 
 executor, had devolved upon him. 
 
 Then beneath the stately trees, where 
 some time monarchs dined, might be seen to
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 11 
 
 wander two figures — an old man and a 
 maiden ; and from employes^ dependents, and 
 followers, smiles and bows awaited them alike; 
 for Sir Allenne was no hard taskmaster, and 
 Magdalen was a kind of queen — everybody's 
 love. They walked there many a day and 
 many a month, and they conversed in grief 
 and they conversed in joy, and evermore the 
 burden of what they said was Rupert, the 
 boy-heir of Havering Bower. 
 
 Eupert was instructed (!) by tutors who, in 
 quick succession, appeared and disappeared at 
 the Bower. The youth did not love scholar- 
 ship, and quarrelled with authorities. He 
 delighted in out-door sports, such as hunting 
 and shooting, cricket, and trials of strength. 
 It was not unusual for notices like the follow- 
 ing to be posted up in the neighbourhood : — 
 
 "RABBIT SHOOTIXG. 
 
 " The next meeting for the above sport will be held on 
 
 Thursday, the 17th instant, at that spot in Havering Park 
 
 known by the name of the ' Elves' Coppica' Company to 
 
 assemble at Eleven a.m. (weather permitting). 
 
 " Prizes, £3, £2, £1. 
 
 " Patron — Sir Kupert Havering, Baronet."
 
 12 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 The idea of matriculating at either Univer- 
 sity was positively tabooed by him. He was at 
 seventeen years old a very handsome dunce, 
 who possessed a temper (occasional) which 
 marred his beauty. He was not intractable 
 towards Sir Allenne Seybright, though he was 
 a tyrant to his grooms. He was never un- 
 kind to his sisters, and must have been 
 attached to them, though he neither evinced 
 nor tolerated the commonest demonstrations 
 of affection. Of these scanty materials is 
 composed all that remains to be gleaned now 
 respecting Eupert Havering. Magdalen has 
 a governess, Mrs. Champneys, who has resided 
 a long time at the Bower ; but Magdalen, 
 walking on the terrace, in the Pleasaunce, or 
 in the Park, is more tenderly united to the 
 companion by her side than to any other per- 
 son in the world. She is growing to love Sir 
 Allenne with her whole impetuous young heart, 
 feeling already, at sixteen, that she is apt to be 
 his guide. Her heart is not too light for the 
 heart of a youthful maiden, for various per-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 13 
 
 plexities oppress her. Sir Rupert is not 
 what she would have him ; she cannot divert 
 him from those rude avocations, to which she 
 does not lend the common sympathy they 
 merit, to listen to those grand old tales of 
 glory that make her daily food. Chafing with 
 the vain desire and longing to serve some 
 impalpable end, wondering if her lot had 
 fallen as noiselessly as that of the lady of 
 Hazlewood, half weary of her life scarcely 
 tasted, agitated, enthusiastic, dreamy, she 
 displayed to her anxious instructress new 
 faults every day ; and that right-minded lady 
 had no better idea than Sir Allenne of the 
 mode of training requisite for this pair ; while 
 both, we suspect, were overwhelmed with 
 conscientious disquietude, as their inca- 
 pacity manifested itself in their unsatisfactory 
 charges. 
 
 Eventually a rencontre with some youths 
 of his own age, upon a visit in the neighbour- 
 hood, opened the eyes of Rupert Havering 
 to certain defects in his education which
 
 14 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 society abruptly disclosed ; and, to the amaze- 
 ment of the whole county, by this time 
 singularly au fait in his alFairs, Sir Rupert 
 betook himself to a certain private college, 
 lauded in high terms by the Ashetons, the 
 first projectors of this plan. Thus a chance 
 of reclamation was afforded to this boy, who, 
 painfully wayward, was never criminal, and 
 nearly approached to the martyr of circum- 
 stances ; for the society of a number of 
 youths, and the total novelty of the scene, 
 tended to console his wounded amour propre 
 under certain unmistakable miseries. The 
 Principal of this establishment, fortunately a 
 man of character, conceived an interest for 
 the neglected heir of Havering ; and during the 
 space of one year — the utmost limit to which 
 Sir Rupert would lend himself — he so w^orked 
 as to remedy a few striking shortcomings, and 
 gave the youth, upon the threshold of man- 
 hood, some solid aid. But the point of most 
 moment connected with this brief transit into 
 propriety was the engagement, at the close of
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 15 
 
 the year, of one of the professors of the 
 college, to undertake the multitudinous pur- 
 suits required of a companion to Sir Rupert. 
 
 In this pale student of six-and-twenty, an 
 offshoot of some impoverished high house. 
 Sir Allenne and Mrs. Champneys hailed the 
 deliverer who should atone for their previous 
 deficiencies, and become, virtually, the pre- 
 server of the boy. 
 
 So the boy-baronet returned home in 
 triumph, bringing Adam Egerton in his 
 train.
 
 16 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Magdalen Havering contemplated curiously 
 the addition to the family in the person of 
 her brother's new tutor, who quietly located 
 himself at the Bower as if he were no stranger 
 there. She smiled when the mornings were 
 nominally devoted to study ; but after a few 
 weeks of license the young lady was sur- 
 prised to find that a course of study did 
 actually progress in that apartment, desig- 
 nated by Sir Hupert, with much hilarity, " Sir 
 Eupert's study " — that not only were books 
 and maps carried tliither from the library, but 
 books and maps were employed; and pre- 
 sently scarce a chance visitor was suffered to
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 17 
 
 encroach upon the hours which the tutor and 
 pupil passed alone, and into the mysteries of 
 which not all the skill of the inquisitive 
 maiden could achieve her own introduction. 
 Not curiosity alone instigated the girl, she 
 passionately longed for deeper draughts of the 
 stream of scholastic knowledge. She was apt 
 to alarm Mrs. Champneys by her ungoverna- 
 ble frenzies when some new idea broke upon 
 her vision which that good lady was not able 
 to interpret, nor did she respect such ; and 
 deep into the volumes of ancient lore — the 
 theories of philosophers and the loves of the 
 poets — Magdalen Havering had plunged alone, 
 saddened by the quenchless yearning of her 
 spirit for a teaching which did not present 
 itself, for a sphere some way different from 
 her own, for some star that should illume her- 
 self in all this grim, and grand, and desolate 
 old Havering Bower. 
 
 She paid occasional visits to Alicia, and 
 petted beyond everything else Alicia's two 
 little children. These infants — the family 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 playthings — were interesting to others besides 
 Magdalen, being lovely, precocious, and dis- 
 similar. The youngest, who was called Alicia, 
 bade fair to be her mother's fac ^/mz?^— while 
 Magdalen, so called after Magdalen Sey- 
 bright, who reposed in the vault of Havering, 
 and after Magdalen the present Miss Haver- 
 ing — a beautiful creature, more grave than 
 gay, and almost fragile, with an exquisite 
 grace, being evermore the lady — would often 
 cause her mother to sigh ; for Alicia did not 
 rightly comprehend this little daughter, who 
 inherited no single trait from her. Magdalen 
 made no secret of her preference for the 
 elder daughter of Alicia, a preference which 
 worried Philip, or which he pretended 
 worried him. 
 
 It may be well in this place to detail some 
 particulars of Mr. Monckton. He was Irish, 
 and long residence in England (perhaps this 
 is needlessly remarked, for the Irish nation- 
 ality is proverbial) had failed to subtract one 
 iota from the dogged patriotism which is apt
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 19 
 
 to undervalue all superiority save its own. 
 He possessed great talents, which a cer- 
 tain luxuriousness suffered to run idly to 
 waste. It would appear that the powers of 
 his mind were warped by a stagnant life, 
 since for several years not ministerial changes 
 or other political exigency moved the real 
 heart of the man. The lines had fallen to 
 him in pleasant places (pleasant places are 
 often a misfortune), and save at rare intervals 
 he did not remember that he carried the proudest 
 blood in his veins, and that the Moncktons of 
 the county Tipperary had been ever great in 
 council and in field. He pursued the occupa- 
 tion of landownership leisurely; the distant 
 war-trumpet woke little anxiety in this per- 
 son, engaged upon the rights of ways; and the 
 bloodless battles in the columns of the Times 
 — although for the moment they engrossed 
 him — failed to awaken brilliant faculties given 
 over to a dormant repose. Such in part was 
 the internal man, who, tall, fair, and command- 
 ing, might in externals have boasted William 
 
 c2
 
 20 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Wallace's unimpeachable beauty, but for a 
 splenetic quality which threatened to take 
 from his appearance — and which, be it 
 observed, was oftenest aroused by Magdalen, 
 his sister-in-law. 
 
 "Mr. Egerton is beyond my ken," admitted 
 that young lady, as she rode towards her 
 home, accompanied by Mr. Monckton, at the 
 close of a day's excursion to Hazlewood, after 
 they had talked a long time to no purpose of 
 Kupert's ci-devant professor — to no purpose, 
 because neither of them possessed any clue to 
 the real person they discussed. 
 
 "But one thing is certain — Rupert re- 
 spects his authority." 
 
 " Respects his authority ! Adam Egerton 
 — poor devil ! — knows better than to show 
 him authority. My good Magdalen, the form 
 of authority would leave his post vacant in a 
 day. The unlicked cub is held by a subtler 
 tether. But what is it ? — that is what I 
 ask." 
 
 "And cannot discover. Don't think to
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 21 
 
 see Adam Egerton bare his motives to a man 
 like yourself." 
 
 *^ Pshaw ! jou will be making the fellow a 
 Jesuit ere long. Because there is a villainous 
 reserve about him there must needs be a mine 
 of sagacity, and wickedness, perhaps, into the 
 bargain. I tell you he is a wretched dog of 
 a tutor, whose bread is sweeter at Havering 
 Bower than were he fulfilling the very com- 
 mon drudgery of his very common calling; 
 and, doubtless, his designs upon our Hope are 
 wholly ^interested. Take care he has not 
 you for a pupil. Apropos of that remark — 
 Egerton is a fine old name : who knows but 
 it might shield a mesalliance ? Take care, 
 again I adjure you. Some contingencies oc- 
 cur to me that would not gratify the ring- 
 doves of Hazlewood." 
 
 ^' Hold your tongue, Philip Monckton," 
 politely responded Magdalen, aggrieved be- 
 yond mollification. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, at the entrance of the 
 court which formed the background of the
 
 22 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Bower, the Master of Hazlewood bowed his 
 obsequious farewells — mockingly, as was his 
 habit when he had aroused in Magdalen the 
 fellest and most ireful spirits. Cantering 
 alone down the avenue, he instantly relapsed 
 into more than his wonted calm. 
 
 This pair were ever at daggers drawn — 
 wherefore they could neither have explained, 
 though cited to do so at need. 
 
 As Magdalen, urging her horse into a mad 
 gallop — in which it was often her bad habit 
 to indulge on approaching the house — and 
 having an additional incentive at this mo- 
 ment in the wrath provoked by Philip Monck- 
 ton — sent the gravel of the carriage-way flying 
 far behind her, causing faithful Forest who 
 attended her an incipient fit of asthma — the 
 heir and his tutor emerged from a plantation 
 which wound round that approach to the man- 
 sion. Wholly ignorant of this habit of Miss 
 Havering, consternation seized Adam Egerton, 
 viewing a prospective catastrophe. 
 
 Kushing forward to arrest the headlong
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 23 
 
 course of an apparently runaway steed, 
 the alarmed tutor caused a diverge in the 
 swinging career of Magdalen, and threw her 
 (though she was a practised horsewoman) to 
 the off-side of her saddle so suddenly, and 
 with such velocity, that she did not recover 
 herself. Fortunately, her foot disengaging 
 from the stirrup left her fall free ; hut it was 
 a very white-faced maiden whom the innocent 
 cause of the shock gazed down upon, as, reach- 
 ing her side, he proffered assistance, which 
 might not avail on the instant to restore the 
 lady to her feet. The visible world was flying 
 round with her for the space of a hundred 
 seconds ; then, feeling herself unhurt, a plea- 
 surable thought occurred to her : now, at 
 least, this eccentric haunter of the place could 
 not evade her as hitherto, since it was to his 
 intervention she owed this risk of her life. 
 To his enquiries whether she were hurt, 
 and the sundry ejaculatory expressions forced 
 from him by the unwonted occasion and his 
 own share in the exploit, Magdalen replied
 
 24 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 briefly ; for, having arisen, she was compelled 
 to seize the arm of Kupert, who had joined 
 them, as a certain very novel dizziness kept 
 its unpleasant hold upon her ; and eventually 
 this part disdainer of the amenities of society 
 (for the last twelve months had left her almost 
 a hermit) had to submit to the indignity of 
 being carried into the house. 
 
 Forest had performed, to his horror, a vault- 
 ing movement over his mistress as she lay 
 upon the ground. He breathlessly assured 
 himself of the reality of their two escapes, 
 and then proceeded soundly to rate the unsus- 
 pecting origin of the danger. 
 
 " Is that a way you learn horsemanship in 
 school-books, young gentleman ? — you having 
 been not far off the mark of killing Miss Mag- 
 dalen ? If t' crown of her hat has not 
 ploughed a mine in t' court gravel I — and Tve 
 never seen her cheeks so white ! Look out, 
 sir — look out — or you 11 be doing some of us 
 a mischief ! " 
 
 The astonished delinquent was with diffi-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 25 
 
 culty convinced of the true state of the case ; 
 but was brought at length to a proper dismay 
 and contrition by the united explanations of 
 Sir Allenne, Mrs. Champney, and most of the 
 men and maids. 
 
 The immediate result of this circumstance 
 was a peace-offering from Miss Havering, in 
 the shape of an invite to Adam Egerton and 
 his pupil to Mrs. Champney's tea-table; to 
 refuse which, in the present case, would have 
 been thoroughly ungracious. So Magdalen, 
 somewhat shaken, was put into a different cos- 
 tume ; Sir Allenne lent himself delightedly to 
 the whim of his favourite niece, and the hour 
 or two thus passed en famille accomplished an 
 innovation which atoned to Magdalen for her 
 fall. 
 
 She now determined that this preliminary 
 should lead to scholarship for herself, and, 
 despite the contemptuous animadversions ot 
 Philip Monckton, introduce her not only to 
 Sir Kupert's study in the hours devoted to 
 research, but to a share with Sir Rupert in
 
 26 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 the attentions of the Tutor. These things as 
 they occurred were highly displeasing at Hazle- 
 wood, whence upon the blameless Sir Allenne 
 angry remonstrances were hurled. 
 
 But behold the lionne ! 
 
 She arrives at the appointed hour, and is 
 usually a few minutes in advance of the pair, 
 who cannot but perceive (one of them at 
 least, since he is in years of discretion) that a 
 woman's straightening hand is luxury in a 
 dismantled room, for it is not to be supposed 
 that servants enter here as in other apartments 
 of the mansion. The chairs have assumed an 
 order from which they have been estranged, 
 save on the luckless Saturdays, when the tor- 
 ture of a " clean '^ is suffered. Now there is 
 an open window, and arrangements slight but 
 dainty of the divers papers on the desks, both 
 owing to the debutante. 
 
 " Good morning, madam," says the Tutor, 
 inflexibly. 
 
 " Good morning, sir," replies Miss Haver- 
 ing, without raising her eyes from her die-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 27 
 
 tionary. Words repeated in startling keys, 
 as the brother and sister characteristically 
 greet each other. Then the daily avocations 
 commence. 
 
 The heir bestows upon compound addition 
 pains commensurate with its intricacy — for 
 arithmetic simple he has not yet conquered — 
 and on the verbs avoir and etre, of which his 
 year of collegiate instruction left him hope- 
 lessly ignorant ; for the Tutor has taken the 
 bull by the horns — commencing at the rudi- 
 ments, which at eighteen years old are very 
 ugly; yet so admirably adapted is Adam to his 
 post, so thoroughly is the Tutor lost in the 
 companion of recreationary hours and vice 
 versa, that the task is comparatively easy on 
 acquaintance, the which viewed from a dis- 
 tance was Herculean. 
 
 And Adam is accessible to Miss Havering, 
 since so she will have it. She becomes 
 quickly far more exacting than his legitimate 
 pupil. She will have rules for every idea, ex- 
 planations for every rule ; nor is she content
 
 28 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 to take the word of her instructor, though 
 that word is the veritable law to Rupert, alike 
 unquestioned and indubitable. By-gone the- 
 ories of by-gone students haunt this eager 
 aspirant, who will have the commonest ad- 
 juncts viewed by strict historical lore. The 
 existence or non-existence of Homer by proof 
 is a bagatelle to some demands the imper- 
 turbable professor has to meet and parry. 
 
 But she tells Sir Allenne in the afternoons 
 she is satisfied; that Egerton is a true scholar, 
 and beau-ideal of a teacher for Rupert. 
 
 These items felicitate the good Sir Allenne, 
 who blesses the day on which the wandering 
 Tutor — the eccentric, ungenial Adam Egerton 
 — for such he is commonly pronounced — set 
 foot in Havering Bower.
 
 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The village of Havering, one mile and a half 
 from the Bower, contained two hundred or 
 less inhabitants. The clergyman's was the 
 only house beyond the pretension of cottages, 
 and the build and comfort of the cottages 
 varied much. Havering was not one of those 
 model villages adjoining country mansions, in 
 which it is proudly said, " there are no poor.*' 
 On the contrary, a visitor would naturally 
 ask if any person, resident or otherwise, ex- 
 erted any influence in the place — if any benefit 
 were derived from such a property ; so barren 
 of contentment was the aspect of the people, 
 so neglected most of the dwellings.
 
 30 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 The Rev. Cornelius Mann, perpetual incum- 
 bent of Havering (cum Barnet — an approxi- 
 mate lordship of the Haverings), made his 
 appearance once every seventh day, and deli- 
 vered service in the church, where a few old 
 people did or did not attend ; otherwise, save 
 from the errand-boy who lived at the Vicar- 
 age daily, and slept at his home at night, 
 no intelligence of the Parson, or the Parson's 
 house, would naturally have transpired. 
 
 True, there were servants — three — but they 
 came to Havering with Mr. Mann twenty-five 
 years ago, and the force of habit or the bent 
 of inclination firmly fixed their line of po- 
 licy in the same groove as their master's. 
 Mrs. Knowles, Eliza, and Mrs. Blunsom, 
 " kept themselves " zealously *' to themselves," 
 and therefore necessarily Mr. Mann was a 
 private character. Consequently all attempts 
 to examine into the motives of his conduct 
 would be as unsatisfactory as to gossip of the 
 Vicarage manage, whereof nothing is known 
 to us.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 31 
 
 The casual callers, whom local business car- 
 ried to the Vicarage of Havering, entered and 
 were conducted to a study, where passed the 
 interview they sought — and they departed as 
 they came. No civilities were extended be- 
 yond the simple interchange of speech. 
 
 It was customary once a-year, that is upon 
 Christmas Eve, for this shepherd of a flock 
 to pay a visit at the Bower. For the twenty- 
 five years this solemnity had been tacitly re- 
 quired of him ; during the time of the late 
 proprietor the ceremonial had never been 
 omitted. On one occasion since that baronet's 
 decease a solitary instance of the liability of 
 the Rev. Cornelius to human disease precluded 
 his appearance at the Bower, and left his 
 church empty the next day. A supply could 
 never have entered the imagination of this 
 functionary of the Established Church. 
 
 In the present year no impediment existed 
 to this customary exhibition of amenities ; and 
 it was upon the morning of the day to be thus 
 celebrated, and when she had shared for six
 
 32 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 months the study, not the studies, of Sir 
 Rupert, that Magdalen was summoned there- 
 from, to her annoyance, to receive some casual 
 guests ; for people called rather frequently at 
 the Bower, although little other visiting was 
 attempted. 
 
 She found awaiting her, Sir Henry, the 
 Misses and Mr. Edmund Hall. This family 
 from Moulton Grange Magdalen liked better, 
 on the whole, than the majority of her neigh- 
 bours. The girls were in the habit of seeing 
 Alicia, and she and her children afforded a 
 fund for the interchange of conversation. 
 
 The visit had on this occasion a particular 
 purport. Lavinia and Emily contemplated 
 " taking Hazlewood," as they expressed it, that 
 morning, and were come with the audacious 
 hope of persuading Magdalen to accompany 
 them. Magdalen by force of habit instantly 
 negatived the proposal, when, to her surprise, 
 Sir Henry having pressed the invitation, Mrs. 
 Champneys remonstrated with Magdalen, and 
 summoning Sir Allenne to add weight to her
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 33 
 
 wishes, the young lady was constrained to 
 surrender at discretion ; so that when the 
 Moulton carriage rolled away she was carried 
 a captive within it. 
 
 " A step in the right way/' said Forest, 
 who, together with the rest of the servants, 
 disapproved the sedentary tastes of Miss 
 Havering of the Bower. 
 
 Great was the surprise at Hazlewood when 
 Miss Havering thus arrived; and Mr. Monck- 
 ton did not lose a private opportunity to beg 
 his sister-in-law would be careful how she made 
 her selection, since he understood Mr. Thomp- 
 kins Hall was rather a finer young gentleman 
 than his brother, and it was desirable under 
 the circumstances to consider appearances — 
 which impromptu, we may be sure, was repaid 
 with interest. Magdalen was, however, irre- 
 sistibly amused when, arriving at Moulton 
 Grange, where it had been agreed that she 
 should dine, the first person she saw was Mr. 
 Thompkins, standing upon the hall-door steps. 
 He had the honour of conducting her to his 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 mother, who overwhelmed her unlooked-for 
 "guest with demonstrations of affection. And 
 the interlude was really not unpleasant be- 
 tween this reception and the happy moment 
 of departure. Tenderly escorted by Mr. 
 Thompkins, how delicious to Magdalen is the 
 sight of her own equipage! — and dear old Forest 
 motionless in the starlight, as if impervious to 
 cold, though a wintry night's excursion in 
 quest of his mistress was a service almost un- 
 known to him. Lilliesleaf and Sir Tatton 
 proved nervously impatient to return to the 
 warm quarters where habitually they passed 
 winter evenings ; and in an incredibly short 
 space of time Magdalen heard in her own hall 
 that Mr. Mann was in the drawing-room. Sir 
 Allenne and Mrs. Champneys, Adam Eger- 
 ton and Sir Rupert, convened to entertain the 
 Rector, presented rather a sombre aspect as 
 Magdalen proceeded to join them ! And the 
 whole party seemed personally obliged when 
 she made her appearance. 
 
 The Rector evinced towards the young
 
 MAGDALEN HAVEEIXG. 35 
 
 lady his usual unimpeachable decorum ; and 
 Magdalen, fresh from her wintry expedition, 
 and from the Moulton Grange fireside, won- 
 dered how he could be entertained. She was 
 relieved when Adam Egerton recui'red to an 
 argument which her entrance had inter- 
 rupted. 
 
 Not so the Rev. Cornelius, who eyed as- 
 kance his presumptuous opponent, at a loss of 
 what sinister motive to convict him ; while the 
 Tutor, on his part, exhibited unusual vivacity, 
 and, seriously discomposing the Incumbent, 
 might be said almost to enjoy himself. His 
 descriptions of some southerly town, famous 
 for district- visiting, arrested general attention, 
 not only for its really interesting details, but 
 for the kind of inspiration the relation lent to 
 the speaker. The Tutor's mood became con- 
 tagious. Mrs. Champneys grew convivial 
 from the influence of it, and conversed spirit- 
 edly : Sir AUenne abstained from nodding. 
 But when schools, clubs, and tract distribu- 
 tions, weekly lectures, and three Sabbath ser- 
 
 d2
 
 36 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 vices, were presented, as if thpy were familiar 
 themes, in frightful perspicuity, Mr. Mann's 
 indignation culminated, and he responded in 
 monosyllables, or he did not respond at all, 
 leaving the usually Quixotic Tutor in reality 
 master of the field, while he himself subsided 
 into calm supercilious disregard. At a rea- 
 sonable hour the Rector made his adieux, and 
 Magdalen was left alone to review, if she 
 wished, Adam Egerton in a novel guise. 
 
 Had there not arisen flushes on his cheek, the 
 sight of which had perfectly amazed her ? and 
 while she detected a constraint in his voice, 
 had there not struggled in his breast a torrent 
 not to be permitted to break forth ? Had not 
 the brilliance of his Tutor's mood attracted 
 Rupert from his Newfoundland ? — while dear 
 Sir Allenne did not once relapse into the pla- 
 cidest of slumbers ? Had not Mrs. Charap- 
 neys by the chandelier industriously plied her 
 needle — (that lady delighted in collar manufac- 
 ture) — until she, too, was fired into talking, 
 and talking well ? And though his customary
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 37 
 
 temperament re-enclosed, as it were, Adam 
 Egerton as the door closed after the Eector, 
 yet his " good night " had not been so frigid 
 as on all preceding occasions. In renewing 
 Magdalen^s curiosity — as he had long since 
 won her respect — he now provoked her kind- 
 ness. As she thought of the great difference 
 in her brother between the last and the pre- 
 sent Christmas seasons, she indulged in grati- 
 tude. Finally, the tender "good night" of 
 Mrs. Champneys, and her remonstrance to 
 retire early, recurred to the watcher by the 
 bright red fire. She rose from her low chair 
 before it, as Tartar, stretching his bulky frame, 
 prepared to rove to more suitable apartments ; 
 and once and again the lonely girl hungrily 
 craved the unknown consolation of a probable 
 or possible sympathy. 
 
 No person then existed in Magdalen's world 
 to whom her heart could disemburden itself, 
 or from whom she could learn deeper things 
 than scholarship and her two companions 
 taught her; and the time was fast drawing
 
 38 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 near when, unknown to herself, her health im- 
 peratively required change. When she wea- 
 ried pettishly of study, and could scarcely 
 walk so far as Sir Allenne, with half his alac- 
 rity, she seriously took herself to task, in that 
 morbid inactivity — nay, idleness — was surely 
 attacking her. She relaxed none of her appli- 
 cation to the former, and persisted in attempt- 
 ing the latter, till her strength was almost 
 spent, before Mrs. Champneys, taking alarm, 
 drove over to Hazlewood one morning, and 
 Philip and Alicia coming quickly, pronounced 
 that Magdalen was ill. 
 
 Beside this trouble, affairs generally at the 
 Bower were in an unsettled state. It had 
 been mooted by the heir to Sir Allenne that 
 a Continental tour was advisable for him. Sir 
 Allenne himself was growing impatient to get 
 into Cheshire for his annual short visit ; and 
 Mrs. Champneys thought proper at this time 
 to have a sister returning from India, who 
 yearned especially for the sisterly society which 
 could least conveniently be hers.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 39 
 
 Magdalen would see no medical adviser, 
 nor would she be torn, as she expressed it, 
 from her home ; and nearly two entire months 
 elapsed ere the long-pending dissolution in the 
 family did actually occur. Ere that date the 
 conduct of Adam Egerton had excited consi- 
 derable curiosity in the village of Havering. 
 
 Adam Egerton was an early riser — a good 
 habit which, if he attempted it, he failed to 
 instil into the Baronet, who now regularly re- 
 posed until nine, thus leaving the Tutor the 
 early morning for uninterrupted pursuits. 
 
 At this period of the day Adam Egerton 
 took walks abroad. Rarely observed by the 
 servants engaged in their varied avocations, 
 his slender figure would glide round the angle 
 of the mansion, and, scudding the gardens, he 
 would wing his way with surprising velocity to 
 the cottages of Havering in the distance, 
 whose inmates were acquaintances of his. 
 Breakfast at ten allowed him ample time for 
 the prosecution of designs philanthropic or 
 otherwise.
 
 40 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 There was one porch at which he oftenest 
 entered, where, besides Sally Ray, a widow and 
 dairy owner, and her son John, a field labourer 
 — both of whom were seldom at these hours 
 found at home — lived Margaret Ray, daugh- 
 ter of the latter, a motherless girl, in whose 
 charge were two children, her nephews, depo- 
 sited at Havering, with five shillings per week 
 by their father, a groom in good employ, and, 
 like his uncle-in-law, a widower. 
 
 These boys kept Margaret from service, 
 and installed her as permanent help to the 
 grandmother, one of the best-to-do cottagers in 
 Havering ; for she rented two meadows of an 
 adjoining farm, and possessed a couple or 
 three cows, besides sheep, and two pigs, which 
 lived (these latter) the neighbours " couldn't 
 tell what upon." 
 
 Old Sally, like others of her sex, patronized 
 semi-masculine attire ; and commonly, as the 
 Tutor emerged from the shadow of the wood, 
 the figure of a man's jacket, surmounted by a 
 man's hat, but gainsaid by a petticoat, would
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 41 
 
 wend its way along the lane, two pails sus- 
 pended by their wooden collar from her neck. 
 It was Margaret's business to straighten the 
 house against the old lady's return ; and con- 
 sequently, ajprojpos of the arrival Margaret 
 might look for as naturally as for the striking 
 of the clock, she had ever the house swept, 
 and the kettle again on the boil, ready to 
 scald the new milk-pails, when the gentleman 
 from the Bower entered. 
 
 This young woman had never resided else- 
 where than in her native place, where, as we 
 know, educational advantages were not. She 
 could neither read nor write — nor certainly did 
 she know the Commandments ; but she was 
 naturally quick of comprehension, and there- 
 fore very clever in her own way — well-dis- 
 posed, also, and aspiring. 
 
 There were those who looked askance on 
 Margaret Ray when the Tutor first regularly 
 visited her ; but as his favours grew more 
 general, and others besides her could make 
 his acquaintance, Margaret was restored to the
 
 42 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 balance of accredited good repute. The at- 
 tentions of John Sleath, for a time discontinued, 
 were industriously renewed to her ; and John 
 Sleath was able to send his old father, a hope- 
 less rheumatic patient, to the Malvern mineral 
 waters. And if in the case of poor old John 
 their boasted efficacy failed to conquer a long 
 dissembled enemy, the gratitude of father, and 
 son to the generous gentleman of the Bower 
 (while it threatened to warm that statue) 
 secured him two leal devotees. Margaret in re- 
 stored affability again and again told John, 
 and John in overweening geniality again and 
 again told Margaret, how good a young man 
 was this ; yet had either of them been com- 
 pelled to display their whole heart to the 
 other, indefinable doubts respecting the bene- 
 factor would have been reflected thereon.
 
 43 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 As Magdalen's health failed, her opportunities 
 of meeting with the Tutor were rarer. She 
 was at length compelled to relinquish all stated 
 study ; hut his extraordinary reserve, his ha- 
 bitual isolation from all but Eupert, his sere- 
 nity, his actual worth in his profession, failed 
 not to engage her thoughts. Not so with Sir 
 AUenne and Mrs. Champneys, who were trou- 
 bled with little curiosity. Life with that pair 
 was serenity to be remembered. 
 
 The servants ruled the secular constitution 
 of this establishment ; fortunately the higher 
 ones were trustworthy, and if in minutiae 
 there was much that was objectionable, the 
 fundamental laws were correct.
 
 44 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Magdalen sat at her drawing after lunch 
 one day in March, questioning at intervals, 
 when she did not require to construe the ga- 
 bles of the houses at the foot of her moun- 
 tains, what might be the name of the monoto- 
 nous gnawing which preyed deep-seated in 
 her chest, inducing irritable tremours, to 
 which health is a stranger. She was quite 
 alone — Mrs. Champneys exercised on the Ter- 
 race, and Sir Allenne had ridden out on 
 horseback — when Mr. Edmund Hall was an- 
 nounced. As Magdalen did not suffer herself to 
 be invalided of necessity she received guests ; 
 but to-day, at least, would gladly have dis- 
 pensed with the society of a comparative 
 stranger. 
 
 Perhaps Mr. Edmund Hall was instigated 
 by the vague reports creeping over the neigh- 
 bourhood of Magdalen's failing health, brought 
 about, it was said, by the strange reserve of 
 her life. It is certain that he came on this 
 occasion to test with his own eyes her condi- 
 tion ; and having sat a short time in her draw-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 45 
 
 ing-room, he proceeded to amaze and discon- 
 cert her, by an avowal of certain sentiments, 
 which she thought not flattering to herself. 
 
 Magdalen was eighteen years old ; and the 
 slight, tall, fair-haired person occupying a 
 position at her feet embodied her first lover 
 — albeit her maiden fancy had not failed to 
 erect its beau-ideal ; and this fell so short of 
 the desideratum, that she was both shocked 
 and indignant. She bade him rise with a 
 girlish anger that ignored his compliments 
 and wholly chagrined him ; discomfited, sur- 
 prised, and presently exasperated, the young 
 suitor was vouchsafed no hope. He passed 
 out of her presence abruptly. And now the 
 drawing has lost the zest by which it beguiled 
 her before ; the glorious mountains rising to 
 the sky — snow-topped monsters of the waste 
 — the gurgling river, and the deep ravine, 
 and the huts of the Indian -warriors — what 
 are they now to the girl who, amidst her 
 vague physical despondency, felt their ro- 
 mance a short hour since ? For the present
 
 46 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 episode has not been romantic ; and now it is 
 her life — the inestimable mystery — whose 
 demands press upon her. Moved by this 
 little epoch, her soul heaves and expands with 
 conflicting and tumultuous desires, questions, 
 and dreads. Thus, then, she was liable to 
 be outraged, while no prospect dawned of 
 that ideal on which for so long she had 
 dreamed. The babble of any idle stripling 
 might insult her, and her great heart lie still 
 untutored, unseen, uncomforted. 
 
 What of the noble ladies, knights' loves, 
 and queens' friends, who preceded her at 
 Havering Bower? And yon bright world, 
 whose elements she suspects, in which dwell the 
 authors, and the great Times' writers, and all 
 that puissant host of the educated, the gifted, 
 the great, and the gay ? — what was it, and 
 had not she a right there ? 
 
 Was it for a Havering of Havering Bower 
 to be buried alive beyond the ken of all that 
 gorgeous phalanx ? Had Alicia but been an 
 ambitious woman, how different might have
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 47 
 
 been her sister's life ! — for Sir Allenne and 
 Mrs. Champneys, what are they? Mother 
 and sire silent in their graves — impotent as if 
 they had never originated this young life 
 convulsed — Magdalen must surely be unfor- 
 tunate. Happier mortals, maidens of eighteen, 
 were supposed to be occupied — important, 
 gay ; yet she is intuitively a dreamer of 
 dreams — a fascinated victim at best. Hers 
 is a purposeless existence, whose monotony is 
 a galling chain, whose adjuncts are so many 
 tattered garments, mocking their unhappy 
 proprietress. 
 
 So rang out the frenzy, youthful and 
 meaningless, of the young mistress of the 
 Bower, her brain darting its fiery thoughts to 
 and fro through her mind, and all in conse- 
 quence of the advent of the first suitor there — 
 or, rather, that advent brought the flow to a 
 crisis. 
 
 Her hypochondriacal reveries were inter- 
 rupted by a slight tap upon the door, and 
 the entrance of Adam Egerton. The Tutor
 
 48 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 carae to acquaint Miss Havering that he missed 
 a letter received that morning ; and being un- 
 able to account for its disappearance, except 
 by the accidental intervention of Miss Haver- 
 ing, he intruded to make inquiries respecting 
 it. Magdalen knew nothing whatsoever 
 of the document ; nevertheless the young 
 man made no movement towards quitting her 
 presence. 
 
 ^^ I regret to have to trespass on your 
 notice," said he, in a tone like the North Pole, 
 " but the accident of the loss of this letter is 
 of some moment to me. Pardon me, madam," 
 and Magdalen, standing on her hearth, 
 asked herself for the hundredth time what man- 
 ner of young man this could be — *'I have inad- 
 vertently remarked — I must again apologize 
 — but on occasions you have, I think, the 
 habit of employing the small pockets of your 
 apron." 
 
 Magdalen's hands instantly dived into the 
 indicated receptacles, and, to her own extreme 
 vexation, actually found a letter there, which,
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 49 
 
 on production, proved to be addressed to Mr. 
 Egerton. Eupert's Tutor had been altogether 
 himself inquiring casually for a missing letter 
 of the only person who, besides himself, could 
 have mislaid it. When she had replied, with 
 a degage air, that she " was sorry, but she 
 had not seen it," he had turned upon her no 
 suspicious eyes — Magdalen was truth itself — 
 but the colour had arisen in his cheeks. As 
 he felt that he betrayed a past observation of 
 her habits, he lost a little of his cold sang 
 froid ; and the letter once in his hand, he dis- 
 closed a violent agitation. It was evident to 
 Magdalen that he was oblivious of her pre- 
 sence, and oblivious for the moment of him- 
 self, for, crushing the folded paper in his 
 fingers, he darted from the room, leaving her 
 to indulge a pardonable curiosity respecting 
 the unwittingly secreted billet, which she had 
 not the slip^htest recollection of havinor seen 
 until she restored it to its owner, who grasped 
 it as if it were a king's pardon ; and, on 
 second thoughts, she is annoyed afresh that he 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 did not wait for explanation. While she 
 was chafing with the thought that he might 
 be guilty of suspecting her, and was working 
 herself into a great excitement, which was 
 doing her bodily harm, Adam Egerton, 
 assured that she had not read his letter, as he 
 grew breathless at the bare idea of that, 
 walked with Sir Eupert in the Oak Avenue — 
 (Sir Rupeft treated him to a thrice-told tale of 
 extraordinary pheasant-shooting) — while he 
 felt that his discrimination of character had 
 alone saved him from . 
 
 Sir Rupert has almost decided upon claim- 
 ing his uncle's permission to travel with his 
 Tutor for two years, the intervening time 
 before he attains his majority. 
 
 The walks and rides of Mr. Egerton and his 
 pupil are now constantly the occasions for fas- 
 cinating details of travel and stories of adven- 
 ture. Rupert is fairly eager to undertake a 
 travelling campaign. Wherever in the neigh- 
 bourhood the idea has been mentioned, it has 
 been received with approbation. Such a usual
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 51 
 
 step in the training of young men of his 
 position could not fail to elicit encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 Hazlewood, as it chances, is in ignorance 
 of the step in contemplation ; gossip has not 
 carried its report there, nor Magdalen, who 
 does not realize it as a fact. Be sure that Sir 
 Allenne and Mrs. Champneys have not men- 
 tioned it; they never allude to any subject 
 which instinctively they know to be perilous ; 
 and at Hazlewood the Heir and his Tutor 
 never now purposely call. 
 
 But it is April. The long-pending family 
 dissolution is at hand, and every one is more 
 or less silent, being more or less abstracted, 
 at the Bower. 
 
 The two elders had each been fairly unequal 
 to the task of confessing to the other their 
 respective darling wish. It is Magdalen who 
 informs Sir Allenne of the arrival from India ; 
 and it is Magdalen who tells Mrs. Champneys 
 that business is urgent at Dryburgh. She 
 herself has consented to repair to Hazlewood, 
 
 e2 

 
 52 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 to be properly nursed there. Meanwhile, 
 Mrs. Vyse may set the house in order, and 
 clean it to her heart's content, for it is now 
 formally announced that Sir Rupert is leaving 
 England, to complete on the Continent that 
 course of study satisfactorily pursued at home. 
 
 The week before the final disruption Mag- 
 dalen drove with Mrs. Champneys through the 
 village of Havering, a rare event, for the 
 village was distasteful rather than not to its 
 proprietors. The visible neglect of the place 
 attracted the remark of both ladies. 
 
 '* Darling,^' said Sir Allenne to Magdalen, 
 when she spoke to him of this, thinking far 
 more of her altered looks than of a broken-down 
 tenement or two — *^ Darling, we will see, we 
 will see ! " — which slight rejoinder sufficed to 
 attract Adam Egerton's attention, he chancing 
 to be present. Again the red flush spread 
 over his face, which was never there unless 
 he was agitated; but if he wished to offer 
 any comment upon what had been said, he 
 controlled himself, and was silent.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 5S 
 
 As frequently happens, affairs of moment 
 thronged into the last few days ; guests of 
 Adam Egerton arrived, and to remain two 
 days. These consisted of a gentleman of 
 middle age, and a lady of twenty-eight or 
 rather more — this latter a sister of the 
 Tutor. 
 
 Magdalen, hurriedly informed by Rupert of the 
 arrival of these strangers, hastened to accord to 
 the connections of a relatively dependent per- 
 son a reception she would likely have denied 
 to the proudest ally of Havering. Miss 
 Egerton was conducted by Magdalen in 
 person to apartments adjoining her own, and 
 the servants were put into requisition in a 
 manner which showed to them and to the 
 guest the reality of that welcome so cordially 
 given by the young mistress of the Bower. 
 She remained, too, when requested so to do, 
 while the guest re-arranged her attire. 
 
 Surveying the strange lady, relieved of her 
 travelling dress, and displaying before a 
 cheval glass a fine young graceful figure,
 
 54 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 while with velocity and skill she coiled 
 loosely at the back of her head redundant 
 plaits of brown hair, Magdalen conceived an 
 instant admiration of Annunciata Egerton, 
 more nearly allied to that feeling which with 
 men is passion than the swiftest current of 
 the warmest-hearted woman's admiration. 
 Magdalen scanned nervously and curiously 
 the face that looked so classic, unrelieved by 
 hair, and she thought perhaps it was not 
 worthy the faultless figure and extraordinary 
 presence to which it appertained. Sufficient 
 resemblance to the Tutor existed about Miss 
 Egerton's thin lips to declare her relationship 
 to Adam, and their eyes were greatly similar ; 
 but Annunciata's were larger, greyer, and 
 even colder than those of Adam, while her 
 brows were infinitely finer. 
 
 These young women descended the stair- 
 case together, majesty sitting in every fold of 
 dress which swept over the visitor's superb 
 figure. Magdalen's satin had an odd, mean 
 look in contra-distinction to the merino Fran*
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 55 
 
 (^aise worn bj Miss Egerton. Truly the 
 young lady of Havering collapsed into a 
 lesser cycle by the side of the Tutor's sis- 
 ter, but on further acquaintance they amal- 
 gamated well. Plants and flowers were 
 delightful to Magdalen ; the latter adorned 
 her dresses, and she braided them with her 
 hair, and bouquets lay constantly in her 
 several haunts ; but one remark of the stranger 
 lady, as she bent to examine a favourite spe- 
 cimen, carrying away one petal, perhaps, was 
 rifer with the genius and love of flowers than 
 all the mere pleasure of Magdalen in the natu- 
 ralist labours of her work-people. The gar- 
 deners proudly displayed their flir from insig- 
 nificant treasures to a botanist so accom- 
 plished as this lady. 
 
 The pair drove out together, and the purest 
 cultivation of mind and taste was discernible 
 every moment in Miss Egerton. 
 
 Were there an object in the distant scenery 
 worthy a great painter to immortalize, or a 
 hamlet embowered in trees whence the cottage
 
 56 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 of content might have shewn itself, that distant 
 spot and that hamlet would recall evermore 
 to Miss Havering what Annunciuta had said 
 of them — how once she yearned to bear them 
 in her arms to closer propinquity to the 
 swarming localities amidst which her dwelling 
 lay — the grave denizen of a mighty city. 
 Did there ti'ill by the wheels of their carriage 
 a crystal and gurgling stream, Annunciata 
 had a tale to tell, how on the outskirts of her 
 vast London district rolled the turbid waters 
 of a river that not only laved the feet of the 
 travel-soiled, and bore barges on its breast, but 
 beneath whose seductive and trembling surface 
 many a wanderer dashed the head, who no longer 
 could brave the terrible afflictions hanging 
 sometimes upon the steps of men; so plunging 
 to an ideal abyss of refuge, and daring for a 
 fancied reprieve from earth to brave the just 
 anger of heaven. The auditor fixed an eager gaze 
 upon her remarkable companion, which com- 
 panion, speaking with a rare intonation, gave 
 little heed to the small interrogatories, the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 57 
 
 quick responses, and nervous gestures, by 
 wliich the deep interest of Magdalen disclosed 
 itself. 
 
 The stranger, it appeared, had resided long 
 in the British metropolis, yet of its best 
 known ways, its most striking features, she 
 said nothing. Of its wonderful structures, its 
 monster thoroughfares, its arena of fashion, 
 its stores of wealth, its glitter, its proud array, 
 Annunciata told nothing. For these things 
 her hearer was prepared ; but the life darkly 
 discerned amidst this unaccustomed language 
 was a picture Magdalen had never seen, a 
 study she had never heard of, and a vortex 
 which profoundly attracted her. It was a 
 glance, but Magdalen did not know it, of the 
 life of a woman of the Eomish Church, who, 
 fatally deceived, or self-deceiving, or both, 
 models her acts not by God's ordination, but 
 by the laws of an erroneous faith. 
 
 Les Soeurs du Mont de Piete — seven in 
 number — occupied at that time, and for many 
 years later, a large building, half convent.
 
 58 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 half residence, situate in Margaret Street, 
 Cavendish Square. Their life was spent 
 amidst the wretchedly poor, save when acci- 
 dent introduced them to the chance of converts 
 in a higher sphere of action, whom they were 
 forbidden to neglect. They laboured unscru- 
 pulously, accompanying their proselytizing 
 mission with the performance of handwork, 
 were it ever so repulsive ; and these women 
 were all of gentle birth. Wherever pestilence, 
 provoked by want, or accident, or natural 
 events, stretched on their pallets the most 
 miserable of sufferers — not unlikely would be 
 found or traced the charity, worthy of a purer 
 creed, of the life-devoted emissaries of the 
 Popish priests. Annunciata Egerton was their 
 Superior. 
 
 On the second day of her arrival she took 
 her departure from the Bower, accompanied 
 as when she came by her friend !Mr. Mont- 
 edgcumbe, and on parting the two ladies 
 arranged a correspondence. 
 
 Of Mr. Montedgcumbe few words must suf-.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 5& 
 
 fice. He left behind him no tangible impression 
 save of suavity of manners ; when questioned 
 casually of his family, of which he appeared 
 very proud, he disavowed all connection with 
 the noble English house of his name. 
 
 An hour after the departure of their guests, 
 Kupert and Magdalen Havering accidentally, 
 encountered each other. A simple circum- 
 stance it seems, the rencontre of a brother 
 and sister ; but with them it was a chance sel- 
 dom happening, and the tinie and place of 
 this meeting — the early morning, and the 
 court where the riding-horses exercised in 
 winter — were destined to rise up in the future, 
 and recall poignantly one of few memories, 
 fated to be startling, of Eupert. 
 
 ^* Magdalen, why, what could bring you 
 here ? " and the speaker emerged from a loose 
 box (where his colt had been marking his 
 affection and his gaiety by various signs upon 
 Sir Rupert's sleeves), boisterously caressing 
 the huge Newfoundland, Tartar. 
 
 Magdalen, with head bowed down, and arms
 
 60 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 tightly crossed, had traversed the gardens 
 quickly, her lassitude half forgotten, with a 
 swift, agitated, buoyant tread — the tread of 
 one who is awaking late to the view of un- 
 known things. Girlhood departing flung no 
 regrets in the pathway of her to whom its 
 gifts had been chary. Magdalen reviewed few 
 tracks of sunbeam glittering along her bygone 
 way : joy with her was yet unborn, and glory 
 a vision unrevealed. Womanhood embraced 
 her in the hour when she parted with Annun- 
 ciata Egerton, who, in the space of two brief 
 days, had lifted poor Magdalen clean out of 
 her nameless world — beyond — over the thres- 
 hold — whence never more the votaress re- 
 traced her steps. Divinations occurred to the 
 mind of Magdalen with every accent of the 
 gifted tongue which, laden with stores of 
 acquired wisdom, robed its music in the 
 tenderest tones, for the subjugation of the 
 girlish heart whose purpose it was to win. 
 
 At Rupert*s appearance and exclamation 
 she was in an instant by his side, hugging
 
 MAGDALEX HAVERING. 61 
 
 the soft neck of the big dog ; and while she 
 protected herself from his advances, she thus 
 made answer to Kupert — 
 
 ** I am often here, but I seldom meet you, 
 Kupert. Indeed, I think that Philip Monck- 
 ton was right — although he is so dreadfully 
 perverse and overbearing : this Tutor does 
 separate us from each other/' 
 
 The young man laughed a momentary, low, 
 very peculiar laugh, glancing round as if in 
 expectation that beneath the bays, or beyond 
 in the pleasaunce, or skirting the park, or 
 emerging from the carriage-house, he whom 
 Magdalen thus freely named must necessarily 
 be advancing ; but only the rooks, with their 
 eternal caw, flapped impudently overhead, 
 while white-faced cattle in the verdant pasture 
 lowed, greeting each other as they traversed 
 the sun-clothed glades. The workmen's voices 
 from the vegetable gardens were all the sign 
 of human presence in the neighbourhood of 
 Rupert and Magdalen ; and as, lastly, the 
 roaming gaze of the heir fell upon the figure
 
 62 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 of his sister, he expressed what had often 
 struck him before, though he had not put the 
 thought into words — 
 
 " Magdalen, you are quite a woman ! '* 
 
 Magdalen laughed now, partly because she 
 shared the feeling which had prompted that 
 curious wide glance of Rupert^s, partly be- 
 cause his reply was so irrelevant to what she 
 had said to him. 
 
 " I am eighteen years of age, Rupert," re- 
 plied she, quaintly. 
 
 " Ah I Well, is it not time for you to go 
 somewhere ? — is it not the custom, I mean ? 
 What is done with other young ladies ? " 
 
 *^ Dear Rupert ! " cried Magdalen, almost 
 ready to cry, yet half inclined to laugh again 
 — " that is w^hat I want to know : how one is 
 to live, that is the question ? " 
 
 " Live ? " repeated Sir Rupert, a vague 
 idea of business transactions related to him 
 by Sir Allenne, which he never could under- 
 stand, presenting itself at that moment. *^ You 
 have a large fortune, Magdalen, and if you
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 63 
 
 had not you are mj sister, and I suppose 
 there is enough for us all. But it is not that 
 I mean : ought you not soon — to — be mar- 
 ried, Magdalen ? " 
 
 " Well, dear,*' demurely replied the maiden, 
 " most people do marry, but all do not marry 
 young, and — and — I never think of that, 
 Piupert." 
 
 Just then the keeper's gun was heard not 
 far distant, a sign of irresistible purport to Sir 
 Rupert. He forgot all about Magdalen, and 
 vaulting over the inclosure and running across 
 the park, accompanied promptly by Tartar, 
 Magdalen was left to her own thoughts. 
 They reverted instantly to Annunciata, yet 
 she watched the receding figure of Eupert 
 with reborn love for him. When she reached 
 the steps which led into the mansion and had 
 mounted them, she turned to survey the fair 
 country, right and left before her, feeling as 
 she did so that in her diary, in addition to 
 the departure of Annunciata, must be entered 
 this little interview with Rupert.
 
 64 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 It was not until the eleventh hour that the 
 purposed Continental tour was decisively an- 
 nounced to Mr. Monckton, by means of a note 
 to Alicia. Appalled, that gentleman ordered 
 his horse and rode over to the Bower with a 
 will ; flakes of foam hung about the willing 
 steed, as the impetuous rider flung his bridle 
 to the grooms of Havering, who, accustomed 
 to see Mr. Monckton in his many moods, pri- 
 vately informed Josiah, Sir Allenne's own man, 
 that to their certain knowledge, by the state 
 of the beast, '^the devil was to pay some- 
 where." 
 
 Seeking Sir Allenne, Philip pronounced the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVEKING. 65 
 
 contemplated tour ^^mproper — dangerous — 
 absurd ! " 
 
 Sir Allenne was severely shaken by this 
 contretemps ; he had addressed to the London 
 bankers the necessary instructions to furnish 
 Sir Eupert from time to time with money, 
 and he was a man who disliked, above all 
 things, to retract a business step once taken. 
 
 He was a man, too, who never inquired 
 into an alleged opinion, while Mr. Monckton 
 never voluntarily explained any interference 
 which he thought imperative ; therefore this 
 interview, while it was vexatious in the ex- 
 treme, failed to effect the purpose for which it 
 was too tardily convened. It required con- 
 siderable skill on the part of Sir Rupert, i.e., 
 of Adam Egerton, to conclude the affair after 
 the intervention of Mr. Monckton ; but event- 
 ually, as Sir Allenne had no definite obstacle to 
 advance, he succumbed to the genius of the 
 hour. 
 
 Therefore Sir Rupert, between whom and 
 Magdalen no further interchange of amenities 
 
 YOL. I. F
 
 QQ MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 occurred, made his farewells with easy good- 
 humour, issuing orders to the last moment 
 respecting his horses and dogs — evidently an- 
 ticipating immense amusement — and intending 
 to return in two years or less; leisurely looked 
 his last upon the pile in which he had drawn 
 his first breath, and presently on the estates 
 he inherited from the Saxons — later upon 
 England, the one land of freedom. Fated 
 boy-heir ! — who, retaining that title long after 
 the days when manhood should have robbed 
 him of it, was destined never to lose it. 
 
 Hazlewood was a very small manor com- 
 pared with the great property of the Haver- 
 ings — that is to say, the whole lordship com- 
 prised no more than the pleasaunce compared 
 with the park; and the house — a miniature 
 mansion — bore no resemblance to the courtly, 
 old, turreted, baronial place from which Alicia 
 came. 
 
 There was no village of Hazlewood, but the 
 three gates into the park had each lodges an-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 67 
 
 nexed to them, and families resident in them. 
 It was part of Mr. Monckton's pleasure to su- 
 perintend a brick-kiln; the brick-makers lived 
 in cottages run up for the occasion. There 
 was a smithy on the premises, and a cottage 
 adjoining it ; as also the keeper's and garden- 
 er's houses, two neat tenements, in opposite 
 directions ; therefore, the wild briery bnish- 
 wood and tall old elms surrounding the pro- 
 perty enclosed a compact little colony. 
 
 The estate was partly apportioned into 
 farms, the occupiers of which called their 
 houses by the same names as their lands — 
 Axholme, Gypsy-Lea, and Sandy-Pool. Each 
 of these homesteads was familiar with the 
 sight of the proprietors, for Philip mixed 
 freely with every one on his place, possessing 
 and glorying in the goodwill of his people; 
 while Alicia recognized, as part of her duty, 
 their claims to consideration ; and Maggie and 
 Alice knew by name every child and grown- 
 up person belonging to Hazlewood. 
 
 Magdalen did not appreciate her sister, or 
 
 f2
 
 68 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 her sister's husl)and, or Ilazlewood, properly. 
 Though she would have died ere she had 
 owned it, yet in her secret heart she looked 
 upon Hazlewood as too small a patrimony for 
 the home of a Havering of the Bower. The 
 gentleman who swept at intervals across her 
 fancy, gorgeous in conception and perfect as 
 a model, trod with a haughtiness quite superb 
 over every attribute, personal or mental, of 
 the master of Hazlewood ; as were the ladies 
 who thronged the brain of the romantic and 
 secluded girl, ladies with whom (truly) Alicia 
 Monckton had no part. 
 
 Very slight mention has as yet been made 
 of Alicia. She possessed no brilliant qualities. 
 A sterling worth formed the basis of her cha- 
 racter. I cannot call to mind, nor have I 
 heard of a single grave fault at any time 
 detected in her. She was of the gentlest order 
 of women, yet was she mistress of a firmness 
 which no opposition could dislodge. She was 
 of a placid mind — the companion of a quiet 
 heart. Her ambition — if the word can be em-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 69 
 
 ployed at all — centered fixedly in her home : 
 she had little left beyond it. Society was 
 wholly out of her pale ; she at no time 
 prized its favours, nor did she fear its frown. 
 Alicia's qualities as a mother transcended, if 
 possible, those she displayed as a wife ; while 
 the servants of Hazlewood were seldom ex- 
 changed, and appeared ever easy of control — 
 very explanatory truths. 
 
 The nearest approach to a flaw in the con- 
 duct of Alicia occurred when so readily, after 
 her last parent's demise, she relinquished her 
 place in the orphan circle of the Bower, yield- 
 ing to the dictates of a great temptation, and 
 securing her personal well-being and happi- 
 ness, while the manner in which Rupert and 
 Magdalen were affected by her marriage did 
 not enter her considerations. Once established 
 in her new home, she proceeded to place be- 
 tween it and Havering a constant and tender 
 intercourse. In this no idea of espionage 
 bore part ; indeed, she seldom gave an 
 opinion, and never proffered an advice. She
 
 70 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 evidently thought it not becoming in the new- 
 made mistress of Hazlewood to take any ab- 
 solute share in the affairs of Havering. When 
 there, it was easy to see that her regards did 
 not sleep, while she sedulously avoided all 
 assumption of authority she had voluntarily 
 resigned. 
 
 In course of time this delicacy undermined 
 her good influence with her family, till she 
 came to have scarcely any weight at all with 
 Magdalen. 
 
 Philip Monckton, somewhat harsh upon his 
 brother-in-law, the stripling Sir Eupert, be- 
 tween whom and himself not a single affinity 
 existed, forbore, under general circumstances, 
 to give opinions, openly upon the politics of 
 the Bower ; but the boy-baronet chafed under 
 the partly disguised scorn with which, in con- 
 temptuous ridicule, the staple man of solid 
 consideration and experiences viewed the 
 career of his young relation. Alicia's run- 
 ning commentaries poured into her husband's 
 mind a continual charitable stream, which
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 71 
 
 provoked a good will and feeling towards 
 the youth, which, without that agency, could 
 not have been ; and Magdalen — between 
 whom and Alicia's husband there was ever 
 really more bark than bite — ably fought her 
 own battles. 
 
 Mr. Monckton had always expressed an 
 abhorrence he took no pains to conceal of 
 the person, half companion, half instructor, 
 whom his young brother-in-law chose to bring 
 home when he left the Alton College. He 
 had more then once stated to Sir Allenne 
 Seybright his disapprobation of that person. 
 Sir Allenne heard, and periodically remem- 
 bered, but he had not been destined for a 
 Mentor of youth ; and he remembered, also, 
 that the master of Hazlewood, from his 
 inflammatory Irish wrath, sometimes expressed 
 himself too forcibly ; and under the shield of 
 of this remembrance Sir Allenne was fain 
 to lie at rest. Hearing only of orderly con- 
 duct and improvement in his studies in 
 Rupert, the dismissal of Adam Egerton, which
 
 72 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Philip called imperative, was again and again 
 postponed. 
 
 But Mr. Monckton was seriously oflfended 
 with Sir Allenne, when, in spite of his oppo- 
 sition, Adam Egerton succeeded in carrying 
 off Sir Rupert to the Continent. 
 
 Magdalen's visit to her sister rapidly im- 
 proved her health, but its course was not so 
 smooth as was desirable. The household 
 laws of Hazlewood were simple, but they 
 were real, and encroachments upon them dis- 
 turbed the peaceful current of the life within 
 its walls. Peaceful — for it was seldom, 
 indeed, that outbreaks of Hibernian wrath 
 distracted the attention of Alicia. The infre- 
 quent gusts of natural tempest by which the 
 volcano-like breast of the master relieved 
 itself from time to time never desecrated the 
 hearth-stone ; thither, as to a secure retreat, 
 would betake himself the ruffled bird, after any 
 incidental display; and there the household gods, 
 flocking round him would smooth the discom- 
 forted array, till his plumage was itself again.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 73 
 
 Magdalen disjointed, without the slightest 
 compunction, those laws of which we have 
 spoken. 
 
 Breakfast commonly passed awav without 
 any sign of the girlish guest, though the 
 master, the mistress, and the little children 
 assembled at the appointed time ; the short 
 service anterior to breakfast, of reading the 
 Scriptures and offering up a prayer, was 
 never shared by Magdalen ; the carriage, 
 ordered at a given hour, and prepared by 
 servants accustomed to punctuality, was 
 always kept waiting by Miss Havering ; she 
 was seldom presentable to any visitors who 
 called ; she objected to fulfil the slightest 
 behest that wore the form of business ; at the 
 Bower she was no imperious mistress, yet the 
 servants of Hazlewood could scarcely believe 
 that — for perpetual residence in one spot, 
 and the absence of healthy companionship, 
 were taking the usual course with this girl ; 
 and her many good traits were imperilled, by 
 sheer needof some tempered hand, to remove tke
 
 74 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 scales from her sight, which, fast clogging it, pre- 
 cluded from her the view of her own ignorance. 
 
 These delinquencies were not the fruit of 
 tinamiability, or any greater fault ; simply the 
 young plant had sprung up untrained. No 
 element approached it so strong as itself, and 
 the absence of proper subordination produced 
 a condition of ennui most baneful to the 
 girl. By Mr. Monckton the shortcomings of 
 his sister-in-law were ceaselessly animadverted 
 upon. His prevailing foible was a satire which 
 seldom missed its mark ; it was delicate and, to 
 her, unanswerable ; and it had a most painful 
 effect on Magdalen. In vain Alicia interposed 
 here ; her ministrations were signally fruit- 
 less, and she, yielding to their bolder natures, 
 moved at length almost passively, amidst the 
 irony and sarcasm which were fast obliterating 
 the rare bloom of Magdalen's peculiar cha- 
 racter. 
 
 Presently Philip Monckton grew odious to 
 her ; and she became indignant with Alicia's 
 nondescript peace of mind. In her worst
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 75 
 
 moments she could almost have quarrelled with 
 the little Maggie and Alice ; because, charm- 
 ing though thej ever were, they were never 
 so pretty, winning, and engaging as when 
 with their malcontent father. To them he 
 was the tenderest of parents — the fondest and 
 the gentlest. And even Magdalen was fain to 
 admire the forbearance, as also the decision, 
 he exercised in their rule. She studied in vain 
 to impeach these children's father, while her 
 own brother-in-law stood convicted as an 
 unanswerable savage. 
 
 One day unluckily (Magdalen was always 
 thus unlucky) she lay in her morning-dress on 
 a couch in the drawing-room, when it was 
 long past the hour in which morning-dresses 
 are tolerated. Byron insensibly occupied her — 
 a bas-relief perhaps to a letter she had written 
 to Annunciata — when visitors were announced 
 and ushered into her presence, and absolutely 
 by Mr. Monckton in person, who, ere he could 
 reasonably have learned that she was there, was 
 dilating upon Magdalen's orderly habits in tones
 
 76 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 SO faultlessly accentuated that only Magdalen 
 herself could know how utterly his auditors 
 were deluded, while he covered her retreat 
 with considerate and gentlemanly provisoes it 
 almost drove her mad to hear. Half-an-hour 
 afterwards, from her bed-room window she 
 saw him seated on the lawn, his eldest 
 daughter in his arms. The murmur of his 
 voice ascended, without conveying any words ; 
 but Magdalen knew that the child, satisfied, 
 silent, wrapt, her eyes fixed upon her 
 father's face, reposed in heavenly depend- 
 ency. Magdalen thought she could have 
 given life for one moment of so solemn 
 a tenderness as that which Philip's most 
 beautiful little daughter naturally yielded him. 
 But theirs were depths to which she might 
 not penetrate, and secrets which she could 
 not share. Yet she doted on little Maggie, 
 on both the children indeed, and they loved 
 her, also, with the sweet confiding manner of 
 such babies. This was by far the longest visit 
 to Hazlewood hitherto made by Magdalen,
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 77 
 
 and it extended to a month : ere its close she 
 longed to curtail it ; for the aspect of 
 dignity that existed in the house — the un- 
 spoken changeless serenity, with which Alicia 
 yielded and retained a great love — the ine- 
 vitable, saint-like hovering of the mother 
 about her children — their reciprocity — lastly, 
 and greatest, the subservience of his strong 
 manhood to their infantine demands, and the 
 luxury of it to himself, in her brother-in-law 
 — struck sadly on the ill-regulated heart of the 
 girl. She found a sting in all these things, 
 blessings her conipanions quietly prized ; she 
 could not find a single bourn in all their 
 boundless world. Passing dear she believed 
 herself undoubtedly to Alicia and the children, 
 but a young, wild, faulty being like herself 
 (for in moments of humility she owned these 
 terms, as she was assured that her sister gave 
 her them) could not be included in their hap- 
 piness. The proud maiden of Havering could 
 not then tolerate this sphere. 
 
 She grew not only uneven in temper, but
 
 78 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 jealous — warring with the elements around 
 her, and sighing for an unreality more palat- 
 able to her fancy. Her world being peopled 
 with answering spirits, she longed to go forth 
 and claim her own ; she indulged in the wild- 
 est day-dreams. Acmes of everything absurd 
 and unreasonable became in her eyes feasible 
 attempts, as day by day she shrank from all 
 companionship, because what was offered her 
 was not of that order for which alone she 
 sighed. She received letters, and she an- 
 swered them swiftly, but she abstained from 
 telling Alicia the name of her only correspon- 
 dent, besides Mrs. Champneys. Her only one 
 till — in the condition of mind we have de- 
 scribed above — very opportunely, as it seemed, 
 the following letter arrived : — 
 
 *' Dry burgh Manor House, May 13 th. 
 
 " My dear Niece — I trust you are in the 
 enjoyment of health, as also my dear niece 
 Alicia Monckton, her good husband, and their 
 interesting children. Your present visit to 
 Hazlewood is naturally, as you are aware, a
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 79 
 
 great source of satisfaction to myself, know- 
 ing that your youthful inexperience cannot fail 
 to be instructed by the companionship of so per- 
 fect a pattern of female excellency as your sister. 
 
 "It is, therefore, with hesitation that I 
 forward you an invite, which is made to you 
 through me, to pass a fortnight with my 
 old friends here, the Melhuishes. Mrs. Mel- 
 huish has requested, as a favour, my sanction 
 to the visit. My dear, I have no objection to 
 make, but could wish you to be guided solely 
 by Mr. and Mrs. Monckton, whose decision I 
 shall await with anxiety ; for it would afford 
 myself much pleasure to see at Dryburgh my 
 dear Magdalen, who is always an object of the 
 sincerest interest to her affectionate relation 
 and guardian, 
 
 "Allenne Seybright." 
 
 Magdalen writhed under the running cur- 
 rent of this letter — handed it to her sister 
 without speaking — repossessed herself of it 
 as Alicia would have passed it to her husband 
 — gave herself extraordinary airs upon the 
 occasion — and finally announced her intention
 
 80 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 of setting forth on the morrow. She would 
 go first to Dryburgh Manor-house; thence, 
 when it should appear desirable, to the ad- 
 joining Rectory. 
 
 This proposal seemed apropos; for Mrs. 
 Champneys gave no sign of bringing her ab- 
 sence to a close, nor, evidently, did Sir Allenne 
 meditate a swift return. The young lady had 
 contended four weeks with the master of 
 Hazlewood, and even Alicia was beginning to 
 sigh for a season of repose. 
 
 Consequently, amidst Philip^s many congra- 
 tulations, that her debilt in society thus hap- 
 pened — its theatre a country clergyman's 
 house — a most unexceptionable channel, 
 through which the exuberant rays of the sun 
 might reach benighted souls, fervently be- 
 seeching his sister-in-law, for the sake of his 
 honour and her own renown, to gather no way- 
 side flower such as she had hitherto encoun- 
 tered, but forthwith to bring home to the 
 hearth of her people (inconsolable for her loss) 
 the tallest, stoutest, strongest, &c., &c., &c. 
 Magdalen was gone !
 
 81 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 Dryburgh Manor-house was an unpretend- 
 ing stone building of recent date, situated 
 upon ground which gave it the command of 
 a stretch of country, and made its parapets — 
 the poplars sheltering them north and east, 
 landmarks at considerable distances. 
 
 Sir Allenne worshipped the leaves upon the 
 beech trees — the colonnades which on either 
 hand formed wings of approach to the house 
 — the moss — the green sod — nay, the very 
 gravel drives of which that enclosure was 
 composed ; and, pacing backwards and for- 
 wards the stone pavement of those sheltered 
 colonnades, he was wont to meditate for hours, 
 while by his gestures, and the direction of 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 his eyes, one might have fancied that he ha- 
 hitually counted the windows studding the 
 faqade, or the iron palisading which stretched 
 in the contrary direction. 
 
 Sir Allenne was the victim of circumstances. 
 Nothing hut a religious recognition of the sa- 
 cred rights of relationship could have won him 
 from the shelter of this home, consecrated as 
 it was by many sorrows, and sole witness of 
 bright brief joys, known only to his youth. 
 
 Taking his accustomed promenade, he saw 
 the carriage containing his niece pass the 
 gates. The idea that she was come did not 
 occur to him, until suddenly alighting she 
 made her way to his side. The old man could 
 have found it in his heart to regret that she 
 came so very soon. He had set that evening 
 apart for peculiar and solemn employment, 
 with which the fact of her presence in the 
 house was more than sufficient to interfere. 
 But she was Magdalen Seybright's daughter, 
 and his dear Magdalen: all possible regret had 
 vanished with the first touch of her hand, the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 83 
 
 first kiss she laid lightly on his cheek. Draw- 
 ing her close to his side, the old man forgot to 
 ask her how it was she came so soon ; and in 
 half-an-hour everything in and around was 
 wholly at her disposal at the Manor. 
 
 They sat at their dinner — Sir Allenne de- 
 lighted with the companionship of his niece, 
 who had not seen Dryburgh before, and 
 Magdalen replete with anticipation, in tone 
 with herself and all her surroundings, like a 
 child charmed with change, when a servant 
 announced Mr. Richard Melhuish in the 
 drawing room. 
 
 " In truth, they come seeking you early, 
 my Mag," said Sir Allenne ; " Mr. Richard is 
 a most presentable young gentleman. Give 
 us coffee immediately in the drawing-room. 
 Waters. You know, my love, my weakness 
 for coffee immediately that I have dined. 
 Now, my dear, to make your first Dryburgh 
 acquaintance." 
 
 The young man who stood in the middle of 
 the room, intent upon the study of a letter 
 
 g2
 
 84 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 received in the morning, but not properly de- 
 ciphered until now, which he had taken from 
 his pocket to reperuse, while awaiting Sir Al- 
 lenne, with some trifling message from his mo- 
 ther, looked not at all prepared to see a lady 
 when Sir Allenne and his niece entered. The 
 invitation to Sir Allenne's niece issued by his 
 lady-mother had escaped his recollection, until 
 he was pleasurably reminded of it, when intro- 
 duced to the lady who relieved the solitude 
 of the baronet. 
 
 Magdalen on her part was well pleased to 
 gain a very charming acquaintance, who was 
 so entirely at his ease that she could be none 
 the less so. She found herself seated at the 
 piano ere well aware of what she undertook ; 
 but glancing towards the spot where Sir Al- 
 lenne yet held smiling contention, between 
 a spectacle so rare and pleasant as two young 
 people enjoying themselves, and the after-din- 
 ner nap which claimed him — her nervousness 
 vanished. 
 
 With Sir Allenne Morpheus conquered ;
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 85 
 
 and neither of the solo songs by the lady and 
 the gentleman, or the duet which followed, 
 shortened the complement of his pleasant 
 periodical slumber. 
 
 When at length he awoke, the charms of 
 music had been superseded by quieter charms; 
 there issued from the opposite side of the 
 apartment a delicious mollified laughter, which 
 Sir Allenne mistaking for the voice of some 
 person reading aloud in the room, subject 
 to a jerking action at intervals, was incapable 
 of fairly comprehending. 
 
 " Magdalen, my dear Magdalen," cried Sir 
 Allenne, when he returned to perceptible 
 things, ^^how long, think you, have I slept?" 
 
 " Too long, my dear sir, I must confess to 
 you," merrily replied Richard Melhuish ; '^ but 
 I found myself incapable of the strength of 
 mind necessary to curtail your felicity, so 
 Miss Magdalen kindly took measures to secure 
 you from draughts." 
 
 Hereupon Sir Allenne disencumbered him- 
 self of a series of anti-maccasars, which,
 
 86 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 curiously without his knowledge, had encased 
 his shoulders and head, presenting as he did 
 so a still more grotesque appearance than 
 when thus arrayed. 
 
 *^I trust," continued Richard Melhuish, 
 " you will not be a sufferer from the last de- 
 lightful hour ; but I must perforce say Adieu ! 
 for half Dryburgh has perhaps been searched 
 by this time for my undiscoverable self. No 
 one would expect to find me thus long tres- 
 passing upon the sweets of Manor-house. I 
 must away instantly — but not before entreat- 
 ing you, Sir AUenne, to spare my mother 
 your charming niece to-morrow morning. Oh, 
 not at all too suddenly — you are mistaken, I 
 assure you. Our whole family are prepared 
 to receive Miss Havering. Good night. Sir 
 AUenne — good night." 
 
 The door closed with a slight strain. The 
 buoyant light tread died away. 
 
 " And now," cried Sir AUenne, " what 
 have you to say, my Mag, of your first ac- 
 quaintance in Dryburgh ? "
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 87 
 
 ** Indeed, Uncle Allenne, you must not 
 expect me to lithograph everyone I see." 
 
 " No, my dear, yet admit that Richard is 
 very pleasant society." 
 
 " Without doubt — he is very agreeable ; 
 but now, my dear and kind darling, as I am 
 aware of your habits I will^ get me away to 
 my room." 
 
 " You are at home here, my love, and can 
 always do precisely as you please." 
 
 "Always?" said Magdalen, lightly. 
 
 " My dear, do not urge me to imprudent 
 vows." Then the old man added more seri- 
 ously, " Good night, Magdalen Havering — 
 take my love and my blessing." 
 
 The pair thus parted for the night; and 
 Magdalen carried to her pillow, amidst the 
 gay smiles, and light words, and bright looks 
 of Eichard Melhuish, those simple, half-solemn 
 words of Sir Allenne. 
 
 The early morning brought Mrs. and Miss 
 Melhuish to call upon Miss Haveriug. 
 
 Mrs. Melhuish liked the appearance of Miss
 
 88 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Havering upon the whole, but with a reserva- 
 tion. Miss Melhuish rather disliked the ap- 
 pearance of Miss Havering, likewise with a 
 reservation. Miss Havering unscrupulously 
 liked both those ladies very much. 
 
 Sir Allenne was invited to escort his niece 
 to the Rectory that evening to dinner, the 
 latter to remain there. Sir Allenne, half re- 
 gretful, half flattered, acceded. Magdalen 
 was tolerably free from vanity ; of actual 
 consideration of her claims to the agreeable, 
 she was indeed absolutely guiltless, which is 
 saying more than would appear upon the 
 first hearing. To her dress she was indifferent 
 compared with most women, young and old. 
 If her robe fitted well, and were commonly 
 becoming, her ambition on that head was 
 satisfied. 
 
 Great variety in these things was unknown 
 to her. Hitherto in her life it had been un- 
 necessary, as her own good taste continued 
 to hold it ; consequently Frances Mel- 
 huish, who had anticipated a partial eclipse
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 89 
 
 in attire, if not in personal attraction, found 
 herself very redundant in a rich silk dress 
 with ornaments, by the side of Magdalen, who 
 had had no thought to wear other than a new 
 white muslin, which Ellen Biggs, who fashioned 
 her dresses, made in a very great hurry, when 
 her mistress came off from Hazlewood. 
 
 Miss Melhuish, aged twenty, the eldest 
 daughter of her family, and engaged to be 
 married to Colonel Peebles, now on a visit at 
 the Eectory, is considered a great beauty ; 
 and if propriety of feature, so to speak, a fine 
 complexion, and fine hair, added to a graceful 
 figure, comprise beauty, she must undoubt- 
 edly possess it ; yet her face appeared but a 
 common picture beside the unquestionably 
 plainer face of Magdalen Havering. 
 
 Magdalen could not have boasted either of 
 her complexion or her hair, though both 
 were above the medium. Her figure was so 
 tall, and her habits latterly either so languid 
 or so indolent, that she possessed little style 
 or grace; yet her very disorder, though cal-
 
 90 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 culated to irritate the fashionist, might he 
 irresistihly piquant to many used-up denizens 
 of mode. 
 
 Mrs. Melhuish did not fear for her daughter, 
 but her daughter feared for herself; while 
 Colonel Peebles, suspecting that his conduct 
 was scrutinized by his betrothed (to whom he 
 was sincerely attached), abstained from more 
 than the commonest attentions to Miss Haver- 
 ing. Two strangers were at dinner — Mr. 
 Thornley and Miss Thornley — both young 
 persons. Mr. Reginald Thornley was not 
 nearly so attractive to Magdalen as her first 
 acquaintance, Kichard Melhuish, though he 
 was decidedly a handsomer man, and of 
 greater pretensions ; but Eichard Melhuish, 
 though quite as delighted with Sir Allenne's 
 niece as on the previous evening, did not im- 
 prove the favourable impression her first 
 and more private view of him had given her. 
 Her interest persisted in centering itself on 
 the only gentle ai an who paid her no devoirs, 
 and the only lady who amused her in the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 91 
 
 room. Perhaps it was the fact of their being 
 affianced which moved the fancies of Mag- 
 dalen towards them. It must be remembered 
 she had scanned few love passages ; the ante- 
 cedent time to Alicia^s marriage Magdalen 
 could scarcely recollect, but her father was at 
 home then, he having had an illness which 
 detained him from joining the troops till the 
 eve of the engagement which proved fatal to 
 him — and Magdalen was his constant com- 
 panion. Nor could she now imagine that the 
 courtship of Mr. Monckton and Alicia would 
 have interested the observers. 
 
 Colonel Peebles was a man of thirty-five, 
 a distinguished-looking, soldierly personage, 
 whose portrait, accidentally seen, would have 
 furnished Magdalen with a subject for a 
 fortnight's dreams. I never heard that she 
 attempted to describe him, but I know that 
 Miss Melhuish and her family called him *^ a 
 handsome and elegant fellow" (handsome and 
 elegant, by-the-way, do not occur well to- 
 gether) ; but from the stanzas now composed by
 
 d2 
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Magdalen we learn, casually, that the Colonel 
 enjoyed a pair of searching dark eyes, almost 
 wholly exempt from the smiles, which, occa- 
 sionally we presume, must have enlivened his 
 face (certainly he wore moustaches), for the 
 Colonel was of a cheerful disposition. His 
 voice was an excellent organ. It is evident 
 that Magdalen was accustomed to hear it, as 
 he charged at the head of a devoted company, 
 and more than once his word of command 
 must have dashed the vision of the victory 
 from before the eyes of the slumberer, leaving 
 her only her own star-lighted chamber to be 
 peopled with the foemen and the ranks of the 
 brave, and Lawrence Peebles riding amidst 
 pennons — Lawrence Peebles everywhere pre- 
 eminent, as but now she saw him in her 
 dream. 
 
 Colonel Peebles talked little. On appeal 
 he had ever an opinion, but otherwise he 
 tacitly lent his ear to the sallies of Frances 
 Melhuish, and did certainly afford a legitimate 
 subject for Magdalen's extravjiganzas.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 93 
 
 Mrs. Melhuish had rather an alarming 
 party on her hands. Sir Allenne thought it 
 was a curious fancy to ask his niece when the 
 house was revolutionized preparatory to the 
 pending wedding ; but Sir Allenne always 
 checked himself when tempted to reflect upon 
 the motives of other people, and was indeed 
 quite content that his niece should thus be 
 visiting at the Rectory. 
 
 As Miss Havering of the Bower was a per- 
 son of unquestionable importance, and as the 
 gentlemen who had yet met her pronounced 
 her, unconditionally, " a fine girl ; " more espe- 
 cially as every one was well aware of the 
 exact amount of her large fortune, dinner and 
 evening parties in her honour succeeded each 
 other incessantly. The mornings were em- 
 ployed in walking, riding, and driving, to 
 make calls, or to explore the neighbourhood ; 
 and Sir Allenne lived in a maze of surprise 
 and satisfaction at the eclat created by Mag- 
 dalen. Now he could scarcely catch his 
 niece disengaged, though she found oppor-
 
 94 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 tunities to let him know that he was not 
 going to be neglected. Rushing in upon him 
 when he least expected her, and giving him 
 a minimum of time, the good baronet queried 
 what could be the reason that now the girl 
 showed this zest for society, while at Havering, 
 where was accessible the whole circle of her 
 late father's friends, not a creature could win 
 her to visit them. 
 
 Richard Melhuish had just sufficient sense 
 to preserve him in the juncture, when the 
 commonest sense so often fails a man ; and he 
 did not commit the folly to which circum- 
 stances goaded him— there required but the 
 slightest admixture of real sympathy between 
 them, and he had been blindly devoted, per- 
 haps through life, to this Magdalen ; but he 
 did not find that single admixture, thanks to 
 the inexperience of the maiden, who saw in 
 him only a pleasant companion, who preserved 
 her from a species of awkwardness that, 
 without him, she might have experienced, as 
 a disengaged guest in a house where a play
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 95 
 
 was enacting, soon to be un fait accompli. 
 
 Their staple subject of conversation was 
 generally Colonel Peebles ; of him, his rela- 
 tionships, his conduct, his character, his im- 
 pression upon herself, Magdalen — the foolish 
 girl — allowed herself to talk incessantly, in a 
 manner which the faintest reminder from the 
 lips of an older woman would have frozen at 
 once and for ever. 
 
 But Magdalen was a rudderless boat, tossed 
 at the mercy of every light wave ; and there 
 was no one to take the upper hand of her, 
 and tell her how perilous a course she ran — 
 nay, how noble she was found; this latter would 
 have sufficed to hoist her off some of her 
 quicksands. She did not know — how should 
 she ? — that, weighed in equal scales with the 
 other, her fundamental rectitude would sink 
 to the furthermost depths that indiscriminate 
 wordiness, mistaken by Colonel Peebles for 
 principle, in the mechanism of his betrothed. 
 Frances, poor maiden ! embraced as she was 
 taught them the tenets of her worldly mother.
 
 96 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 The good Rector, a man of the pulpit and the 
 study, was almost a nonentity in his family. 
 It had been a deep project with Mrs. Mel- 
 huish to install her daughter at the Abbey, 
 which Colonel Peebles would enjoy after his 
 mother's demise ; that project approached its 
 accomplishment. Frances had ably seconded 
 her mother's matrimonial intentions for her, 
 and success crowned their hopes. She looked 
 forward impatiently for the consummation, 
 with no tangible impression, to say the most, 
 of the real man she was to marry ; but to be 
 the mistress of so fine a mansion, and the 
 wife of a man so distinguished, surpassed all 
 her early dreams. 
 
 Colonel Peebles fell into the Melhuish 
 plot thus : — 
 
 His mother wished him to marry : he 
 wished for a home. He cared not to seek a 
 wife in London society. A terrible tragedy 
 had been enacted in his family — its heroine a 
 lady of renown in that vortex : his brother s 
 tears had fallen upon his face — his brother's
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 97 
 
 heart had broken beneath his eyes. Colonel 
 Peebles had felt, and seen, and was warned. 
 The daughter of a country clergyman, who 
 possessed beauty, and appeared very amiable, 
 afforded him an opportunity he did not pre- 
 sume to slight. 
 
 " The affairs of man, taken at the current, 
 Lead oli to fortune." 
 
 Colonel Peebles believed his own had 
 reached the culminating point. He was fa- 
 tigued with hanging about the clubs, dis- 
 gusted with a man of fashion's life in 
 general. The idea of a peaceful and virtuous 
 home took possession of his mind. He anti- 
 cipated with perfect trust that Frances Mel- 
 huish woidd form for him that home for which 
 he sighed. He was not an investigator of 
 character, else had he acted more cautiously. 
 
 Nor was Mrs. Peebles of the Abbey less 
 insanely confiding than her son. The exem- 
 plary character of Mr. Melhuish of Dryburgh 
 was acknowledged far and near : the old lady 
 reposed calmly in the pleasant thought that 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 his daughter resembled him, and relinquished 
 all anxiety for her dear son in visions of young, 
 pure womanhood, such as was worthy of Law- 
 rence ; for she yearned to look upon the faces 
 of children born to her husband's house, ere, 
 in a ripe old age, she should be called away to 
 give them place. 
 
 Frances Melhuish came with her father to 
 arouse for herself the ready sympathies of the 
 virtuous aged lady. The good clergyman 
 was a guest after the old lady's own heart. 
 She saw his daughter under cover of the 
 Rector's unpretending goodness — saw her, too, 
 under the happiest auspices : was it wonderful 
 that the would-be bride should not find it 
 difficult to fascinate this mother — her lover's 
 adoring parent — when that lover, distinguished 
 and devoted, stood by her side ? 
 
 A blessing from the depths of a yearning 
 heart descended on the head of the minister's 
 daughter, who henceforth looked upon Myn- 
 dale Abbey as her own ; but could Dorothy 
 Peebles have glanced into the girl's cold heart,
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 99 
 
 she would rather have slain with her own 
 hands, her son, ** distinguished and devoted," 
 than she would have tightened the chains that 
 so ruefully bound him. 
 
 And so Lawrence Peebles fell placidly into 
 his lot, and indulged pleasant fancies, which 
 from time to time he imparted to his fair be- 
 trothed, who, mentally resolving that a change 
 should come over his spirit when once the 
 ring was on her finger, offered the tenderest 
 responses to his visions of a peaceful life. 
 
 Mrs. Peebles had stipulated that no other 
 home should be prepared for Lawrence and 
 his bride than Myndale Abbey, which was far 
 too large for her own individual requirements ; 
 so, having few preliminary steps to take, the 
 Colonel was a very constant visitor at the 
 Rectory, and the weeks sped faster and ever 
 faster, until, with the appearance of Magdalen 
 Havering, the last month was entered upon. 
 Magdalen's intimacy with the Colonel's be- 
 trothed progressed very slowly indeed; but 
 the father, mother, and brother of Frances 
 
 h2
 
 100 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 atoned, by their double attention to their 
 visitor, for excusable pre-occupation. 
 
 Mr. Melhuish indeed showed a special lik- 
 ing for Magdalen. He carried her oif to walk 
 with him whenever he found opportunity, to 
 the annoyance of his lady wife, whose mater- 
 nal eye descried in the distance other marital 
 possibilities, and had no disposition to preclude 
 to her son an alliance so brilliant in all re- 
 spects as that of Miss Havering of the Bower. 
 
 The Rector employed these opportunities 
 in conversations, which, without any effort, he 
 made more engrossing to Magdalen than those 
 she held with his son; for Richard had 
 wearied of the name of Colonel Peebles, and 
 was almost hopeless of kindling in Magdalen 
 that interest for which he sighed ; perfectly 
 unreserved with him in general things, she 
 grew wider every day from that silent sym- 
 pathy Richard watched and waited to detect. 
 So his father now conversed with Magdalen 
 oftener than he did himself 
 
 Conversed ; for to him she spoke of the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 101 
 
 parents who went down to the grave early — 
 a subject seldom approached ; of the brother, 
 so different to most young men, so commonly 
 uncompanionable and unambitious, who latterly 
 relieving his family of some of their anxieties 
 respecting him, had become curiously es- 
 tranged from them. 
 
 Mr. Melhuish proffered suggestions, which 
 Magdalen considered perfect, of the prudence 
 required in those persons whose natural pro- 
 tectors are no more ; while he called by new 
 names the propensities of Rupert, most of 
 which he seemed to consider as venial, bene- 
 volent and sage that he was. 
 
 She even came to speak of that mysterious 
 attache who had established a jurisdiction 
 over Rupert Havering, whose position only 
 Philip had ventured to question, yet whom no 
 one confided in or comprehended. 
 
 This topic was a field for grave conjecture 
 to the Rector ; he gave slight scope to his 
 tongue in speaking with Magdalen, but the 
 apprehensions with which it filled him did not
 
 102 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 die away. He sought from Sir Allenne a 
 solution of the doubts which Magdalen's ex- 
 pressions gave rise to ; the Rector and Sir 
 Allenne had been personal friends half a life- 
 time ; yet Sir Allenne was shocked at the 
 thoughtlessness of Magdalen when she thus 
 exposed family affairs, and decisively tabooed 
 the subject. 
 
 By this time the first fire of Magdalen's 
 passion for Annunciata Egerton had exhausted 
 its own heat, and she the more readily for 
 this imbibed a certain education from the 
 Rector, which was good, pure, and sagacious.
 
 103 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 It has ever been among the weaknesses of 
 weak women to consort with their Abigails. 
 But it does not follow that a woman 
 must be weak ere she so dishonour herself. 
 
 Frances Melhuish was by no means weak, 
 yet she was guilty of this weakness. Her 
 waiting-woman, intent upon filling that 
 post at Myndale Abbey which upon a more 
 prescribed scale she now held at Dryburgh 
 Rectory, was not slow to flatter the foibles of 
 Frances, and to worm herself into the secrets 
 which perhaps that young lady might have 
 had the grace to attempt to hide from her 
 servant. 
 
 None knew better than Mrs. Barrow that
 
 104 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Colonel Peebles individually was not the load- 
 star which attracted her young mistress or her 
 lady-mother ; and this knowledge afforded 
 Mrs. Barrow satisfaction equivalent to its 
 importance. It so happened that Colonel 
 Peebles had displayed a scornful dislike of 
 this woman, for which she, on her part, had 
 resolved that he should eventually suffer. 
 
 Sauntering through the hall one morning, 
 Colonel Peebles observed this person busily 
 perusing a letter, surreptitiously too, or the 
 Colonel was no physiognomist. Now, although 
 he was so much at the Rectory, he found it 
 necessary on occasion to write letters to Miss 
 Melhuish ; and his suspicion, nay, conviction, 
 that he knew very well the wide lines and 
 large characters but now displayed within his 
 view, made themselves felt doubtless; for Mrs. 
 Barrow, whose eyes met his own, proceeded 
 to astonish the Colonel with much uncalled- 
 for information, to the effect that her late 
 dear husband^s cousin tormented her year by 
 year for money, *^ knowing her good-will to
 
 MAODALEN HAVERING. 105 
 
 help him, poor soul ! when he hadn^t another 
 friend." 
 
 Colonel Peebles swept from the scene of 
 this circumstance to relate the same in un- 
 quiet tones to his betrothed ; she, speculating 
 upon the possibility that something defiant 
 might be cradled after all in the breast of her 
 deluded suitor, replied more indifferently than 
 wisely, that all her letters from the Colonel 
 lay at that moment in her dressing-table ; 
 also, that indeed poor Barrow was incapable of 
 such an impertinence as this that was laid to 
 her charge. The mention of a dressing-table 
 drawer was not felicitous, especially as the 
 Colonel had a fixed opinion that all letters of 
 any importance should be kept under lock 
 and key ; and he suspected shrewdly that a 
 key to that table might not be deemed need- 
 ful by his mistress. 
 
 To the surprise of the Colonel, this incident, 
 and his own annoyance thereat, made no im- 
 pression on Miss Melhuish, beyond an expla- 
 nation which she briefly tendered for Barrow
 
 106 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 warming her fingers by the hall-stove which 
 mornings and evenings, although it was May, 
 ministered to the comfort of the house- 
 hold. 
 
 He resolved (mentally, like Frances's spe- 
 culations) that this waiting-woman should 
 not follow his wife to her new home, and dis- 
 missed the subject from his mind. He had, 
 however, observed before and after that oc- 
 currence a distrait in the manner of his 
 chosen one, which to his nonexigeant notions 
 could not but be remarkable in a person 
 whose maiden engagements were so soon to 
 terminate in the sacred rite of marriage ; a 
 forgetfulness of lightly-worded wishes of his 
 own ; a decision of voice in speaking to her 
 parents ; a disregard of her young lady visitor, 
 which declared themselves to the eye, so slow 
 to discover these faults, of the too-trusting 
 lover. 
 
 Then came the dull ache, the disquietude, 
 the misgiving, slight inuendoes, no more, to 
 the mother who loved him as her life, utterly
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 107 
 
 unperceived bj her, and choked by the fairest 
 hopes, the tenderest anticipations. Then Law- 
 rence Peebles strove to cast a less anxious 
 eye upon the future partner of his life, and 
 half successful, soliloquised that the lot of 
 man at best is imperfect bliss, building up 
 himself to brave resolves, which should win 
 or bend this girl, so young, and therefore 
 impressible, from any faulty disposition she 
 might inherit from the fall. 
 
 During this time it is not to be supposed 
 that, because Colonel Peebles was to marry 
 Miss Melhuish, he was wholly oblivious of the 
 presence of Miss Havering. A young woman 
 in many respects remarkable, possessing indi- 
 viduality to an extraordinary degree, is an 
 object of curiosity, to say the least, to most 
 men. 
 
 At dinner Colonel Peebles, seated by 
 Frances, could not but perceive that the lady 
 opposite presented an agreeable aspect, espe- 
 cially as Richard Melhuish, who generally sat 
 beside her, allowed her to be silent but
 
 108 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 seldom ; and she looked very well when she 
 talked. 
 
 At the piano it was impossible to deny 
 that Magdalen acquitted herself in a manner 
 which the performance of Miss Melhuish did 
 not rival. Mrs. Champneys, an excellent mu- 
 sician, had ably seconded great natural talent; 
 and there was an eclat in the playing of 
 her pupil which no professor had been able 
 to bestow on Mrs. Melhuish's daughter. 
 Frances, after the first uneasiness respect- 
 ing the loyalty of her adorer, had, with a sul- 
 tana-like disregard, ceased to be disturbed by 
 any slight attention he was pleased to bestow 
 upon Magdalen ; she would graciously smile 
 upon Miss Havering, and exchange a few 
 remarks with her, as she viewed from a 
 distance the elegant figure of the Colonel, 
 and congratulated herself on securing so 
 unexceptional a match. But Magdalen, losing 
 her girlish simplicity, yet lacking the womanly 
 self-possession, made a study interesting if it 
 were not perilous to the yet unmarried man,
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 109 
 
 who in other circumstances would have been 
 delighted to unite his soprano with the tenor 
 of this singer, for he was no inferior vocalist, 
 yet abstained now from so doing. For Mag- 
 dalen — she had already steeped her pillow with 
 her foolish, inevitable tears, because, having 
 found her beau-ideal, she found him lost to 
 her for ever. She had long since imparted 
 to her only confidante, Annunciata, the his- 
 tory of her blighted heart ; and that confi- 
 dante, sheltered by the rights of friendship, 
 bemoaned her friend^s misfortune with dulcet 
 gravity, yearning to be once more by her 
 side, ** to prove herself as faithful in sorrow 
 as ever she had been in joy." 
 
 The letters of Alicia reached Magdalen 
 duly. In after-years those letters were 
 numbered on the corner of their envelopes to 
 define their rights of succession, so highly 
 they arose in value, so distinct was each of 
 them ; but now on delivery they offered 
 nothing acceptable to their recipient Tidings 
 of the little children — where they walked, and
 
 110 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 what were their games — her own occupations, 
 and sometimes the comings and goings of the 
 master — these comprised the first portion ; 
 then the fond sisterly pen digressed into brief, 
 anxious counsels, which fell with less power 
 iA that heedless time than the themes that 
 came before — yet all were poems, read and 
 learned in a later day, when the costliest 
 things were less valued by Magdalen than one 
 stroke of that silent pen. 
 
 But Magdalen increased in age at the rate 
 of a month in a day during her visit at the 
 Melhuish\«; ; and being — poor child ! — really 
 unhappy, having worked herself into the cre- 
 dence that she had been bom unfortunate, the 
 wonder is that she did not betray to one or 
 other of the people round her the constant 
 bent of her thoughts. But no rose in the 
 Turkey carpet lay silenter in its place than 
 now the soft heart of Magdalen. When 
 earlier she talked to Richard Melhuish of her 
 idol, it was with the purest simplicity, and 
 her very delight in speaking so freely blinded
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. Ill 
 
 the eyes of the love-sick youth ; but all that 
 had long since ceased. No marble image 
 gives forth less tongue than did that same 
 soft heart of Magdalen from its buried re- 
 cesses now. She wanted a full-grown woman^s 
 ways, their ease, and grace, and thousand 
 acquirements, yet was she a true woman with 
 all her faults. To meet the demands of her 
 fate she indulged in all sorts of reveries, but 
 she never for a moment contemplated the 
 possible disruption of those ties which bound 
 to another person her own imaginary idol. 
 On the contrary, although her acquaintance 
 with Frances did not in the least degree 
 mature, her impressions of Miss Melhuish 
 remained flattering, while she reciprocated 
 Mrs. Melhuish's kindnesses by a very sincere 
 regard. 
 
 Affairs were in this state, and Magdalen was 
 anticipating to act in character of bridesmaid 
 at the marriage — for the last act that would 
 have occurred to her would have been to run 
 away, and thus sever herself from the focus
 
 112 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 whence radiated her miseries — when an inci- 
 dent, bold in the annals of Abigails, occupied 
 honest Mrs. Barrow, and probably aided im- 
 perceptibly the outward bearing of events. 
 
 Mrs. Barrow, whose attentions to Mr. Miles, 
 Colonel Peebles's valet, had for sometime past 
 been such as to negative the designs of any 
 other person (did such a one exist) upon the 
 hand of that lady, suggested to her favoured 
 swain the felicity it would afford her to take 
 a drive over to Myndale. Mr. Miles demurred, 
 in the first instance, for the Colonel was on 
 no account to know of the jaunt, and the 
 Colonel's servants were slow to deceive a 
 master they sincerely respected. But Mr. 
 Miles being simply human, succumbed to his 
 fair enchantress. Mrs. Barrow got leave of 
 absence to shop at the town of Bidderford, and 
 the Colonel's ** own man," having hired a gig 
 for the occasion, had the privilege of driving 
 the charming Barrow through the green lanes 
 to Myndale. Doubtless, the hedge-rows 
 abounding with blossom, and the voices of
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 113 
 
 innumerable May birds singing, lent added 
 charms to the hour ; be that as it may, the 
 pair reached Myndale in high spirits. In the 
 second role, however, Mrs. Barrow, notwith- 
 standing precedent, did not carry the day. 
 She could not prevail with Mr. Miles to dis- 
 pense altogether with ceremony, and take her 
 to dine at the Abbey. She had to be content 
 with walking round it ; and the remainder of 
 the day she passed with Mrs. Harris at the 
 shop, whose first husband had really been con- 
 nected with the late Mr. Barrow's family. 
 
 The intention of this intricate escapade 
 must have succeeded to the full, for while 
 Miss Melhuish passed through the operation 
 of hair-dressing, on the night following that 
 trip, she was treated to a lengthy homily on 
 the frailties of mankind in general, but espe- 
 cially of " gentlemen.'' Frances was roused 
 by a sally, more pertinent, as it seemed, than 
 the threadbare topic warranted, to demand 
 the gist which she knew all this pathos only 
 robed. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 " Oh, it is nothing of the very slightest 
 consequence to me, Miss, that you may be 
 quite certain of, except as regarding ray 
 natural feelings towards you ; but it w 
 right," she continued, in a higher key, *^ that 
 a lady like yourself should see what lies 
 before her." 
 
 ** How intolerable you are, Barrow ! Why 
 don't you speak out, and let me know at 
 once what all this preamble stands for. Is 
 the Colonel married to somebody else ? " 
 
 " Goodness gracious. Miss Melhuish ! — no, 
 I should think not ! — coming to Dryburgh here 
 to court you ! — no, not that kind of thing at 
 all, but very different." 
 
 ** I desire you'll say what you mean — why 
 don't you do it without so much trouble?" 
 
 ** Well, Miss, the Colonel's character (not 
 that / wish to take it away) won't bear look- 
 ing into." 
 
 " Stuff and nonsense ! — hold your tongue, 
 Barrow, and recollect it is past six o'clock, if 
 you please."
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 115 
 
 " Certainly, Miss Melhuish," replied the 
 aggrieved Barrow. 
 
 Presently Miss Melhuish, being suitably 
 attired for the dinner-party assembling below, 
 condescended once more to bid her Abigail 
 unfold herself. 
 
 " It is a current report in Myndale, Miss 
 Melhuish, and so you must believe it, you 
 know." 
 
 " What do you mean ? '* 
 
 " The Colonel has a little establishment 
 there, which he will need to break up on his 
 marriage, Miss." 
 
 *^ A little establishment ! What of — tame 
 monkeys and a magpie ? Nothing more mis- 
 chievous, I hope." 
 
 *' You joke, Miss, to hide your feelings 
 from your old and faithful servant. No, Miss. 
 It's a young woman and two children, who 
 live inside the very gates — that is to say, in 
 the gardener's cottage. Now, isn't that impu- 
 dence ! " 
 
 Frances Melhuish was not a delicate- 
 
 I 2
 
 116 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 minded young lady, nevertheless she was 
 sensibly shocked by this. 
 
 " Where did you learn this unlikely story, 
 Barrow, pray ? " 
 
 *^ I learnt it from my own cousin, who, as I 
 told you, if you remember. Miss, resides in 
 Myndale village." 
 
 " I don't remember anything about it. She 
 must be a vulgar, unprincipled creature, or 
 she would not disclose such a peculiar circum- 
 stance to any one in my service." 
 
 " La, Miss, we are like sisters — and she 
 has known my devotion to you long before 
 ever Colonel Peebles came across you or me ; 
 and of course, Miss Melhuish, if I didn't know 
 your strong mind, I shouldn't confide such a 
 secret to you. My dear lady ! — do not fear, 
 with me by your side, and once in Myndale 
 Abbey, you will triumph ovQr all your enemies, 
 old Mrs. Peebles at the head of them. Only 
 promise me nobody shall part me from you, 
 and all the rest is nothing." And the faithful 
 creature shed two tears.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 117 
 
 " Do not think of anything so monstrous I — 
 there's a good creature, Barrow. No, not even 
 Colonel Peebles shall separate you from my 
 service, take my assurance of that." 
 
 ^^God bless you, my sweet young lady. The 
 Colonel is an artful man (this proves it be- 
 yond doubt), and I could not tell but he 
 might prevail with a lady like yourself, in 
 your circumstances — (but, to be sure, what I 
 have told you makes some difference) — to dis- 
 miss your poor Barrow when you leave Dry- 
 burgh, as I know he wishes." 
 
 "Nonsense, Barrow ! — do not think your- 
 self of so much importance in Colonel Pee- 
 bles's eyes." 
 
 " Well, ma'am, you know the best," de- 
 murely. 
 
 Miss Melhuish descended to the drawing- 
 room, where her guests were now assembled, 
 and there lingered in her mind scarce a trace 
 of the momentary shock her organization had 
 received, in learning that she was not the sole 
 claimant to the cares of Colonel Peebles.
 
 118 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 That she would clear the ground of her rival it 
 had taken few seconds to resolve ; but — there 
 is first to happen a preliminary, important in 
 what should follow — that significant marriage 
 ceremony ; for even Mrs. Melhuish has a dis- 
 agreeable proverb — " There is many a 
 slip," &c.
 
 119 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 On the following day Colonel Peebles was riding 
 at a foot pace over the glebe lands of Dryburgh, 
 having taken leave of his affianced for a cou- 
 ple of days, on his return to the Abbey, dis- 
 tant fourteen miles, through a woodland and vil- 
 lages, whose charms, he suspected, would not 
 add to his mind*s serenity. 
 
 As he stooped to open the last gate two 
 persons were within his sight : one, Richard 
 Melhuish, on horseback, bound for the neigh- 
 bouring post town, who instantly disappeared 
 at the turn of the high road leading thither ; 
 the other, Miss Havering, on foot, rambling 
 now along the hedge-row, totally unconscious 
 of the vicinity of any other person.
 
 120 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 The start she gave on the near approach of 
 the grave horseman sufficiently attested her 
 innocence of intentionally meeting him ; and 
 she would have passed on with a brief *^ good- 
 bye, Colonel Peebles," had she followed her own 
 course ; but Colonel Peebles was amused to 
 have thus encountered the young lady, 
 and very pardonably held in his horse to ex- 
 change a few words with her. And as their 
 rencontre was singular, so his address was 
 very singular; singular, inasmuch as their 
 intercourse had been so very limited. 
 
 "Whither hies the gallant youth, Miss Mag- 
 dalen, to whom I fear you are so cruel ! The 
 passing separation of those who love is a dread- 
 ful ingredient in the love." 
 
 " Yes," replied Magdalen, oblivious of the 
 opening sentence, and her fancy flew back to 
 the Rectory drawing-room. Still, she could 
 not fancy Frances so dreadful a sufferer. 
 
 *'What a weighty thought accompanied 
 that little word ' Yes/ Miss Havering I " 
 " All the world, did it not, Colonel Peebles?"
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 121 
 
 was the somewhat bewildering reply ; for she 
 thought of the raarriage-proposal of Colonel 
 Peebles to Miss Melhuish. 
 
 " Nay — (lid it, fair lady ? It is you only 
 who can answer;*' and the gallant Colonel 
 thought only of young Richard Melhuish. 
 
 *'Sir! — Colonel Peebles! — Lawrence!" cried 
 Magdalen — ** oh ! say those words again ! " 
 
 And she laid her two hands upon his bridle- 
 rein, and gave a glance upward of her great 
 blue eyes, that startled the Colonel from his 
 pleasantry. He stood the next moment upon 
 the green by her side, considering with a pierc- 
 ing eye the wonderful testament the tablet of 
 her eyes made for him, ere yet surprise, curi- 
 osity, pleasure, gave place to a sense of the 
 grave impropriety — nay, ridicule — in which 
 a few heedless words had instantaneously in- 
 volved him. But Magdalen's whole soul was 
 on her lips. 
 
 As her education in proprieties conventional 
 was small, and as she often acted without prece- 
 dent, now she assumed an ever-unprecedented
 
 122 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 step. For while Lawrence Peebles was yet 
 breathless, and failed to realize the full force of 
 their relative belongings — moved perhaps (for 
 he was but mortal, thirty -five, and betrothed to 
 a cold-hearted woman) by the wild romance 
 of a courser bitted and bridled, held by a 
 woman's trembling hands among the brush- 
 wood, she poured into his — Lawrence 
 Peebles' — ears, the tale which momentary 
 madness forced from her lips — which elected 
 himself — in her fancy, at least — lord of her 
 beating heart. 
 
 And what words they were ! 
 
 Peebles of the Guards had seen battles — 
 he had ridden races in life — but the sensation 
 was new to him with which he now struggled 
 to recall this innocent girl to her more worthy 
 self. 
 
 She told him, how, the first night of her 
 coming, she had singled him from others ; how 
 she had been busy in awarding to him every 
 noble characteristic ; how she had striven to 
 convince herself that — that — Miss Melhuish
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 123 
 
 was worthy of him ; how she had marked the 
 looks and words of each, nor dreamed but 
 that each had elected the other ; how she had 
 struggled to banish this wild love from her 
 soul ; how it would exist there ; how it caused 
 her to pray for his happiness ; how it taught 
 her to despise all others ; how dark and deso- 
 late it showed her her own life. 
 
 For how long that wonderful and syren 
 tongue trilled forth its exhaustless measures 
 — rising, falling, deepening, softening — the 
 birds and the bees might know, perchance, or 
 the vagrant sheep on the Rector's lands — but 
 Lawrence Peebles knew not. 
 
 And he had not removed his gaze from the 
 fair young face, so fearless, radiant, yet withal 
 so troubled ; for ought he not (had her inter- 
 pretation been correct) long ere now have 
 held her in his arms, and blessed her amidst 
 his kisses? — yet had he maintained that 
 grave space between them, and the brute 
 beast's head was nearer her blushing face 
 than ever his lips might come. Yet not
 
 124 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 for the life of him — for his manhood and for 
 
 her peace — could he stay by a single breath 
 
 this that came artlessly welling, a pure and 
 
 liquid tide, against all the formality of that 
 
 woman's demonstrations whose husband he 
 
 was to be. 
 
 At length she drew a long breath — the 
 
 wild and foolish girl — exhausted by the sudden 
 
 dubious awful relation she perceived herself 
 
 to have made in return for a few trite words. 
 
 In that momentary pause a change passed 
 
 over her — her lips grew pale, her figure rigid. 
 
 She read upon a tablet, unmistakable as her 
 
 own blue eyes had been, that — that she had 
 
 deceived herself! 
 
 Would the earth not unclose and mercifully 
 hide her from his sight? Would not the 
 trees envelop her ? — the very sky have pity, 
 and darken the noontide light ? Mag- 
 dalen — Magdalen ! 
 
 Was there any word for Lawrence Peebles 
 to utter? Fairly it seemed there was none. 
 The galley-slave's chain is lighter to him than
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERIXG. 125 
 
 those that bound Colonel Lawrence at that 
 moment. All earth — the trees, the sky, the 
 air were darkened — but not as Magdalen 
 would have had them darkened. 
 
 Thej enclosed in pitiless folds one who 
 could no more be enfranchised, one who 
 would be ever a slave. It was a woman such 
 as Magdalen Havering whom his mother 
 ought to have blest — not you, cold Frances 
 Melhuish. It is not unusual for a woman 
 receiving a declaration of love instantly and 
 purely to accept it, though she may not have 
 loved the inspirer one moment anterior. As 
 truly as when her voice died away Colonel 
 Peebles believed her his happier destiny, so 
 solemnly was he assured that until this fatal 
 rencontre she had not entered his heart. 
 But these thoughts with both have been the 
 work of a moment — and which shall now first 
 speak? Magdalen will vanish, she will die, 
 she will away to the woods, she will afar to 
 the river, any way, any where, unseen by 
 him ! Are her feet riveted to the violet-
 
 126 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 crowned sward? Are her fingers glued to 
 the courser's rein ? And where is the memory 
 of the claims of his affianced, that he cannot 
 take one step in the matter ? 
 
 At length, " Miss Havering," said he, and 
 his voice was as the voice of the dead, *' we 
 must part instantly ! Forgive me ! — pray, 
 forgive me ! If I dared I would kneel at 
 your feet. I am truly unhappy. I do not 
 venture to say more to you than the farewell 
 which for both of us it is indeed time was 
 uttered. Do not reproach yourself — hear 
 me ! Never to your dying day — so only 
 you be true to yourself — shall you have cause 
 to lament — that — that your transparent 
 truthfulness — disclosed itself to —Lawrence 
 Peebles." 
 
 Ere she could reply the pawing horse had a 
 rider. Down to the meadow-land at her 
 feet swept the deep bow of the departing 
 one ; she heard the clink of an adjacent gate, 
 the rush of a galloping horse's feet, and there 
 was no more for the eye or the ear of Mag-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 127 
 
 dalen for some long untold space. When the 
 sun was less bright than beforetime, the 
 sheep browsed at grave distances, and the 
 violets had an odd earthy smell, Magdalen 
 arose from the ground with a stiffness and 
 numbness in her limbs, the effect of lying till 
 the fall of the dew in one position. 
 
 She was not recalled to her senses by any 
 sound, nor was any human being in sight 
 when her present condition became known to 
 her, with the remembrance of that which pro- 
 duced it. 
 
 It were a curious task to follow the af- 
 frighted spirit, wholly possessed by despair, 
 through all its mazes and windings; to perceive 
 bow many a festering plague rose to exagge- 
 rate the grievous wrong of outraged woman- 
 hood ; how there sprang to aid the young 
 errorist, memories of Cleopatra's asps — the 
 abstinence (safely at her command) denied to 
 the Marchioness Brinvilliers — a flood-like en- 
 trance into other existences, to be grasped 
 beneath the bosom of the bathing vault at
 
 128 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Havering, where one might, by accident, be 
 drowned. She was impelled, on her slow pro- 
 gress to the house, by a loathing of that syl- 
 van scene behind her, which would ever lie, 
 like a lurid plain, in her remembrance. 
 
 She was conscious of meeting several people ; 
 and one, a farm -labourer, passing that way to 
 his home, bade her cheerily. " good night.^' 
 
 On reaching her room no course appeared 
 open to her but to lie prostrate there, and 
 await what next should come. The power or 
 the will to exert herself for her pride^s sake — 
 nay, almost for her existence — was not to be 
 summoned that night. Passing down to din- 
 ner, Mrs. Melhuish, as was often her habit, 
 tapped upon her young friend's door, bidding 
 her be ready for the dinner-bell. Magdalen, 
 whose extraordinary position was assuming 
 in her eyes a nonentity, that admitted no 
 agency on her part, made no answer to that 
 summons. 
 
 The rash words that had, molten-like, es- 
 caped her lips, burned momently into her
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERING. 129 
 
 soul, and shut out every impulse which, in 
 a mind more happily regulated, would have 
 striven for the mastery. 
 
 " Miss Havering," said, softly, Mrs. Barrow, 
 when, having knocked and received no an- 
 swer, she, bent upon private business, made 
 her entry to the room, and started to see its 
 occupant coiled upon the bed. " Miss Haver- 
 ing, the dinner-bell has rung." Then, ap- 
 proaching nearer the young lady, "Dear, dear !" 
 cried she, "I am afraid you are ill, Miss 
 Havering. You walked too far and fast this 
 afternoon. Miss Havering." 
 
 " What do you say?" demanded Magdalen. 
 
 " Oh, nothing. Miss, that need alarm you." 
 
 " How dare you intrude into my room ? " 
 cried Magdalen, rising. ^ 
 
 " Goodness, Miss Havering ! — anybody 
 would think you had done what you were 
 ashamed of ! I can never remember my dear 
 Miss Melhuish having an attack of this kind!" 
 
 " Go away, I command you ! Do not come 
 near me any more, Mrs. — Mrs. " 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Mrs. Barrow retired deliberately, until the 
 door was closed between herself and her oppo- 
 nent. Then, with a positively youthful agility, 
 she betook herself to the servants' hall, where 
 she elicited the fact that Miss Havering, ex- 
 tremely fatigued or ill, had been met by Thomas, 
 the footman, half-an-hour previously ; while 
 Hannah, the housemaid, deposed to having been 
 " struck of a heap " passing Miss Havering 
 on the staircase rather later than that time, 
 and catching a glimpse of her face. Mrs. 
 Barrow was interrupted in her examinations 
 by the entrance of Ellen Biggs, who had just 
 been refused for the third time admission to 
 her mistress's room, and felt sure her young 
 lady was either ill or unhappy. Ellen being 
 ^eriously frightened, it was proposed to apprize 
 Mrs. Melhuish of this latter circumstance ; 
 so, in the course ot a few moments, Mrs. 
 Melhuish, Miss Melhuish, and others, pre- 
 sented themselves to Magdalen, who, giving 
 no account of herself, and looking exceed- 
 ingly ill, was forthwith put to bed, and Dr. 
 Horniman was sent for.
 
 131 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 There was, as Mrs. Barrow had informed her 
 mistress, a gardener's cottage in the precincts 
 of the Abbey ; and, like most such cottages 
 attached to a family mansion, it was contiguous 
 to the Abbey — that is, within the park gates. 
 And this cottage was certainly tenanted by 
 a lady, and also by two children. It is also 
 certain (but this Mrs. Barrow did not witness) 
 that, reining in his panting horse in front of 
 the stables of the Abbey, ere he sought the 
 presence of his mother, or, indeed, entered 
 the mansion, Colonel Lawrence took a private 
 pathway from the gardens, which speedily 
 brought him to the door of the cottage thus 
 mysteriously occupied ; and scarcely awaiting 
 
 k2
 
 132 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 the admission which a servant was ready to 
 give him — for his was the only gentleman's 
 foot that crushed that gravel way, and she 
 knew it very well, for it often sounded there 
 — it is also certain that Colonel Lawrence 
 Peebles entered the little dwelling, and in 
 another moment the presence of a lady, whose 
 young companions were now sleeping in their 
 beds. 
 
 This lady was engaged upon some needle- 
 work appertaining to the dress of children, 
 and had the manner of one to whom such 
 tasks are habitual. No present distress was 
 apparent in her face, but by the lines in her 
 still youthful brow she had not been a stranger 
 to care. She wore a mourning dress, and 
 that which a spirituel beholder would have 
 noticed most vividly was the delicacy and 
 beauty of her hands. They were so white, 
 and perfectly shaped, and full sized withal 
 (vulgar is the ignorance which attaches beauty 
 to a disproportionably small hand — true 
 painters shudder at so gross a perversion),
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 133 
 
 and they occupied themselves so daintily, 
 that they were acknowledged objects of won- 
 der to others besides Colonel Lawrence. These 
 hands dropt their white work for an instant 
 as the gentleman entered, and the owner said 
 softly, " Well, Lawrence ! " 
 
 Colonel Lawrence approached the round 
 table at which she was seated, and they shook 
 hands. 
 
 Then he inquired kindly after her health. 
 
 ** She was well," she thanked him. 
 
 '* And the children ? " 
 
 " They are asleep ; but are you ill, 
 Lawrence ? " 
 
 " I have an illness of which I am come to 
 speak to you." 
 
 " Indeed ! " cried the lady, instantly 
 scanning his appearance. ** Are you really 
 ill ? Mary ! " raising her voice, ^' set a chair 
 for Colonel Peebles ; " and Mary, from the 
 near apartment, obeyed the order, and re- 
 tired. 
 
 " Now, tell me the cause of your — I will
 
 134 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 not say illness — disquietude. Nothing is 
 amiss with Miss Melhuish, I hope ? " 
 
 " Nothing, and yet everything. I have 
 strange thoughts in my mind, Diana. I am 
 convinced that the marriage I contemplate is 
 unfortunate." 
 
 " What, Lawrence, is this you tell me ? " 
 
 "I see traits in my affianced which, de- 
 tected earlier, would have affected my preten- 
 sions." 
 
 " I presume there is a lover^s quarrel, my 
 good friend ? " 
 
 "Not at all. On the contrary, we parted 
 most amicably." 
 
 " Parted ! Pray explain yourself dis- 
 tinctly." 
 
 " Parted," cried the Colonel, " casually 
 of course. Would to God, Diana, it were 
 for ever ! " 
 
 " You alarm me. What causes these 
 altered sentiments?" 
 
 " Simply the rendering into reality what 
 my indolence blinded me to before. In plain
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 135 
 
 terms, Frances Melhuish is not the woman to 
 whom I supposed myself about to be united. 
 I suspect our marriage will be what I have 
 said — a misfortune." 
 
 " Is your affianced unfaithful to you ? — 
 does she love another ? If so, what is easier 
 than to annul the engagement ? " 
 
 *^ No, no— not that." 
 
 *^ And you, Lawrence ? — your heart is 
 hers ? " 
 
 ** Latterly I have imagined that at no time 
 was it hers." 
 
 " You have, then, another claimant for it ? 
 — Miss Melhuish has a rival? " 
 
 ** Not so ; that is no part of the question. 
 No claimant comes into the field." 
 
 " Women's enigmas are simple unto this 
 one, Lawrence." 
 
 " Do you still purpose to set out to-mor- 
 row ? " suddenly said the Colonel. " A sister 
 of your friends is visiting now at Dryburgh, 
 but I have not named you to her." 
 
 *' I go to-morrow ; because this week is the
 
 136 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 stipulated week for the children's visit, and 
 therefore I feel at liberty." 
 
 Colonel Peebles sighed ; and, taking the 
 seat which up to this time he had neglected, 
 he imparted to this lady all the latent doubts 
 which had sprung into his mind respecting 
 Frances Melhuish, disclosing his own indiscre- 
 tion, torpitude — nay, temporary madness, it 
 seemed to him now — down to the departure 
 of the noon just past, at which he was con- 
 vinced that, if his affianced owned any throe 
 that might be called a heart, it had no rela- 
 tionship to his ; that, in short, the marriage 
 arranged to come off in eleven days from this 
 time having gradually grown into a hete-noiry 
 it appeared an act of absolute insanity to 
 make no effort to avert it. 
 
 Diana Etherington listened in mute amaze- 
 ment to this intricate recital — how the facul- 
 ties of Colonel Lawrence had sharpened ere 
 he so dexterously depicted it I — and at its 
 close declared her inability to offer him any 
 counsel.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVEKING. 137 
 
 " Do not say so, Diana ! On the contrary, 
 consider, I beseech you, if a hope exist for a 
 man who pants for his freedom from chains 
 he loathes and dreads, yet whose honour must 
 be ever regarded by him above every other 
 interest." 
 
 " To-morrow/' said the lady, " we will dis- 
 cuss again this very painful subject, Lawrence." 
 
 And Lawrence repaired to the Abbey. 
 
 " My dear son ! " was the motherly greet- 
 ing awaiting him this evening, as ever, on the 
 threshold of that fair home, which he heartily 
 desired were free from all present prospect of 
 a bride ; ^^ come to me — sit close by my side 
 there, as when you were a boy. Now, tell me, 
 how is Frances? Frances is my favourite 
 name ; I always thought so, now I am sure 
 of it. What a very ingenuous expression has 
 that excellent creature, Mr. Melhuish, Law- 
 rence ! and Frances is very like her father. 
 They are well, are they? — that is good to 
 hear. My heart is set upon this marriage, 
 Lawrence ! "
 
 138 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 *' Yes, mother," replied her son, ab- 
 stractedly. 
 
 ** Is all preparation at the Rectory ? Ah, 
 my dear boy, it reminds me of Fillingham, 
 when I was marrying your father. What 
 a state of agitation was that, to be sure ! 
 My bridesmaids came down to me a week be- 
 fore the time, and never shall I forget the 
 arrival of your dear father. I was writing 
 your poor aunt Marian's name in a Bible I 
 intended as a parting gift to her, when I 
 heard his voice and step. I made a great 
 blot in the fresh, fair page, I know.*' 
 
 Colonel Lawrence Peebles indulged the 
 idea that it would be impossible his fair elect 
 could deface any fresh page by her agitation 
 at his coming. He replied aloud to the old 
 lady : — 
 
 " You dearly loved my father, mamma, 
 from the beginning of your engagement — was 
 it not so ? " 
 
 ** My dear ! the love I had for your father 
 in our betrothal, was nothing to the love he
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 139 
 
 had for me, I verily believe. Yet did I count 
 every hour, and reckon it long that he wasn't 
 in my sight. But the most love should al- 
 ways be on the man's side, Lawrence.'* 
 
 " So I have heard you say before, my dear 
 mother." 
 
 " But you tell me nothing of the proceed- 
 ings, Lawrence," cried the old lady, presently ; 
 *' do let me hear about everything. 1 have 
 looked in my almanac to see when the moon 
 changes, and I have very little doubt the 
 weather will be fine on the 20th." 
 
 Whatever entertainment Colonel Lawrence 
 found for his mother, it was highly satisfactory 
 to her. She bade him good night, with her 
 blessing, in the happiest frame of mind. 
 
 Colonel Lawrence went not to his bed at 
 the usual hour. To and fro in his mind con- 
 flicted every conceivable fancy which might 
 favour the escape of this soldierly gentleman 
 from the toils he had made with his own 
 hand, while the image of that young, foolish, 
 fascinating Magdalen Havering arose evermore
 
 140 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 amidst the chaos, robed like some spirit of air, 
 and not more tangible than what we know of 
 those spirits, seemed already that sudden scene 
 which was to die with the two persons who 
 enacted it. 
 
 " Magdalen Havering ! " repeated in divers 
 keys the unequal tones of the soi-disant lover 
 of two women. 
 
 " Magdalen Havering of the Bower ! She 
 ought certainly to have been my bride. Why 
 was she not found ere it was too late ? After 
 all, if marriage be a destiny, why strive to 
 avoid this, or to attain that ? Possibly the 
 sun's evolutions are not more fixed than the 
 unions of human beings. It is the unhappy 
 fate, doubtless, of Lawrence Peebles to marry 
 Frances Melhuish, and Magdalen Havering, 
 sweet soul, has another husband assigned her. 
 She can never be my bride, decidedly. Poor 
 Magdalen ! dear Magdalen ! — she has glorious 
 eyes ! I hope she has forgotten by this time 
 how foolish she was. Pleigho ! to bed, Colonel 
 Peebles I "
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 141 
 
 Dr. Horniman prescribed for the patient, 
 afflicted with a violent feverish cold, and the 
 family were tranquillized. Ellen Biggs was to 
 pass the night in her young mistress's room, 
 and to call other aid if required. Mrs. Mel- 
 huish imprinted several kisses on the forehead 
 of her guest. Frances, as she retired to her 
 room, bestowed a condolatory sentence or two ; 
 and Magdalen, having bidden poor Ellen go to 
 sleep in her chair before the fire, where she 
 sat with her back to the patient, closed her 
 eyes to commune with the unseen spirits — ^to 
 inquire of them, since human aid was denied 
 her, how she should look forth upon the mor- 
 row. She was not ill — she ought to have 
 been, but she was not — these two facts were 
 patent. She lay awake most of that night, 
 which Colonel Peebles passed partly in medita- 
 tion ; and when she at length fell asleep, of 
 course she was married to that gentleman, 
 while something dreadful occurred at the 
 ceremony. 
 
 Before Miss Melhuish lay down to her
 
 142 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 slumbers several revelations were made to 
 her by Mrs. Barrow, and she also found her- 
 self wakeful and restless, and slept to dream 
 that she was a bride. It appeared to her 
 Magdalen Havering could not have been walk- 
 ing alone, to return home in so much agita- 
 tion. Who had accompanied her ? Not 
 Richard — for he had expressly mentioned 
 that he saw her last at three o'clock, and 
 Richard was not given to lying. " Colonel 
 Peebles left the Rectory precisely at three,'' 
 said Mrs. Barrow. 
 
 Miss Melhuish had not the slightest doubt, 
 ere she lay down to rest that night, that a 
 plot was laid against her happiness. 
 
 " Ellen," said Magdalen, with the first 
 dawn of light, " do you think you could find 
 Mr. Melhuish, and bring hira to me ; he i^ 
 always in his study at six these summer morn- 
 ings. I want very much to speak with him.'* 
 
 " Miss Magdalen, it is not more than five 
 yet,'* replied the girl ; '^ but I will make the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 14 
 
 Q 
 
 room quite straight, and leave the door ajar ; 
 then I shall be certain to hear Mr. Melhuish 
 go down.'' 
 
 " Sir,'* said she, when, somewhat later, the 
 anticipated step caught her ear, and the good 
 man was descending to his study quietly 
 amidst the still silent household — '* Sir, Miss 
 Magdalen wants you." 
 
 *^ Indeed, my good girl, I will see her with 
 pleasure. I hope she has passed a good 
 night — shall I come in just now ? " 
 
 ** If you please, sir; Miss Magdalen seems 
 very poorly, sir." 
 
 " Mr. Melhuish," cried Magdalen, '* come 
 here ! I want to speak to you ! And Ellen, 
 go out and shut the door." 
 
 " My dear child, I hope you have only 
 caught cold," said Mr. Melhuish, seating 
 himself as he was bidden, and examining 
 dubiously the very white and sad face of Mag- 
 dalen upon her pillow. 
 
 **I want you, Mr. Melhuish, to tell me 
 what people do when they have been very
 
 144 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 wrong, very foolish — when they have a great 
 shame upon them, in short, and when they 
 are very unhappy ! " 
 
 *^ I cannot understand you, my dear. Are 
 you so troubled ? — and on a visit to my house ? 
 Why, what can have happened ? " 
 
 " Nay, my dear, dear Mr. Melhuish, tell 
 me what I ask you, and expect no explanations, 
 for I never will explain to any one ; but 
 I have said some very shocking things, 
 which I never can forget or unsay all the 
 years of my life — and what is to become of 
 me?'' 
 
 The good clergyman, perturbed and dis- 
 mayed, was some moments ere he could 
 reply. 
 
 " I see no trouble that ought to have ap- 
 proached you that you could not confide to a 
 faithful friend, and that am I to you. Miss 
 Magdalen. Yet, if what you tell me be true, 
 and you cannot confide to me your secret, I can 
 but give you the advice of a father and a 
 Christian. There is always a resource for
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 145 
 
 those who are in trouble, which can never 
 fail ! " 
 
 ** Dearest Mr. Melhuish, if I could but 
 confide to you the truth I — but no — it is too 
 painful, too dreadful ! " 
 
 " My child — do not use such terms — you 
 alarm me ! I feel disposed to insist upon 
 hearing what it is of which you accuse your- 
 self/' 
 
 " Spare me, I am very wretched. Mr. 
 Melhuish, you must send to Manor-house 
 — I want to go away from Dryburgh. I don't 
 know where to go, but to the Bower, I 
 think. I must have Sir Allenne fetched im- 
 mediately. I shock you, do I not ? Yet, if 
 you knew all, you would not be angry with 
 me.'' 
 
 Mr. Melhuish adjusted and re-adjusted his 
 spectacles, and finally, in much distress, 
 extracted fi'om Magdalen that her grief was 
 in some way connected with Colonel Peebles, 
 though how she made the admission, Magdalen 
 could not afterwards imagine. Anything 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 more definite the Rector failed to learn. 
 Having left her, he returned to her bedside 
 for a moment, as if a new idea occurred to 
 him. " My dear child,'' said he, " maintain 
 your silence. Do not suffer my family to 
 obtain any clue to the source of your indispo- 
 sition." 
 
 The Eectory underwent a convulsion that 
 morning impossible to describe. 
 
 Miss Melhuish, in strong hysterics, kept her 
 room. Sir AUenne fetched away his niece ; 
 she was conveyed to the Manor in a carriage, 
 whence later in the day, unannounced and un- 
 prepared, they departed for Havering Bower. 
 A messenger rode to Myndale Abbey, summon- 
 ing Colonel Peebles, who arrived three hours 
 after. Richard was not the least moved of 
 the family. And Mrs. Melhuish passed out of 
 one agony into another, firmly believing this 
 absurd excitement, originating nobody knew 
 how, was a scheme to break off the mar- 
 riage. 
 
 Colonel Lawrence Peebles was shown at once
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 147 
 
 to the dressing-room of his mother-in-law elect, 
 where the following dialogue occurred : — 
 
 "My dear Colonel, Frances is so exceed- 
 ingly ill — she was taken suddenly this morn- 
 ing — that I — we thought it only kind to apprize 
 you of it." 
 
 " Indeed ! I regret it extremely. In what 
 way is — is Frances ill ? " 
 
 " That is the mystery — no word can I glean. 
 No unpleasantness, no slight misunderstand- 
 ing occurred with yourself yesterday ? " 
 
 " None whatever, Mrs. Melhuish." 
 
 "You parted as became two persons so 
 soon to be united in marriage ? " 
 
 "I had the honour to part with your 
 daughter with that prospect, madam." 
 
 " Yet immediately on your departure here 
 is Miss Havering seriously ill — my whole 
 house thrown into disorder — my daughter 
 most mysteriously affected — and I remain in 
 total ignorance of any reason for these things." 
 
 " Miss Havering seriously ill also! " said the 
 Colonel ; " how very odd ! " 
 
 l2
 
 148 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 "Very odd indeed; but if, my dear sir, 
 you cannot throw any light upon the subject, 
 it is useless my detaining you here. And my 
 daughter suffers most terribly until she meets 
 you again — of that I am fully assured. We 
 will seek her together, Colonel Peebles." 
 
 And Colonel Peebles was conducted by his 
 mother-in-law elect to another dressing-room 
 not far removed, where upon a sofa reclined the 
 fair Frances, less ruffled by violent emotion 
 than the Colonel had feared to find her. 
 
 What passed between those two persons, 
 from whose presence Mrs. Melhuish conside- 
 rately retired, was this : — 
 
 *^ Lawrence, you are weary of the tender 
 affection I have been so foolish as to evince too 
 openly. Mine is the sad lot of many a woman 
 deeply loving — I am unbeloved." 
 
 "My dear Frances, compose yourself I 
 am ignorant of giving you any cause of offence. 
 What can have transpired since I took leave 
 of you, to bring about such a change ! " 
 
 " Nay, it is for me to demand that ques-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 149 
 
 tion. What indeed has transpired ? Let me 
 tell you, a woman, whose heart is engaged as 
 solemnly as my own, reads the heart of the be- 
 loved one like a scroll. You cannot deceive me ! " 
 
 ** This is a strange conversation, Frances, 
 to take place between two persons bound by 
 very solemn engagements. Do I understand 
 that you accuse me of some offence unknown 
 to myself ? " 
 
 "Unknown to yourself! Ask your own 
 heart." 
 
 Colonel Peebles started, for the possibility 
 that Magdalen had betrayed herself darted 
 across his mind. 
 
 His start was not unobserved by the now 
 weeping lady. 
 
 " Infidele ! ^' she cried. 
 
 "Infidele!" reiterated Colonel Peebles; "that 
 is no term to be applied to a man of honour." 
 
 " Do you tell me, Lawrence, that you still 
 love me ; that we are still to — to look forward 
 to our marriage-day ? Has nothing happened 
 to break our troth-plight ? "
 
 150 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 "Frances, our marriage-day was named too 
 long ago, and too decisively, to be lightly set 
 aside." 
 
 " It was — it was ! " 
 
 '* What can it be that you require of me ? ** 
 
 " I am but an infant at the best — and my 
 love for you has positively made me a fool. 
 A hundred apprehensions have filled my mind 
 since you left me yesterday, of which I am now 
 ashamed. I am again convinced, my ever 
 dearest Lawrence, that I may repose in you ; 
 you will suffer nothing to come between us — 
 you will never break your many vows ? Assure 
 me of it again and again, Lawrence.'' 
 
 Again and again that assurance met her ear. 
 Again and again the bonds were ratified by 
 which Miss Melhuish was to have her will, 
 and the Colonel to lose his liberty.
 
 151 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Sir Allenne's wishes were signally frustrated. 
 He was not to see the June blossoms flower 
 round his own dear home. On the contrary, 
 with scarcely an hour to prepare for his de- 
 parture, he must submissively escort this way- 
 ward Magdalen back to Havering Bower, 
 where, as they were not expected, and not half 
 the spring cleaning could be done, everything 
 awaiting them would be as uncomfortable as 
 possible. 
 
 But Magdalen breathed more freely each 
 mile that she gained towards Havering. Of 
 the convulsion she left behind she thought 
 little — and of poor Richard Melhuish, who 
 had aided her departure disconsolately, even
 
 152 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 less. She had elected her life-ideal ; that 
 ideal was torn from her, and she was not 
 permitted even to die. But one step was at 
 her option, and that one she would consider 
 decisively. She commenced to consider it 
 even now, while Sir Allenne silently fretted. 
 
 And Vyse, the housekeeper at the Bower, 
 fretted, but not silently, and fumed also, 
 when she could be brought to credit her 
 senses, that so great an innovation had hap- 
 pened, as the return of the family, herself un- 
 apprized of their intention, on the one most 
 inconvenient day. 
 
 Still, as the chief focus of wrathful elements 
 was the lower stories of the mansion, Sir 
 Allenne and his niece were considerably less 
 sufferers than the former had sorrowfully con- 
 jectured. 
 
 An impromptu dinner appeared before them, 
 and nobody had entered upon a lease of their 
 bed-rooms ; it behoved therefore that a grate- 
 ful serenity should take the place of misgiving 
 and dismay.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 153 
 
 Magdalen found at the Bower a letter, ar- 
 rived that morning, from Rupert, the first 
 that had reached them since the travellers left 
 England. Its contents afforded matter for 
 the evening's conversation of Sir Allenne and 
 herself; and the weary body and soul of the 
 girl, vowing satisfaction for their last night's 
 loss, reposed in slumbers deep and unbroken, 
 from which, though nothing could have brought 
 her to acknowledge it, she awoke in the morn- 
 ing refreshed. Sir Allenne rode over to 
 Hazlewood to announce this sudden return, 
 which he left altogether unexplained, being 
 wholly in ignorance himself as to its real 
 cause. Alicia and her husband were amazed 
 at his appearance, and doubly amazed that 
 Magdalen left Dryburgh just at this particular 
 time. Mrs. Monckton rode with her uncle to 
 the Bower, anxious for a sight of the letter 
 from Rupert ; anxious also to welcome home 
 her sister. The letter contained scanty tid- 
 ings, but assured them of the health of the 
 writer ; and Magdalen gave no explanation of
 
 154 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 her own sudden appearance, which passed 
 therefore as one of her freaks ; but Philip 
 Monckton expressed surprise that even Mag- 
 dalen should take a step which must mate- 
 rially inconvenience others, to say nothing of 
 the sacrifice of all that pageantry in which 
 she was so soon to have figured ; for Magda- 
 len had written from time to time glowing 
 descriptions of her visit, and had entered into 
 detail respecting the marriage, at which she was 
 to have officiated. Philip, riding over on 
 horseback on the following morning, was ac- 
 companied by a young lady guest, a stranger 
 to Magdalen, whom, since she was a friend of 
 Alicia's, the latter, in wilful perversity, decided 
 to be uninteresting to her. When afterwards 
 endeavouring to recall their one interview, 
 Magdalen remembered only of this lady that 
 she was agreeable in appearance, and might 
 have been the age of Mrs. Monckton, and was 
 Miss Etherington by name. 
 
 After her first few days at home the life 
 of Magdalen Havering resolved into an apa-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 155 
 
 thetic calm. When she had returned a fort- 
 night, she read in the Cheshire Chronicle news 
 of a marriage in high life ; and then she deter- 
 mined to put into execution the one design 
 she entertained, in aid of which she requested 
 of Sir Allenne permission immediately to 
 invite to the Bower, as a companion to her- 
 self, the sister of Adam Egerton. 
 
 As an interlude till the return of Mrs. 
 Champneys, Sir Allenne gladly consented to 
 the proposal, and fondly hoped that Miss 
 Egerton's society would alleviate the inexpli- 
 cable unhappiness which he was not permitted 
 to share, and which struck the more sadly on 
 the heart of Sir Allenne, from his having just 
 witnessed, with delight and pride, his niece's 
 dehui at Dryburgh. 
 
 In a week a letter arrived from Miss Eger- 
 ton, acknowledging and indefinitely accepting 
 the invitation to the Bower. In another week 
 she was domiciled there, to the ill-concealed 
 regret of Mrs. Monckton, and the open dis- 
 pleasure of her husband. Sir Allenne averted
 
 156 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 the storm from Magdalen, who solely merited 
 its brunt ; and Alicia was compelled to repress 
 the affectionate solicitude with which her 
 sister inspired her, feeling that her own so- 
 ciety grew less and less acceptable to Mag- 
 dalen ; as the latter, recovering from the first 
 effects of her grave misdemeanour, and rely- 
 ing on the silence of the sole attestator to it, 
 substituted for her dwelling upon it another 
 more dangerous course of thought, which 
 Annunciata Egerton was both able and willing 
 to encourage, at all risks and hazard. 
 
 It is time that we spoke more particularly 
 of Annunciata Egerton. 
 
 A Catholic mother's dying testament, that 
 from the creed of her Protestant husband 
 she would fain have their offspring preserved, 
 followed shortly by the death of the husband, 
 placed Annunciata and Adam Egerton (or- 
 phans in a Papal country) in the arms of the 
 Komish Church. The great talents of the 
 girl, her noble personal attributes, and a 
 voice, derived from her Italian mother, of
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 157 
 
 surpassing power and sweetness, rendered her 
 a prize which those into whose charge she fell 
 were not slow to appreciate. 
 
 At thirteen years of age she w^as destined 
 to the cloisters, to adorn her profession upon 
 festivals, and so attract to the religious house 
 to which she appertained crowds of the appre- 
 ciators of melody. 
 
 But in her veins ran kindred blood to that 
 of the Lord Cardinal Cagnola (a descendant 
 of that Saint Charles Borromeo to whose 
 shrine, in the white marble cathedral of the 
 Virgin, hundreds of votaries still annually 
 flock), who, on the reputation of her re- 
 markable gifts, caused his young relative to 
 be brought before him, and decided upon a 
 diflPerent path for her, should she be presently 
 proved to justify the confidence inspired by 
 her rare combinations. From the day of her 
 interview with that magnate, an immeasurable 
 distance intervened between the Soeur Annon- 
 ciate and her less remarkable companions of 
 San Celso. The community learned that this
 
 158 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 young girl aspired to distinctions for which 
 they were not qualified ; and that the re- 
 mainder of her residence among them was 
 merely a preparation for some exalted sphere, 
 into which not one of them would follow her. 
 Time wore on, and the Soeur Annonciate 
 was pronounced to have fulfilled her early 
 promise. The vows of her order were admin- 
 istered to her, together with others more 
 intimate and binding, which, leaving her at 
 twenty nominally free on the bosom of the 
 world external, attached her mentally by fear- 
 ful ordeals to the service militant of her 
 Church. Taught to regard her intellectual 
 superiority, her blood of nobility, her grace of 
 person, and the manifold attractions she pos- 
 sessed, as so many offerings of sacrifice, so 
 many instruments to be ever at the bidding of 
 the higher wisdom of her guides — ^knowing no 
 worthy aim of existence besides that to which 
 she was devoted — commanded to believe that 
 she was "conquering and to conquer" — she 
 was drafted into her first embassy.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 159 
 
 Lest the glittering aspect of mundane 
 things meeting her gaze for the first time, 
 when, already a woman, her physical eye might 
 likely be captivated, if her virgin heart es- 
 caped, she was plied with lessons serpently 
 wise, teaching, in no hyperbolical terms, the 
 inevitable bourn to which must lead that 
 delight of the eye, that pride of sense, that 
 mere fascination of the heart, with which she 
 would be brought in contact. Her fiery 
 energies and lofty inspirations heightened a 
 blind subservience she felt to the pillars of 
 her faith; and when thus adjured by the priests 
 who swayed the Italian hierarchy, she ap- 
 pealed to heaven to attest the vow, with 
 which she swore that the devil and his angels 
 should never — by the Yirgin^s holy aid — con- 
 found her soul with the wicked ones. 
 
 She was placed about the person of the 
 Grand Duchess of , proudly fulfilling ser- 
 vile tasks which her blood of nobility would 
 have taught her to despise, but that she saw 
 in their performance the iotas of that cru-
 
 160 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 sade to which she had bound herself. There 
 floated through the palaces of the German 
 princes strains that carried the hearers 
 ravished to the feet of the youthful enchant- 
 ress. Her anomalous position — half protegee^ 
 half attendant — was forgotten. She was dis- 
 tinguished in courtly circles, and diadems 
 were proffered for her acceptance which the 
 daughters of kings had worn before her. The 
 chains were invisible under which she moved, 
 and the sweet lady to whose train she be- 
 longed saw only a lonely Italian orphan, whom 
 philanthropy had placed within her kindly 
 influence, in the vowed organ of the Popedom, 
 until the voice of popular applause affixed her 
 attention on Annonciate, and she shared the 
 universal surprise when successive overtures 
 of brilliant marriages received all one formal 
 reply. Envious wits and ready detractors 
 bore curious testimony to the open humility 
 of her Serene Highuess's attendant ; while the 
 secret scorn with which the bride of the 
 Church renounced the vain pomps of the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 161 
 
 "deluded wicked ones/' was known only to 
 her own heart, and to the One Unseen, and 
 was wholly hid from those great dignitaries, 
 who, while they ruled her course of life, gave 
 her her boundaries, and watched her sphere, 
 could no more appreciate her purity of intent 
 — her utter self-devotion, her lofty beliefs — 
 than they could have framed those instinctive 
 resolves, that spirit of abnegation, and celestial 
 faith, which the Author of her being disposed in 
 a frame-work of which they were suffered to 
 hold the key, while God retained the real 
 workings of the spirit they dared to pervert 
 to their impious ends. 
 
 Nightly the young votaress of this loftiest 
 of shrines seeking the vestibule of holy places, 
 where canonized * saints were displayed to 
 view, renewed the sacred vows of her first 
 love, and the flower and glory of the kingdom 
 of the senses put forth their sweets for her 
 in vain, whose religion the Most High was 
 waiting to purify, although she knew it not. 
 The visible fruits of her co-operation with 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 those who sent her forth were shown when, a 
 
 year from her arrival in , a Catholic 
 
 princess ascended the dais, to share with her 
 beauty and high pretensions the dominion of a 
 first-rate territory, in the country where Luther 
 flourished and died. Innumerable mines of 
 pettier importance were sprung by the Italian 
 girl — their origin traceless, their success indis- 
 putable — beside that crowning accomplishment; 
 and then came a transfer from her kind bene- 
 factress to a British lady, who enjoyed the 
 friendship of the good German princess. The 
 temporary adoption by this British lady of the 
 Mve\\-he\oYed protegee would secure that j^rotegee 
 some sterling advantage, which goodness me- 
 rited and talent claimed. So the Soeur Amion- 
 cidie became the constant associate of the 
 female head of a proud old house of Scotch 
 Protestant nobility. In an incredibly short 
 space of time she made her way into the un- 
 suspicious confidence of the island mother and 
 lady ; then, busied only for the welfare of her 
 Church, her foot invaded the most sacred
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 163 
 
 hearth- stones, as her ear had drunk in the 
 most important details ; for in the eyes of the 
 virtuous old aristocrat, whose bosom-friend she 
 had become, an angel lay nourished at her 
 heart-strings. 
 
 Thence flinging broadcast an unimpeach- 
 able element — for here in honest England are 
 perverted names, and what should bear the 
 effigy of the harlot of Babylon is simply " a 
 diversity of opinions" — the cause prospered in 
 her hands. There gushed down blood upon 
 that spotless hearthstone — there rained down 
 tears from the humid old eyes — there was 
 anguish in their house's secret places — but the 
 cloven-footed left no trace behind. The young, 
 pure image bore no mark upon its forehead, 
 by which could be deciphered the name of the 
 Beast ; and Annunciata Egerton stept silently 
 along — a great glory unrevealed upon her 
 soul. But England was arousing to detect 
 the seducer, and many evil things came to 
 light; yet the army of those who, like Annun- 
 ciata, carried the real banners of the 
 
 M 2
 
 164 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 host, walked scathless through the fires into 
 unsurrendered citadels, and no man called 
 them by their name. 
 
 The several episodes which compose the 
 history of this staunch adjutant of the Church 
 of Eome cannot be particularized here. Her 
 career amazed the patrons of intrigue, out 
 of whose tutelage she sprang. Detecting 
 talent, they had not suspected the power a 
 few years had developed — for the force of the 
 elements amidst which she was moving was 
 better known to them than to her ; and the 
 girFs real greatness was a secret scroll they 
 were wholly unable to decipher. Nevertheless 
 she was summoned to Lombardy, to be re- 
 examined in her faith, to renew the oaths of 
 her espousals, and to submit to be tested by 
 her order. 
 
 Then the sire who had begotten her, the 
 teacher who had instructed her, the nurse in 
 whose arms she was baptized, trembled at 
 their own handiwork. Behold ! the offspring 
 had become a great creation, solely and indi-
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERING. 165 
 
 vidually strong ; the pupil launched forth 
 startling doctrines, clothed with divinity, 
 purity, grace ; the babe was no spawn of the 
 priesthood ; the Anglo-Italian woman bade 
 fair, in her own person, to institute a new 
 dispensation, and to organize an order unique. 
 Her lords spiritual, though they tampered 
 with her tenets, forbore to infringe on her 
 career. Witnessing her beauty, hearing her 
 eloquence, and convinced of her sincerity, 
 they whispered one to another, " A new era 
 dawns for the Church ! '* 
 
 So she was suffered to depart afresh ; but 
 not before she had detected startling discre- 
 pancies in the holiness of her so-called spiri- 
 tual fathers. Affrighted and saddened by the 
 spectacle of these, she fell back upon that 
 purer unction which burned — a living coal — 
 in her breast — personal nobility and devotion. 
 Afterwards, outwardly subservient in all things 
 to the acknowledged authorities of her Church, 
 her work became more individual. Sustain- 
 ing the successes which had hitherto attended
 
 166 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 her, by constant mysterious subversion to 
 herself of whatever she desired to win, she 
 seldom now received any dictate, but was 
 suffered to adopt her own ways, since, singly, 
 she was better to the interests of Papistry 
 than a host who were simply employed. 
 
 In the year 18 — we find her at the head 
 of the Sisterhood, in Margaret Street, Caven- 
 dish Square. 
 
 Of Adam Egerton there is less to tell. 
 His was the dogged determination which 
 scoffs at obstacles. He possessed no per- 
 sonal or mental charms, like Annunciata, with 
 which to work ; but, emulous of her reputa- 
 tion, deeply penetrated by the respect which 
 she commanded from those by whom himself, 
 his measured courses, his every divergence, was 
 regulated, and not without strong pride in her 
 relationship, though little of the natural affec- 
 tion of kindred found place in his cold, me- 
 chanical system, Adam Egerton regarded his 
 sister as at once the most worthy, the most 
 exalted, and the most mysterious of all wo-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 167 
 
 mankind. Relying implicitly upon her for 
 direction, he readily lent his efficient aid to 
 further any scheme which she projected. 
 Thus, then, we find him at the ear and in the 
 confidence of the boy-heir of Havering Bower ; 
 for Annunciata had determined that a new 
 and noble sacrifice should gild her devotion 
 to her Church. Adam Egerton had heard 
 his sister say, '^Life — nay, what is life, if 
 vanquished ? Our reason shall succumb be- 
 fore we fail ! ''
 
 .4 
 
 168 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Letters from Rupert reached, at intervals, 
 both Havering Bower and Hazlewood ; and 
 though often called away on hurried journeys 
 — which made even Sir Allenne a little curi- 
 ous, for he had the bump of adhesiveness in 
 full, and thought so much travelling must be 
 very irksome — Miss Egerton still sojourned at 
 the Bower. 
 
 Alicia so seldom caught her sister alone, 
 that she came less frequently to visit her. 
 Magdalen paid occasional visits to Hazlewood, 
 but was always accompanied by her friend ; 
 and Mr. Monckton was so infuriated at the 
 interposition of a second Egerton, that nothing
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 169 
 
 pleased him less just now than an interchange 
 of visits by the sisters, who were, conse- 
 quently, almost separated. 
 
 Three months from Miss Egerton's instal- 
 ment at the Bower, the decision of Mrs. 
 Champneys to return no more to Havering 
 was imparted by her to Sir Allenne. Where- 
 upon, but still in character of guest, Miss 
 Egerton acceded to the wishes of the family 
 — Vyse's family of two — and protracted her 
 lengthy stay. 
 
 Magdalen, in a transport of affection for 
 her friend, had committed the whole story of 
 her indiscreet interview with Colonel Peebles 
 to the ear of Annunciata, who did not dis- 
 guise from her dear Magdalen her horror at 
 the occurrence ; while she admitted, with a 
 sigh, that being removed from the pale of all 
 good, a Protestant maiden could not possibly 
 interpret the serious aspect which the case 
 bore to her, Annunciata. Alicia would have 
 placed that unfortunate circumstance at once 
 in its proper light, coupling its memory with
 
 170 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 a self-abasement its preposterous folly merited. 
 Annunciata called it a crime, and sorrowfully 
 invested it with present woe and a future of 
 ignominy ; but the tongue and the ear were 
 stilled and closed against the sweet lady of 
 Hazlewood, which were ever at the service 
 and within the reach of the Soeur Annonciate. 
 As weeks passed by, and her star in the 
 ascendant augured well for her subtle hopes, 
 and foreign letters which she read in secret 
 came to her in envelopes of English make; 
 and someway the thought of the absentee, 
 Rupert, was associated with anxiety and sur- 
 prise, greater at Hazlewood than Havering, 
 for he wrote unsatisfactorily, and made no 
 allusion to his return, Annunciata broached 
 warily with Magdalen the subject of a change 
 of creed. And the time was come in which 
 she ventured to disclose the secret of her own 
 profession. It was told under circumstances 
 which, in Magdalen's condition, and with her 
 highly nervous temperament, vied with the 
 bath of Mokanna's bride, whom the charnel
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 171 
 
 surrounded, and corruption lighted, and the 
 dead stood by while she pledged the bowl 
 with the veiled prophet of Khorassan. 
 
 To the mind of Magdalen this disclosure 
 fell as rain in the desert. Ere the night 
 closed over that dark colloquy Magdalen 
 Havering would have concerted the measures 
 by which, in her own case, a like blessed 
 course should be adopted ; but the Soeur 
 Annonciate, serpently wise, hung graver 
 dignity about her acts than this simple girl 
 could meditate. She declared that long con- 
 sideration must mature the eager resolution 
 of Magdalen, ere she could aid her to emanci- 
 pate herself from the ties by which she was 
 surrounded. Magdalen shivered at the men- 
 tion of those ties ; but the Soeur Annonciate 
 was her example, to whom insult, and con- 
 tumely, and suffering were as a birthright ; 
 who, although the head of a saintly com- 
 munity, rejoiced in these, one and all; the 
 desire of whose mind, and the longing of 
 whose soul — thrice revered Annonciate ! — was
 
 172 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 to attract her much-erring friend to the only 
 real peace, the only true joy. 
 
 And Sir Allenne reposed, meanwhile, in his 
 distant chamber, dreaming dreams of that 
 Magdalen Seybright, whose daughter neared 
 the precipice's edge, and no babe is more sus- 
 picionless than he. 
 
 He thought it quite desirable that Mag- 
 dalen, who was clearly an eccentric girl, 
 should have a better companion than him- 
 self in her monotonous walks and drives — for 
 she had relapsed entirely into her old mode of 
 life. When Mrs. Champneys decisively declined 
 to prolong her engagement at the Bower, no 
 substitute so readily presented itself as the 
 sister of Adam Egerton ; in her, therefore, Sir 
 Allenne again rejoiced as at the acquisition of 
 a treasure. The master of Hazlewood had 
 moreover ceased to expostulate, and so there 
 offered no antagonistic influence to that of 
 the Sa3ur Annonciate ; and morning, noon, 
 and night, the syren surrounded her prepared
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 173 
 
 and fascinated victim with her wonderful 
 and varied art. Magdalen learnt to love her 
 destroyer, as she had not loved her in the 
 earliest days of her natural infatuation ; for, 
 in contradistinction to Annunciata and the 
 life of a blessed bride of Christ, arose hideou s 
 contingencies fancy failed not to distort as a 
 sequel to maiden indiscretion. 
 
 That Colonel Peebles married the daughter 
 of the Melhuishes, and was now the head of a 
 household, was no source of comfort in the 
 view of the subject presented to Magdalen ; 
 and that he should respect so weighty a 
 secret as this one of Magdalen's was a 
 thought which Annunciata treated as the 
 wildest hallucination. 
 
 Each week that elapsed tightened the 
 chains of this magnetic sway, until Magdalen 
 could realize no future but that which Annun- 
 ciata offered her, and her only sister might 
 not have been living for the influence she 
 exerted. Few attentions courted now the
 
 174 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 eccentric young mistress of Havering Bower, 
 and into other demesnes than her own she 
 scarcely ever set foot. 
 
 To the hotel in London where Sir Rupert 
 and Adam Egerton stayed, until, their pass- 
 ports procured, they were able to depart for 
 the Continent, came smilingly Mr. Mount- 
 edgcumbe. Adam Egerton was apparently 
 as much surprised as the Baronet at this 
 impromptu rencontre, and it was with much 
 pleasure that the latter heard the proba- 
 bility that Mr. Mountedgcumbe would cross 
 the Channel on the morrow, when, since they 
 had fixed upon the same route, they might 
 fortunately travel together. 
 
 Mr. Mountedgcumbe exerted himself to 
 interest and amuse Sir Kupert (whose visits 
 to London had been confined to hurried 
 journeys with Philip Monckton, when busi- 
 ness called Philip there) with information 
 respecting the metropolis. 
 
 The urbane stranger indeed paid so much 
 attention to Sir Rupert, that he almost
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 175 
 
 + 
 
 ignored the presence of his relative ; but he 
 atoned the next day for any passing neglect — 
 for, once on board the boat, Sir Kupert was 
 forsaken by the pair, who traversed the 
 deck, conversing in low tones, until the short 
 passage from Dover to Calais was all but 
 made. Sir Rupert abstained from interrupt- 
 i this inopportune confidence, although, as 
 every moment accelerated their approach to a 
 foreign shore, the mind of the young novice, 
 alert with youth, health, and inexperience, 
 longed to disemburden itself to some familiar 
 ear. Once only their conversation was 
 broken ofi". A lady, seated near Sir Rupert, 
 whose husband and daughter were on board, 
 addressed a few remarks to him ; his replies 
 were unusually spirited, and attracted the 
 pair who paced the deck. Immediately 
 Adam Egerton drew his pupiFs attention from 
 the lady, and by a slight manoeuvre caused 
 him to change his seat. Then the broken 
 discourse recommenced ; the pleasant lady 
 conversed with her daughter ; Sir Rupert was
 
 176 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 beyond the compass of their voices, and the 
 boat rode on to Calais. 
 
 At Calais Sir Rupert anticipated losing that 
 adjunct to himself and his Tutor, who certainly 
 engrossed the Tutor rather more than Sir 
 Rupert approved. But Mr. Mountedgcumbe 
 made arrangements to accompany them to 
 Paris, and, arriving in Paris, he still attached 
 himself to them. The three took up their 
 abode in the Hotel de Frnnce et d'Angleterre. 
 
 Now, Sir Rupert and Adam Egerton had 
 speculated long and largely upon every 
 possible and probable circumstance in this 
 long-talked-of expedition, and the anticipations 
 were very tempting which the Tutor had 
 sketched to the youth. Hitherto — keeping 
 those anticipations in view — the time had 
 passed, to say the least, somewhat uncom- 
 fortably ; but many trivial circumstances 
 might account for this, and, having now 
 arrived in Paris, Sir Rupert's spirits rose. 
 He eagerly appealed to his faithful aide to 
 commence that long array of lion-hunting.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 177 
 
 which, upon the terraces of Havering, had 
 been duly declared a desiderata to Sir Kupert 
 Havering of the Bower. Change and travel 
 absolutely inspired the unintellectual Sir 
 Kupert, while, on the contrary, Adam Egerton 
 seemed suddenly to have lost all zest for them. 
 No proposition made by his pupil met his fancy 
 or design ; he now spoke scornfully of the 
 sights of Paris, chiding Sir Eupert on the 
 score of folly, till, having fretted into a dis- 
 play of temper the pupil with whom yet he 
 dared not tamper, he negociated matters with 
 Mountedgcumbe, under whose protecting 
 care the baronet was launched into just so 
 much of the startling panorama as could be 
 crushed into a few days. For suddenly 
 Adam Egerton received letters from Palermo, 
 announcing the severe illness of his mother, 
 and a necessity for his immediate presence. 
 
 Sir Eupert had never heard of his Tutor's 
 mother, or indeed of any member of his 
 family, excepting his sister, and the gentleman 
 who now accompanied them, or of any locality 
 
 VOL. I. ^
 
 178 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 with which Adam Egerton was connected ; 
 but it greatly surprised the boy baronet to be 
 told that she resided in Palermo. The Tutor's 
 energies re-awakened under the dictates of 
 filial duty ; he hurriedly proposed a plan by 
 which Paris could be visited hereafter; and 
 since the party need not separate, they must 
 all proceed to the south of France with as 
 little delay as possible. 
 
 I remember seeing three bullocks — beauti- 
 ful, great, red-hided oxen, I fancy off the 
 Herefordshire hills — pawing the causeway in 
 a by-street of London, at the entrance to a 
 slaughter-house. Neither blood nor any im- 
 plement of murder met the eyes of the fated 
 beasts, yet did they hang back, quivering and 
 terrified; and all the time consumed in my 
 passage down the street, brutal drivers and 
 butchers' apprentices exerted cruelty and art 
 in vain to drive them through the fatal door- 
 way. And precisely thus llupert Havering 
 experienced indefinable animal reluctance, as 
 impossible to explain as to dispel, when, on
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 179 
 
 the eve of their quitting Paris, he left his two 
 companions confidentially conversing, while 
 he sought a sleepless pillow. 
 
 It is needless to say he was no linguist, and 
 he found it no slight deprivation to be cut off 
 from communication with all save his two 
 associates ; for, as it chanced, no English 
 except this party were resident then at the 
 hotel. Never had his sister Magdalen occu- 
 pied his thoughts so much as now, when he 
 absolutely wished for her presence, envying 
 her that knowledge of the French tongue she 
 had acquired from Mrs. Champneys. But 
 with Mr. Mountedgcumbe in their train, the 
 boy-baronet and his Tutor travelled to Mar- 
 seilles ; and, taking an Italian boat, after a 
 very rough passage they landed on the island 
 of Sicily. 
 
 Immediately, for convenience, and unex- 
 plained reasons, much to the amazement of 
 Sir Rupert, they took up their residence at a 
 religious house on the outskirts of the town 
 of Palermo. 
 
 n2
 
 180 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 The maternal relative of Adam Egerton 
 was said to be in extremity, but several days 
 elapsed, and the news of her death, and his 
 consequent release from the monastery, was 
 not vouchsafed to Sir Rupert. Complaining 
 that he detested his lugubrious quarters, he 
 was unceremoniously recommended by his 
 companions to make himself at home therein. 
 The boy-baronet chafed under these unlooked- 
 for usages ; and during the absence of the 
 pair, which occurred for many hours at a 
 time, made many resolutions to change the 
 current of affairs, and wrote letters to his 
 family, so kind Khat, had they reached their 
 destination, Alicia and Magdalen, to say no- 
 thing of Sir Allenne, would have doubted no 
 more the existence of a heart in the person of 
 Rupert Havering, which each of them had 
 sometimes questioned. The accounts dis- 
 patched in some missives that reached them 
 were upon the whole good ; disappointments 
 had certainly been met with, but the burden 
 of these epistles was such as any youthful
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 181 
 
 voyageur would naturally despatch from distant 
 scenes to a sequestered uncle and sisters. 
 Several weeks went by, during which Sir 
 Rupert saw exceedingly little of his Tutor ; 
 he certainly enjoyed free egress and ingress of 
 the monastery, but he found it very uninter- 
 esting work this exploring of the town of 
 Palermo, without a companion or guide, and 
 his lassitude became extreme. Accustomed 
 to far better fare than was served to him in 
 the strangers' hall at this monastery, he sighed 
 for the table he had left behind, and amuse- 
 ments derived from his horses and dogs, while 
 he daily felt the real need of exercise. At 
 length suddenly Rupert Havering demanded 
 an explanation of the whole ; that demand 
 being hazarded, the culminating point had 
 arrived. 
 
 From that moment Adam Egerton ceased 
 to be. Brother Eloysius, half priest, half 
 monk, stood disclosed in the ci-devant Tutor ; 
 and the amazed boy, the heir of Havering, 
 learnt, to his ill -concealed apprehensions, that
 
 182 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 hitherto he had been deceived. He was told 
 that, for a purpose or purposes unknown, it 
 was necessary to the interests of the Holy 
 Church that the heretic family of the 
 Haverings should still be kept ignorant of 
 certain high honours vested in the person of 
 their heir ; that himself, Eupert Havering, 
 had been, and would ever be, the charge of 
 the Apostolic Church, and his well-being 
 necessitated steps which, to a heedless and 
 unlearned youth, might wear unfortunate ap- 
 pearances, but *^the end justified the means." 
 
 Among other pious frauds of which Rupert 
 was made cognizant, as, patrolling under the 
 mournful trees overhanging the monastic gar- 
 dens, the youth learned better to know the 
 Tutor he had brought from the Alton College, 
 was, that himself had been admitted to fellow- 
 ship with the holy order of Capuchins, only 
 on the statement made by Brother Eloysius, 
 that the habits and wishes of the stranger 
 youth were towards a monastic life. 
 
 "A mere feint, my dear boy," cried the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 183 
 
 brother, as he felt himself shrink beneath a 
 gleam of fierce light from the youth's keen 
 eyes, '^ but one that was absolutely needful ; 
 and, for ends which I cannot thus early define 
 to you, it is necessary you should maintain 
 that statement. To-morrow a name will be 
 bestowed upon you, your bearing which (in 
 itself a mere form) is essential to those good 
 works for which Holy Church designs you." 
 
 The morrow came, and with it the renunci- 
 ation of his name, and his secular dress, al- 
 most without a remonstrance from the panic- 
 stricken boy, to whom all language, save 
 English, was unintelligible ; and if any among 
 those who surrounded him were conversant 
 with that northern tongue, he was not suf- 
 fered to know it. ^ 
 
 Suppose that an enchanted mirror had dis- 
 played that scene, in the far-away dwellings 
 of his people, what consternation, what dis- 
 may, what horror, would have taken the 
 place of uncertainty, and creeping, nameless 
 disquietude ! But no tidings of these strange
 
 1 84 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 things reached Havering Bower or Hazle- 
 wood ; and when Magdalen, to whom was 
 addressed a short letter, purporting to be 
 written from Bologna, where Sir Rupert had 
 never set foot, fancied she descried in it a 
 meaning apart from its simple words — which 
 told her only of his health, and his enjoyment 
 in his travels, concluding with a few brief 
 questions of home, wrung from the writer's 
 aching heart — all such construction was wiled 
 from its course by the ready Annunciata, and 
 Magdalen had lost the letter when Alicia came 
 eagerly seeking it. Nor could it be anywhere 
 found ; unlike Adam Egerton's mislaid let- 
 ter, of which circumstance, this reminding 
 Magdalen, she told the story to Annunciata 
 over the luncheon tahje ; while Alicia, all but 
 forgotten by the friends, miserably unhappy 
 for her sister under the baneful influence of 
 her guest, anxious respecting Rupert, and an- 
 noyed at the loss of his letter, prepared to 
 return to her home.
 
 185 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Colonel and Mrs. Lawrence Peebles were 
 not the happiest of wedded pairs, as was to 
 be anticipated. A few weeks had informed 
 the aged ladj how gross was that mistake into 
 which her son had fallen, and in which he had 
 been strengthened by herself. 
 
 Not content with the abdication of the 
 rights of forty years, readily made by her 
 husband's mother in her favour, with all that 
 indulgent and confiding trust to be expected 
 from her character, her advanced age, and her 
 happiness in the choice of her dear son, Mrs. 
 Lawrence exerted an authority before un- 
 known at the Abbey, ere her bridal days were
 
 186 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 well over. She aimed to rule with a rod of 
 iron the menage of Myndale Abbey, a rule 
 which her husband was at first too polite to 
 dispute with her, and afterwards too indolent 
 to resist, until suddenly an insult to his mo- 
 ther, too great to be mistaken or passed by, 
 induced the climax it augmented. In a fury 
 of passion, into which she exasperated him, 
 Colonel Lawrence declared his unalterable re- 
 solve to banish his wife from the pleasant 
 scenes of her late mischievous labours. 
 
 This unanticipated and bold stand caused no 
 slight surprise to the lady and her aide — 
 (they had long since driven from their peaceful 
 shelter the lady, Diana Etherington, and the 
 two children of Kyme Peebles, whose frail 
 wife left him and them to the tender mercies 
 of her virtuous sister, from that day for their 
 sakes self-sacrificed)— more especially as the 
 soldierly Colonel, when roused, was not to be 
 appeased by tears. He followed up this 
 astounding announcement by others as ex- 
 plicit and brief, till no course was left open
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 187 
 
 for the lady but a nominal captivity at the 
 Abbey, or a peaceable departure into separate 
 maintenance and ease, which her husband's 
 sense of honour and her marriage-settlement 
 secured her. She chose the latter, and was 
 gone. 
 
 Such was the romance of marriage with the 
 Colonel. The year that had passed since the 
 consummation was closed by his mother's 
 death. Disappointment and grief had stricken 
 what years had spared. She died broken- 
 hearted; and as one who turns another leaf 
 in his life, Lawrence Peebles quitted England 
 for a long absence. By what accident he found 
 himself in Genoa, on his way to Italy, though 
 Germany had been his destination when he 
 quitted England, is to be explained by his 
 arriving there, with the last associate one 
 would have expected to find with Colonel 
 Peebles, so far, too, from Hazlewood as Genoa ; 
 for he is there joined by Philip Monckton, and 
 they speak together as men speak who are 
 bent on greater things than pleasure.
 
 1 88 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 At last the lady of Hazlewood could rest 
 no longer. Hourly her thoughts disposed 
 themselves into more and more apprehensive 
 shapes — there is evil everywhere ! 
 
 Magdalen is wrong ! — Rupert is wrong ! — 
 alas for Havering ! 
 
 So he bade a brief adieu to his pleasant 
 places, and the long dormant true spirit rushed 
 back into being once more, preparing to seek 
 his brother-in-law ; and although in the towns 
 of Italy, whence Rupert's letters bear date, 
 no news will he hear of that Rupert Havering 
 who died when brother Cleophe was born, the 
 Irishman, who has fortunately found the most 
 willing and able of adjuncts, is a likely person, 
 eventually, to ^' gnaw the mystery." 
 
 They travelled backward and forward. 
 They appealed to ministers, British and 
 foreign. They plied with gold and untiring 
 perseverance ; but the case was barren of a 
 clue. Amazing revelation and admission 
 — the case barren of a clue ! The 
 person of Rupert Havering, Baronet, of
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 189 
 
 Havering Park, straying, hidden, or lost! 
 Her cold smile sat more frequently on the 
 face of the Soeur Annonciate, and a low fever- 
 ish, exacting illness crept over Alicia Monck- 
 ton. 
 
 The apparently trivial circumstance of 
 strangers conversing at a public hotel upon 
 church proceedings in Sicily directed the 
 attention of the two gentlemen to the monas- 
 tery at Palermo, and led to their making a 
 rapid journey thither. 
 
 Arrived on the island, one of those extraor- 
 dinary aids which meet human beings in 
 extremity surreptitiously, as it appears, 
 presented itself at the table-d'hdte of 
 the hotel where they were established. 
 Their attention was attracted to a young 
 English student, who was living there alone, 
 and was in bad health. They grew rapidly 
 intimate with this young countryman — for to 
 him their presence was an auxiliary to health 
 better than any Southern breezes ; while he 
 inspired the pair, who were torn by the most
 
 190 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 poignant anxieties, with new designs and 
 hopes. For Edmund Leigh was a person whom 
 to see was to respect, and to know was to con- 
 fide in; and although a youth in years, his long 
 residence in Italy, and consequent acquaint- 
 ance with the language and much else that 
 was unknown to his new friends, constituted 
 him an assistance to them it was impossible 
 to over-estimate ; and it was to him they 
 were presently indebted for something in 
 the shape of intelligence, which, after their 
 long and fruitless labours, seemed to point to 
 this as the actual locality wherein, voluntarily 
 or involuntarily, Rupert Havering re- 
 sided. 
 
 Such a one as the two gentlemen de- 
 scribed had assuredly been met by Edmund 
 Leigh in his walks, when, three months since, 
 he first came to the island. Like himself, 
 the youth had been alone. The same person 
 still at intervals walked in the streets of 
 Palermo, or in the immediate vicinity of the 
 town, but latterly he had had companions.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 191 
 
 Monks of a monastery of Capuchins always 
 accompanied him, and he had assumed the 
 habit of their order. Not longer ago than a 
 week since this youth, to whom illness or un- 
 happiness had spared just so much of his 
 appearance as assured Edmund Leigh of his 
 identity with the person he had previously 
 seen, passed him on the Cassaro, in company 
 with an elderly monk, and young Leigh had 
 followed their steps to the altar of the church 
 of St. Giuseppe, because an instinctive sym- 
 pathy attracted him towards his young coun- 
 tryman. 
 
 Edmund Leigh did not tell Mr. Monckton 
 and the Colonel that, shocked by the wretched 
 and diseased appearance of the unfortunate 
 young man, he had entered the church with 
 him and his conductor, intending, if opportu- 
 nity offered, to address the young English 
 brother; it is needless to say that no such 
 opportunity did offer. 
 
 " It is he ! " cried Mr. Monckton, at the 
 close of this vague account, upon whose mind
 
 192 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 dawned a prescience ; and he saw bis own de- 
 testation of the Egertons resolve into a natural 
 antipathy, while his stout heart for a moment 
 collapsed at a glimpse of the stupendous and 
 wicked design levelled at the family of his 
 wife. 
 
 *^Now is the moment for caution," said 
 Colonel Peebles; '^the English Consul must 
 be sought at once. In conjunction with him, 
 we shall concert such measures as must com- 
 mand success." 
 
 ** My dear sir," said Edmund Leigh, " if 
 you rely upon any assistance you may get 
 from the English Consul here you will never 
 release your friend, to say nothing of carrying 
 him to England. The Hon. William Thomp- 
 son is not fitter than a wretched lazzarone to 
 protect British interests on the island." 
 
 *^ Bode us not evil, but good, my lad!" 
 cried Philip Monckton. *' Peebles, let us 
 seek the vagabond." 
 
 Crossing the main street of the town, en 
 route to the British Consulate, Colonel Peebles
 
 • MAGDALEN HAVERING. 193 
 
 felt himself suddenly stopped in mid-course. 
 The Master of Hazlewood laid a gripe upon 
 his arm, which left its impr^sion for many 
 days, as through the open door of a miserable 
 dwelling, of which, amidst the palaces of the 
 Strada Nuova, many reared their ugly fronts, 
 two persons stepped forth within five paces of 
 the Englishmen ; and Mr. Monckton, spring- 
 ing forward, threw his strong arms round a 
 figure, so attenuated, and otherwise changed, 
 that but for the preparatory story of Leigh, 
 it is possible it would not have been recognized. 
 The eyes of the young monastic were riveted 
 upon the person who thus unceremoniously em- 
 braced him, and he instantly fell into a swoon. 
 " The stranger was too hasty in his greet- 
 ing," said a voice, in pure Italian, at the elbow 
 of the Master of Hazlewood — a voice bespeak- 
 ing its owner appalled but firm ; *^ and, besides, 
 he makes a mistake — the good brother 
 Cleophe is wholly unknown to this gentle- 
 man." 
 
 But this gentleman was in nowise disposed 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 to parley with this ecclesiastic, whom, had his 
 arms been disengaged, he wonld instantly 
 have felled to \j[iQ ground. Catching up the 
 tall person of the unfortunate youth, whom 
 he knew to be Rupert Havering, and sup- 
 ported by Colonel Peebles, Philip proceeded at 
 a rapid pace towards their hotel, totally regard- 
 less of the monk's remonstrances, whose cries 
 were summoning the inmates from their houses, 
 along that broad way. 
 
 This was a mode of action for which no one 
 could have been prepared; and, as the two 
 gentlemen, bursting into Leigh's apartment, 
 there deposited their half-lifeless burden, the 
 latter knew better than they could yet realize 
 how imprudent had been this bold measure. 
 
 Restoratives were procured, and adminis_ 
 tered to Rupert Havering, and rapidly a 
 survey of all possible defences was made by 
 the three men. The stir in the thoroughfare 
 was great ; the rnaiire cThotel and his people 
 were not likely to support the strangers; 
 the British authorities were a mile away. No
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 195 
 
 means of securing door or window was at the 
 command of the isolated party, and they were 
 but three against numbers. 
 
 *^ Santa Eosalia ! '' cried a Sicilian woman 
 at the door, against which a feint of resistance 
 had been made in the shape of articles of 
 furniture. '^ Madonna, mother of mercy, 
 save them ! Oh, you will all die — you will 
 all die ! They will be down from the monas- 
 tery in five minutes, and what can three do 
 against three hundred ? All the town is astir 
 — give up the young man ! You cannot save 
 him — save yourselves ! '^ 
 
 ^'Peebles, fly !— fly to the Consulate ! They 
 shall tear me limb from limb — the devils ! — 
 ere they bear his body through yon cursed 
 door I Bring help, for the love of God ! " 
 
 Colonel Peebles needed no second bidding, 
 though he felt the case to be hopeless. He 
 rushed past the white-faced Sicilienne into the 
 crowd below, which hitherto, as if waiting a 
 coming moment, had maintained inactively its 
 threatening front; but as the Englishman 
 
 o2
 
 196 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 dashed through its midst, he was assailed with 
 opprobrious epithets, and such missives as 
 chanced to be available. Sticks, stones, &c., 
 were hurled after his headlong course, but he 
 remained uninjured as he threw himself onward, 
 nerved to tremendous efforts. 
 
 Down from the monastery, as the Sici- 
 lienne had foreseen, streamed a procession of 
 the fathers, at sight of whom the populace 
 burst into frantic cries ; the doors of the 
 hotel were torn off their hinges, the casements 
 at the front were destroyed as by an engine, 
 and it was with difficulty that the ^^ men of 
 peace" accomplished their passage to the 
 rooms, indicated by a hundred voices, through 
 the crowds that thronged the basement story 
 and the staircases. Rupert Havering was 
 slowly regaining his consciousness (for in all 
 scarcely more than twenty minutes had 
 elapsed since the rencontre in the street) when 
 the feeble obstacles opposed to the entrance 
 of besiegers were borne down by a violent
 
 MAGDALEN H AVERIN G. 197 
 
 pressure, and the room filled with darkly- 
 draped forms. 
 
 Philip Moncktori, reared to his great height, 
 his eyes gleaming lightning-like, his arras out- 
 stretched, presented an alarming antithesis to 
 the person of Brother Cleophe, which these 
 came claiming. 
 
 How there came upon the master of Hazle- 
 wood the spirit incarnate of a war-fiend — how 
 he felt a maddening impetus to kill — how, 
 upon his arm, indenting the fixture, clung the 
 vice-like grasp of Rupert Havering — how a 
 film came before his eyes, and he saw men 
 fall before him, his only weapon a common 
 cane, polished, from the groves of Havering, 
 his own strong arm aiming at the life, drench- 
 ing in their blood assailants who ever in the 
 densely-packed apartment fell, impeding the 
 uninjured, while in his ears rang shrieks and 
 cries to which Ajax was a stranger — how he 
 felt suddenly a mortal spasm, and all things 
 reeled before his eyes, and, blinded and bleed- 
 ing, his arm was separated from the fierce
 
 198 MAGDALEN HAYERIXG. 
 
 clutch of the victim, the master of Hazlewood 
 afterwards conceived, but was never able to 
 remember ; while of the existence of Edmund 
 Leigh in that frantic and terrible affray he 
 could not be convinced, until he saw the 
 misery to which its participation had reduced 
 the art-student. 
 
 Philip returned to consciousness in a scene so 
 strange, and amidst accessories so grave, that 
 he momently forgot, in their contemplation, a 
 sharp pain w^hich made itself felt, together 
 with a choking sensation almost insupportable. 
 
 He occupied a dungeon ; the ray of light 
 which stole down from an aperture sufficiently 
 testified that fact. The apartment measured 
 perhaps six feet by nine, and its height was 
 proportionable ; its atmosphere a horrible 
 stench, afflicting with frightful nausea its 
 present exhausted occupant. A coverlet on 
 which he lay was saturated with his blood ; 
 and when, having overcome his first horror, 
 Philip Monckton summoned strength to move 
 his limbs, he knew that the rupture of a large
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 199 
 
 vessel must have happened, to account for his 
 choking sensations and the great loss of 
 blood. 
 
 He lay back appalled. To die in a Sicilian 
 dungeon, and by so terrible a death ! — heart 
 and soul revolted. All the manhood within 
 him rose up to combat the bodily anguish 
 this thought but the further provoked. Suf- 
 ficiently collected to abstain from all change 
 of position (his captors had exercised a species 
 of mercy, some hard material had been given 
 him for a pillow, which saved him from suffo- 
 cation), he awaited, thus horribly placed, the 
 advent of aid. 
 
 Kapidly amidst his own overwhelming 
 liabilities he tested the possible ability of 
 Colonel Peebles, by authority of the Consul, to 
 free Eupert Havering, and was unable to 
 blind himself to the utter hopelessness of the 
 case. The power of the Church — Palermo is 
 the see of an Archbishop Primate of Sicily — 
 and (since himself was an aggressor of the 
 law) of the law also — would be ranged against
 
 200 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Kupert and freedom. Memories of many a 
 dark story of the rule to which be was now 
 subject settled gloomily on his mind. Never 
 was prisoner of the Church reclaimed by the 
 Neapolitan government. Philip groaned over 
 Eupert's fate as if it had been already sealed, 
 for he felt that whatever steps were insti- 
 tuted would be inevitably counteracted, in 
 the heart of a Catholic community ; and he 
 knew that on this island, one-fifth of the size 
 of Great Britain, six hundred monasteries 
 were maintained. Public opinion, from pea- 
 sant to noble, would scout all pretensions to 
 personal independence of Eupert, already 
 robed as a monastic, and living in subjection 
 to the vows. Doubtless the unhappy youth 
 would be drafted into another monastery ; 
 and among the numerous monasteries of 
 Italy, nay, of the Anti-Protestant dominions, 
 who dared hope for a clue or a trace of the 
 lost one ? 
 
 Visions of Hazlewood smiling in sunshine, 
 of Alicia wandering amidst her flowers, of his
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 201 
 
 little ones at their play — a thought of the 
 pall which his own dreadful death would hang 
 over those beloved ones— a cry to heaven for 
 succour to them at least, succeeded those 
 fears for Rupert. Then thought again veered 
 round — *^The mad boy! by what means could 
 he betray himself? or was he from the first a 
 victim ? Wherefore came he to this wretched 
 island ? " questioned the stout heart, angrily. 
 Then, as by the art of the lithographer, 
 the mind caught up the truth ; the features 
 of Egerton grew out distinct beneath the 
 cowl of that Capuchin, who accompanied 
 Rupert when encountered ; the voice, too, of 
 that person whom Philip scornfully detested 
 at Havering was the veritable voice which 
 remonstrated with him to-day ; and as this 
 link revealed the plot which he had intangibly 
 discovered at the first revelation of Leigh, 
 the husband of Alicia perceived that it was 
 not the weal of Rupert Havering alone which 
 this audacious scheme involved. Was not 
 Rupert Havering attaining his majority ?
 
 202 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 By St. Patrick, it is the inheritance of the 
 Haverings, in the person of that puny boy, 
 which these notable priests are compassing ! 
 
 And as Philip there lay powerless, his 
 every instinct pertinaciously awoke. And 
 alive to all the subterfuge, perceiving every 
 stake, yet must he remain impassive ; and 
 neither to the saving of his own life, nor for 
 the rescue of Kupert, nor for a protection to 
 Havering, can he take a single step. 
 
 ^' Lawrence, Lawrence ! " broke from the 
 strong man^s lips. Between Philip and Colonel 
 Peebles an uncommon friendship had sprung up. 
 The simple utterance of that ejaculation afforded 
 a momentary trust, and the trust was appa- 
 rently prophetic, for at that minute approach- 
 ing footsteps attracted the prisoner's ear — 
 voices also, and they came nearer, till they 
 paused in his immediate neighbourhood. 
 Philip heard the Anglo -Italian accent on the 
 lips of him he had adjured — a key clanged in 
 the lock of the door, the entrance to this 
 miserable vault shot open, and with a hasty
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERING. 203 
 
 step Colonel Peebles entered, followed by 
 another Englishman, while two officials of the 
 prison pressed into the narrow space. 
 
 Colonel Peebles uttered an exclamation of 
 horror on seeing the saturated coverlet, and 
 the torn dress drenched in blood, and all the 
 shocking minutice of the prisoner's appear- 
 ance. 
 
 " Great powers! '' cried Lawrence Peebles, 
 ^^ do we live in an age of reason ? " 
 
 The spectacle was such as to move either 
 the compassion or cupidity of one of the 
 officials. He spoke a word with his compan- 
 ion, and vanished, returning quickly accom- 
 panied by his wife. This latter, amidst low 
 cries of pity, proceeded to accomplish some 
 slight amelioration in the condition of the 
 master of Hazlewood. A tressel was pro- 
 cured, a palliasse and pillow, together with 
 clean linen, some cold water, and towels. 
 Such change as was possible was made, as 
 thus, and thus, they habited and tended, 
 according to their ability, Alicia's husband.
 
 204 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 A Sicilian doctor prescribed the necessary 
 remedies for a sufferer from hemorrhage ; and 
 this was the utmost which British authority, 
 under prison discipline, could accomplish — that 
 Colonel Peebles should remain with his coun- 
 tryman was peremptorily forbidden. The at- 
 tendance of the turnkey's wife was secured, 
 and all that was feasible was done. Then for 
 many days there was silence and comparative 
 solitude for Philip. For a few minutes in 
 each day, by dint of plentiful largesses, Law- 
 rence Peebles was admitted to the dungeon, 
 where, in combat against wholesale miseries — 
 dearth of food, and want of medicine, and 
 absence of all but the commonest attention — 
 Philip Monckton languished, his life hanging 
 by a thread. 
 
 A strong constitution assisted his partial 
 recovery, before the day of his trial for out- 
 rage and misdemeanour, at which there was 
 not the slightest probability that he would 
 (for the time being) evade the full rigour of 
 the law — seven years' committal to a prison,
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 205 
 
 more dismal in association than the common 
 prison of Palermo, in the dungeon of which 
 he now lay. 
 
 The document which, for protection in 
 emergency, every travelling Englishman car- 
 ries, that sets forth the command of the 
 British Government, to whomsoever it may 
 concern, to afford that aid and protection to 
 the holder of which he may stand in need, 
 was a dead letter here. 
 
 Thompson, the supporter of British autho- 
 rity in Sicily, though not the most effective 
 person to fill a legative post, put forth all his 
 energies in this particular case ; but it was 
 clearly perceptible to Colonel Peebles, and 
 other Englishmen on the island, that the tide 
 must go against the prisoner; and, conse- 
 quently, it was resolved to stake upon a bold 
 measure the single chance of escape now 
 offered by the force of intrigue and gold. 
 
 The Sicilian woman who professed to attend 
 upon the prisoner had a child. In this one 
 child — a boy of eleven years old — the fiery
 
 206 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 fondness, which perhaps only an Italian mo- 
 ther knows, was concentrated (and he was 
 no common child). When Lucia Capelli told 
 the Tnglesi that her son would rival Michael 
 Angelo (he certainly displayed great talent 
 for sculpture), the Signori Inglesi replied 
 that they would place the boy in the studio of 
 some foreign master, provided he sailed with 
 the British prisoner in a sloop bound for the 
 Italian mainland. The penalty to the woman 
 in case of failure would be death. Did the 
 attempt succeed, she braved the savage tem- 
 per of her husband, who would demand from 
 her the boy, and was seldom deceived by lies. 
 Yet, she did not long hesitate. It was 
 asked the poor mother, who had never even 
 heard those great names, if she chose Canova 
 or Thorwaldsen to instruct Giovanni Capelli ; 
 and Giovanni Capelli fell frantic at his mo- 
 ther's knees, for he had heard those great 
 names — and it was accomplished; that is, 
 her good-will to assist the perilous enter- 
 prise.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 207 
 
 But how move so great an invalid ? How 
 possibly convey him to the harbour, even if 
 the prison could be cleared ?
 
 208 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The noviciate, as everybody knows, comprises 
 a year's probation. Whether Eupert Haver- 
 ing's noviciate were real or imaginary w^as 
 never known by his family. That year was 
 approaching its close, and the heir of Haver- 
 ing and Barnet, and many another fair vale, 
 might have sat in the presence of Sir Allenne, 
 almost of Magdalen — certainly, he might have 
 appeared in the neighbourhood — without fear 
 that he would be recognized. 
 
 And there had fallen on the spirit a more 
 grievous change than on the body. No here- 
 ditary lunacy attainted the offspring of the 
 house of Havering, therefore no seeds of
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 209 
 
 madness lay low which an evil impetus forced 
 into action; yet was there a dim and mist-like 
 vision evermore before the eyes of Rupert 
 Havering, a daily and nightly horror, and 
 perpetual fantasies, which nothing short of 
 madness should know. 
 
 Thus much transpired; but of the rest, if 
 barbarity had been their aid, or any delusion 
 had wrought upon his mind, grosser than 
 continuous abstinence, solitude, and loss of 
 rest, with the sight only of monastic figures 
 and habits, no proof exists to tell. 
 
 From time to time the letters were de- 
 spatched, wherein he depicted with trembling 
 hand his contentment in his present life ; the 
 kindness that invariably attended him ; the 
 incalculable services of Adam Egerton; and 
 preparing these mechanical epistles, once such 
 poignant pain to him, ceased at length to 
 distress him. 
 
 Body and soul lay slaves, when only a few 
 months remained, ere that majority which 
 would make him master to hold and to be- 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 queatli the vast demesnes of Havering. At 
 this time it was announced to him to prepare 
 to undertake a journey. 
 
 Those of our readers who are acquainted 
 with northern Italy will not need to have 
 described to them the precise site of the far- 
 famed religious house of San Carlan; but 
 for those who have not known such a district, 
 a few words may be necessary. Notwith- 
 standing the sanctity pervading that com- 
 munity, the savour of whose piety provokes 
 the emulation of the proudest Savoyard 
 monasteries (more celebrated in policy than 
 for suffering and learning, which latter have 
 canonized for many ages the saints of the 
 adjoining lands), the air of its vicinity is 
 impregnated with amazing nondescript pecca- 
 dilloes, which, together with darker deeds, 
 bespeak the presence of outlawry — the whole 
 country is alive with banditti. The rising 
 grounds to the back of San Carlan are mostly 
 densely wooded, and their fastnesses yield 
 the seclusion and mystery necessary to, and
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 211 
 
 agreeing with, the stiletto-armed gentry of 
 the roads ; while the meandering river which 
 glides along the valleys laves the chalets of 
 the superstitious peasantry, with whom that 
 gentry are apt to coalesce by extortionary 
 advantage over weakness. 
 
 It was upon the eve of the anniversary of 
 the brilliant marriage scene at Dryburgh that 
 two persons arduously pursued their w^ay 
 towards San Carlan, not in the direct route 
 
 from the town of P thither, but by a 
 
 path known only to long residents, who, in 
 fear for the most part of those to be likely 
 encountered on its confines, abjured that 
 winding pass, and kept the less perilous high- 
 way. 
 
 The elder of the two, while he bent beneath 
 a wallet, which probably contained the wear- 
 ing apparel of himself and his companion — 
 for the latter bore no such burden — vainly 
 endeavoured to re-assure the younger and 
 almost fainting traveller, who, at length over- 
 come by fatigue, and wearing an air of the 
 
 p2
 
 212 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 deepest dejection, declared his inability to 
 proceed a step farther, and sank down upon 
 a mound of vegetation, which afforded him a 
 pretext for a pillow. 
 
 No other person was in view nor any habi- 
 tation, and very forlorn was the condition of 
 the greater sufferer of the two ; for the elder, 
 taller, and stronger of the wayfarers appeared 
 to be impelled by some secret strength, which 
 his unfortunate companion did not share. 
 He regarded with a vexed, half-contemptuous 
 expression the prostrate figure of the youth, 
 down whose wan cheeks were rolling a few 
 furtive tears. 
 
 " Nay, brother Cleophe ! this is an unmanly 
 weakness, from which I thought you exempt. 
 Bodily fatigue and suffering is but a breath, 
 in comparison with that great anguish of the 
 spirit, which the powers of darkness moot in 
 those souls who, having once chosen the way 
 of life, fail because of a few slight pains to 
 fulfil their holy vocation. See you not how 
 the masses of these woods close and cling toj
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 213 
 
 gether? — just so the soul of the Christian 
 closes all avenues to his senses. You have 
 yielded to temptation, and there is therefore 
 a dearth in the promising garden of your soul, 
 which the verdant grove before us knows 
 not. It was a sorry day for my brother 
 when he turned from the peaceful path into 
 which his erring footsteps had been guided. 
 Cursed be the evil wolves who entered the 
 Shepherd's fold ! But fear not ! the returning 
 one is more precious in the sight of the 
 Church than he who never went astray." 
 
 '^ I am dying, Egerton !" faintly gasped he 
 to whom the lady of Hazlewood bore sister- 
 hood, and Magdalen too, and whose inheritance 
 was that fair Havering Bower. ** I am dying, 
 Egerton !" and the deadly swoon which instant- 
 ly overcame him seemed not unlike to death, 
 even to the cold eye of his companion, who 
 hastily seeking from his depository a flask 
 containing a stimulant, applied the same to 
 the pallid lips of Rupert Havering ; and with 
 an energy of which he had not thought him-
 
 214 MAGDALEN IIAVERLVG. 
 
 self capable — so many weary miles had he 
 traversed with his burden since morning — he 
 bounded down the steep decline to the rivulet 
 trickling below. Returning with a bowl of 
 w^ater he dashed the limpid element over the 
 face of the young man, who was presently 
 restored to his senses. Doubtless the awaking 
 was terrible ; but the spectacle of it did not 
 move him w'ho watched and waited, while 
 the eyes that dreamed they looked forth upon 
 the Pleasaunce, searched piercingly around for 
 that wild Magdalen whom wanderingly his 
 voice adjured. But returning consciousness 
 did not restore strength, and Eloysius clearly 
 perceived that his charge was unable to pro- 
 ceed upon the journey. The dilemma was 
 great in which he found himself — the shades 
 of night were advancing ; but he hastily de- 
 cided that no choice remained to him but 
 hurriedly to make for the monastery, distant 
 about one mile ; since it was equally impos- 
 sible for him to carry so inanimate a burden 
 that distance, as it was dangerous to leave
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 215 
 
 Rupert Havering alone upon the mountain 
 side. 
 
 Once and again he hesitated, ere convinced 
 of the impossibility of adopting any other 
 course, he deposited the wallet by the side of 
 Rupert, and dashed off upon his way. At a 
 turn in the path, not five yards distant from 
 the spot where Rupert reclined, the passage 
 of the flying monk was.suddenly impeded, for 
 the narrow road was occupied by two station- 
 ary persons. They might have stood at that 
 post for long, whence through the foliage they 
 could perceive the spot but now quitted by 
 Eloysius. If they came at that moment they 
 made no sound, more than did the warriors of 
 Roderic Dhu when they rose from the moun- 
 tain side, for no tread had met the ear, nor a 
 whisper, nor any sign by which Eloysius might 
 have suspected their proximity. They were 
 two tall, muscular forms to stand in the path 
 of any man ; and the breath of Eloysius came 
 short as their bright costumes enlivening 
 the twilight, their knives at their belts, and
 
 216 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 their carbines in their vests, with a bold 
 presence which would laugh to scorn the 
 famous green riders of Hannut — the brigands 
 flashed from their lawless eyes restless glances 
 towards the monk. 
 
 To fly was impossible, and it was useless to 
 parley. He adopted his only chance : '^ The 
 poor Eloysius passing from Palermo, brother 
 of La Madre Dolente, bidden to the holy house 
 of San Carlan, hath need of the help of friends; 
 whose so ready as that of the strangers whom 
 Santa Rosalia hath surely sent to rescue from 
 a death without sacrament one of her devoted 
 sons ? Yonder in our sight lies the sufi'erer to 
 whose aid the strangers come — the coiFers of 
 San Carlan are filled with gold — the Prior of 
 San Carlan is no niggard." 
 
 The brigands exchanged some exclama- 
 tions, and bent forward, their fingers on their 
 triggers, first to scrutinize Eloysius, then to 
 view Rupert through the trees. This done, 
 they bestowed on the uneasy Eloysius an epi- 
 thet portraying no good-will ; and as he drew
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 217 
 
 back, they followed him to the side of the 
 prostrate youth, whom, without farther hesi- 
 tation, they raised in their arms, and proceeded 
 to carry towards San Carl an. 
 
 As they strode along, followed by Eloysius, 
 they chanted songs to their patron saint, in 
 voices which the echoes of the woods rever- 
 berated, a music that lulled the deadened facul- 
 ties of Eupert to a sense of delicious repose. It 
 was not until emerging from the dense planta- 
 tion, and coming suddenly on the monastery of 
 San Carlan — a great dark fortress-looking edi- 
 fice — that the victim gave signs of observation. 
 Then he started and trembled. For a moment 
 it seemed he would address his strange bearers, 
 who, supporting him with surprising gentle- 
 ness, roughly encouraged, first cheerily, then 
 tenderly, the distressed young monastic to 
 speak with them. Their vagrant sympathy 
 created a warm gleam of light, amidst that 
 yet unknown gloom towards which they were 
 rapidly bearing him ; but the interlocution of 
 Eloysius served to avert the tardy confidence
 
 218 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Rupert might have meditated vesting in these 
 banditti. 
 
 They approached the great gates of the 
 monastery ; admission was sought and gained, 
 and the fall of the iron portal did enter the 
 young man's soul. Closing his eyes, he knew 
 howhopelesslyhe was a captive, at the moment, 
 when, parting from the two bandits, he heard 
 them bidden round to the refectory. Deposited 
 in an outer apartment, he remained almost 
 unnoticed, while numerous persons gathered 
 round Eloysius, plying him with whispered 
 questions. These presently stole glances from 
 time to time at the stranger, evidently inqui- 
 sitive respecting him ; and it was a relief to 
 the sick youth when, on signs of an important 
 approach, they all fled away like so many 
 birds frightened from a devastation. Then 
 knots of lay brothers passed and repassed before 
 his eyes, no person addressing himself, nor 
 any attention being shown him. The brother 
 Eloysius, who had vanished for a space, re-ap- 
 peared, in company with a person whose garb,
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 219 
 
 more than any apparent superiority, separated 
 hira from all others. In him the brother Cle- 
 ophe was presented to the prior of San 
 Carlan. 
 
 Upon the face of the new comer the young 
 forlorn sufferer turned an eager gaze, as if to 
 read what prospect to himself accrued from 
 that quarter. The face of this person, better 
 known as the Fra Bartolomeo (Secundus he 
 ought surely to be called) than by more 
 dignified names which he bore, now pre- 
 sented an instance of that possible state in 
 which priestcraft is so developed, that no 
 trace of the natural sensibility found in all 
 mankind unperverted is to be discerned by 
 the charitable.
 
 220 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 It was the night of the 27th of August. 
 The sultriness of the day had given place to 
 a close murky atmosphere, unfavourable to 
 the meditated escape. 
 
 There was a fete in the small village of 
 Spezzia, one mile from the town, in honour 
 of the marriage of a Frenchman, of good 
 family, with a virtuous and beautiful peasant 
 girl. The bridegroom, departing, had not 
 been chary of his wealth, and rejoicings, to 
 which crowds of the Palermitans flocked out, 
 were held upon a grand scale. Thither 
 Lucia Campelli decoyed her husband ; and
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 221 
 
 at toll of the midniglit bell of the monasteries, 
 on one pretence or other, all the functionaries 
 who lodged in the prison were absent from its 
 walls save one. This man was treated to a 
 potation, which seldom he quaffed before or 
 after ; and silently, past his somnolent figure, 
 glided three men, who, led bj Lucia, sought 
 the cell where, in imbecile eagerness, the 
 residue of the strong man shorn vainly- 
 endeavoured to nerve his soul to whatsoever 
 fate had in store for him. 
 
 The lamp which, in the hand of Lucia, 
 illumined his face for a moment, disclosed the 
 fierce workings within. Hazlewood, Alicia, 
 children, his own freedom, and his life — all 
 were in that brief glance which Colonel 
 Peebles encountered. They lifted him in 
 their arms — a slight burden comparatively, 
 but exacting the nicest skill in its convoy ; 
 and this time they trod in darkness past the 
 single sleeping garzone del carceriere. 
 
 Once free of that chamber, Lucia turned 
 the key upon its occupant, the only foe within
 
 222 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 the prison, whom, for the next half-hour at 
 least, they had cause to fear. 
 
 They paused as they gahied the air, for 
 Colonel Peebles and Sir William Bright to 
 exchange positions. Edmund Leigh was to 
 act as advanced guard ; and then commenced 
 their perilous passage to the beach. Lucia 
 and her boy were here, there, beyond, every- 
 where in a moment, flitting in the wan moon- 
 light, which partially illumined their way, a 
 path cut along the monastery-purlieus run- 
 ning down to the sea. The moments were 
 heavily laden to the small, silent band — a 
 shadowy hope before them, terrible things at 
 their heels. The uneven footing, and the 
 steep declivity, with the probable rencontre 
 of wanderers — who, monastic or civilian, 
 would be equally their foes — aggravated their 
 anxiety respecting the health of Philip. 
 While beneath them dashed the fierce, storm- 
 announcing waves, above them the sky 
 vouchsafed no favour ; and ever and anon the 
 Sicilian woman murmured in whispers her
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERING. 223 
 
 aves to the saints to consecrate the genius of 
 her boy. 
 
 Philip Monckton fainted with the great ex- 
 citement and the pain to which he was un- 
 avoidably subjected; but the quay is gained 
 at last ! Yonder pace the Neapolitan sentries, 
 whom it is necessary to circumvent; and 
 alongside the pier lies the felucca. 
 
 Lucia has been there with English gold ; 
 with uncertain step a friend advances ; the 
 password, known only to one besides four per- 
 sons of their party, greets the hungry ears 
 that awaited it ; another turn of that tall 
 cloaked figure, whose measured military 
 tread yields no hope of inattention from that 
 quarter, and swift into the shadow of a 
 friendly earthwork — (how came that earth- 
 work there ?) — the other tall figure is sup- 
 ported. 
 
 Perilous stowage for the boat ! No more 
 shall she breast Sicilian waters if ever the 
 plot transpire. But her peril is braved, and 
 all other exigencies ; and below, where never
 
 224 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 stray voyager and scarce a boat's hand will 
 penetrate, rests in present security the master 
 of Ilazlewood, and the emulator of Michel 
 Ange. 
 
 One last prayer to the Virgin issues 
 almost soundless from Lucia's lips, and 'Hhe 
 Madonna accompany you ! " the thickly-whis- 
 pered answer of her son, alone breaks the 
 silence which hangs upon the little group. 
 Then the mother and son are parted, the pair 
 who embody the behests of the whole are 
 enveloped in rough hangings of the vessel, 
 Sir William Bright remaining behind to cover 
 the flight as best he may ; Colonel Peebles 
 and Leigh, in Turkish dresses, pace La 
 Sjjosa^s deck. 
 
 On the arrival of the little boat at the in- 
 dicated small port, the wounded French officer 
 and his attendant, whom sickness hitherto se- 
 cluded, together with the two Turks, are put 
 on board a French vessel ; and, by means 
 again of English gold, this party's passports 
 escape demand even in a port of Naples.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 225 
 
 And now arises a terrible trust — terrible 
 because it is intangible — comprising not one 
 life alone ; for Colonel Peebles has known for 
 some time of Alicia's increasing illness. 
 
 The hearing of the imprisonment and a 
 portion of the sufferings of her husband had 
 been too much for the gentle-hearted mistress 
 of Hazlewood. Her disposition and tranquil 
 habits unfitted her to cope with suspense, 
 that cruellest of misfortunes ; and apprehen- 
 sions, and vague bad news, and unaccustomed 
 loneliness effectually undermined her strength. 
 
 It was soon more than probable that her 
 life would pay the forfeit of her sisterly 
 anxieties for Rupert. Nor was this all. Ex- 
 traordinary events had transpired at the 
 Bower, which the letters of Colonel Peebles 
 came tardily to explain. 
 
 The last week in June there had arrived at 
 the Bower certain legal authorities, and two 
 Romish ecclesiastics, one of them of high 
 rank, whose commission was of so astounding 
 a nature, that notwithstanding the presence of 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 MAGDALEN HAVERJNG. 
 
 her friend, it aroused Magdalen at once and 
 for ever from the fantasy, now the growth of 
 months, into which Annunciata fondly hoped 
 she had irretrievably beguiled her ; and she 
 gave to the amazed Sir Allenne an aid on 
 which he could not have counted. 
 
 It was Magdalen who, despite the adjura- 
 tions of Annunciata, despatched messengers 
 for the nearest magistrates, regretting in her 
 extremity how little she had cultivated any 
 good feeling among her neighbours. 
 
 It was Magdalen who peremptorily de- 
 terred Sir Allenne from lending his attention 
 one moment, after hearing an audacious state- 
 ment, which averred that Sir Kupert Havering, 
 brother of La Madre Dolente, situate in 
 Palermo, Sicily, having lately attained his 
 majority, made over to the Church of Eome 
 for ever all those lands in tlie county of 
 Salop called Havering, Barnet, &c. (here fol- 
 lowed geographical definitions), together with 
 the large invested property accruing to the 
 said Sir Rupert, and the messuage of Haver-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 227 
 
 ing Bower, which definitions comprised all 
 possessions to which the said Rupert Ha- 
 vering was heir. 
 
 The document produced by the strangers, 
 containing the above clauses, bore a very 
 recent date, and was duly signed, and was 
 attested by the British minister at Eome, by 
 an English nobleman (Catholic), and by the 
 Archbishop of Milan, and other Papal eccle- 
 siastics, and wore an air of the gravest reality, 
 which the solicitors who accompanied the 
 priests declared to be beyond dispute. 
 
 In these unprecedented circumstances it 
 was needful to act with celerity, and that 
 same day a conclave sat in the library of the 
 Bower, at sight of which the ghosts of the 
 buried Haverings of Havering might par- 
 donably have arisen from their tombs. 
 
 There were present Sir Allenne Seybright, 
 perceptibly discomposed, tremulous with more 
 than age ; Sir Joseph Lansden, an intimate 
 friend of the late Baronet of Havering, and 
 Mr. Frederick Yane — (both these gentlemen 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 reasonably refused to understand the extra- 
 ordinary occasion on which they were thus 
 hastily summoned) ; Mrs. Monckton of Ha- 
 zlewood, and Miss Havering of Havering 
 Bower, the Bishop of Padua, the Rev. 
 Michael Orme, James Tennant, and George 
 Malverley, Esquires, solicitors, and the Sa3ur 
 Annonciate. Alicia is pale, cold, and quiet ; 
 the priests are serene, and the lawyers are 
 stolid ; while Magdalen is wearing a most 
 proud and fearless demeanour ; standing sole 
 upon her hearth, she embodies in her maiden 
 person the whole vast interests at stake, and 
 views the assembly as if she were a Pythoness, 
 whose nod might subvert the scene ; and 
 Annunciata, than whom no marble statue 
 maintains a front more impassive, takes count 
 of the stakes, and gathers up the cards, and 
 watches the fling of the fateful dice, which 
 will win to her colours a grander conquest than 
 any she has known before, or award her a 
 doom to which death the more merciful 
 resigns her ; whose being is already astir
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 229 
 
 within her — the madness she adjured to 
 attend the issue, if the game indeed were 
 lost. 
 
 Although the remarkable deed of convey- 
 ance now displayed in the library of the Bower 
 was simply a copy of the original retained by 
 the Soeur Annonciate, the Bishop of Padua de- 
 clined detaching his fingers from it; and all 
 eyes, as if curiously fascinated, centered on the 
 scroll of parchment, when, on concluding his 
 office of reading it, the acting solicitor an- 
 nounced that the servants of the Church there 
 present came prepared to enter upon the pos- 
 session to which that document entitled them, 
 and that all let or hindrance offered them in 
 ■discharge of their duty would be judged by 
 English law. 
 
 Then Miss Havering of the Bower, took 
 upon herself to speak ; and she spoke with 
 becoming moderation, until she saw that the 
 local magistrates were not prepared to support 
 her, while the London barristers preserved a 
 sanctimonious silence (probably, in the opinion
 
 230 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 of both parties, the case admitted of no 
 measures until brought into a court of jus- 
 tice) ; then she could control herself no 
 longer, and with passionate declamations 
 she demanded the instant expulsion of the 
 intruders. 
 
 Flying to the door to obey an incontrol- 
 lable impulse, her intention was thwarted for 
 a moment by the priest Michael Orme, who, 
 placing himself directly before her, spoke a 
 few words in a low tone. 
 
 Over to the distant devonport, beside which 
 Annunciata stood, her eyes burdened with no 
 natural intelligence, her lips compressed, and, 
 as it chanced, the splendid masses of her hair 
 falling like a glorious canopy over her superb 
 virgin form, flashed Magdalen's flaming glance. 
 But the Sa3ur Annonciate was not regarding 
 ]\Iagdalen. If their eyes had met, perhaps — 
 as the moan which succeeds the tornado awes 
 the stout heart of the warrior, which the 
 storm failed to appal — the present aspect of 
 Annunciata might have riveted the chains
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 231 
 
 afresh, and have given her Magdalen, charmed 
 and spell-bound, to consolidate instead of 
 destroying her fabric — so much hangs upon a 
 glance. As it was, Magdalen recalled her 
 eyes, to fix them upon the priest ; his were 
 waiting to meet hers, and a scornful smile 
 writhed his mouth into hideous and unseemly 
 contortions, as he murmured — 
 
 " Your honour, proud young lady of Haver- 
 ing, is in my keeping now." 
 
 Magdalen alone heard these words, and 
 another expression which followed them. But 
 her voice resounded through the long apart- 
 ment, as she replied distinctly and slowly — 
 " The name you have named is too noble to 
 be sullied by what you say — and my honour, 
 forsooth ! Out of my path, lest I forget 
 myself ! " 
 
 " Magdalen ! Magdalen ! " cried Alicia — 
 *^oh, my dear Magdalen, compose yourself! " 
 
 " I am composed, Alicia ! — composed to exe- 
 cute our duty in the absence of Sir Kupert 
 Havering, basely, very basely, trepanned!"
 
 232 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 and again her eyes gleamed towards the 
 devonport. 
 
 Then she darted a glance of scorn towards 
 the half circlet of men who, beyond the papal 
 party, kept watch and ward around the couch 
 on which Alicia lay half fainting, but who 
 took no steps in advance ; and, throwing open 
 the door of the room, she stood beyond it. 
 
 " Humphreys — Dormer — Benjamin ! '' and 
 through the galleries rang her voice as never 
 voice of Magdalen Havering awoke the echoes 
 before. Twenty servants rushed to the lib- 
 rary. In vain Sir Joseph Lansden interposed ; 
 in vain the strangers drew themselves toge- 
 ther, assuming an attitude of self-preservation. 
 " Out with them ! " said Magdalen, with a 
 fierce, concentrated fury. 
 
 She needed not to repeat the bidding. The 
 glass doors of the library, leading to the ter- 
 race, flew open. Over the apartment spread 
 the servants of Havering, men, and some wo- 
 men, too ; and seized and borne along amidst 
 many stout arms, the four strange men were
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 233 
 
 inducted into the open air, and beyond the 
 lawn into the park. The carriages that 
 brought them were hastily produced, the 
 horses attached to them, the intruders uncere- 
 moniously placed within, and the grooms, and 
 gardeners, and wood-labourers swelling the 
 train, the equipages were escorted beyond the 
 gates with a greater exhibition than intention 
 of violence. 
 
 " My good young lady," said Sir Joseph, 
 who had met Miss Havering at a dinner or 
 two, when he had pronounced her an unin- 
 teresting person, " this is a most extraordi- 
 nary proceeding ! " 
 
 Magdalen was standing, tall and stiff, stretch- 
 ing her white face towards the opening in the 
 trees, which bounded the pleasaunce from the 
 lawn, to catch the last glimpse of the car- 
 riages and the motley crowd, and she did not 
 hear what was said to her. 
 
 But Sir Allenne went over, and laying his 
 hand upon her head, he called her his dear 
 niece, his own Magdalen, Magdalen Sey-
 
 234 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 bright's daughter, and the deliverer of them 
 all. 
 
 Then a smile broke over her white lips. 
 
 **So!'^ she cried, recovering herself from 
 the torrent of mingled feelings which had 
 left her scarcely a woman. ^' And now, gen- 
 tlemen," turning to the astonished group, '^ we 
 will discuss this business at our leisure. Be 
 seated, Sir Joseph Lansden — be seated, Mr. 
 Frederick Yane. Dear Uncle, oblige me with 
 a glass of wine for Alicia. And now, let me 
 hear what construction, as magistrates, you 
 put upon this extraordinary affair ! " 
 
 Seating herself, to receive the opinion of 
 those gentlemen, Magdalen first became con- 
 scious of the absence of something about her. 
 The devonport still retained its place, but in 
 its shadow was vacancy. On the spot where 
 Annunciata had been standing, robed with her 
 wondrous majesty, only a few minutes ago, no 
 trace of Annunciata lingered ; but Magdalen, 
 bending forward the more readily to hear Sir 
 Joseph, failed to take cognizance of the va-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 235 
 
 nishing away of a great mysterious spirit. 
 She thought that Annunciata's mortal mould 
 had fled the ejection just accomplished, and 
 dismissed from her mind for the hour the pre- 
 sage of that long reckoning to which Annun- 
 ciata must be sued (since who but Annunciata 
 could have empowered that priest to couple her 
 
 name with ? — and, betrayer in one point, 
 
 betrayer in all). Magdalen discerns a portion 
 of the plot as Philip had discerned a portion 
 — dimly, as yet, 'tis true. 
 
 It was not until three hours after that she 
 learned the remarkable fact that Miss Eger- 
 ton was nowhere to be found. Then, as it 
 had shone upon Philip Monckton, amidst blood 
 and tears in the Sicilian dungeon, the vision 
 was revealed to Magdalen ; and she knew that 
 in the syren who had wrapt her heart-strings 
 — who had long borne the semblance of an 
 angel in her eyes — whose influence had parted 
 her from her saintly sister, and had almost 
 succeeded in making her a nun — she beheld, 
 if not the principal, a ready agent in the com-
 
 236 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 plicated scheme, that had for its object to 
 involve the House of Havering in a damnable 
 popish plot, and with whom it still remained 
 to answer to his family, and the civilized 
 world at large, for the detention in a foreign 
 monastery of Eupert Havering, English and 
 Protestant — perhaps, even for his life ! 
 
 Both magistrates declared their inability to 
 resolve into established forms the late aston- 
 ishing demonstration, or to condense its bear- 
 ings into legal terms. It was, therefore, de- 
 cided to seek immediately the highest assis- 
 tance in the law. 
 
 Sir Allenne, the kindest, the most futile of 
 guardians, rested placidly, under cover of Mag- 
 dalen, in the anxious time that succeeded. 
 From her all suggestions emanated ; to her 
 all opinions were submitted. Men of middle 
 age and mature experience yielded her unqua- 
 lified respect, perceiving of what metal was 
 composed the real character of this " uninte- 
 resting " young lady ; while Alicia, utterly 
 incapable of the part thus intuitively taken
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 237 
 
 by her sister, bewildered by the visions of the 
 trouble in which she saw her husband involved, 
 while she lay very ill at Hazlewood, could 
 murmur only the words, ^^ Eupert ! Rupert ! '' 
 as if upon that name was centered, as was 
 true, more than her own life.
 
 238 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The merchant sloop which conveyed Philip 
 Monckton and his two friends to England — 
 when, after imminent peril, they succeeded in 
 disarming suspicion, exchanging -from the 
 French vessel at Genoa into one direct for 
 England — lay off Plymouth harbour, on the 
 same morning, and at nearly the same hour, 
 that in his Italian prison, the dreary monas- 
 tery of San Carlan, Rupert, the ill-fated, of 
 Havering, fell into the death-trance. 
 
 Part of the instructions of Elovsius had 
 been to avoid all vehicles when possible ; and 
 as the unsettled state of the country had ren- 
 dered it necessary that Eloysius and his charge
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 239 
 
 should travel as swiftly as might be, the spent 
 condition of Eupert Havering, when he reached 
 San Carlan, is accounted for. 
 
 He never recovered his exhaustion from 
 that journey, and, after his arrival at the 
 monastery, he gradually declined. 
 
 Twenty-one years and two months since, 
 amidst rejoicings which illumined the neigh- 
 bourhood, the first-born child of Magdalen 
 Seybright and the warlike baronet of Haver- 
 ing came forth to life — and to fulfil a destiny 
 at variance with those gay bells, the merry 
 dancing, feasting, revelry, to which the birth 
 of " the heir " gave rise ! 
 
 Xo tongue of his people fell upon his ear 
 since, in the hotel of Palermo, that of Philip 
 Monckton aroused his own dull sense, when 
 that stalwart person had vainly contended for 
 his — the poor Eupert's — liberty. Its well- 
 remembered tones had wrought madly within 
 him a wild yearning for escape from the pro- 
 voked impending dissolution which nature 
 unerringly foretold.
 
 240 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Never a line of a familiar hand, of all the 
 letters addressed to him, was suffered to meet 
 his eyes. 
 
 Since the day on which he signed the deed 
 which acknowledged the assumption of monas- 
 tic vows, thereby relinquishing all claim upon 
 his birthright, the slow torpor of despair settled 
 on him. 
 
 He offered no remonstrance or entreaty, 
 nor sought communication with any. The 
 appointed vigils decreed by the Church were 
 all kept by him, down to the most rigorous, 
 which condemned the victim of consumption 
 to exchange his pallet for the cold aisles of 
 the chapel from three till four o'clock in the 
 morning. 
 
 No account of his last moments reached his 
 family ; and but for the dereliction of one of 
 the brotherhood, so many particulars as are 
 mentioned here had not been known. That 
 he died was sufficiently proved, not alone by 
 the existence of a slab with his name upon it, 
 in the burying-ground adjoining San Carlan,
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERIXG. 241 
 
 and the date of his demise as entered in the 
 archives of the monastery, but from other 
 incontrovertible sources. Else had Magdalen 
 for years to come been haunted by that 
 dreadest of human spectres, the uncertainty 
 if death had indeed passed over him, or if he 
 still lived to suffer. 
 
 Consolatory circumstances had composed 
 the unhinged faculties of Philip Monckton, 
 as, fanned by breezes from the Atlantic, 
 shaded from the sun by the British ensign 
 (it was Leopold of Hanover's birthday), and 
 watched untiringly by his two good friends, 
 he felt himself in a measure recovered ere 
 landing in England. 
 
 The step was still wanting in energy, the 
 eye was bereft of its fire, the long figure very 
 fleshless, of the returning one, who eagerly 
 longed for, yet dreaded, his arrival at Hazle- 
 wood. Over his hot face floated cool winds, 
 and the odour of Alicia's flowers ; the hall- 
 door stood wide open ; he saw figures beyond. 
 In a moment little Maggie came springing 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 down the steps, stopping short at sight of the 
 carriage. 
 
 " Courage, raon ami ! " cried Colonel Law- 
 rence, himself almost unmanned, as the master 
 of Hazlewood alighted at his own portal at last. 
 
 The servants gathered round him with re- 
 spectful tenderness, but upon them all lay a 
 hush — as if it were a solemn home he came 
 to, not the bright home of Alicia. Still 
 weak, the apprehensions he felt were destroy- 
 ing him. 
 
 " How is your mistress ? " peremptorily 
 demanded Colonel Peebles. 
 
 " I thank you, sir," replied Ellis, the house- 
 keeper ; *^ Mrs. Monckton — poor dear ! — is a 
 trifle more like herself.'^ 
 
 Philip shone upon her radiantly. Since 
 death had not already claimed her, his love 
 should thwart him in the breach. 
 
 " I thank thee ! " he was heard to utter ; 
 but no one believed him to have spoken to 
 Ellis. 
 
 Then there was the rush of a girlish figure
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 243 
 
 down the staircase — a step that sped over 
 the hall — and Magdalen stood face to face 
 again with him the insulting priest had 
 named. Lawrence Peebles had touched her 
 hand, which lay once upon his bridle rein ; and 
 then she had put her arms round Philip's 
 neck, and had drawn him into the dining- 
 room — had placed him in a chair, and be- 
 haved towards him with a wonderful tender- 
 ness of compassion, which told him better 
 than any words how near was the Angel of 
 Death, since only in the presence of a great 
 woe could Magdalen thus support him ; and 
 at the heart of Lawrence Peebles, like the 
 tearing of a furious wild beast, lay the fresh 
 memory of another day, when she had spoken 
 with him. 
 
 " My love — my life — my Alicia ! " later in 
 the day murmured a voice, which only in her 
 dreams for nine long months had reached the 
 sweet lady of Hazlewood. 
 
 She opened her lovely eyes, and beheld her 
 husband ! 
 
 r2
 
 244 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Whatever change was perceptible to her in 
 Philip, Philip saw greater in herself. There 
 was upon her face a look which he vainly 
 sought to fathom : a mysterious combination 
 of rest and peace, as of one whose yearning 
 was mercifully granted her, and by whom no 
 more was sought. 
 
 ^^ Papa,'^ whispered little Maggie, creeping 
 from behind the curtains, " mamma looks 
 always now like the lady of Loretto.'* 
 
 '^ Hush, my babe ! you disturb mamma. 
 See, she will sleep quietly, and to morrow we 
 shall see her better, papa and his little 
 Maggie." 
 
 The little creature nestled in his arms and 
 spoke no more, regarding in turn this long- 
 absent papa, so changed from the papa of her 
 remembrance, and the mother who lay thus 
 sublime and still upon her pillows. 
 
 When night came, and there were lamps 
 about the room, and the fire was fed with 
 noiseless care, and Ellis and other women ser- 
 vants stood round, and Magdalen knelt upon
 
 lUGDALEN HAYEfilNG. 245 
 
 the bed and pillows, while upon the thresh- 
 hold lingered Lawrence like a trespasser, and 
 Philip had both his children in his arms — she 
 who was departing spoke to him. 
 
 Her lips parted for an instant, as her eyes 
 rested lovingly upon him. He bent forward 
 over the heads of the children, and, stooping 
 to catch the low sound, heard, ** G(M bless 
 you ! " the faintest of faintest murmurs — and 
 trouble had done its utmost. 
 
 Utterly unable to stem the tide of misfor- 
 tune, or to gird herself to endure, she had 
 fallen into a peculiar malady, almost as the 
 law-suit commenced to settle the claim to 
 Havering ; and when it was deemed advisable 
 (to . prepare her for direr news) to tell her 
 that her husband suffered greatly, she sank 
 rapidly. The wonder was that her frame held 
 together for him to see her alive — a merciful 
 wonder — for it yielded him a break to the blow. 
 
 Over a dispensation so profound and solemn*^ 
 no further comments issue, as over a grief so 
 rare and deep silence reigns.
 
 246 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Philip Monckton lived for the sake of his 
 little ones. The thought of them taught him 
 to control himself, else in the ebullition of his 
 keen regrets he would have wished to repose 
 himself in the coffin of the well-beloved wife. 
 
 The announcement of the death of Rupert 
 Havering was the first diversion of his mind 
 from it^ channel of exceeding bitterness. 
 
 The contemplation of so sad a close to a 
 
 life so young, prospects so flattering, was rife 
 
 with healthful teaching. To Magdalen the 
 
 death of Rupert struck home. A dreadful 
 
 intensity of hate towards the persecutors was 
 
 her first prevailing feeling, ere she could suffer 
 
 herself to weep for his dreadful death ; for 
 
 Magdalen believes to this day that his .end 
 
 was accelerated, as his decease was induced. 
 
 In after years she could speak of the loss of 
 
 Alicia, and no one doubted how deeply she 
 
 lamented the sister, in whom, on retrospec- 
 
 % tion, she could never descry a fault — as the 
 
 sorrow- taught heart that still suffers will 
 
 sometimes speak of its dead, though in life
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 247 
 
 that dead was blessed, as if the eternal refuge 
 were a bourn for all eyes to crave ; but it 
 was seldom she named, or any named in her 
 hearing, the early death of Rupert. 
 
 While the Bower was tenanted by legal 
 authorities, maintaining the possession, pend- 
 ing the trial relative thereto. Sir Allenne 
 and Magdalen lived at Hazlewood. What a 
 changed Magdalen since her last visit, before 
 she departed to Dryburgh ! 
 
 Now, if she were not the spirit of order, 
 she was at the least no innovator. Alice and 
 Maggie, the motherless, were dependent upon 
 her now ; and never again would she and 
 Philip Monckton anger each other. 
 
 Those things were past for ever, together 
 with the lives of Alicia and Eupert ; and 
 Philip was surprised to perceive an address 
 and gravity about Magdalen — that wild Mag- 
 dalen — whom he had loved to distress in those 
 other sunnier days ; while she unhesitatingly 
 relinquished all those determined antagonisms 
 she had then piled against him. Each was
 
 248 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 safe from the other now, when Alicia lay in 
 her grave, and could not rejoice that they 
 were friends. 
 
 A month from the funeral of Alicia, Philip 
 Monckton could scarcely make the circuit of 
 Alicia's flower-garden, which was his favourite 
 haunt. Colonel Peebles inostensibly ordered 
 his movements, and thus protected his health. 
 But they Avere not inseparable companions — 
 the beginning of grief can with difficulty tole- 
 rate a witness. Only little Alice and Maggie 
 were ever welcome to Philip. Perhaps the 
 persons most intimate of the party were Sir 
 Allenne and Colonel Peebles. 
 
 Sir Allenne was delighted to renew the ac- 
 quaintance tacitly formed at Dry burgh ; and 
 Colonel Peebles was one of the few who ren- 
 dered Sir Allenne justice. 
 
 This gentleman detected in Sir Allenne 
 finer traits than a casual observer discovered ; 
 a rectitude, beneath bis almost womanly sen- 
 sibility, which atoned for many shortcomings ; 
 an affection as delicate as it was intense (per-
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 249 
 
 haps Colonel Peebles had discerned at an 
 early day how entirely the old man's heart 
 was fixed on Magdalen Seybright's daughter) ; 
 and a purity of motive seldom seen. " I 
 never could learn, my dear Colonel Peebles," 
 said Sir Allenne, one day as the two gentle- 
 men rode together to X , " what was the 
 
 cause of my niece's illness, which attacked her 
 so suddenly at Dryburgh." 
 
 Sir Allenne said " Dryburgh," because the 
 *^ Eectory " was necessarily expunged from 
 Colonel Peebles' hearing by all who valued 
 his peace. 
 
 The good Sir Allenne was about to repeat 
 this remark, as riding quickly appeared to 
 have prevented the Colonel giving his atten- 
 tion to it, when, fortunately for the Colonel, 
 the Moulton Grange carriage overtook them, 
 and it was incumbent on Sir Allenne to hold 
 a conversation with the Halls. 
 
 Contrary to strict laws of etiquette, Colonel 
 Peebles was presented to the ladies. Sir 
 Allenne was never able to smother his im- 
 pulses with propriety.
 
 250 MAGDALEN HAVERIXG. 
 
 " Emily," whispereJ Lavinia, with a touch- 
 ing pathos in her voice, " I knew it was that 
 dear Colonel Peebles whose wife has gone 
 abroad, and left him. See, his hair is nearly 
 gray : what a heart-break it is to him ! '' 
 
 To which Emily coolly replied, ** I don^t 
 know, I'm sure, Lavinia ; men are extraordi- 
 nary creatures. I should not be a bit sur- 
 prised but the fault is all on his side. He 
 looks extremely conceited." 
 
 Lavinia indignantly denounced this erratic 
 opinion, aud provoked a volley of retorts 
 personal from her more implacable sister. 
 
 This little rencontre diverted Sir Allenne 
 from his inconvenient curiositv. The two 
 
 gentlemen cantered on to N . Sir Allenne 
 
 still delighted in horsemanship — and concern- 
 ing the horsemanship of Colonel Peebles we 
 do not presume to say anything — and con- 
 versed on parliamentary proceedings. 
 
 That morning, when the grooms brought 
 round the horses, the Colonel mounted almost 
 in haste. He was apt to be a little nervous
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 251 
 
 at times now, poor man ! for his great disap- 
 pointment and chagrin were as vet very 
 young ; and Sir Allenne, more at leisure, suf- 
 fered Colonel Lawrence to ride alone down the 
 drive. 
 
 *'The best horseman," Philip remarked, 
 who glanced after him, " that ever backed my 
 best horse ! " And Philip's equestrianism was 
 superb ! — which, be sure, himself knew and 
 appreciated ; and as Sir Allenne, cantering 
 on, joined his distinguished companion, another 
 person, w^ho seldom viewed xhe most distant 
 aspect of the Colonel, might have been heard 
 to make mention to herself of some such im- 
 pressions as these : — 
 
 " I call that a rider for a fine horse ! Splen- 
 did creatures, both the man and the beast! — 
 pity that the one or the other should ever be 
 beaten in the race! But, oh, Alicia! what 
 would I not give for one little hour with 
 you ! " 
 
 Then a receding step was followed by a 
 small voice, that called Auntie Maggie a per-
 
 252 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 severing number of times, till it was obliged 
 to be replied to ; and she who was thus 
 peremptorily summoned appeared at the door 
 whence issued the sound, and, entering the 
 children's nursery, threw herself into their 
 play as if her whole heart was with them. 
 
 Fifteen thousand pounds from the coffers of 
 Havering went to defray the ruinous litiga- 
 tion which the coerced will of Eupert Haver- 
 ing entailed, and then there w^as peace re- 
 stored. 
 
 The counsel ft)r Havering were the picked 
 men of the Bar, and the course they adopted 
 proving utterly inconvenient to the ecclesias- 
 tical authorities opposed to them, the latter at 
 length abandoned suit ; and for all the benefit 
 accruing to their Church by that dark page of 
 story — the long intrigue, the cruel detention, 
 the untimely death in San Carlan — the boy 
 Baronet might have been suffered to enjoy 
 his lease of life. Haply the future would have 
 found him less unworthy than the past ; his 
 foibles might have been counterbalanced,
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERING. 253 
 
 his amiable traits fostered and fed, and his 
 sisters have come to rejdice in him. 
 
 But the fair valleys of Salop were retrieved 
 from the fang of the wolf The extravagant 
 minutioe by which Adam Egerton inveigled 
 himself into the homes of the poor all lay at 
 a discount. The time never came for the 
 Popish priests to rear the torch of a false 
 religion in Havering. 
 
 Havering was ministered to by the Eev. 
 Cornelius still ; and truth compels us to state 
 that the Eev. Cornelius was unchanored bv 
 the affright which passed over him. 
 
 And Havering Bower and Barnet, and the 
 rest of the inheritance of Rupert, were to 
 Magdalen Havering, and to Magdalen and 
 Alice Monckton, and the heirs of the two 
 branches for ever, as in the olden time.
 
 254 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The avocations of Magdalen were many and 
 various during her sojourn at Hazlewood, and 
 they were so arranged that she seldom or 
 never came in contact with that guest of 
 Philip Monckton's, whose presence where she 
 was was an ordeal. There were days in 
 which she never encountered that person, 
 save at the table where the family assembled ; 
 and at those times the quietude investing the 
 circle, who wore their first garb of mourning, 
 favoured the circumstances of Magdalen ; and 
 the voice of the husband of Frances Mel- 
 huish, striking painfully upon her ear, did not 
 reach her very often. Sir Allenne and the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 255 
 
 children were all who were not mere automa- 
 tons during those curious seasons ; and 
 before these habits of preclusion could 
 become irksome, Colonel Peebles was called 
 away for a week, at intervals of a few days, 
 thus breaking the spell of his presence ; and 
 as Philip Monckton slowly recovered, he 
 absented himself altogether. 
 
 Magdalen now frequented a little room 
 which had been Alicia's work-room, a nook in 
 which the lady had instructed her children, 
 and where she had kept her accounts ; also 
 had written letters, besides plying her needle. 
 Its limits were contracted, in comparison 
 with that which was enacted in its space. 
 Magdalen had scorned it in the times gone 
 by, preferring the more spacious reception- 
 room, and had often provoked Alicia to 
 threaten her total dismissal thence, since, an 
 interloper and a satirist, she obstructed the 
 busy air ! 
 
 Now Magdalen sat there alone. And no 
 one room above or below was half so valuable
 
 256 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 or half so prized. In this room stood Alicia's 
 devoriport, of which she had been very fond ; 
 she had transferred it from the Bower on her 
 marriage, because it was antique and very 
 beautiful. Magdalen knew that papers valued 
 by Alicia were sure to be preserved in its 
 drawers, while the desk held the ordinary 
 implements of writing and drawing. Alicia, 
 like Magdalen, had excelled in drawing; it 
 was almost tlie only taste they had in common. 
 About eight weeks from the death of Alicia, 
 Ellis, the housekeeper, had followed Magdalen 
 from the breakfast-table to her room, to offer 
 a suggestion which had been upon her mind 
 for some time; and in conjunction those two 
 persons had visited certain portions of the 
 house, which were replete with the belongings 
 of the departed one. In the dressing-room 
 beyond her late bed-room, her Bible, her daily 
 text-book, and her hymn-book lay yet open 
 upon a small round table, its coverlet worked 
 by her own hands. In its low window- seat, 
 bearins^ signs of verv recent tendance, were 
 
 A
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 257 
 
 three flourishing little plants — a faschia, a 
 verbena, and a sprig of myrtle. On the dress- 
 ing-table the set of green china, watch-stand, 
 ring-pillar, and tiny taper — gifts of Magdalen 
 upon one of her birth-days, which had deposed 
 far handsomer appointments, pained the heart 
 of the donor now ; a vase, half-emptied of 
 eau de Cologne — but why record in detail? over 
 the whole elegant toilette reigned the old in- 
 imitable order. It was Ellis who, opening 
 the doors of a wardrobe, displayed other 
 things as familiar and more trying to 
 behold. 
 
 There hung the blue silk dress in which she 
 had reclined upon the, couch when last able 
 to quit her bed — neatly-fitting ruffles disposed 
 at the neck and cuffs, and a favourite brooch 
 still appending ; this latter a sign that its 
 wearer had been disabled from caring for her 
 pretty things. By its side the cloak which 
 she had worn in evenings, originally a bixurious 
 carriage-wrap, a garment in which Philip had 
 delighted; while a silk umbrella and a garden 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 bonnet occupied the respective places in which 
 each had long gained a settlement. Pain- 
 ful mementoes of those decrees by which 
 are surrendered or resigned our beloved 
 ones to the grasp of death ! With the dull 
 grief renewed tenfold, and all the affliction 
 sharpened, such determinations were carried 
 into effect as Ellis wisely advised ; and Mag- 
 dalen, sickened at heart by the spectacle from 
 which she had just escaped, shut herself up in 
 the boudoir. As she sat there, alone and sor- 
 rowful, the tenderest curiosity seized her re- 
 specting the contents of that devonport. She 
 took the keys from the work-table drawer, 
 selected one which she knew quite well, and 
 before her lay disposed the precious relics of 
 the dead. 
 
 There was much stray paper, which, from 
 time to time, had been filled by extracts from 
 poetry and prose; so much indeed of the former, 
 that Magdalen was astonished, for she had 
 thought Alicia a wholly unpoetical person; 
 she found here fragments of exquisite verse,
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 259 
 
 and prose which lacked only the metre to 
 have made it poetry too. There were several 
 sketches of sea- views; many bits of Irish 
 scenery, doubtless made in her honeymoon ; 
 various little portraits of her children — no 
 real resemblances, but all filled with artistic 
 and mother-life. Such were the stores most re- 
 verently noted and touched very tenderly, ere 
 Magdalen came upon letters whose envelopes 
 she scanned religiously, nay superstitiously ; 
 they were tied with pink silk, and were three 
 not very thick packets. Written upon two of 
 them were these words: — "Philip's letters 
 before our marriage" — on the other, " My 
 husband's letters," thus marking their distinc- 
 tion. This last would have been a slight 
 parcel, they had so rarely been separated, but 
 for the large, thin foreign letters, which, bear- 
 ing on their corners, in Alicia's writing, the 
 name of the town each was dated from, were 
 the chronicles of that disastrous travel which 
 had cost the wife so dear. 
 
 Magdalen replaced these packets ere she 
 
 s 2
 
 260 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 drew forth from below a roll of folio paper. 
 It also bore marks of more than ordinary 
 care, being neatly encased and tied with rib- 
 bon. On the outer cover was written, in 
 crayon, " Diana Etherington's Story." 
 
 Magdalen sank into a low chair close to the 
 tiroir, and turned to the first page. 
 
 That her sister could be the author of that 
 closely-written manuscript Magdalen could 
 with difficulty imagine — nor was the hand- 
 writing Alicia's ; but, kept among her sister's 
 treasures, whose else could it likely be ? Yet, 
 Alicia the author of a story ! 
 
 But Magdalen read on and on. 
 
 A few days after its perusal she took an 
 opportunity to say to Philip, ^^ Do you think 
 Alicia ever wrote a story ? " 
 
 ** A story ! What could cause you to ask 
 such a question ? " 
 
 " I have found one in the drawer of the 
 devonport with her papers, and other things ; 
 and although it is not in her handwriting, it 
 is something like what she would write. In 
 fact, I think she must have done it."
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 261 
 
 U AT, 
 
 Nonsense ! It is Diana Etherington's, 
 no doubt : your sister was of service to her. 
 I have heard her say that, but for Alicia, she 
 would never have become a writer." 
 
 ** I cannot call to mind that I ever heard 
 of Miss Etherington ; but that is the name 
 which I took for the title on the outside of 
 the manuscript." 
 
 " Never heard of Miss Etherington ? Why, 
 she visited here for two months when I was 
 away from my — my angel I Did not we know 
 her in Ireland ? Of course you have heard of 
 Diana." 
 
 Magdalen at length recalled to mind a lady 
 who, visiting at Hazlewood, was brought once 
 or twice to the Bower, when Magdalen, en- 
 grossed by her own confidante, had no eyes or 
 ears for her sister's friend. The faint recol- 
 lection grew distincter as Magdalen elicited 
 from Philip many things concerning Miss 
 Etherington. 
 
 But it was inexpressibly painful to Philip 
 to revive these memories. They were inti-
 
 262 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 raately woven with the life of Alicia, and 
 Philip's most fastidious nature felt itself guilty 
 of a disinterment, speaking thus to Magdalen 
 of Diana, a bosom friend of whom Philip, the 
 most exacting of husbands, had never known 
 occasion to be jealous. 
 
 " I had a letter from Miss Etherington to- 
 day. She certainly loved my poor lost lamb ! 
 You must ask her to the Bower, Magdalen, 
 when this wretched business is over. She 
 would like to see the children again." 
 
 "Yes, Philip. But is it not odd that I 
 should be a stranger to my sister's chosen 
 friend ? " 
 
 " Very," said Philip, laconically. His 
 thoughts had wandered ; and it did not occur 
 to him then, or for some time afterwards, to 
 tell his sister-in-law, what she must have 
 learned had the commonest intimacy existed 
 between her and the lamented Alicia — namely, 
 that Miss Etherington had adopted two girls 
 — Maud and Muriel — nieces of Lawrence 
 Peebles.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 263 
 
 Sir Allenne and his niece re-entered Haver- 
 ing Bower in the May succeeding those great 
 events which made a revolution in the family ; 
 and Hazlewood assumed its permanent new 
 order and face, with a chastened calm within 
 and without it, corresponding with the heart 
 of the bereaved. 
 
 No strange person was summoned to aid 
 after the manner of gouvernante or maitresse. 
 The master of Hazlewood became to his chil- 
 dren all in all, remaining to his dependents, 
 as heretofore, their head. 
 
 A graver responsibility entitled Ellis to 
 greater consideration and higher wages ; and 
 the servants under her, trained by Alicia, 
 remained or departed as they pleased — few 
 chose the latter. 
 
 " Mamma's white rose-tree is full of buds," 
 cried Maggie, as if the owner were still of the 
 earth and flowers. 
 
 " And the seeds are sown as mamma 
 wished them," said Alice. 
 
 And Philip, overhearing them, prayed that
 
 264 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 their fresh young souls might bloom with a 
 gracious promise of fruit, that Alicia from 
 her holy rest might perceive and be satisfied. 
 
 *^ Papa, I see scrows in your forehead — did 
 anybody put them there ? " 
 
 " No, Maggie — they grew." 
 
 "What with?" 
 
 " With pain." 
 
 "With pain! Where?" 
 
 " At the heart, babe — where you hear it 
 beat.^' 
 
 " My heart beats — put your ear to listen ; 
 but I have no pain." 
 
 " When you have your forehead will tell 
 the story ; and only a little child inquires how 
 came scrows there." 
 
 " Where were you when they came ? " per- 
 sisted Maggie, returning, after a pause, to the 
 original point. 
 
 " In a prison in Palermo." 
 
 " In prison ! " 
 
 " Yes, in a prison, Maggie." 
 
 " In Palermo in Sicily ? "
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 265 
 
 *^ Palermo in Sicily." 
 
 " Are people good in Palermo ? " 
 
 ** Some, no doubt, but I did not meet with 
 them, except one or two." 
 
 ** Why did you know only the wicked 
 ones, except one or two ? " 
 
 " God sent me to the wicked ones for 
 a punishment for many sins.'' 
 
 " Mamma has left her sins behind her." 
 
 " Yes, she hasn't any now." 
 
 "And is it only dying that stops the 
 sins?" 
 
 " Nothing else, little Maggie." 
 
 " But I'm sure you don't want to be 
 wicked ; and I'm sure I don't — oh dear, why 
 do we be so, then ? " 
 
 '* Listen, my child. When Eve ate the 
 apple in the garden of Eden sin entered her 
 heart. All her children, and all their chil- 
 dren, down to me and to yourself, Maggie, 
 have carried that sin in the heart. It belongs 
 to us like our blood and bones ; but our 
 Saviour forgives it if we ask him."
 
 266 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 " Dearest Uncle Allenne/^ said Magdalen, 
 when, on the night of their return, they sat 
 alone, and each had long silently offered up 
 thanksgivings for so merciful a redemption of 
 their home. " Dearest Uncle AUenne, I am 
 full of new projects — are you willing to help 
 me if you approve what I wish ? " 
 
 " Help you ! I help you, my Mag ! I 
 am a poor old man, fit for very little indeed. 
 But I love you, Magdalen ! You have effec- 
 tually weaned me from Dryburgh, where I 
 thought to have spent all my days. Begin, 
 my child, and tell me now what you will do 
 in your restored inheritance." 
 
 " I must first tell you what gives me the 
 impetus to do anything. Alicia — (Uncle 
 AUenne, we didn't rightly value Alicia) — 
 Alicia was so much among the people round 
 Hazlewood — home bird though she was. 
 Mrs. White of Sandy Pool — with shame I 
 confess it — has taught me more of my sister's 
 true character than I ever knew before. It 
 seems that on her walks with the children
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 267 
 
 she would look in at one of the farms ; and the 
 Whites at one time were very unhappy, for 
 they thought they must give up their home 
 — times with farmers were bad. They told 
 Alicia of their troubles, and she looked on 
 their misfortunes with different eyes to their 
 own. Loss of station appeared to them an 
 irretrievable calamity ; it did not seem so to 
 Alicia. Mrs. White has told me she would 
 say to them, ' Can you only work in one 
 way ? ' and hearing them say they could 
 turn their hand to anything, she could not 
 see what cause they had to fear — it was but 
 a change of honest labour, she said ; and 
 what did it matter, if the heart were right, 
 how one's industry were applied — how large 
 or how small the rooms one lived in — how 
 important or unimportant in the eyes of 
 neighbours one appeared ? But I cannot re- 
 peat the half that has been told to me — a 
 thousand regrets fill my heart. Uncle AUenne, 
 with every remembrance of my sister, and 
 her memory shall be glorified in the strength
 
 268 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 of those regrets. Firstly, I propose, Uncle 
 Allenne, that we make acquaintauce with our 
 people ; we have no tenants like the Whites, 
 perhaps, and those we have are not immedi- 
 ately near us ; but we have the cottages of 
 Havering village, and our own out-door and 
 in-door servants. You shall take me to the 
 village and to the Kectory." 
 
 " To the Eectory ! " 
 
 *^ Yes, Uncle Allenne, to the Rectory; some- 
 thing may he done with poor old Mann. At 
 all events, we can't get rid of him, so we must 
 try our best to do him good." 
 
 Sir Allenne looked as if he thought this 
 task not only unpleasant but hopeless. 
 
 " I fear, indeed, the Rector is our bete noir. 
 But listen, darling, we must have here, at 
 home, a morning and evening worship, such 
 as they have always at Hazlewood, dear ; 
 something to show that we are — what shall I 
 say? It gathers the servants round us, and 
 shows them we care for them.'' 
 
 " Yes, my dear."
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 269 
 
 " Thank you — I knew you would not ob- 
 ject. And we, that is I, must not be so 
 reserved with the country people — they have 
 a right to our attention." 
 
 *^ How grave you are, my Magdalen," said 
 Sir Allenne, sadly ; '^ seldom a smile, and full 
 of these staid projects — you must not forget 
 that you are young, child." 
 
 " I am not young, Uncle Allenne. We 
 don't all count by years ; but I shall always 
 have a smile for you, believe me." 
 
 " And for some one else ere long, I hope, 
 Magdalen. How old really are you ? " 
 
 " I am twenty-one. Sir Allenne." 
 
 " Twenty-one ! your mother had been mar- 
 ried three years when she was your age." 
 
 "And I shall never marry, Uncle Allenne." 
 
 " Child, child ! don't let me hear that. I 
 build extraordinary hopes upon your marriage ; 
 viewing your happiness will give me back my 
 youth — for yours has been a cheerless life 
 hitherto, my Magdalen, having no fitting com- 
 panion, and living almost wholly in seclusion."
 
 270 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 *' Never mind all that, Uncle Allenne. Let 
 bygones be bygones for ever, or otherwise 
 my heart will break. But henceforth I must 
 really live, and I depend on you to help me ; 
 for I shall have but you, Uncle Allenne." 
 
 '' Hush, hush, Magdalen ! you do not un- 
 derstand it. 1 am seventy, and I liave lived 
 alone. You must not, my child. It would 
 be too dreadful. It would kill you before your 
 time. I have been strong." 
 
 Magdalen smiled, thinking how strong, and 
 knowing that in herself reposed that which 
 was truly strength. But she did not despise 
 the gentle old heart, that shrank from the 
 thought of its loneliness for her who had but 
 reached her spring-time. She wondered, as 
 many a time before, what could be Sir 
 AUenne^s secret. 
 
 " Yes," thought Magdalen, as she lay upon 
 her pillow that first night in her restored 
 home. ^* I will begin to live. It is hard 
 work this commencing of a solitary way, but 
 it shall not be all a dead letter ; little Maggie
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 271 
 
 must come home here, and her husband must 
 be called a Havering; but not till I have 
 departed. Meantime, I am the stewardess, 
 ordained for Alicia's daughter, consequently 
 Alicia's spirit will ever be with me. Uncle 
 Allenne is good, very good ; and if only I 
 could forget that dreadful Annunciata ! — poor, 
 poor Annunciata, and I dream of her so much, 
 too ! — it would frighten me if I thought I 
 should dream of her all these years till I am 
 seventy. Philip Monckton says he has bitter 
 memories — I wonder what they can be. He 
 was a blameless husband — he was and is a 
 faultless father; everybody round respects him 
 — what can fester in his heart ? Whereas I am 
 remote from any shadowy goodness ! Who- 
 ever was blessed by me ? — to whom have I 
 been valuable ? — who are my proteges or 
 friends? — and, save Uncle Allenne, have I 
 found a soul to love me? I shall say my 
 prayers, though, for one whom I love, that is 
 certain — morning and night, for these seventy 
 years. But, perhaps, it will only be fifty;
 
 272 MAGDALEN DAYERING. 
 
 all our family have not been long livers. I 
 shall say a prayer to God for Lawrence 
 Peebles — that is all I can do for him ; and at 
 other times I am never to think of him. 
 No ; I am to do my duty — waste no time — 
 — learn to be gentle — learn to be composed 
 — study Uncle Allenne — rule the servants in 
 love. That is odd, but it is right : Alicia did 
 it, and the Bible, I am sure, taught her." 
 
 The following week Sir Allenne and his 
 niece drove over to call at the Rectory. Many 
 people had flocked to the Bower to offer con- 
 gratulations on the return of the family, but 
 at present the Rector was not seen. 
 
 Leaving the carriage on the outskirts of the 
 village, Sir Allenne and his niece walked 
 through it ; and again, as long ago, Magdalen 
 was struck with the forlorn and disorderly 
 appearance of most of the tenements. 
 
 At the Rectory their appearance caused 
 great perturbation. They were shown into a 
 parlour painfully neat, where high-backed 
 chairs, set round the walls, defied the visitor
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 273 
 
 to displace them; where one picture of a 
 venerable lady alone adorned the walls ; and 
 where, although the parlour of a divine^ not 
 a single volume met the eye. 
 
 The Rev. Cornelius Mann entered hurriedly, 
 with the air of a man who anticipates great 
 tidings, and in default thereof will consider 
 himself deeply injured. He could scarcely be 
 persuaded to take a seat, though Magdalen 
 adopted the entreaty she would have used in 
 her own home. 
 
 Eelenting, at length, in that respect, the 
 Rector glanced from one to the other of his 
 guests, and they on their part were at a loss 
 to converse with so strange an individual ; but 
 Magdalen expressed a wish that he should be- 
 come a better neighbour; and from that remark 
 she passed on to intimate the desirability of 
 certain alterations in the condition of the vil- 
 lage, requesting the Rector's opinion. 
 
 The Rector, aghast, repeated the word 
 " alterations '* in a variety of keys. 
 
 "The cottages, my dear sir," interposed 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 • MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 Sir Allenne, ** will bear a little renovation ; but, 
 to tell the truth, my niece wishes to make 
 acquaintance with the people on her estates." 
 
 " Acquaintance I " repeated Mr. Mann. 
 
 " I have been but an idle manorial woman 
 hitherto, Mr. Mann. You must help me to 
 turn a new leaf. Don't you think we should 
 have a school ? The children must be very 
 ignorant." 
 
 Sir Allenne was hastening to qualify, but 
 the Rector drowned the Baronet's intention. 
 " Madam, you astonish me ! " said he, with 
 inexorable formality. " The children in Ha- 
 vering ignorant ! Sir Allenne Seybright," 
 rising and bowing, ^^ in what have I offended 
 Miss Havering ? " 
 
 " In nothing, Mr. Mann — you mistake my 
 niece. She asks you simply to concur in a 
 scheme for the improvement of the poor on 
 her property." 
 
 " Pray, let me make myself intelligible," 
 said Miigdalen. *' There is no school in 
 Havering village : let us form one, you and I.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 275 
 
 I am most anxious for suggestions from you. 
 Will you dine at the Bower to-morrow, and 
 discuss our plans fully ? " 
 
 *^ Dine ! oh, no, thank you. Plans ! it is 
 impossible. Pray consider yourself at liberty 
 for me. I wish no changes. I am an old 
 man. Young people make innovations. I 
 must suffer — I must suffer I I have been 
 faithful— faithful ! '' 
 
 The Rector had reached the door of the 
 apartment with the last note of the gamut. 
 There appeared to be nothing under the cir- 
 cumstances but to beat a retreat. 
 
 " Good morning, sir, good morning, 
 madam," said the Rector, as his guests rose 
 from their seats. Blunsum was waiting out- 
 side the door, and their dismissal was com- 
 plete. 
 
 " Uncle Allenne, there isn't any authority 
 that can dislodge this man from the living ? " 
 
 " None. He commits himself to nothing 
 that comes under the class misdemeanour.'' 
 
 "What possibly can be done with him ? " 
 
 t2
 
 276 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 ** He must be endured, Magdalen ; but we 
 will go near him no more.'^ 
 
 " Dear ! dear ! what a very strange man ! 
 But think what a triumph it would be for us 
 to make a friend of Mr. Mann ! Oh, yes, I 
 shall attack him again, but not at present, I 
 confers." 
 
 Magdalen found it more uncomfortable 
 than otherwise talking to Margaret and old 
 Sally Ray, and others of the poor people. 
 They didn^t in the least understand her visit- 
 ing them, and she could not set them at their 
 ease. The children, too, were as shy of her 
 as they had been of Adam Egerton ; and 
 besides, she forgot to come furnished with 
 pennies, as that gentleman had been. She 
 felt indeed that she had made small way, 
 when, having ascertained that she had in 
 Havering as ignorant and negligent a set of 
 people as might aptly be found, who seemed 
 indeed beyond her reach, she contrasted 
 the Hazlewood dependents with them, and 
 wished they had had a few traits in common.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 277 
 
 Disheartened, she rode home in silence. But 
 succeeding attempts were more successful in 
 the village, if not at the parsonage ; and ere 
 long welcome, as flowers in May, was the 
 sight of the black robes of the young mistress 
 of the Bower to some of those she sought. 
 
 " Uncle Allenne," said Magdalen, who 
 knew every change in his countenance, 
 ** what disturbs you this evening ? You have 
 ' worn a dark cloud to-day ! ' " 
 
 " Not I, my dear. I am not disturbed, I 
 assure you." 
 
 *' But I must know what it is. If you are 
 not disturbed, you are agitated. 1 read your 
 heart. Come, confess ! " 
 
 *'No, indeed, I will not tell you, Mag- 
 dalen. There is nothing the matter with me. 
 I shall burn the letter assuredly — then it 
 will give you no pain." 
 
 *^ A letter, and to burn it — not till I see it, 
 mon oncle. You never have secrets from 
 
 me." 
 
 '^ But it relates to you, Magdalen, and it
 
 278 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 would annoy you. It is not for your sight, 
 my child." 
 
 Magdalen remained silent some moments ; 
 then she said, imperturbably, with woman's 
 perseverance, " I beg of you allow me to see 
 the letter. Uncle Allenne." 
 
 *^ Will you not let me destroy it, Mag- 
 dalen ? Indeed, it is my wish to do so." 
 
 Magdalen had seldom seen Sir Allenne 
 so defiant. She felt a burning curiosity. 
 
 " You must let me see it. I promise you 
 it shall not trouble me. And if it be so pain- 
 ful we will burn it together, and both forget 
 it from that moment." 
 
 '^ My child, my child, we may talk of for- 
 getting, but forgetfulness does not come at 
 our call. Since you will, there is the 
 letter." 
 
 Magdalen took into her hand a large sheet 
 of paper, folded without envelope ; the writing 
 a woman's hand ; addressed to Sir Allenne 
 Seybright, and bearing neither date nor signa- 
 ture. Magdalen read, and her face assumed an
 
 MAGDALEN HAYEEING. 279 
 
 expression which deeply shocked Sir Allenne. 
 The letter contained aspersions of herself, 
 Magdalen Havering. Upon its ugly front 
 sat the name which was hidden in her heart, 
 which she never breathed and seldom heard, 
 since happily a person who once lingered 
 there had excused himself from Hazlewood — 
 a name which Sir Allenne could not blend 
 with hers, seeing it -was a married person^s 
 name. 
 
 When Magdalen looked up from her peru- 
 sal, if she expected that Sir Allenne was 
 watching her, she found that it was not so. 
 After the first moment he had removed his 
 eyes, and now waited, full of self-upbraiding, 
 the comments which she would offer. 
 
 ^' Uncle Allenne, have you the very slight- 
 est idea where this letter can have come 
 from ? " 
 
 **I, my dear? — not the remotest. Put 
 it in the fire — fortunately we have a bright 
 one this evening — and let it not be named 
 between us."
 
 280 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 " How sublime you are, Uncle Allenne ! 
 Don't remove your eyes from me. You are 
 of those of whom the world is not worthy. I 
 revere you! No shade, not the remotest 
 suspicion of Magdalen lurks in your mind, 
 Uncle Allenne ?'' 
 
 " Suspicion — of you I No, my child ; that 
 were indeed impossible." 
 
 " And you have no thought to ask me any 
 possible explanation — you treat it all as a 
 lie?" 
 
 '' Yes, Magdalen.'' 
 
 *^ I ought then to say to you, and I will, 
 that there is a foundation — yes, and in the 
 days of my devotion to Annunciata Egerton I 
 imparted to her that foundation. I knew 
 that she had broken my trust nearly a year 
 since now ; but is there no means by which 
 one can be protected from such malice ? " 
 
 " How, my dear, can anyone assail an un- 
 seen foe ? But tell me, if you do not object, 
 the foundation you speak of." 
 
 " It happened a long time ago," replied
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 143 
 
 Magdalen, in a low, reluctant tone ; '' two 
 years since — two ages it seems ! I was so 
 foolish in those days, Uncle Allenne — thank 
 God, they are past ! I never minded Alicia, 
 for some way she never grasped my mind; and 
 I always undervalued her — for the reason, 
 I suppose, that she was gentle. I had no 
 patience to appreciate her wisdom, it seems. 
 What happened was this : I mistook some 
 expressions used by — by the person named 
 here. I was very young, you know, and in- 
 experienced — nay, I was a fool. Uncle 
 Allenne. I misunderstood him, and uttered 
 words which, had he sought my hand in mar- 
 riage, would — would perhaps have been justi- 
 fied. As it was, I almost died of the shame 
 — but in all he was blameless. This is what 
 there is to tell. Uncle Allenne." 
 
 "And the wretched woman has taken 
 advantage of that, thus ! " 
 
 " Even so, and my punishment befits me.*' 
 
 " Don't speak that way — I can't bear it. 
 
 See how it burns, the vile calumny ! As we
 
 282 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 said, we will never allude to it. Come to my 
 knee, my Mag ; there, that low seat becomes 
 you, because you like it, sweet. Now let us 
 read a little."
 
 283 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Miss Havering of the Bower, and her guest, 
 Miss Etherington, walked together by the 
 elves' coppice. 
 
 " Have you remembered," said Magdalen, 
 " to bring those little manuscripts with 
 you ? » 
 
 ^^You have not forgotten that half-pro- 
 mise ? " 
 
 " Oh, no ! " 
 
 " I have brought one that I will read to you 
 with pleasure, in order to show you what a 
 wilderness it was in which your sister found 
 me. Listen ! I met with this to-day. I well 
 remember being caught by Alicia in the act
 
 284 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 of compiling it. I had not then known her a 
 week. I had, as I must tell you, serious ex- 
 pectations of making my way into the literary 
 world, by means of stray morceaux like the 
 following : — 
 
 " ' A chamois glanced out of its great bright 
 eyes at an antelope basking in the sun one 
 day. 
 
 " ^ An eagle swept from the peaks of St. Goth- 
 ard, and the tips of his wings touched the 
 dust at her feet as he bent to take the chamois 
 to his bosom ; but the chamois shrank away, 
 and lay down by the dreamy gazelle-eyed 
 antelope. And the eagle, passing over them, 
 towered in the air, rejoining his feathery 
 brothers ; but the proud bird was sad. 
 
 « # # ^ 
 
 And the chamois and the antelope rested 
 peacefully, side by side, in that quiet place ; 
 and the beasts of the field and the birds of 
 the air marvelled as they passed them by. 
 And when night came on in that lonely spot, 
 behold the air was heavy, and the face of the
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 285 
 
 sky was black with storm ; and the thunder 
 pealed through the mountain pass, and the 
 lightning glowed in the quivering trees, like 
 comets in a fabled sea. 
 
 *' ' Then the antelope said to his silent com- 
 panion, " Come thou with me to my home in 
 the forest, and dwell with me for ever." 
 
 *' ^ She gazed on him long, for she loved him 
 tenderly, and her eyes filled with tears. Then 
 she crossed her two hands on her heaving 
 breast, and she replied, ^' Not yet — not yet !" 
 And when he was gone she spread wide her 
 arms, for she felt that she was free. She 
 wandered alone by the lightning's light, 
 down a tangled and winding way ; and at 
 midnight she halted far away from the ante- 
 lope's pleasant dwelling. 
 
 " ' Tall trees careered above her — she stood 
 by a shining river (its waters were deep and 
 dark) ; on its stream a tiny boat was floating, 
 and her hair was damp with the spray of the 
 ocean, to which that barque had borne her, 
 when the light of morning came.
 
 286 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 *' ' And days went by, and weeks and 
 njonths, and she sailed on. 
 
 " * When last we saw her that boat was near- 
 ing the cliff of a distant shore. And she was 
 not now alone. 
 
 " * A stately form stood by the prow — one 
 very mighty to look upon, clothed with ma- 
 jesty, but having the stamp of a fallen arch- 
 angel on his brow. 
 
 *^ * He did not encircle her protectingly. He 
 no more told her she was fair. And the bil- 
 lows rocked the feeble vessel, and the waves 
 rushed in wrath to and fro, and no helping 
 arm was nigh ; but neither of those two crea- 
 tures struggled with impending doom. 
 
 ** * No death-cry passed the lips of the pair 
 who went down in those fathomless floods. 
 No human eye marked their ocean grave, as 
 the righted boat sped on. 
 
 " * And they rest till the Day of Judgment.' " 
 
 Miss Etherington replaced in her pocket- 
 book the manuscript from which she had been 
 reading.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 287 
 
 The woods of Havering were famed for the 
 varieties of birds that sheltered amidst their 
 foliage. On this evening the cooing of the 
 wood-pigeon, the swoop of the startled phea- 
 sant, the shy scream of the plover^ united 
 their chorus with that of thrush, cuckoo, and 
 nightingale, filling the air with music. 
 
 Along the green glades in their midst 
 roamed the pair whom Sir Allenne had sent 
 forth to walk. Miss Etherington's mind ran 
 on many things ; but Magdalen thought only 
 of her companion. And the silence in which 
 for a short time they wandered was broken 
 by Magdalen, saying : — 
 
 *^ I cannot imagine how you could relin- 
 quish poetry. It must have cost you a great 
 struggle." 
 
 " Yes,'' simply replied Miss Etherington. 
 
 *^ And, pardon me, I cannot understand 
 why it was so perilous an indulgence to 
 you." 
 
 ^* And I cannot explain to you the mys- 
 tery. I cannot give you our order's free
 
 288 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 masonry, nor is it desirable for you to possess 
 it," said Miss Etherington, whose opening 
 tone was sad, and who concluded lightly. 
 
 *^I will not crave the free-masonry," re- 
 plied Magdalen, smiling also, " on condition 
 that you give me more of the contents of that 
 privileged sac." 
 
 " Foolish child ! " said Miss Etherington ; 
 but nevertheless she drew forth from its 
 silk depositor}' another little manuscript, say- 
 ing, as she did so : " That story which you 
 showed me was Alicia's earliest conquest. I 
 would not have attempted a prose story at 
 the instance of anyone save Alicia. Can you 
 not imagine you hear her say, ' Let it be very 
 sensible, my dear ; quiet as a chapter of life 
 should be in the hands of an antique reciter. 
 Throw in a little pathos, if you will, but 
 eschew sentimentality ; be very careful, in 
 illustrating your characters, to leave them to 
 speak for themselves. Outline your pictures 
 — let the action fill them in. Avoid even a 
 suspicion of latitudinarianism, to which, I
 
 MAGDALEN HAYERIXG. 289 
 
 fancy, the novelist is especially tempted and 
 prone ; and, above all, let there be a running 
 purport, clear and unmistakable, throughout, 
 with a moral at the end, which everyone may 
 read/ I set myself to perform the task — irk- 
 some, I thought it, I can tell you — rounding 
 the unequal lines ; and in composition alone I 
 did not succeed very well. But think of a 
 creation like Lord Glamis figuring with 
 Alicia's sponsorship ! However, I could not 
 at once fall into acknowledged order. I 
 glanced over it the other day ; on the whole, 
 is it, do you think, contemptible ? '* 
 
 ** Contemptible ! " said Magdalen, " from 
 the day on which I knew who wrote it, I 
 desired to make your acquaintance." 
 
 " I will give you, then, two portraits : — 
 
 "The First. 
 
 '^ Generally talented to a high degree. In- 
 tellectual, as also intelligent, and possessing 
 sound judgment. 
 
 " Hasty on occasion, ordinarily deliberate ; 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 a slave to the passion of a moment, yet pas- 
 sionless in his career. 
 
 " Keligion is the bias of his life, but not its 
 basis. He worships God, yet lives almost 
 wholly apart from Him ; looking to indefinite 
 futures to be finally consoling. 
 
 " Imperious to his inferiors, he is oddly 
 suave to superior station. 
 
 "Standing aloof from the concourse, he 
 yet forms the rashest intimacies. 
 
 " Honest in word and deed, he is yet essen- 
 tially deceitful, and he is faithless in love. 
 
 " He is an egotist. He lacks true charity. 
 In isolated cases, he is tyrannical, mean, and 
 weak. 
 
 " He possesses moral ambition and an apti- 
 tude to govern. He despises wealth for its 
 own sake, and is lavish in its expenditure. 
 Clear-headed and tender-hearted withal. 
 
 *' Poetry is a dead letter to him, and the 
 prose of life he often misinterprets, weighing 
 everybody by one harsh standard ; yet is he 
 orderly, skilful, and of refined taste.
 
 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 291 
 
 '^ Music, literature, art, charm him in the 
 aggregate — in minutiae, he cannot be said to 
 comprehend them. 
 
 '* Upright in his dealings with the world, 
 yet is he suspected and disliked. 
 
 " He is a satirist, and keenly alive to the 
 ridiculous. 
 
 " Politics are his crowning interest, and 
 marriage the rock on which he has split. 
 
 "The Second. 
 
 " Of a most susceptible and versatile tem- 
 perament, easily agitated, highly nervous. 
 
 " Faithful, yet lacking confidence in others. 
 Affectionate. 
 
 " Chivalrously generous and indulgent to 
 the world at large, but exacting in friendship 
 as he is adoring in love. 
 
 " Full of poetry, full of enthusiasm, full of 
 ideality; yet courting gloom, and scarcely 
 cherishing hope. 
 
 " Physical disorganization oppresses him ; 
 circumstances are a grief to him.
 
 292 MAGDALEN HAVERING. 
 
 ** Trifles move him to heights and depths. 
 
 " He possesses God-like benevolence and 
 the purest universal love. 
 
 " Keligion is the basis of his life, but not 
 its bias. 
 
 " This world appears to him to frown, and 
 he does not negative its worth ; thus are his 
 eyes never steadfastly lifted beyond it. 
 
 ** He cannot be said to have sterling talent, 
 yet is he indisputably a genius.'^ 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 K. BOUN, PRINTER, GLOUCESTER STREET, REGENT'S PAJiK. 
 
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