Stolen Waters. A novel

Front matter

In 1 Vol. Demy 8vo. Price 12s. (with Portrait). RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PUBLIC CAREER AND PRIVATE LIFE OP THE LATE JOHN ADOLPHUS, The Eminent Barrister and Historian, WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS DIARIES By his daughter, MRS. HENDERSON. " A lively, readable book." — Examiner. "Lovers of gossip will peruse it with satisfaction." — Athenæum. "Plethoric of racy anecdote and witty sayings." — Liverpool Albion. " Full of racy humour and amusing chit-chat." — Bell's Messenger. " Few people will fail to be entertained by it." — Bury Post. "Adolphus had a ready wit. Many pleasant recollections are scattered throughout these pages." — Saturday Review. In 2 Vols. Price 21s. HUGH. By the Author of " Annie Jennings." In 1 Vol. 10s. 6d. A N N I N E . In 3 Vols. (in the press). FIRM IN THE STRUGGLE By EMMA PICKERING, Author of " Forsaiing All Others."

In 3 Vols. CLUMBER CHASE, OR, LOVE'S RIDDLE SOLVED BY A ROYAL SPHINX. A Tale of the Restoration. By GEORGE GORDON SCOTT. " A thoroughly fresh, sparkling and singularly original work. Mr. Scott brings us into excellent company — that of John Evelyn, Lock, Pepys, and other worthies : and all his historical personages are not descriptions, they are resuscitations. Young ladies will de vour Clumber Cluise for its love-story. Philosophers will like it for its exceptional profundity, and men of the world for its knowledge of the world. Although we cannot conceive a pleasanter book to take either in a yacht, or a country house." — Bell s Messenger. " The most clever, brilliant and witty novel that has appeared for years." — Daily Guardian. " The narrative is enlivened by some scientific disquisitions on dress and cookery, and good hints for the conduct of nurses in a sick room.

On these points speaks with the moderation of good sense, which proceed from a knowledge of the subject." — Athenæum. A NOVEL. IN TWO VOLUMES. BY MRS. MACKENZIE-DANIEL, Author of " My Sister Minnie," " After Long Years," " Caught in the Toils," &c, &c. VOL. II. London : T. CAUTLEY NEWBY, PUBLISHER, 30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. 1871. [all rights reserved.]

Chapter I. Edmund Trevanion

He came forward with extended hands, and a look which, in a less excited mood, I might have thought too confident of a joyful welcome, too wholly destitute of the humility which a yet unaccepted lover is bound in any case to assume. " Forgive me," he said, in the soft, persuasive voice that was so well calculated to make me for get whatever might not quite have pleased me in his looks, " for startling you in this uncourteous way. You will acquit me when you hear my VOL. II. B STOLEN WAT FES. justification ; but first of all " (possessing him self of my two trembling hands, and fixing those dangerously eloquent eyes upon my burning cheeks) " let me tell you what unhoped for happiness this meeting is to me. I had not thought to see you, to claim the fulfilment of a certain promise, until your beautiful woods were rustling in the summer breeze, and the June roses had begun to blow.

I find the roses on your cheeks instead, and fairer ones than our dull earth could ever produce ; but I must have other token than these sweet girlish blushes that you share in some slight degree my rapture at the present meeting. Tell me, just tell me in the simplest words, that you are glad, and then I will hasten to explain it all." It was well he stopped here, for my poor brain was growing dizzier and more hopelessly be wildered every moment, and not one of all the strange dreams I had dreamt under that sparkling fountain beside us, appeared half so strange and unnatural to me as this reality. '-' I shall be glad," I managed to say at last, for his eyes looking into mine seemed to melt my feeble soul, and to draw the truth out of me. " I shall be glad when I can be sure that I am awake ; but I am not at all sure of it yet.

How can I be when you flash upon me from some mysterious region in this sudden an I alarming manner; you, a friend of poor Charles Crevanion, at the very moment when his rival and the usurper of his rights has been summoned by the mistress of the Priory, and is here with bar, doing his bast of course, and, I d ■iresuy, succeeding only too well, in alienating her utterly from her own guiltless son. Do, please, tell me quickly (for I am ex pected indoors) whit it all menus." No chance of my getting indoors while my hands were detaine 1 in that clinging, caressing pressuDej which quietly resisted all my little weak attempts to release them, and seemed to say, " You like your prison in spite of your foolish stragglings^ and you are not going to be let out." smiling still, while I talked, though I fancied b my allusion to Mr. Trevanion had brought a momentary cloud over my friend's expressive face, he said, when I had done — "I did not know that you were one of the partizans of Charles Trevanion ; but we will speak of this another time.

You will admit at least that his rival, as you call the unknown cousin, has hitherto been a very passive and in nocent actor in the family drama. He could not help his name, which alone conferred on him the honour (or odium according to you) of being chosen to take the place the rightful heir forfeited by a low alliance. How, if esteeming and pity ing the disinherited son, and actuated by a principle of justice, this maligned relative consents to accept all the benefits Mrs. Trevanion would heap upon him, to become the nominal successor to her fortune and estate, only that when the money and lands are actually his own he may restore the greater part to Charles, and have the proud satisfaction of being the instrument selected by Providence for recalling the prodigal to his home, and killing for him the fatted calf?

As I see that light is dawning on your mind, I will no longer talk in parables. I am Edmund Trevanion, the cousin you have been preparing yourself to despise and shrink from. You owe me some amends for this, and I am going to put your generosity to the test. You must keep our secret — the secret of our previous meeting — from Mrs. Trevanion still. I have grave reasons for demanding the favour at your hands, and I think, Ihope" — (seeming to enjoy the mingled emo tions of wonder, incredulity, and admiration that must have been depicted in my face) — "that you will not refuse it me. Speak, Rosebud — you see I have heard, and am venturing to apply to you that sweet name your discerning friend indoors has given you — speak, and assure me that you both pardon me for being who I am, and that you will grant my urgent request."

But it was some moments before I could speak, even in answer to this anxious and gracious appeal. A tide of wondering, startled thoughts was sweeping over my soul, awakening sweet and strange emotions never experienced till now, thrilling me with their marvellous revealings, and leaving n e little strength for anything in which feeling bad not tbe first and largest share. My companion must have read my heart to some extent, though, being a man, he could not form an adequate idea of how strongly a man's nobleness can move a woman ; but he must Lave guessed in pait what was stirring me so deeply, and keeping me dumb when J ought to have spoken, for quite abruptly he led me back to the seat by the fountain I had recently quitted, knelt beside me, still holding my hands closely in his own, and said a few low soothing words that had no particular meaning, but were just such words as confessed lovers breathe softly to each other, and derive such extraordinary mutual comfort in breathing and hearing.

So I grew calmer outwardly under his skilful ministerings, and could tell him, after awhile, that it would be easy to me to do what he wished, that I could but place unlimited confidence in one who was resolving to act so nobly and gener ously as he had intimated his intention of doing, that I warmly and enthusiastically applauded his design, and felt sure (youth is always so sanguine in its views of poetical justice) that he would be amply and abundantly rewarded even in the present world. I thought within myself I would leave it to good Mrs. Malcolm to decide what would be his recompense in the world to come. Then he smiled upon me both with his lips and wonderful eyes, and clinging more fondly than ever to the hands which were lying passive enough now in his wilful grasp, said earnestly and tenderly — " Perhaps I could not have finally resolved on the sacrifice your sweetness and innocence approves, but for the hope of a reward which would more than atone to me for the loss of a hundred fortunes, though each of them included as fair and luxurious a home as this.

Let me speak plainly and openly to you, my own and only love, at once. I came here at Mrs. Tre vanion's bidding, expecting to find an eccentric, peevish old woman, and to be made to feel that if she dowered me with her money and lands she did it grudgingly and under protest, because of the accident of my name, and because her pride incited her to carry out to the letter her first wrathful vow as regarded her offending son. But instead of all this I find a very gracious and amiable lady, who not only receives me with the utmost courtesy as a kinswoman, and as the mis tress of the house to which she has invited me, but tells me that, as it is now her cherished wish to see her successor here united to a wife who will grace the home of her forefathers, she has sought and found a young lady who realises all her own expectations, and who, she is quite sure, will not fail to realise mine.

So far I had listened to my strange hostess with a mingling of astonishment and indignation, remembering a certain Sunday last October, a certain hope in reference to a coming June, and feeling that even my unhappy cousin's prospects through me must be scattered to the winds if they could only be furthered by my marrying the fairest lady in all the land, that lady not being the sweet vision who had taken my sometime restless heart by storm one bright afternoon in Yarvil churchyard. A moment's patience yet, Rosebud, though the rose tints on that dear face are lovely enough to tempt me to linger over my story for a chance of gazing at them still. A moment's patience and I have clone. While my utterly rebellious soul was meditating a stern refusal to take a wife so oddly and unceremoniously provided for me, Mrs. Trevanion nearly deprived me of breath by saying in continuation ' the young lady I am speaking of, though only known to the world as step sister to my country doctor, has, in point of fact, as good and as pure blood in her veins as you and I. Her father was a Highland gentle man, descended from one of the oldest lairds in Scotland, and not unremotely connected with the royal Stuarts.

When I add to this important b recommendation that she s as fair and graceful as the bonnie Queen of Scots herself, and as fresh and sweet as a rosebud, which name 1 have bestowed upon my pretty guest, I think, however fastidious my good cousin Trevanion may be, he will not shrink from the introduction. And now, if it accords with any romantic notions you may be possessed of to effect this introduction yourself, Miss Seton is in the large conservatory on the east side of the lawn, and you may go and bring her in, only don't keep the poor child botanising above a quarter of an hour,' added my very original relative with an encouraging smile, « as the luncheon bell is going to ring, and ours is a punctual household.' Judge how long it took me to find my way to your hiding place after this, and what degree of contumaciousness I am likely to exhibit as regards the obliging and felicitous wishes of my esteemed cousin."

Ending thus, he bent a little nearer to me, with looks that told even more than his eloquent STOLEN WATEKS. words, and seemed as if he was about to take me, as well as my yielding hands, into a passionate embrace ; but though, in truth, this brief and startling interview, with its marvellous revela tions, had knit my weak heart closer to its dream hero than ever, I was still Jessie Seton, a proud and, ordinarily, undemonstrative Scotch girl, and every instinct of my nature rose up in arms against such swift and red hot love making. "The quarter of an hour has more than ex pired, Air. Trevanion," I saidj releasing my hands by a sudden desperate wrench, springing to my feetj arjd standing, with a look I meant to be expressive of insulted dignity, before him ; " so now, if you please, we will return to the house, and get over the formal introduction with as little violence to our respective consciences as shall be possible.

I have said, I trust yon wholly and without reserve ; therefore, I will not even ask why an assumed name, when you came to Yarvil in the autumn, was necessary." " You may ask what you like, you sweet, prickly wild rose," he exclaimed, forgetting, I do believe, all but the lover in that moment, " if you will only give me a hope of winning the dear love which is to be my reward for all I am meaning hereafter to sacrifice. Nay — you shall not go, though twenty luncheon bells clamoured in our ears, until you have told me whether a certain letter of mine ever reached its destination, and whether it is your will that I remain at the Priory or leave within an hour. I only remain on the condition of having your authority to do my best in gratifying Mrs. Trevanion's wishes or whim. Now, speak, my pretty captive, and your words shall decide my fate.

You may tell me about the letter first." " The letter is all right," I said, in a humbled voice, for I felt that with my heart pleading so passionately for the man beside me, the man whom I really liked the better for the mastership he was usurping over me, all my weak, impotent strugglings were no more than a foolish beating of the air; "the letter is all right, and safe in my possession now. For your other question, you have no sort of right to ask it yet — you place me at a cruel disadvantage ; but we must go in, so I have no choice but to say — remain." And then for very shame, though all my pulses thrilled with a hidden joy, the tears rushed to my eyes, and I knew nothing more till he had taken me in his arms — as his promised wife, he said — and kissed me. It had all happened so quickly, there had been so little time for reflection of any sort, such an irresistible call upon the abnormal and unhealthy emotions of the mind, that it is not an exaggera tion to say, however extravagant it may sound, that for the next few minutes I walked beside the man who had claimed me for his own in so bold and impetuous a manner, not knowing whether I was in the flesh or out of it, 'or, perhaps, rather believing that I was being cheated by one of those strangely life-like dreams which we can hardly think to have been a dream when_ we awake from it.

Even Mr. Trevanion's first words after we had left the conservatory, prosaic and unromantic as they were, did little in dispelling the brain-mist which was enshrouding me. " I have yet," he said, in that calmer tone which, our stolen love scene over, I suppose he deemed it necessary to assume, "to answer your question as regards tha name by which I first introduced myself to your household. It was not a feigned name, as you too hastily concluded, but only an abbreviation of the appellatives to which I am justly entitled. My parents — blind, I must imagine, to the absurdity of the proceeding christened me Edmund Ernest Paget Trevanion. Not desiring, last autumn, to have my presence in the neighbourhood known, I took the two middle names, which I prefer dropping ordinarily. This is frequently done, Rosebud, and need never excite a wondering thought of yours again — but" (as I was about to assure him it never would) "just one word more* Your step-brother, Doctor Beresford — he sees Mrs. Trevanion often ; she probably makes a sort of confidential friend of her doctor.

Do you think you have sufficient influence with him to persuade him not to allude in any way, here or elsewhere, to our interview in October? This is an important matter to me, and I must confide it entirely to your tact and management." I was not so hazy but that I could detect an anxiety in his tone which he sought to conceal under a light, indifferent manner; and realising already that it was mine now, and ever henceforth, to soothe, and help, and comfort the man whose love I had accepted, I hastened to reply — " There is no fear of Doctor Beresford meddling in things which do not concern him, nor has he ever been, as far as I know, on confidential terms with Mrs. Trevanion ; still, it will be easy for me to make sure of his silence by tailing him you request it, and I am quite certain," I added, with a sudden warm glow at my heart, " that he will be no less disposed than I am to place implicit trust in one who is meditating the noble, generous deed of which you have spoken to me."

A moment's silence, and then my companion, switching rather energetically at a few innocent flies with a riding whip he had in his hand, said, in a somewhat hurried voice — " My sweetest Rosebud, your naivete" is most bewitching, but will, nevertheless, require a little judicious guiding on my part. It is one thing to tell you, my future wife, and the woman I adore, of the trifling sacrifice I propose hereafter making on behalf of my poor cousin, and another thing to boast of it to a man and a stranger. Believe me, my pretty novice in the world's ways, such a confidence to Doctor Beresford, either from me or you, would be most ill-judged and irregular. We must not even dream of it. I think, with you, that your excellent brother is to be trusted not to gossip, and, in any case, I will risk this rather than bear the imputation of publishing my own good deeds before I have a chance of executing them.

You quite understand, and fall in with my wishes ?" I said " Yes," in a low and suddenly depressed voice, for this talking about Doctor Mark had brought back, as from the grave, all the sad and regretful thoughts which had been occupying me so exclusively up to the minute when Edmund Trevanion had burst like a flash of light upon me at the door of the conservatory ; and not all my new born and bewildering happiness could for the moment make me forget again that he who had loved me for long years would be rendered utterly desolate and miserable by the same cause which had flooded my life with such brilliant and dazzling sunshine.

Chapter II

A STARTLING PROPOSITION. Tbe moment I came into Mrs. Trevanion's presence that day, I felt sure that Malcolm's fears concerning the effect upon her health of this meet ing with her hitherto unknown relative, had not been imaginary ones. She was looking more excited, more restless, more wrought up to an unnatural state of feeling, than I had ever yet seen her, and though she received both Mr. Tre vanion and myself with a gracious smile (assuming that the time we had been together had suf ficed us to get over all the strangeness of a first introduction), and talked and laughed during lunch, with a vivacity wholly foreign to her usual manner, I knew, beyond a possibility of doubting, that her mind was miserably ill at ease, and that all this outward gush of spirits would leave upon her the after effect which intoxication leaves upon a weak or diseased brain unused to stimulants.

I quite believe that the high-pressure state of her own feelings, the predominance of personal thoughts and emotions of an agitating and dis" quieting kind, helped materially to prevent Mrs. Trevanion from observing anything that might otherwise have aroused her wonder and suspicion in the friendliness so abruptly established between Edmund and myself. We both tried hard that first day to act the hypocrite, and be ceremonious and formal with each other, but besides that it soon became apparent there was no actual need for it, our acknowledged love was too new and sweet a reality, too much a part of ourselves, to make the utter concealment of it in any way easy. And another thing that favoured us greatly in the matter of hindering offence to our consciences, was the fact that Mrs. Trevanion, accustomed all her life to the exercise of an imperious will, never questioning that whatever she desired to see accomplished must necessarily be both possible and easy of fulfilment, had taken it for granted from the first that her cousin and myself would do our respective parts in furthering her views concerning us.

What more natural, according to her theory, than that a man with a disengaged heart should fall in love with a pretty girl as soon as circumstances brought them together, and that the pretty girl, aware of the great advantages he could confer upon her, should be quite ready to listen to his " lover's vows," whether her own heart had a voice or not in the matter. Of course, the indisputable external attractions of Edmund Trevanion would make a speedy reci procation of his admiration on the part of the favoured object of it appear quite in the ordinary course of things, and thus our way was delight fully smoothed for us in all respects, and I could not help wondering a little why, even on that first day of our happy betrothal, Edmund should every now and then relapse into a silent, pre-occupied, almost gloomy mood, seeming at these times to forget both my presence and that of his very attentive and gracious hostess, and looking as if he had a world's weight upon his mind and shoulders.

Mrs. Trevanion, who, though she had brought her relative and myself together with a special object, was by no means forgetful of " the pro prieties," accompanied us in a long country drive that afternoon, and afterwards detained me with her till dinner-time. " For," as she said, laughing and patting my blushing cheek, "i don't intend my pretty Rose bud to lose her sweet young bloom by being gazed at overmuch, even by a gay and handsome cava lier like my good cousin Trevanion. I am glad Edmund has a pleasing exterior, for, between ourselves, Jessie, I hate ugly men and women, but we must look to the qualities of his head and heart, my dear — you and I — before we commit ourselves to the indiscretion of thinking too highly of him Luckily you are Scotch, little one, and therefore as unimpressionable as you are proud and undemonstrative."

But though she thus spoke, she was firmly persuaded in her own mind that all her schemes, as far as I was concerned, would go smoothly as a marriage bell, and that unimpressionable or not, I should fall an easy prey to the more than common fascinations of her good cousin Tre vanion. Again during dinner Mrs. Trevanion persisted in exerting herself beyond her strength, and this not because she in any way doubted my ability or willingness to entertain the stranger, but because she seemed to shrink nervously from her own thoughts, and so rushed into lively and animated conversation to get rid of them. She took more wine too than she was in the habit of doing, and was looking painfully flushed and un comfortable when at length she asked for the support of my arm to exchange the dining for the drawing-room.

" Not now thank you, my dear Edmund," she said, as the gentleman politely darted forward to assist his aged relative, " I have grown used to depend on my pretty Rosebud for this little ser vice, and you have done no justice as yet to the tolerably supplied cellar I am so happy in placing at your disposal. We shall have tea and coffee in half-an-hour, and then you can join us." " Men, however charming, Rosebud," she ex claimed, in a weary voice, when I had safely landed her in the state chair, " grow fatiguing after awhile, especially if for more than fourscore years you have seen their ways and their goings. By-and-bye you shall sing and play to this honoured guest of mine, who, you must know, is to have all my broad lands and acres when I am gathered to my fathers. I expect," she continued, with one of her grim smiles, " that my good Berestord would tell me I have been doing my utmost to accelerate that melancholy event by my unwonted exertions of to-day, and entre nous, my dear, I believe he would be in the right.

We must send for him soon and introduce him to Edmund." This not tending to raise my own spirits, I sat down on a stool at Mrs. Trevanion's feet, and rested my forehead upon my clasped hands as a signal that I too was tired, and in no mood for talking. " You are thoughtful, Rosebud," said the old lady, presently — for necessity was evidently laid upon her to chatter unrestingly to-day. " I suppose it would not be fair yet to ask your opinion of Mr. Trevanion, though at your age, 1 believe, I appraised the merits of every man I saw in less than an hour. The girls of this generation have not half the romance and im pulsiveness that they had in mine, and of course it is far better so. The heart is not likely now a-days to run away with the head, or imagina tion to hoodwink the judgment. Still you may have decided privately whether my cousin is a man to please you or not."

As she spoke she twined her half palsied, feverish hands caressingly amongst my hair, and there was something in this movement and in the almost entreating way in which she had spoken the last words that suggested to me the odd idea that Mrs. Trevanion had a prevision that her own end was near, and yearned for some definite sign that her cherished plan would soon be accomplished. Under this impression, and really compassionating the poor lonely old wo man for all I believed her to be suffering, I said, with some earnestness, my face being hidden from her observation — " Mr. Trevanion pleases me above everybody I have ever met. You cannot wonder that it should be so, since you know how quiet and un eventful my life has been, but" — here I paused and debated rather anxiously how I should put what 1 wanted to say next, what I had been thinking of during the whole of dinner time — vol. n. c " but, dear Mrs. Trevanion," I went on blunder ingly at last, " if Doctor Mark comes here he will certainly take me away with him.

Hannah Beresford would never consent to my staying even with you while Mr. Trevanion was at the Priory. She has extremely rigid notions, and I am her ward, and should not dare to disobey her." " Then we won't have Doctor Mark here — that's all," said the old lady, querulously, and as if she was struggling desperately with an inclination to go to sleep, " I shall not want him profes sionally, or if I did I would do without him rather than have my Rosebud violently wrested from me. By-and-bye, in a little time, I may not so much mind sparing you for a brief season to your own people, but just now it is quite im possible, so let us both ignore Doctor Mark's existence, and enjoy ourselves while we have the opportunity." Then the weary voice dropped, the head fell to its accustomed side when a day nap was in question, and in another minute the old worn-out mistress of the Priory was in a deep, if not re freshing, slumber.

Edmund came in before he was sent for, and found me still on the footstool at his cousin's feet. I had been thinking so much and so anxi ously about Doctor Mark and Hannah, that I felt I would rather be left to myself for the present than get up and listen to the ardent love making of the man through whom I was going to stab these faithful friends so cruelly. But my new lover was not disposed, in weak indulgence of any mood of mine, to forego his prerogative, and having by a simple look lured me to his side, he drew me to the far end of the room, and find ing a cosy little sofa that just held us both, be gan to talk to me very earnestly and seriously about our future. " I abhor long engagements," he said, in a decided tone ; " and in this case, there is every possible reason against such folly.