Nor Love, nor Lands. A novel

Chapter I

It was a fine frosty night, and Wdl Lose more walked sharply down Market Street — a tall, broad-shouldered figure in the mingled lamp-light and moonlight, throwing a long black shadow on the pavement as he went. He was not returning from work, but from a walk into the country to visit one of Mr. Croft's workmen who was sick, and he had a pleasant holiday feeling, the result of the free exercise and exhilarating air which made it natural to whistle a cheerful tune, to which he stepped in time. VOL II. b A warm light was streaming out of the latticed windows of the gabled house, and as he passed he could see the supper-table spread, and the substantial motherly figure of Mrs. Croft moving about the room. The next minute his step was in the passage, and Mrs. Croft exclaimed, half to herself and half to her husband, sitting by the fire in dreamy enjoyment of a home from which he had been absent a few days on business, " Here he is !

" Almost as she spoke, "Will opened the door, and mindful of his dirty boots, stood upon the threshold looking into the room. This was not a best parlour, though there was one gorgeous in modern upholstery, much cherished by Mrs. Croft, but the common living-room of the family, and perhaps in some respects the strangest room in Wellminster. It was stone-paved, and un-carpeted save near the fire, where a piece of druggeting was laid down, for comfort's sake and not for show, for what was the use of anything good for the men's boots to tread upon ? The furniture was a medley. There were some very handsome chairs of antique pattern, put back into corners out of the way, that no one might be tempted to sit on them ; but those occupying prominent positions, and evidently intended to be used, were common wooden chan-s, with the ex ception of two arm-chairs, against which Mr. Croft was perpetually inveighing, not because they were comfortless, for they were very comfortable, but for their bad taste.

There was a splendid old cabinet of carved oak at one end of the room, confronting a common deal dresser at the other, on which was ranged a curious assortment of old china, of great value to connoisseurs, but poor sort of stuff in the opinion of Mrs. Croft, since it was too brittle to be used, and she was b always in a fright lest "the girl" should presume to dust, and in dusting damage it. She was equally far from appreciating three or four exquisite little figures of Parian marble, which stood about in various cold and sometimes perdous places, one or two of which she would have said, if forced to speak her secret conviction, would have been rendered fitter for decent company by a little additional drapery. Besides all this, there were books — books everywhere and of all sorts and sizes, in the deep window-seat, on shelves, on the tables ; and architectural drawings, eleA'ations, plans, things incomprehensible to Mrs. Croft, some rolled up, some spread abroad, pinned down at each corner by a book, with strange litter of compasses and other drawing apparatus.

Mrs. Croft might well complain that it was one person's work to keep anything like order in such a room, even isa certain model of the Minster, an achievement of Will's and monument of his genius, occupying a conspicuous position on a table in the window, did not take a quarter of an hour every day, to dust. But whether because her skill in arranging triumphed over the obstacles with which she had to contend, or because of the real beauty of many of the things in the room, miscella neous as they were, the interior which Will gazed at from the door was to him at all events a pleasant one, especially at this hour, when the big table was drawn up to the hearth, and the supper-cloth spread, in gleaming confirmation of the tidings an nounced by savoury odours from the kitchen, warm and reviving after the cold external air.

To his artistic eye the contrasts presented in that narrow space seemed appropriate because picturesque. Even the contrast presented by the two Uving figures in it was dear to him, through long and loving familiarity with both. Mrs. Croft was a person to be described in few words. The impression she made was distinct, and, so to speak, highly unified ; a round-about, homely figure in a dark gown and white apron, a face like a winter apple, rosy stdl though wrinkled, and an expression indicative of a good nature rather than a good temper, seemed aptly to express her character, — warm, shrewd, comfortable, of strong affections and keen though narrow intelligence. It is said that married people often grow like one another, but except in kindness of heart there was no likeness, inner or outer, between her and her husband.

Sitting in his easy-chair, his head — which, with its prematurely white and rather long hair brushed well from the forehead, was out lined by the dark leather cushion — was the head of a poet, a dreamer, rather than of a man who had had, till far on in middle age, to struggle with the stern realities of a laborious life. His eyes — West- Country eyes, large and dark, and as usual planted too near together — were of the sort that see visions more readily than the path to worldly success. To complete and, as it were, stamp the contrast between himself and his position — the position of a thriving tradesman, thriving simply by his own industry and exertions — his mouth, the only defective feature in his face, was loose-lipped and irresolute ; the mouth of a man doomed to failure, and more than half conscious of im pending ruin.

It was a kindly mouth, however, with ad its faults, and had a smile upon it, as Mr. Croft looked up and saw Will standing in the door. " So you're come back, sir," said Wdl, in what might be called a mixed manner — not quite as if he were addressing a master, nor altogether as if he spoke to a father ; but something between the two, which in fact fitly expressed the relation between them. Croft for his part would have been willing to merge the more distant in the closer tie, but was somehow conscious that this had never been thoroughly effected. Wdton had known a master, but he had never known a father ; and perhaps when he came to Wellminster it was already too late for the wild unteachable Dening blood to ac commodate itself to so strange a relation. He was more son-like to Mrs. Croft, and she was wholly a mother to him.

In that long illness through which she had nursed him, he had completely mastered her simply by his need of her, and thenceforward all she required of him was that he should tyrannize over her gently, which his gratitude made it easy for him to do. " Yes ; here I am, Will," answered Mr. Croft. " I've been home about an hour, and I've brought news with me ; and what's more, I've found news as well." " What news have you found, su* ? " asked the young man. " Come in and hear about it." " I am afraid of my Use. There's a good bit of slush upon the roads yet, in spite of the frost, and I don't know what the missus would say to my boots." " Then you ought to know," retorted Mrs. Croft, looking up from a dissatisfied inspection of the spoons upon the supper table, which were not as bright as they should be, owing to the shortcomings of Eliza's successor, who, however, in common with her predecessor, usually went by the generic name of ' the girl.' " Take off your dirty boots before ever you set foot inside that door.

Here's your slippers, Will, that I've had warming ever so long." "You've done your best to spod his growth with ad that cosseting, mother," said Croft with a laugh, as Wdl entered in his stocking-feet to take possession of the slippers, and stood for a few minutes, both hands on the mantelpiece, enjoying the genial warmth. The frosty air had given him a higher colour, and his eyes greater animation than usual, and Mrs. Croft no doubt bedeved that his appearance afforded sufficient justifica tion from the charge, for she sat down and took up her knitting with no further an swer than a smile and a sniff. "I expect you want your supper, Will," she observed, with a glance at the clock. " I did say 'twas to be ready as soon as ever you came in ; but there's Uttle use talking, when girls have no more thought in their heads than a stone wall."

" Never mind ; I've no right to be hungry. They're beating the orchards out there, and I've been eating apples all the way home. Look, there's beauties for you, missus ! " Will produced two or three from his pocket which he set on the mantelpiece, and then choosing one from among them began playing with it in his hand. " And what's the news you found then, sir ? " he asked again. " Why, that you saved a beautiful young lady from being crushed to death in the cathedral the other day." "Eden Dening." "Ay, that's the curious part of it. Who'd have thought of your coming together again that way ? And did you know her ? " "No," said Will ; " how should I ? She was a little trot in a pinafore when I saw her last. Now, she's a tall creature. I saw her before she came quite close, and -wanted to have a look at her, for I could see she was well worth looking at.

But Martin was making a muddle of unlashing the timbers, and I daredn't take my eyes off him. I'd forgotten all about her ; but when I saw what was coming, and that the cross planks would be down in another minute, just as I was stepping back, I gave a look round to see all clear, and there she stood with her back to us looking up at the west window. I hadn't more than time ; not a second more, for as it was her dress was torn." " And when she lay fainting in your arms," said Mr. Croft, at whom his wife had already winked significantly several times, " you discovered who she was ? " "No, I didn't. For the matter of that, the dust was too thick around us to see much. But when I got her out to the door, ATor Love, nor Lands. 13 there was her mother, and she began to cry and scold in a breath, and I knew her voice ; it took me back to Eveleigh at once.

And then Eden came to herself, and called me by my name. She told me afterwards she'd been thinking of me the minute before, because I used to talk such a lot about the cathedral. Otherwise, maybe, she mightn't have known me, only I was in her mind at the time." " And she's a most beautiful creature ? " asked Croft. But the tone of voice pro voked some kind of suspicion in Will, and he looked up. " I don't know for that," he said quietly. " But she's much handsomer than I should ever have thought she would be. Mrs. Dening ain't changed a bit. I'd have picked her out of the biggest crowd I ever saw in Wedminster." "And how's your friend Hawker Dening?" asked Mr. Croft, perceiving that Wdton was not disposed for radlery. " He's away somewhere. Oh ! he's well enough. He'd never ad anything. Made of iron inside and out.

Mrs. Dening and Eden were to go back this morning." The ' girl ' entering at this juncture with the supper tray, there was a pause in the conversation, which Wid presently resumed by asking Mr. Croft what news he had brought with him. "Wed," he answered, "it's news of two kinds. Fd'st of all, I'm a shareholder in the Silcombe Bay Stone Cement Company. I've looked into everything. Jackson went into all the details with me, and I was more than satisfied. I tell you, I've just put all I'm worth into it. Mother, there, doesn't half like it ; but women know nought about business. Why, the concern's paying ten per cent., and will pay pretty near double, they say, next year." Wid was silent. This investment, which Mr. Croft had been urged by a very old friend to make, had been the subject of a good deal of discussion previous to his journey to Silcombe Bay, to investigate the prospects of the undertaking on the spot.

Mrs. Croft, as her husband said, knew little about business, but she was naturally averse to ventures of all kinds, preferring patient plodding in the more familiar if more laborious ways of money-making ; and she had, moreover, a prejudice against Mr. Jackson, which she did not attempt to conceal, and which had unfortunately given to her advice an air of prejudice that de prived it of its usual weight with her husband. Will, with the more sanguine tempera ment of youth, had been rather favourable than unfavourable to the project ; but as he grew older, he had perceived that Mr. Croft was more easy to deceive than some people, and he was alarmed to find that he had put everything into an undertaking of whose prospects of success he was perhaps but indifferently qualified to judge. " Come, Will, I see how it is," said Mr. Croft, smiling at the general silence ; "young folk like to give themselves the airs of being more prudent and farseeing, like, than their elders.

Well, 'tis a fault on the right side ; but when I've made a rich man of you, you'd maybe allow that there's other prudent people in the world besides you and mother there. But I've got something else to tell you, and I expect if you'd guessed what 'twas you'd not have waited so long to hear about it. The committee have chosen a design for the new Guildhall. I met Mr. Parker, and he told me. There was a lot sent in, and they've made a choice amongst em." " And you know which ?" " I know which." Will started, and looked fixedly at Mr. Croft. One of these designs was his. An ambitious effort upon which he had more than once declared that he founded no expectations whatever. But he had too strong a consciousness of his own powers for this to be wholly true, and he waited for Mr. Croft to speak with a feeling of suspense, in itself indicative of hope.

"It's yours, Will," said Mr. Croft as their eyes met; "and you're a made man." Will drew a long breath, and then suddenly threw the apple which he held in his hand high up to the ceiling and caught it again. " La, Croft ! and you've been sitting here these two hours, and never told me," re monstrated his wife. " Because I knew you'd let it out, mother, vol. 11. c and I wanted to tell him myself. Wed, Will, are you happy?" " I'm very hungry," answered Wdl, setting down his apple and coming to the table. "I expect I shall walk into your supper, missus, after this." Mrs. Croft always departed for a season with the supper-tray, as it was her rule personady to superintend the washing up of her crockery, a precaution against the carelessness of her handmaiden, which often defeated its own object by making her too nervous to be steady ; and during her ab sence Mr. Croft and Wilton generally smoked a pipe together.

To-night there was silence for some minutes after the door closed, and then Will said suddenly, "Mrs. Dening asked me to go down to Eveleigh one day this week." " And you want to go ?" said Mr. Croft. "Well, if the frost holds, work wdl be slack, and I thought perhaps I might be spared." " Any way, you shall be," answered his master ; " you get through a deal of work from one year's end to another, and have a right to a hodday now and then." " I don't work enough to hurt myself," said Will, " but I should like to see the old place again." This was natural enough, but Mr. Croft expecting Wilton to be whody engrossed with the great and unexpected success of his first effort, was surprised that he should show so little elation. " 'Tis his pride," he said to his wife when they were alone. "La, bless your heart!" she answered him, with pitying scorn. "You men have no more eyes than a stone image ! He's thinkin' of Eden Dening." c2

Chapter II

The Totbridge ball took place about two days after the return of Mrs. Dening and Eden from Wellminster. Bessie had fully intended that her daugh ter should know eventuady that to her only was she indebted for this rare pleasure, for how otherwise would the bad in any way counterbalance the influence which she supposed the pony and the piano to have had on her affections ? But she had originady resolved to postpone this revelation until afterwards, lest some whimsical idea of obedience should arise in Eden's mind and frustrate her designs. Sufficient reticence, however, for this delay did not belong to her character. "La, dear child!" she cried, looking on with a maternal smde, as Eden, ready dressed for the ball, began suddenly to whirl round the room with an imaginary partner. " And to think her father would have spiled all her pleasure if he could !

Take care you don't catch your dress against any thin', Eden; 'twill tear all to shivers if you do." "Maaster would never have been agen her goin' if he'd seen her look Hke that," cried Sarah, Keziah's red-armed and red cheeked subordinate, who, summoned to assist in the great business of dressing, was standing admiringly by, head on one side and finger in her cheek. "But he isn't against it, Sarah," answered Eden, pausing in her valse step to look at herself in the glass. "Mother per suaded him — didn't you, mother?" "Why, whoever persuaded your father to anythin' in his Life, do you suppose?" asked Bessie indignantly, perceiving that Hawker was looked upon as the source of this new enjoyment also. "He never thought to care for your being moped to death, mewed up at home, to say nothin' of your prospects for the future, for how are you ever to get a beau, I'd like to know, if you're never seen anywhere dressed pretty, like other girls ? 'Tisn't he, Eden, you must thank for your beautiful gown, and for ad the pleasure you're goin' to have — 'tis your poor mother, that you're not used to make much account of. 'Tis my doin' Eden ; and you must know what it is to me, with my health, and your father certain to worrit and nag at me continual if he should hear of it when he comes home."

" 0 mother, I'm sure it is very kind of you," said Eden hastily, but gratitude to herself was by no means the strongest feeling Bessie had provoked. Eden had a greater love for her father, and a more in telligent fear of him than her mother, and the thought of his present absence by no means quenched the dread of his future displeasure. In spite of her girlish pleasure in her beautiful dress, in spite of the boon which any event which broke the monotony of her life was to her, she would have been almost ready to propose the abandonment of the project but for one consideration. Poland Lethridge was coming to the ball — coming for her sake, on purpose to dance with her. How could she disappoint him by staying away? Besides, would not his presence in some measure mitigate her father's anger, who had objected to the bad solely because he feared there would be nobody there good enough to dance with her ?

Now, Roland was a gentleman ; fit to be a prince as far as manners and appearance went, and as there would be no other girl there that he knew, he would probably be with her the greater part of the evening. These considerations checked all idea of taking off her dress and going quietly to bed instead of to the ball ; fortunately, per haps, for Bessie would never have forgiven her for proposing such a thing. Still, her pleasure was greatly damped, and she fastened her mother's green satin dress for her, and arranged the grass and poppies in her hadwith a grave face, which filled Bessie with perplexity when she caught sight of it over her shoulder in the glass. "My chdd don't care for me one bit," thought the poor woman bitterly in her heart, " She don't care even for the greatest pleasure she's ever had in her life when she finds it's me that's giving it her !"

Discussion, however, was rendered impossible by the arrival of the fly from Totbridge, with a very impatient driver, for, as there were not above half-a-dozen such vehicles in the place, supplemented by a donkey-chaise and a bath-chair, he had many engagements to fulfil, and could not wait for anybody. They hurried down ; Eden seeking consola tion for an uneasy consciousness that the poppies would have waved more securely with another pin in them, in the reflection that her mother was not going to dance. Keziah was in the upper kitchen, very curious to "see the show," as she called it, but too scornful and sour to let her curiosity appear, and pretending to dust. " Fine doin's ! " she said with a sniff as they swept past. " Maaster wouldn't know his own, I expect, if er was to see 'em ! " "Dreadful old woman!" sighed Bessie, drawing her shawl about her with an elegant shiver, as she sank back in the carriage.

But that reference to her father had pricked Eden's conscience again, and she was silent and uneasy for a few minutes. They were early, and there were not two dozen people in the room when they entered it. Amongst these there was no Roland, but there was a train from Wellminster at half-past nine, and he might be coming by that. Eden knew, moreover, that fashion able people prefer coming late to such assemblies, and was a Httle mortified to find herself amongst the first-comers. The Misses Pratt, however, were already there, the forget-me-not wreaths that had moved Bessie to envy peeping touchingly out of very frizzly hair, and surrounded by a far-reaching odour of provincial mille fleurs. As Mrs. Dening sailed up the room in her green satin dress, with a simul taneous waving of poppies and grass and extra smooth ringlets, at once elegant and majestic, followed by Eden with her shining white draperies, and wholly unconscious air of queenliness and grace, the two sisters looked breathlessly in one another's faces for a moment, feeling themselves to be eclipsed, they who had expected to be the most brilliant stars of the night.

Then, with another simultaneous impulse, they hurried up to the Denings, and whilst their eyes roved insatiably over every article of dress, greeted them with affec tionate warmth. " La ! so here you are then, and your Pa did let you come after all ! " cried Lyddy Pratt to Eden. " He isn't come along with you though, is he ? " " Father's away," answered Eden, ad ministering a cruel shock to Bessie, who, though she felt herself elevated by the consciousness of Wellminster finery, far above the level of the Pratts, or the possibility of a cordial bearing towards them, could not fad to perceive how much better it sounded to talk of " Pa " than " Father." "And when the cat's away the mice'll play ! " cried Janie Pratt, who was a fro licsome thing, with a mirthful wriggle amongst her forget-me-nots and white muslin.

" That's it, ain't it, Mr. Smith ? " Mr. Smith, Mr. Pratt's assistant, a sort of concentrated essence of sweet odours, was standing by with an interesting smile which he had practised so long over the counter, that it was supposed his features never lost their expression of amiable solicitude even in sleep. He was a walking advertisement for cosmetics and hairwashes, for his complexion was the prettiest pink and white — as fanas Eden's — and his hair, which he wore brushed up into a sort of fortification above his forehead, was suffi cient to have furnished several ordinary heads. In the society in which he moved he was voted "an elegant young man," and the Miss Pratts, whose special property he seemed to be at present, were the objects of a good deal of envy on his account, of which they were perfectly and very happily conscious.

Mr. Smith, however, found it perhaps a little dull to be exclusive property, although as their father kept the circulating library, the Misses Pratt were supposed to mono polize the intellectuality of Totbridge; so he rather startled Miss Janie by replying that Mr. Dening could never have been so cruel as to deprive the ball-room of its fairest ornament. And having thus shown his mastery over the sort of conversation that subdued the female heart, he proceeded to suggest that he and Eden should have a dance, just to warm themselves a bit, and " feel their feet," before more of the com pany arrived. He — a person sure to bear influence everywhere — could easily persuade the band to tune up. The idea that Roland might enter the room at any moment made this proposal odious to Eden ; but Mr. Smith mistook her flush of vexation for pleasure, while Bessie perceiving dismay on the counte nances of the Pratts, hastened to his sup port.

" La ! yes, Mr. Smith, I'm sure 'twill be very kind of you, for I know she's cold, what with nervousness and her not used to a low dress and ad. But I don't believe she knows what to say scarce, and is half afraid to begin, for it's her first ball, poor dear child, so you must please to excuse her, Mr. Smith. You must say, 'With pleasure,' or ' I'll be very happy,' when a gentleman asks you to dance, you know, child," she added to Eden, with an admoni tory poke. So the band tuned up, and Eden was whirled off, while the Miss Pratts stood glooming, and vowing in then' inmost hearts to ask Mr. Smith to tea twice a week no more. It might have soothed them to know the reluctance of their rival, but it was impossible for them to suppose she felt any, Marshall Smith really was such an elegant young man.

Eden, in fact, did not find her dance so wholly disagreeable as she had expected, for her partner danced well, though in a flimsy sort of way, as if there were but a loose connection between his arms and legs, and, however inferior he might be to Roland, or to her own innate refinement, he was neither more nor less uncultivated than most of the people she was accustomed to meet. And then, though she was not sure whether his compliments were not imperti nences, they conveyed a sense of being admired, which could not fad to be exhda rating to a girl of seventeen on her first appearance in public. By the time the dance was over the room was fiding, and many other couples were whirling about ; but though Eden's eyes traversed the crowd — no great crowd after all, for there were not above sixty people — with an eagerness which made her wholly inattentive to the eloquence which Mr. Smith was exhausting in her behalf, nowhere could she discover Roland, and a sickening sense of disappointment began to steal over her.

She was discovered, how ever, by Lord George, who, with that air of superb condescension which had earned him the title, requested the favour of the next dance. Her partner relinquished her regretfully, and not until he had written himself down upon her card, which, as she had not seemed to know what to do with it, he had offered to carry, for four more dances. Lord George, proceeding to inscribe his own name, discovered this presumption, as he considered it, for he disdked Mr. Smith, desiring to monopolize elegance in his own person, and substituted himself for three out of the four without saying anything to Eden. She, on her part, began to feel that she was exactly fulfilling all her father's predic tions, and the rising fear of his displeasure, combined with the disappointment of Ro land's non-appearance, left little room in her heart for pleasure.

She and Lord George danced a quadrille, with for vis-a-vis Lyddy Pratt and Mr. Smith, who had temporardy returned to his allegiance. All four were VOL. II. D very particular about their steps, and chassed, bowed, and curtseyed with most accurate attention to time. Mr. Smith smiled seraphically ; but Lord George, in the presence of his rival, assumed a Byronic air, which was materially assisted by a large wart over his left eyebrow. Afterwards Eden danced with both the Segurs. One of them accomplished a polka in elephantine fashion, the other fairly ran about the room with her, to the terrible detriment of her toes, tid she was obdged to protest against proceeding further. " I vow I was nothin' better than a fool to come to this place at all," said her re pentant partner. " I'd feel a deal better and a deal more of a man threshin' corn on the barn floor than threshin' your feet as I've been doin' !