Hidden Chains

Front matter

HIDDEN CHAINS. Reprinted from " Temple Bar," " Belgravia," and " Tinsley' s Magazine." HIDDEN CHAINS. BY FLOKENCE MAERYAT, AUTHOR OF " LOTE'S CONFLICT," "FIGHTING THE AIR," ETO. ETC. " Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain, Our thoughts are link'd by many a hidden chain ; Awake but one, and lo ! what myriads rise ! Each stamps its image as the other flics." IN THREE VOLUMES. vol. in. LONDON : TINSLEY BKOTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND. 1876. [Bight of Translation reserved by the Author.'] LONDON : 8AVILL, EDWAHDS AND CO., PBINTEBS, CHANDOS STBEET, COVENT GARDEN. CONTENTS OP THE THIRD VOLUME. PAGE A LUCKY DISAPPOINTMENT— {continued) .... 1 THE LITTLE GORDON 23 PLUCKED FROM THE BURNING 119 SIR MARCUS'S CHOICE 143 A HAPPY ACCIDENT AT BRIGHTON 188 MEG HARTLEY'S CURE 220 AN UTTER IMPOSSIBILITY HIDDEN CHAINS. A LUCKY DISAPPOINTMENT. (Continued.)

CHAPTER VI.

S soon as I knew that my letter was on its road to Rhineberg, I felt, comparatively speaking, at rest. I had plunged myself into a dilemma, from which at that moment I saw no means of extrication, but I was no longer in dread of being sacrificed in marriage for want of courage to declare the change which had taken place in my sentiments. Therefore, notwithstanding the difficulties which beset my path, my mind was easier, and I made an excellent meal, and should have retired to rest had I not been compelled to wait until my boxes were sent from Rhineberg. At ten o'clock, from the confused sounds of talk ing and bustling which I heard iu the corridor of vol. m. the hotel, I thought they had arrived, but the next moment the door of my sitting-room was flung open, and Mr. Hamilton and his son Charles appeared before me.

Chapter I. It

was a glorious day in Thelmstone. There had been a storm the night before, but the morning had broken beautiful and clear ; and although the neutral-tinted waves still raised their crested heads, Uke cobra-capellos, before they melted in soapsuds on the shingles, and the mud lay half a foot deep along the principal roads, the October air was balmy and the blue sky overhead had not a speck upon it from end to end. The hour was noon : the esplanade was fuU, and to walk on the pier was to push one's way as in a crowded ball-room. The grand show of chignons had begun; and brown, black, and purple suits of velveteen, looped up jauntily at the sides, or hang ing in the shape of a depressed star-fish, so as in either case to display the quilted or embroidered petticoat beneath, were running a dead-heat against the more graceful but less convenient trains which followed their wearers at a respectful distance of three yards in the rear.

Grebe, sealskin, and sable were trying to outdo each other, whilst it remained an open question whether a coquettish hat with a fox's brush curled round the brim, or a Paris bonnet in the semblance of a green beetle, became a pretty woman best. Chevelure after chevelure of fair wavy locks or dark smooth braids passed and repassed the loiterers on the pier, until their eyes and their senses were bewildered and they could scarcely tell one girl from another, particularly as all the golden chignons boasted of blue eyes, and all the brown braids of dark ones ; and all the blue eyes affected to be languishing, and all the black orbs to be wicked. Whilst the band was playing the "Helena" and " Erna " waltzes, and the seductive notes were heard half-way down the pier, the lazy crowd saun tered backwards and forwards, making remarks upon each other as they went.

The men chiefly walked in knots of three and four, hanging lightly on each other's arms, as though in the enjoyment of mas culine friendship they had all their hearts desired, and keeping somewhat apart from the women for the sake of effect, as fruit hung just without reach be comes the more tempting. Linked thus, with an occasional eyeglass amongst them, and a more than occasional glance, the languor of which was intended to convey the height of indifference towards the passing fair ones, the gentlemen visitors to Thelmstone condescended to use the pier for their morning lounge, and to pass their flattering comments upon what they saw there. On the day in question, they even condescended to miss one of the accustomed fre quenters of the promenade. " I don't see ' the little Gordon ' anywhere this morning," observed a young officer, whose soft pale whiskers hung down so low that they had the cruel effect of pulling his mouth open, and keeping it in that position whenever he was not talking.

" Strange, too, for I think I told her I had changed my mind about going to town to-day." " Something wrong with her and old Frankland, perhaps," drawled another. "The month's nearly up, isn't it ?" " Can't say, I'm sure," replied the first speaker. " I never keep any account of time, aDd it makes no difference to me if ' the little Gordon' is engaged or not, so long as I am not the happy man. But now you mention it, I think it is about time that Frankland got his conge. I wonder who'U be the next !" " By-the-bye, where's that pretty girl you pro mised to point out to me, Clayton ?" • now inquired another man of the party, who had not been listen ing to the conversation. " Just been speaking of her, my dear feUow ; ' the little Gordon,' you mean. She's not here to-day, more's the pity, for no woman on the pier can hold a candle to her."

" Oh ! she's awfully joUy," put in his friend, who was young and partial to slang, "and no end fast. I'll back ' little Gordon ' to give you your answer against every girl in Thelmstone ; and that's saying a good deal. In fact she's Al." " You make me curious to see such a paragon," replied the uninitiated, with a dash of sarcasm in his voice, for he was a different stamp of man to his companions ; " but I think my feelings respecting the fair Miss Gordon will end there. This is a first rate place to see a show of women, but it's not the market that I should come to for a wife." His friends laughed as heartily as fashion per mitted, at the capital joke of any one being supposed, in the present day, to want so antediluvian a com modity as a wife ; and then they assured him there was not the least fear of " the little Gordon " wish ing to take him in.

" She might have married half a dozen times over, that I believe," said the long-whiskered gentleman, with a candour which is very commendable when it is taken into consideration how much of the weak ness of his sex he betrayed by the avowal. " But Nelly Gordon isn't cut out for a wife. She is always engaged, and always breaking off her engage ments, which shows the impartiality of her disposition, and is about the wisest thing she can do for aU parties. At present, the pretendu is Frankland, a man old enough to be her father. By-the-bye, you must remember Frankland, colonel of the th; he's the man !" " Remember him ?" returned the other ; " I should think I did ! WeU, by your account, I could wish him a better fate than to be jUted by ' the little Gordon ' (as you call her), and if she is a girl of any sense, she will rue the day she throws George Frankland over.

He's the best feUow breathing !" " That may be ; but good feUows have become rather common lately with Nelly Gordon, and I am afraid your opinion would weigh very little in his favour. No, no, old Frankland's doomed, you may take your oath of it. Over he goes — before Christ mas-day : another Jonah sacrificed that the fairy barque Gordon may ride the lighter over the sea of life. Added to which, Matthews, you'd be the next victim, for all your virtuous frowns, if the fair Nelly was only to give you one glance out of her eyes, and dare you to the attempt." " Not I \" exclaimed Matthews, indignant at the supposition ; " such as Miss Gordon will never be troubled with importunity of mine. I shall reserve my sighs for a worthier woman." And so the morning wore on, and the strains of the " Helena" and " Erna" gave place to a selection from Offenbach's last opera; and the sound of Nelly Gordon's name died out and was succeeded by those of other young ladies — handled quite as freely and with as little authority as hers had been.

In the meanwhile it was not of her own will that the subject of the foregoing remarks was prevented taking her customary promenade. She was standing in a drawing-room facing the sea, fuUy equipped for a walk, but waiting with evident impatience for the advent of some one whom she expected. Miss Gordon was decidedly a pretty girl, and deserved all the praise which she had elicited. She was small and fair and piquante ; a pocket Venus, in fact, with a perfectly-moulded figure and large wild eyes of the clearest blue. Her complexion was so pure that the closer it was examined the more it pleased ; and her hair was thick and sunny, and rippling like that of Titian's Fornarina. But she was not altogether such an angel as she looked, this charming young lady. She was impetuous and self-willed, fond of admiration, and at heart a flirt — there is no denying it.

As she moved impatiently about the drawing room, of which she was sole inmate, clothed in a jacket of white Armenian fur, with a black-glazed sailor's hat, bound with a white ribbon, on her head, from beneath the rim of which infantine curls lay most provokingly upon her broad white forehead, she looked decidedly what is termed in this age fast ; but she was thoroughly a man's darling for all that. Presently the hall-door opened and closed; a heavy tread was heard ascending the stairs, and " the Uttle Gordon's " fair face flushed to the hue of wild roses. " WeU !" she exclaimed, quickly, as a tall, grave looking man entered the drawing-room, and came up to her side. He did not answer at first, but he took the pretty figure in his arms, with an evident view to making acquaintance with the half-opened, expectant mouth.

" Well !" she reiterated, and almost sharply, " what does she say ?" He was hurt at her manner, and loth to answer her question ; and now that he was compelled to do so, he brought out his words with hesitation. " What does my sister say, NeUy ?" he replied, interrogatively. " Well ! you mustn't be angry, darbng. I suppose Caroline thinks that she is right, or has forgotten the circumstance ; but she denies it in toto." Miss Gordon had been standing at the window until then, but now she turned round quickly, and confronted her lover with a face glowing with indignation and surprise. " Your — sister — denies that she told me that Mrs. Dashwood said that I had been talked of in Thelmstone ; that I had as good as no character left ; and that you must be infatuated not to know it!" " She does, Nelly," he answered, gravely.

" She denies having mentioned the subject to you at aU, or having ever heard any one discuss your actions. I think you must have been mistaken, dear." But an insult to her understanding was what Nelly Gordon could not brook. She would have taken a slur upon her undoubted beauty much more quickly. " You think I must have been mistaken ?" she said, angrily. " You think I have no ears, perhaps, or no sense, or no memory. I tell you, as I told you before, that your sister did say so — in this room — a week ago to-day — and she cannot deny it." " She does deny it," repeated Colonel Frankland. He had not had much experience with regard to the fabsex, and did not know how to soothe the fiery little woman before him, although he was as annoyed at the prospect of a quarrel between his sister and his fiancee as he had been at the accusa tion made against the latter.

" I'll see if she can do so to my face," exclaimed Miss Gordon, making a movement towards the door. But Colonel Frankland had overtaken her before she had crossed the threshold. " Nelly, what do you intend to do ?" For Heaven's sake, don't go to my mother's house and make a noise about this business. You know how easily she is upset, and how the least disturbance frightens her. Cannot you let the matter drop ? — there have been words enough about it already." " Let the matter drop !" Miss Gordon exclaimed, with the most genuine surprise. " Let your sister quietly assert that 1 have told a falsehood, and not make her retract her own ! You must be mad. You first come and pit one woman against another by teUing her that what she has affirmed is solemnly denied, and then you advise her to let the matter drop, aud say no more about it !"

She re-entered the room as she spoke ; but she seated herself at some distance from him, and he made no effort to approach her. He only said, gravely, and stiU standing — " I suppose if you have made up your mind to do it, Nelly, no persuasion of mine wiU have any effect in changing your purpose " " I should think not," interposed the offended beauty, tapping her foot upon the floor. " But at least I must ask you to take an opportunity of speaking to Caroline when she is alone. My mother is very old and feeble, as you are aware. She goes to lie down every afternoon about four o'clock, and then you will probably find my sister at home. But I hope before that time that you will have thought better of your intention, for my sake, if not for your own." So saying, he left the room ; but " the little Gordon's" wrath was not to be appeased by his departure.

She was too much of a spoilt child to be led by a man who affected such superiority of intellect over her own. He might have coaxed her into a change of purpose ; the plan he had adopted only left her more bent upon its execution. She was quite sure that he cared much more for his mother and sister than he did for her or for her good name ; any one might take that away who chose. What did it sig nify to him ? As she thought, visions of her past triumphs rose up before " the little Gordon's" men tal eyes — visions of certain " noes " which she had given to questioners who might reasonably have ex pected to be answered in the affirmative ; of two or three engagements entered into " for fun," which had lasted for a month, and then melted away by mutual agreement ; of various relays of lovers who had meant no more than she did, but who had ad mired and complimented and dangled after her ever since she had been old enough to exchange her school frocks for the prevailing fashion.

There was nothing very crushing for a tender conscience even in memories such as these, for no hearts had been broken, and little harm done, until George Frankland had arrived, with his experience of forty years of life and nothing of real love, and had been hopelessly entrapped by the bloom and the youth of Nelly Gordon. Still the girl was conscious that she had been talked about, and that Mrs. Dashwood might have ill naturedly exaggerated the truth, and the knowledge added a sting to the affront. It is harder to bear a scandal which we have in some measure brought upon ourselves than one for which there is no shadow of truth to be found. But the prevailing feeling in Miss Gordon's breast was indignation that Miss Frankland should not repeat what she had heard, but deny what she had repeated ; for " the little Gordon," with all her faults, was honest, and the truth lay on her side.

She had no parents, but she lived with a widowed aunt, who was very rich, and of High Church prin ciples, and who, in consequence of spending all her time in embroidering velvet altar-cloths, and making imitation point-lace, had no leisure to look after her orphan niece, or to accompany her in any of her walks upon the pier. So Miss Gordon was neces sarUy dependent upon friends of her own choosing for companionship or chaperonage. Mrs. De Lane had been quite delighted when she found that her VOL. III. niece wished to accept the hand of Colonel Frank land, as she considered from the day of the engagement that she was relieved from all responsibility on Miss Gordon's account. " Such an unexceptionable match !" as she had re marked to one of her own friends on the occcasion. " First cousin to Lord Haultimore, you know, and an only son.

The mother's fortune I understand to be something enormous, and the sister's share comes to Colonel Frankland in case of her not many ing, which of course is out of the question, poor thing !" And so, in consideration of the unexceptionable match, " the little Gordon " had been handed over on the spot to the care of Colonel Frankland (the engagement being the first one she had entered into authorized by her aunt's sanction), and permitted to rove Thelmstone with him as she listed. And this had taken place about two months previously. At luncheon that day Mrs. De Lane did not find her niece particularly communicative; nor was it the nature of that worthy lady to invite her to be so. Nelly was still arrayed in the Armenian jacket and the sailor's hat ; but not a single query did her aunt put to her touching where she had been, or what she had been doing.

She concluded that she had come in from the pier; it was where all the girls in Thelmstone congregated from breakfast-time till luncheon. She only remarked that she did not appear to have gained au appetite from the sea-breezes, and recommended the salmoncutlets to her asworthy a passing thought. But Miss Gordon could not eat. He cheeks were still burning with the excitement she had gone through, and there was a feeling of nausea within her from the same cause which precluded all idea of luncheon. " Shall you go near Laurie's this afternoon, my dear?" inquired Mrs. De Lane, as she watched her drawing on her dainty gloves. " No, aunt, I don't think so. Why?" " Only they never sent the gold twist I ordered yesterday, and I must get my altar-cloth finished by Christmas-day." " I'll go and see about it for you," said Miss Gordon, as she left the luncheon-room.

She felt that a walk would do her good, for there wanted yet an hour of four o'clock, and, spent in the house, it would have appeared like three. She would not have cared so much about what Mrs. Dashwood said; so she told herself as she hurried along. Mrs. Dashwood was a spiteful woman, and had three unmarried daughters, and Miss Gordon knew that Captain Marshall, of happy memory, had been rather attracted by Emily Dashwood before she had turned the light of her own countenance upon him ; but to be represented as untruthful, and that 3—2 $6 to George, she could not bear it, and she would not ; it was a case hi which she did well to be nugry. So " the little Gordon" walked fast, ami thought fast, and turned up by-streets every time she caught sight of an approaching acquaintance, and hud exe cuted her commission at Laurie's, and traversed the whole distance back again to the west-end of Tlielui stone before half-past four had sounded.

The i'nniklands were not resident iu Thelnistonc. They had come down about the commencement of September, and engaged one of those large well fumixhed private houses, of which there is always an abundant vupply to be let for the season ; mean while, the owners of the premises decamp to live on (heir friend*, or occupy second-rate apartments rise where, and pay their annual rent by obtaining three hundred pounds for as many months' teuun <-\ . They had come down with a view to change of sceue aud air, rather than to gaiety, and with uo fatal presentiment to warn them that the sou aud brother of their house should losthis heart so soon as lie set foot m thewatering-place they had ehoseu. For Colonel Fraiddaud w;is of so quiet, and, apparently, retiring a disposition, wif.h respect to women, that his mother and sister had long gtvi -n up all fear of being parted from him by marriage, lie was a thorough mau of the world, partaking fully of aU tlm. dissipations and enjoyments which it offered him, but passing through them without evincing the least excitement on the subject, looking upon the female sex as a necessary adjunct to the beauty of the scene before him, but utterly discon nected with any pleasure in which he individually took a share.

So he had really felt as well as appeared to feel, until, on a certain evening, soon after his arrival at Thelmstone, he had been intro duced to Miss Gordon on the pier. Her beauty alone would have little power to attract him, for he was blase with beauty of every description ; neither would her freshness, for he was not a roue to whom, by the mere force of comparison, raw simplicity becomes charming ; but, strange to say, he was caught by the very thing of aU others that so grave a man would have been supposed to contemn. It was " the little Gor don's" utter want of all shyness, and yet of all boldness, as she conversed with him ; it was the naive, confiding manner which she assumed towards all men which had gained her the epithet of " fast," which, exercised in his own behalf, had caused Colonel Frankland, who had played with fire for twenty years without being scorched, to go down at once before this little goddess of the pier, and be utterly consumed.

She had such a charming way of saying just what she thought, and such an extra charming way of glancing up, half-diffidently, halfconfidently, in her hearer's face, to mark the effect of her outspoken words ; such a pretty assumption of taking it for granted that all men were her slaves, that, had she been less lovable and worthy of admiration than she was, she would have bid fair to command it. This was not the kind of treatment that George Frankland had hitherto ex perienced at the hands of women, and it held him captive, he hardly knew why. Young girls were wont to avoid him, after the first introduction, be cause he looked so grave, and spoke so little, and made use of none of the compliments they had been accustomed to hear ; and he was not youthful enough himself to gain favour in the eyes of women of his own age ; indeed, with the exception of that portion of the sex that spares no man, he had not been in the habit of receiving attentions of any sort.

Miss Gordon did not lay siege to him, nor attempt to show herself to the best advantage ; she neither courted nor seemed afraid of him, but simply treated him as she did the rest of her gentlemen acquaintances. She took it for granted that he was not too old to admire her person, or sympathize with her tastes ; she behaved as she would have be haved if he had numbered twenty years instead of forty, and in her forgetfulness of this fact lay the secret of George Frankland's losing his heart to her. Once in love, he discovered fresh beauties, physical and mental, every hour, until he was hopelessly and irretrievably enchained. Miss Gordon bad no reason to complain that Colonel Frankland could not whisper soft nothings as well as any other man ; indeed, he could do so much better, because his whispers meant much more ; and his exclusive de votion to herself, mixed with a species of grateful wonderment that she should deign to bestow all her fresh young love on him in return, was so different to the butterfly attentions she had been used to receive, that she held her engagement to him far higher than she had ever confessed, even to herself.

With what feelings his mother and sister had heard the news of his proposal and acceptance had never reached her. Colonel Frankland was of course his own master, and asked leave of no one. When he brought Mrs. and Miss Frankland to be introduced to Mrs. De Lane and his fiancee, the interview had passed smoothly. The old lady had kissed and blessed Miss Gordon in a very trembling voice, and the younger one shaken hands with, and stared at her, and then sat down, to do her share in main taining a conversation which was chiefly composed of monosyllables. Since which time Miss Gordon had dined at Mrs. Frankland's on several occasions, and shown herself by her side in the family car riage of an afternoon ; but although the communi cation between the two houses had not, as yet, suffered any untoward interruption, it had not been carried beyond the confines of civility.

That Colonel Frankland's engagement was a source of inward vexation to his mother and sister there was little doubt. On the death of his father, the principal of a London house of many years' standing, he had retired from the army, at his mother's earnest request, and lived at home ; since which time he had been the prop and stay of the household, and had the management of all their affairs. That he should marry and leave them, even by so much as the distance of a few houses, was a great blow ; and it was, perhaps, but natural that they should not all at once be able to feel kindly towards the cause of their contemplated loss ; but it is doubtful if Miss Caroline Frankland had ever tried to feel kindly towards her intended sister in-law. She had been gifted with none of those fine humanities which draw the line between the angelic and the fiendish in woman's nature, and the great personal difference between herself and Miss Gordon could not but have raised a pang of jealousy in any soul that had not more of Heaven than earth in its composition.

The difference alluded to was palpable enough that afternoon, as, the hour for her visit having arrived, Nelly Gordon stood in Mrs. Frankland's drawing-room, and confronted her daughter. Miss Frankland had not expected to see her : she had received no intimation of her probable appearance ; and she therefore rose to greet her in her usual style, with a formal unmeaning smile upon her face. She was a small, spare woman, with a bent-in chest and an attenuated form ; with hungry looking eyes, and a bad square mouth : and, as she left a sitting position, it was evident that she was slightly deformed. Robed in a stiff dark silk, with a profusion of bugle and other trimming about it, and with her hair elaborately dressed and decorated, Caroline Frankland presented that commiserative object, a misshapen woman, whose disappointed hopes had concentrated themselves in the love of adorning her person, and the hatred of that portion of her sex more favoured than herself.

As Miss Gordon advanced hastily into the middle of the large room, Miss Frankland made a movement as though she would shake hands with her. " No, thank you, Caroline, not yet," exclaimed the other, putting her own right hand behind her ; " not until you have answered the question I have come here to ask you." Then Miss Frankland read war and not peace upon " the little Gordon's" open brow, and she shrunk backward and resumed her seat, whilst her dark eyebrows nearly met, and made her glance malignant. Still, she did not express surprise or curiosity : she only sat and scowled at her visitor. " Your brother came to our house this morning, and told me that you deny that you ever mentioned the subject of Mrs. Dashwood's repetitions to me; is this the case?" " Yes, it is ; I do deny it," replied Miss Frank land, looking in her questioner's face, and trying to brave out her falsehood with a hard dark stare.

But the clear blue eyes of " the little Gordon" met hers steadily^, and went through and through them, as though they would pierce right into her heart. " Do you know," she resumed, quietly, " that I had already told George that you had done so, and that, by your denial of the fact, you make me out a falsehood-teller?" " I can't help that," Miss Frankland commenced, but unsteadily ; " I only " " But I can help it, and I will," returned Miss Gordon, angrily. " It is what I have never stood yet from any one, and I am not going to begin with you, Caroline. With all my faults, I am honest. I should not have repeated the conversation if it had not taken place, and you know it. You know exactly what you told me on the subject : that Mrs. Dashwood had repeated to you several ill-natured things that she professed to have heard of me and my doings ; that she said my conduct had been the talk of Thelmstone for a long time past ; that I had very little character left here ; and that if your brother had not heard and seen all this he must be deaf and blind.