Petronel. A novel

Front matter

PETRONEL & fiobd. BY FLORENCE MARRYAT, (MES. EOSS CHUECH,) ACrilOC of -'love's conflict," " vebouique," etc., etc. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, $wbltshcr in (Drotnarg lo g)tr 1870. [All Eights Reserved.] CONTENTS OF VOL. III. CHAPTER PAGE I. DR. FORD REFLECTS ON WHAT HE HAS DONE ....... 1 n. WHAT HIS FRIENDS THOUGHT OF IT . 34 HI. THE STORY OF PETRONEL . . . 65 IV. THE STORY OF PETRONEL — CONTINUED . 89 V. THE STORY OF PETRONEL — CONTINUED . 116 VI. THE STORY OF PETRONEL — CONTINUED . 145 VII. THE STORY OF PETRONEL— CONTINUED . 179 VIH. MISS FORD KNOWS ALL ABOUT IT . . 221 IX. THE STORY OF PETRONEL — CONCLUDED . PETRONEL.

Chapter I. Dr

FORD REFLECTS ON WHAT HE HAS DONE. rPIHE dark green brougham with its thorough-bred bay horses, had been standing patiently before the hall door for more than an hour, when Dr. Ford, with flushed cheeks and an excited air, ran down the steps and leapt into his seat. " Twenty-four, Wellington Crescent !" he said, quickly ; and as the carriage rolled away, he glanced up at the lace-shrouded windows of the room he had so lately VOL. III. quitted. In another instant he pulled the check-string. " To five, Annesley Terrace," he shouted through the tube. " I've made a mis take." The coachman touched his hat, and turned his horses' heads ; wondering to himself the while, what could have hap pened to his "master. It was almost the first time in his experience that Dr. Ford had altered a command once given, the clearness of his head being no less remark able than the firmness of his decisions.

Could he have glanced inside the vehicle he was driving, the servant woidd have been still more astonished ; for Ulick Ford, with unusually bright eyes, and an expression about his mouth as though he were not quite sure whether to laugh or cry, was fidgeting with his books and papers in a womanish and uncertain way, most foreign to himself. First he took up what Petronel in former days had called his " wooden trumpet," and turning it several times over in his hands, in a meaningless manner, laid it back into the carriage basket, and seized upon a number of some medical journal instead. But what availed to the man, at that moment, scientific dis coveries or professional experiments ; he, who had just made a discovery on his own part, more wonderful than any he had ever heard or dreamed of, to be followed by an experiment more astounding still ?

At that moment, printed letters held no meaning for him, and he skimmed column after column without the least idea of what they contained ; whilst something beneath his left ribs kept bumping and thumping with so unorthodox a motion as to distract his attention from everything but itself. It was certainly inconvenient, but the very in- 1—2 convenience made him feel young again, and when he left the carriage at number five, Annesley Ten-ace, and stood on the hall steps waiting for the door to be opened, he seemed to look on the busy world of traffic passing before him in a new light ; to have more part with the young and gay, and less with the sick and weary than he had had before. There was a music ringing in his heart which made him feel as though he must be moving in measure to its tune ; and he became impatient even of the slight inaction to which he was compelled by waiting for an answer to his summons.

It came at last, and he passed through the hall into the library, where he knew that he should find his patient. There had been no occasion to ask if Mr. Barnard was at home, for Mr. Barnard sat day after day, and month after month, in the same arm-chair in the same room, and would always be " at home," at all events to Ulick Ford, until his place knew him no more. He was a good old man, on the shady side of fifty, who had been paralysed for many years past, and bore that afflic tion and others which accompanied it, with the cheerful resignation of one who recog nises the sacred truth, that those who do not suffer will not reign. In general, his mood was far more placid and contented than that of his medical adviser, but on this occasion, Ulick Ford, who was freshly disposed to view every circumstance of fife in its best light, was surprised to find Mr. Barnard depressed, even melancholy ; and after a futile attempt to engage his interest on the topics of the day, he rallied him on his evident discomposure.

" Your friends have been leaving you too much alone, Barnard ; this fine weather tempts everyone to spend their time out of doors ; I must send my sister to look after you ! Have you heard from your brother Henry lately 1" This brother, a few years the junior of his patient, was a solicitor in practice in London, who had visited Rockborough the summer before, in company with his wife, a fine handsome young woman of not more than five-and-twenty. But at the mention of his name, an expression of unmistakable suffering passed over the countenance of Mr. Barnard. " Don't speak of him, Ford ; I cannot bear even to think of him to-day. I received a most painful communication from him this morning." " Indeed ! I am sorry to hear it," replied the Doctor, who knew that to give him the opportunity of unbosoming himself would be the best medicine he could prescribe his charge ; " nothing to do, I hope, with his health ?"

" Oh, no ! bodily suffering would be little to this. Perhaps I had best tell you about it, after all, for the world will hear it soon enough, and until it does, I know the secret will be safe with you." " If discussing the subject is any relief to you, you may depend upon my keeping it to myself," said Dr. Ford, who fully ex pected to hear that Henry* Barnard had failed in monetary matters. "Yes, yes ! I know that, of course," replied the other, " but it is such a very pain ful business ; so very painful and distress ing. You remember my brother's wife, perhaps, Ford; a fine-looking girl with dark eyes V " The bride who was with him here last summer ; most assuredly I do. I hope your bad news has no reference to her." " Indeed it has, and in the worst way. I always said she was too young for Henry, Ford ; a man of nearly fifty to take a young creature of five-and-twenty to himself was folly — madness.

How was it possible that in tastes, or feelings, or modes of occupa tion, they should ever agree ? You might as well have mated a butterfly with the ox that treads out the corn." " But, you surprise me, Barnard ; the}' always seemeoF excessively happy when they were down here ; I remember remark ing to myself that I had seldom seen a more united couple." " Ah ! thev were early days. I have noticed their behaviour since, and I foresaw what was in store for him. She has left him, Ford." " You don't mean to say so ?" and Ulick Ford's face assumed a look of the keenest i anxiety. " I do, indeed, and how was it to be prevented ? He, engaged all day, often all the evening, in his professional pursuits, and she (as is natural to her age) anxious for amusement and the companionship of such as were of the same mind as herself.

And thoughtlessness and the opportunity for evil have ended in this ; utter disgrace to both of them." " You speak of it rather leniently in my ideas," remarked Ulick Ford. " What woidd you have me say ? Call the poor girl hard names, and swear it is all her own fault ? No mere spectator could feel the business more than I do ; in fact it has quite upset me, but I cannot affirm what I believe to be untrue. She was not worse than others : gay, frivolous, and fond of admiration, perhaps, but so are half the young women that you meet, and yet, with proper care, they make good wives. No ! No ! the first error lay in inducing her to accept the hand of a man more than double her age, and without the opportunity of either guarding her morals or cultivating her esteem. Henry should never have manied her, but having done so, he should not have left her to herself."

" But, at that rate, no men engaged in active professions would be able to afford themselves the solace of a wife." " Did I say so, Ford ? It is not his marrying that I blame, but his marrying a woman so much younger than himself. Why could he not have chosen some one nearer his own age ? No happiness ever comes of ill-assorted unions, and to him it has proved utter ruin." " Well, I am very sorry to hear it," replied the Doctor, as he rose from his seat ; "but it is a case in which one can do no more than say so. And, since it is irremediable, it is useless to let it prey upon your spirits. Is there anything in the shape of book or newspaper that I can send you ? You must not sit here longer moping by yourself !" " Nothing, thank you — except, indeed, it be what you promised, a visit from your good sister, whom I am always pleased to see.

I hope she is well ; and that bright creature, with the strange name, that ward of yours, I trust she has quite recovered from her late illness V " Perfectly, thank you," replied Ulick Ford, whose heart at this simple allusion commenced to make its existence selfevident again. " I'm glad to hear it ! She is a sweet creature. The last time she was in this dark room, with her cousin, her smile alone seemed to make it brighter. She always puts me, somehow, in mind of primroses — she seems so fresh, and innocent, and child like. You must take care of her, Ford — great care of her !" " I hope to do so." " That's right : don't let her go and throw herself away upon a fellow twice her age ! They are always the first to go after those young girls ; but it never answers ; and it's sure to end, as poor Henry's marriage has done, in disgrace and desolation.

Good-bye, my dear Ford ; your visit has actually done me good ; there is nothing like opening one's heart to a friend. Good bye, good-bye," and Ulick Ford was once more set free, from what had proved to him, a torture-chamber. He gave the necessary orders, leapt into his carriage, slammed the door after him, and threw himself back upon the seat with a sensation very akin to misery. Until that moment all had been excitement exultation, and joy ; now, he had time to recall the serious resolutions which he had formed and broken. He had been unable to avoid feeling gratified at the news of his friend Bertram's refusal ; because the idea of giving Petronel away in marriage to any man had been so distasteful to him : but he had none the less intended to o-uard with jealous watchfulness his own impres sions with respect to her.

He had meant diligently to uproot any tendency on his part to bestow more than parental love upon her, and to check those glowing ebul litions of affection with which she was sometimes wont to indulge him, and which he found so sore a trial of his tempered equanimity. And a word on his side, a look on hers, had scattered all these pru dent resolutions to the wind. They had come to a mutual understanding ; how, he could hardly even now remember ; but he believed it never would have happened so except by accident. And in this he was correct. He loved the girl with a passion, the fervour of which is unknown to men who fritter the best feelings of their lives away in a multitude of paltry admirations ; but he considered that to take advantage of her innocent liking for himself was to fetter a free spirit, which did not yet know its capability for happiness, and unfairly secure a heart which had had no oppor tunity of choice.

He felt much as one does who, having wantonly gathered a handful of fragrant lilies, which he found blooming freshly in their native soil, car ries them home to lie upon his table, until their purity is soiled, and they wither and turn brown. The disposition of such an one, if he loves flowers, is to thrust the drooping blossoms, as soon as may be, out of sight, that he may forget the floral murder he committed, for nothing is more painful than to find we have destroyed that which we never can replace ; and Ulick Ford also, for the moment, felt as though, in order to regain his peace of mind, he must dissolve the engagement into which he had just entered, and set Petronel Fleming free again. She was like a fresh white lily, in her youth and purity ; and what had he to give her in exchange for that, except his love ?

He could love her, it was true. God and his heart knew that well enough ! But his time was not his own to bestow on any woman ; and he thought of the way in which he had been deceived before — of the vow he had registered never again to make himself the plaything of the fickle sex, and of the dreadful story he had just heard ; until it seemed imperative that he should release her and himself. She imagined that she loved him. Dear, innocent child ! Heaven bless her for the mere idea ! But what could she know of love and its require ments ? She had had no experience of the world ; had hardly peeped into its vast arena : it was natural to her to think that she should like to pass her whole existence with the person who had been most kind to her. It was the yearning of the friend less orphan for a home and sine protection ; not the trembling eagerness of the woman of mature age to find herself united to the man whom she had chosen from the world.

He must convince her of her mistake, and loose her from the promise she had so rashly made to him. But when he seriously thought of partino with her, his heart called out against it. He had gathered the lilies, but he could not cast them away ; he had lived so many years without holding a flower in his hand. She had so twined herself about his being, that he shuddered to think what fife would be without her — what it would have been even, had she of her own free choice left him for another man. And if, of her own free choice, she stayed — if she wished to stay — -if parting were a misery to her as well as him, should he be justified in urging it upon her ? Into what imprudence might disappointment not plunge her ? how would her love, thrown back upon itself, act on a nature so impulsive, so imaginative ?

No ! the lilies were in his hand — had almost been placed there ; he would grasp them whilst he had being ; he would be happy ! But then rose up again the dark history of Henry Barnard and his wife ; and in imagination Ulick Ford pictured all that exuberance of girlish love which was so enchanting to him fade away into the in- 2 VOL. difference of married life ; and Petronel, through all her youth and loveliness, left to her own guidance and the admiration of the herd. What if he, now amongst the most honoured and respected of the inhabitants of Rockborough, should live to be an object of contempt and pity — to be con doled with for having pinned his faith upon the promise of a child ; or pointed at as a fool, who had considered he possessed suffi cient attractions to chain the affections of a girl young enough to be his daughter.

Deeply humble where his powers of pleasing were concerned (or he would have been aware that a man of his talents and standing confers an honour upon any woman by making her his wife), he was yet very proud on any subject which affected his good name, or capability of judgment. He would rather any day have been ON WHA T HE HAS DONE. 19 called knave than fool, for he maintained that in the long run the fools did most harm of the two. And he believed implicitly that he could not survive such a disgrace as had fallen upon Henry Barnard, and that if it did not mercifully kill him outright, it would at least compel him to resign the sphere of usefulness in which he laboured, and to quit for ever the place where it occurred. His first trial had been hard enough to bear, but this would be infinitely worse ; and at that moment, with all his love and admiration for Petronel, he could not help remembering that she was the daughter of her mother, and that Cissy Halsted also had once hung about his neck, and whispered loving words into his ear.

It was a miserable recollection to come at that juncture ; but there was no evading it, and Dr. Ford divided the rest of the time that was not spent with his patients 2—2 in brooding upon the misery of his past and the uncertainty of his future. Try as he would, he could not regret what had occuned, nor promise himself that he would give up one iota of the happiness which Fortune had so unexpectedly presented to him.; and yet he felt very much as though he had accepted something which he had no right to take. His passion was fighting against his cooler judgment. He had no doubt of what he wanted, but great doubt of what he ought to have ; and his mind was full of conflicting sensations. This is a state very common to everyone who has a conscience and a strong natural will, and by such it will be easily recognized ; but it is a difficult condition to render plain by pen and ink.

If, therefore, to some of my readers, the character of Ulick Ford at this crisis appears unsatisfactory — if he seems too fearful and undecided for the firm courageous man I have attempted to sketch, let the deficiency be attributed to my feeble power of description, rather than to my hero's vacillation. At the same time, I would urge that, under the circumstances, he was not himself ; and if he had been, he would not have been in love. And in love with Petronel Fleming he most decidedly was. He reached home that evening, half tri umphant and half uneasy, and ran upstairs to dress for dinner, under a comical fear lest he should meet his sister on the way, and find she had been already informed of his intentions. But no such calamity befell him. He was, as usual, late, and when he entered the dining-room, Miss Ford and Petronel were already seated at the table.

He said a hurried grace, and, sitting down, helped the soup before him, feeling as bashful as a schoolboy the while, and not daring to raise his eyes to the white-robed figure which sat on his right hand. He fancied that even the servants in attendance must be coonisant of the weakness into which he had been betrayed ; and he remained to all appearance so entirely engrossed by the con sumption of what was put upon his plate, that at last his sister rallied him on his unusual silence. " A penny for your thoughts, Ulick !" she exclaimed, as the second course was re moved. " Have you been to a funeral this afternoon that you have so little to tell US i At the sound of her voice he started, and regarded her earnestly. No ! Miss Ford had certainly heard nothing of the im pending change in his circumstances, for she looked pleasanter than she had done since the occasion of Mr. Bertram's departure, and was evidently more in a jesting than a complaining mood.

He took heart at £he lightness of her remark, and replied much in the same tone. " No, indeed ! I have had more to do with resurrections this afternoon than with burials, Marcia." " Oh ! a miraculous cure, I suppose ! Well, I have no desire to meddle in your professional secrets ; I know you too well for that." " A complete cure !" he answered enig matically, and thereupon he ventured to let his glance rove towards his fa ncee. Petro nel's dreamy grey eyes met his with a fond confiding look that set all his pulses in rapid motion, and made the veins start out upon his sun-bunit forehead ; and as soon as she had turned her head away, his gaze followed and riveted itself upon her. Her white muslin dress, made perfectly plain, was cut square in front, and in her bosom nestled two or three pale blossoms of the tea-rose, resting on their sad, gre^en leaves.

She wore no ornament except the twisted masses of her bright hair, on which streamed the last rays of the setting sun. Her clean cut features, turned towards the fight, were not less pure in then outline than the ex pression of her tender mouth, or the long. earnest gaze of her clear eyes. As he re garded her, wrapt in pensive thought, per haps of him, the feelings he had experienced in the drawing-room that afternoon returned in full force, and he determined inwardly that no powers on earth should make him give her up. There was a soft melancholy about Petronel that evening which drove him wild ; it seemed as though she must have guessed the tenor of those thoughts which now appeared like blasphemy against his love for her. What was it to him, if wives went wrong and women were deceptive ?

This was not a creature formed in common mould, and reasoning which held good in ordinary cases could have no bearing upon one in which she was concerned. How pure she looked, how calm, hoAv thoughtful ! The very knowledge of his love had changed her from a child into a woman ; what might not the experience of it do ? He gazed at her as she sat thus, with her unconscious face turned towards the even ing sky, and fancied that he saw her passing from a girl into a matron, more beau tiful with each succeeding change, with children clinging to her skirts, children as fair, as loving as herself, and yet, who called him father. What ! children in that house, so silent till she entered it — tottering feet about those floors, baby smiles to welcome his return, and that sweet face to teach them how to love him — was this the blessing that he wanted to resign, that his friends would persuade him it was dan gerous to accept, that he fought against as thoue-h it could be offered him from any hand but that of Heaven?

Perish all such worldly arguments, such weak, cowardly, groundless fears ! The cup of pleasure was held up to his lips, and he would drain it to the dregs. "Really, Ulick, you will break your wine-glass if you go on in this way. What are you thinking of?" exclaimed Miss Marcia, who was not well-pleased at his non-compliance with her former request. What he had done, he hardly knew him self, but he had caused a disturbance amongst the crockery, which had attracted the attention of his sister, and made Petronel turn round. How sweet was the change from her meditative mood, to the girlish laughter which rippled over her features as she caught sight of his expres sion of dismay ! He started and apologised : returned her look with one so ardent and so new, that the blood mounted to her very forehead, and then the meal proceeded as before.

Only that Miss Marcia, having unfor tunately intercepted that long gaze, and seen the blush which it called forth, remarked rather querulously that she wished her brother would attend to his dinner whilst he was about it, and leave brown studies for the consulting-room. And then she called upon Petronel to sit up straight, and not lean back in her chair in that absurd manner, and wondered what young ladies of the present day would say if they were treated in the way in which she used to be served at the same age. Upon the appearance of which deadly symptoms, Ulick Ford hurried over the remainder of dinner as quickly as possible, that he might expedite the moment when he could run away to his own room. Nothing but sun shine followed him there, however; the black cloud had passed away, and the sky was bright and clear.

Only that he grudged every moment spent away from Petronel, and longed for the one when he should be able to clasp her once more in his arms, and say'how dear she was to him. " Cousin Ulick, may I come in ? I have something to tell you." She stood? at the door, over the thresh old of which she never passed without permission, looking like what she was, the angel of his fife. He drew her in, and closed it after her, and took her to his heart without another word. If heaven itself had thundered out anathema maranatha against her then, he could not have believed but that she held in herself all he required to make him perfectly and infinitely happy. " Cousin Ulick ! are you sure you don't repent ?" The question came as an echo of his pre vious thoughts, but he answered it decidedly. " Repent, my darling !

It is I who should ask you that. You are far more likely to repent this business than I am." " How can you say so ? When I am so foolish and so young, and you, so far above me in every respect." " Age included, Petronel ; do you realise there is a difference between us of two and twenty years ?" " How you will harp upon the difference between us," she said with a pretty affecta tion of complaint, " I believe you do it on purpose, Cousin Ulick ; you like to make me feel small and stupid." " It is a terrible gap," he answered. " Too wide for love to stretch across ?" inquired the girlish voice, softly. " Oh, Petronel, you are right ; I must come and learn from you — there is no age for love. God bless you for saying so. And I have been tormenting myself all this afternoon, fancying that you never can be happy tied down to an old man like me.

" An old man !" she echoed, pouting. " You will try and make me believe that you are deaf, and blind, and lame next. I wonder you allow there is any strength left in these great hands and feet. Well, I have been worrying myself too, Cousin Ulick, so you see that we are quits." " What about ? Pitying poor me for the prospect of having such a great troublesome child to look after, and keep in order ?" " Something like it. Wondering if you will ever tire of my nonsense, and oh, par ticularly, whether anything on earth could make you leave off loving me. " " Nothing on earth or in Heaven either, Petronel ! You may rest assured of that." " Nothing that I have ever said or done, Cousin Ulick, nothing that has ever happened to me. For I have often been very wild and thoughtless, remember, and got into all kinds of horrid scrapes."

" I don't think I am much afraid of that, darling ; but if you had been in what you call a ' horrid scrape' from your birth till now, it would make no difference to me, "I am so glad," she answered softly. " I have been bothering myself about it this afternoon, because one never knows what may happen, you know, and I could not bear you should be vexed with me now. But you will always trust me, Cousin Ulick, won't you, and never believe any stupid stories that you may hear against me ?" " My dear child, is it likely ? No one will dare to bring them to me, Petronel, so there is no occasion for your warning." Still, he thought it a strange thing to mention on the first day of their betrothal, but he attributed her fear to her great love for him, and soon forgot it in the contemplation of the love itself.