Claude; or the Double Sacrifice

Front matter

CLAUDE; OR, THE DOUBLE SACRIFICE. Br MARY MOLESWOETH, AUTHOR OP " A STUMBLE ON THE THRESHOLD." Imaginez-vous voir un homme fait a plaisir, un de ces heros de roman qui n'avaient qu'k se montrer pour causer des insomnies aux princesses. Ajoutons a. cela que la nature, qui mele ordinairement ses dons, l'avait dou6 de beau coup d'eaprit et de valeur: c'e'tait un cavalier parfait. Gil Blas. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1850. LONDON : PRINTED BT HARRISON AND SON, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. -.nsmbeti TO GEORGE GUTTERES, ESQ., IN TOKEN OE THE AUTHOR'S HIGH ESTEEM, AND SINCERE REGARD. CLAUDE; OR, THE DOUBLE SACRIFICE.

Chapter I

La. Cap. Marry, that marry is the very theme I came to talk of : — Tell me, daughter Juliet, How stands your disposition to be married . Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of. La. Cap. Well, think of marriage now; younger than you Are made already mothers : by my count, I was your mother much upon these years That you are now a maid. — Romeo and Juliet. " Why does not Miss Francillon marry ." was a question constantly repeated in the VOL. I. B CLAUDE J OE, circle to which the said lady belonged ; and Echo, that indefatigable listener to all diffi cult queries, returned (not being Irish) no satisfactory reply. Ada Francillon was young, pretty, variously gifted by nature, and the only child of rich parents. A first-rate education had fully developed powers of mind of no common order ; success was an unfailing attendant on all her pursuits.

She played and sang not "a little," as most young ladies do, but with remarkable skill ; she handled the pencil (and it was even whispered, the pen) with a free and graceful touch ; showed to equal advan tage in the ball-room and in the saddle ; and possessed that very unnecessary accomplish ment to a woman, the power of using with facility several tongues besides her own. Add to all these endowments a sprightly temper, pleasing manners, and an amiability of disposition, founded upon the only reliable source of good ; and the reader may perhaps be in clined to join in the wondering inquiry of the gossips of her neighbourhood : " Why did not Miss Francillon marry?" Was the male sex, to a man, insensible to so many attractions, among which each might discover his own peculiar magnet . Or was the lady so hard to please that she rejected, in a vain search after ideal perfection, the pre tensions of all those who sought her hand ?

The enigma was of course interpreted by each investigator, after his or her own fashion. Some opined that Miss Ada looked high ; nothing under a coronet would content her, they supposed ; others suggested that perhaps she had never had a downright proposal made her. Dull people said she was too clever, and frightened the men away ; sentimental ones believed she cherished a secret and hopeless B2 CLAUDE ; OR, attachment. Friendly critics esteemed her too great a treasure for ordinary men to be blessed with ; hostile ditto maintained that no prudent man would choose a wife so little fitted to superintend his household, and regulate his domestic affairs. This last class of objectors deserves a para graph to itself ; for there are persons of great worth, and of some discernment in other matters, who think an elegant exterior, a culti vated mind, a congenial temper, a loving heart, of far less moment in the being whom a man selects as the partner of his bed and his board, than that knowledge of, and devotion to, household details, which he can easily pro cure from a servant, at a small annual charge.

Far be it from us to undervalue the science of economy, (we use the word in its primitive sense) or to countenance the mischievous error that a proper attention to domestic duties is incompatible with more ornamental qualities. We have no fancy for slip-shod genius, and believe that a succession of bad dinners, a troop of untidy children, would go as far to dissipate a husband's fondness as the most absolute insipidity, the most glaring intellec tual deficiency, in the object of his choice. But we do protest most strongly against the doctrine that a gentleman should look for no higher attributes in his consort than he would demand from his housekeeper or his nursery maid ; and that a lady, to be qualified for matrimony, should find her element in the kitchen rather than in the drawing-room.

It is not to be supposed that Ada herself escaped interrogation on the subject. To the outer circle of her acquaintance, her reply was a very simple one. " Why should I be in a hurry to marry . I have a comfortable home, kind parents, abundant means of occu- CLAUDE ; OR, pation and amusement ; I could not be happier than I am. I have conceived no grande passion rendering life a wearisome burden until it be gratified ; and I am not ambitious of an increase either of rank or wealth. I have therefore nothing to gain, and much to lose, by a change of state." " But do you really think a single life the happier?" would be the next question in many instances. " I do not say that ; I only affirm that my single life is happy. Circumstances may arise to alter my views. My present home might become less agreeable, or I might fall so des perately in love with some one, that I could not taste enjoyment without him.

But this is not the case at present ; and I can very well afford to wait." " Well, you wid certainly be an old maid if you don't take care," was the usual conclusion, to which Ada, with a smile, and a shrug of the shoulders, would reply, "Quand mime I" and there the matter rested, to be debated all over again, in nearly similar terms, on the next occasion. To the very few friends whom she admitted to closer intimacy, Ada had few additional argu ments to allege, but she entered a little more into detail, and freely confessed that she had never yet seen, or at least had never yet been addressed by, the man whom she could make up her mind to marry. " But, my dear child, how is that ." said her chief confidant, a maiden aunt, between whom and herself the warmest friendship, approaching that of sisters, existed, and who frequently discussed this subject with her.

" You have had, I think, as fair opportunities of suiting yourself as most young people, more than many. You see a good deal of society at CLAUDE ; OR, home, you generally pass some time in London every season, besides occasional visits to different parts of the country ; so that you may be said to combine the advantages of a settled and a migratory career, which I take to be these : that in the former a young woman may be thoroughly known and appreciated ; in the latter, she may strike with all the force of novelty. You go into company quite enough to be seen and admired ; and not so much as to become hacknied and be considered passee ; you appear to be a general favourite, both with young and old ; and yet I hear of all your contemporaries, friends, cousins, and schoolfellows, few of them superior to you — I mav say it without flattery — in personal graces, and fewer still worth half so much, either financi ally or intellectually, marrying one after another, while you remain Miss Francidon."

"Wed, dear aunt, I could not desire a prettier name. I admit that many of my con temporaries, as you cad them, have passed to the altar before me; but had the proposals which they deemed satisfactory, been made to me, I do not know that, in any one case, I should have been content to accept them : I have therefore no right to complain." " Why no, certainly ; but I am afraid you are too fastidious, Ada." "I hope, however," answered the young lady, " that you do not suppose me influenced by an inordinate notion of my own claims. Nicety of criticism in these matters is so frequently met by the remark : ' What have you to offer on your side in exchange for the perfection you require . ' that I am cautious of expressing my sentiments in general conversation. But seriously now, my dear aunt, run your eye mentally over the list of bridegrooms to which you have alluded, and tell me, is CLAUDE ; OR, there one whom you yourself would consider — I will not say, a fit match for me, the phrase sounds conceited, but — likely to reconcile me to the inevitable trials and cares of matrimony ?

Look at Lydia Chambers' pretendu, for instance ; a country solicitor, ugly as the illustrious unmentionable, who is supposed to exercise a peculiar influence over the whole profession : would he have done for me .'" "And yet, my dear, Miss Chambers is grand-daughter to a baronet, possessed of a neat income of her own, and generady reckoned pretty," suggested the aunt. " I do not object to her so disposing of her hand," rejoined the niece, "but I confess I am not prepared to part with my inde pendence at so low a price. Then there is my old school-fellow, Selina Wentworth, with her sweet face and voice, buried in a remote village, with a 'poor curate' (those two words which Sydney Smith declared were made to go together) who has no ear for music, no eyes for beauty, and Avhose family is his only recommendation."

"He was a good, steady young man, my love, and doatingly fond of her, as doubtless she was of him." "It is fair to conclude so, aunt, for there were certainly no worldly advantages in the match ; but I hate good young men, in the first place ; and though I can picture to my self a hero, for whose sake even I might be brought to think ' the world well lost,' yet I could not endure the idea of 'Love in a cottage,' or a parsonage, with an ordinary looking mortal, who wears high-lows, and never combs his hair. See, too, the wealthy and highly-connected Ellen Macleod expatri ating herself with a foreign spouse ; and that graceful Miss Rycroft putting up with one CLAUDE ; OR, barely up to her elbow, and Jessie Black, at seventeen, espousing another three times her ao-e ; — in short, of each and all of these gentry, I should say, or rather sing, " ' He wouldn't do for me, for me, So he wouldn't do for me.' " " You will certainly have to sing the con clusion of the song, one of these days," responded Miss Gamier; and in no unpleasing voice she warbled : '■' ' And I think that some of those I rejected before, Would now do very well for me.' " "As to rejecting," said Ada, when the strain was finished, "you know I have only been discussing other people's suitors, not my own.

A bond fide proposal, come from whom it may, is not a thing to be treated with levity. When I was young " " When you were young !" interrupted Miss Gamier, with marked emphasis. " Wed, then, when I was younger, I used to declare I would accept my first offer, for fear I should never get a second ; but, how ever you may laugh at my limited experience, I have lived long enough to be convinced of the folly of marrying for the mere sake of becoming a matron. I am surprised, dear aunty, that you should be so anxious to prevent my joining the sisterhood of which you are so bright an ornament. You, I am sure, are not one of those who think that out of the holy estate of matrimony, there is no mundane felicity." " You are quite right there, Ada ; I believe the joys and sorrows of life to be pretty evenly distributed among all classes, ranks, and ages.

If by remaining single you lose many exquisite pleasures, you also escape many cruel griefs. At the same time, so strong is the prejudice, perhaps I should CLAUDE ; OE, rather say the instinct, in favour of marriage, that I doubt if, with all its risks before her eyes, one woman in a hundred adopts a solitary life from pure choice. For the young, we do not desire it ; therefore, though I am perfectly content with my own condition, I wish none the less to see you respectably married." "I am sorry I cannot flatter you with any hopes of the realization of your benevolent wishes," returned Miss Francillon, half indig nantly. " Respectably married, forsooth ! My dear aunt, how could you hit upon so inappropriate a term ? Nothing should ever induce me to ally myself with a ' respectable' man." " Why, you surely do not mean to say that you are determined upon forming a </.srespec table alliance ." enquired Miss Gamier, unable to suppress a smile at her niece's warmth.

" Of course not," replied the young lady, smiling in her turn. "You know very well what I mean, aunt Harriet. Respectability is a very proper quality in a tradesman ; but it is only as a last resource that I should dream of applying the epithet to a gentleman. I do not pretend to say that we always select for our praise those attributes which are most worthy of it ; nay, the direct reverse is not unfrequently the case : but if the major proposition generally includes the minor, so the minor appears often to exclude the major ; and as I involuntarily distrust the mental acquirements of a lady who displays great proficiency in the fashioning of a shirt, or the mysteries of crochet, in the same way I should form but a low opinion of the gentleman, whose respectability was the only theme of his admirers, especially as the phrase is some what indefinite, and in many minds implies nothing more than the keeping of a gig !

CLAUDE ; OR, Common sense is another quality to which I have a rooted aversion ; at least, as exhibited in your ' plain, practical,' people, who always go upon the commercial and Hudibrastic maxim — ' The real value of a thing, Is just exactly what 'twill bring ;' people who estimate a tree simply by the value of its timber, and a man's talents by the profits they will command ; people who must wonder why flowers were created, since they serve no purpose but to deck the earth, or why fine feelings and tastes were implanted in man's breast, since they contribute only to embellish his existence." " You will not expect a woman of my age," said Miss Garnier, " to join in your crusade against respectability and common sense ; but I am ready to confess that they are rather negative, than positive merits.

As it was said, in one of my school books, of orthography, that it is no praise to spell well, but a grealdisgrace to spell incorrectly, so neither of these much abused qualities is sufficient in itself to satisfy the judgment, although the absence of one may destroy the effect of every virtue and every attraction that can be combined in the human character. But since you repudiate such common-place attributes, tell me, my Ada, what are those you deem essential in your futur? If you were to write an epic poem after the Homeric model, what peculiar epithet would you attach to your hero ? Should we have ' the swift-footed Achilles,' or the ' pious Æneas,' ' l'invitto Tancredi,' or ' il buon Ruggiero,' or should we stop at the exterior, and say simply, ' the beauteous Paris,' a ' god in form' alone?"

" I perceive the malice of your last illustra tion," answered Ada, laughing : " but I do not retract one word you have ever heard me VOL. I. c CLAUDE ; OR, utter in praise of that beauty which is a token of man's celestial origin, a relic of his first glorious inheritance, a pledge of his future perfected estate. As antiquarians gloat over a half defaced coin, on which they can decipher the superscription of Adrian or Antoninus, so I cannot view without a thrill of delight, that symmetry of form and feature in which we still discover dim traces of the divine image. And have I not high authority for my enthusiasm . Hear what Talfourd says : ' How shallow and false is the notion, that personal beauty is a frail and fleeting thing ! It triumphs over wisdom and virtue, not only in life, but in death ; redeems or veils folly and crime, and sweetens the saddest passages of history.' "If his assertions require proof, I would ask, Is not Lucifer's beauty as proverbial as his pride .

Does not Scripture itself condescend to note the comeliness of Joseph and David . Do we not still ' weep for Thammuz,' — the Eastern Adonis — palliate the faults of Alcibiades, and half-worship the Apollo Bel videre ? Grave chroniclers hand down to us the good looks of our Saxon Alfred, and aris tocratic novelists reconcile us to our handsome Norman conquerors. Do you believe that the attractive exterior of Edward Plantagenet had nothing to do with securing the victory to the White Rose — that Charles Stuart's head would have been so generally lamented had it not been a gracefid one— that the best blood of Scotland would have been shed for his equally unfortunate descendants, had they been as ill favoured as their German supplanters . The same irresistible spell, in our own day, flings a new charm round the poetry of a Byron, and adds fascination to the voice of a Mario.

And yet, with all these examples before their eyes, c CLAUDE; OR, some ' flat-nosed Franks,' as D'lsraeli calls our degenerate race, pretending to despise the gifts they do not possess, preach that looks are of no consequence, that ' handsome is, as handsome does ;' that all depends upon the expression of the countenance, and so forth ; as if any degree of amiability could redeem a clumsy figure, any amount of public and private virtue make amends for red hair !" "See what it is to mount an enthusiast on her hobby !" exclaimed Miss Gamier, when her niece paused for breath. " With heaven and earth ransacked for precedents ; mytho logy, history, and fiction (three words to signify nearly the same thing !) laid under contribu tion ; the British peerage and the Itahan stage pressed into the service ; the classic author of ' Ion ' in the van, the bridiant writer of ' Coningsby ' in the rear, — I shall not be expected, with my single lance, to tilt against so imposing an array.

I observe you have adduced only male favourites of Venus, supposing probably that mankind, from Adam downwards, has had but too much reason to acknowledge the influence of female charms, whether for good or for evil. Until some ingenious scholar, following a modern fashion, shad persuade the world that Helen and Cleo patra, Agnes Sorel and Lady Hamilton (to say nothing of Eve), had no existence but in the imagination of their fellow-countrymen, no man will surely be found bold enough to con trovert the received opinion on that score. Indeed, the very pains all moralists take to convince us that ' favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain,' shows that we are naturally prone to entertain a contrary idea of their value. But my question is still unanswered, as to what quality in a man most forcibly strikes your imagination.

Am I to understand, CLAUDE ; OR, from your eloquent apology, that beauty is your sine qua non f" " It is difficult," replied Ada, after a moment's consideration, " to define in one word the sort of person who is to make himself master of my obdurate heart. I have, of course, like most young maidens with any creative powers, a beau ideal of my own, of which I am likely to find no sac-simile upon earth ; but I shall not open my shrine to the rude gaze of an infidel. In reply to your question, I suppose I ought to say that sound principles, similarity of religion or politics with my father, or, with greater candour, a tolerable fortune and advantageous position in life, are the extent of my requirements, since these are the grounds on which many dutiful daughters and sensible young women daily marry or are given in marriage (two very distinct things, by the way).

But I shall leave the potential mood out of the question, and tell you not what I might, coidd, would, or should, but what I do think. " If you ask what single quality in a husband appears to me most likely to secure the happiness of wedded life, I answer, without hesitation, a good temper. If you wish to know what attribute in a suitor would most strongly prevail on me to make him my hus band, I will acknowledge (to you) that it is — distinction. Let him but be distinguished, for beauty, or talent, or valour, — as orator, or artist, or author — in short, let him but captivate my imagination, and my fortress surrenders at discretion. That faculty of my mind is the key to the whole position, and possession is not to be easily gained ; yet Avithout it, the citadel of the heart will never be reached.

Never shall I strike my flag to any invader, of whose superiority to myself, in some one in- CLAUDE ; OR, stance at least, I am not so thoroughly con vinced, as not only to yield to him without reluctance, but to feel pride in my very sub mission. " ' Like a bold steed, that owns his rider's arm, Proud to be soothed and check'd by that o'ermastering charm.' " " My dear child, it is never prudent to concentrate all your forces upon one point, and leave every other avenue unguarded. Think how easily you may be deceived by false colours. When you have opened your gates, and for ever deprived yourself of the power of resistance, you may discover beneath the banner, the chivalric cognizance of which induced you to capitulate, a herd of mean and mercenary fodowers, whose very aspect causes you to recoil in disgust.

In plain terms, you may unite yourself, under the delusion of fancy, with a person who has but one claim to your respect or admiration, and learn, from bitter experience, that it is quite possible to be ' Link'd with one virtue, and a thousand crimes.' Marriage, at the best of times, is a lottery, a game of chance: no length of study, no keenness of perception will reveal to a woman all she has to prepare for in a husband's character ; but to dispense with this investigation altogether, to accept one brilliant talent or engaging quality as a guarantee for the existence of the rest, this is to stake her whole fortune on a single cast of the dice, and in nine cases out of ten, to be beggared by the act." " I acknowledge the force of your reasoning, dear aunt ; and foresee some danger to myself from that quarter; but if it be imprudent to give the imagination too prominent a place in the great council of the mental powers, is it CLAUDE ; OR, not on the other hand impolitic to deny it a voice at all .

Supposing I were to accept one of your respectable personages, and were after wards to come in contact with one of my distinguished individuals, might not the ne glected faculty start into inopportune activity, and produce what the French call, 'a grave inconvenience . ' " " That is really so alarming a consideration, that I cannot take upon myself the responsibility of advising you thereon. In deed, an old maid's advice on such matters is generally thrown away, I suspect, upon young ladies who dream by day, as well as by night. But joking apart, Ada, there is some truth involved in your last remark. How much happiness, and alas! how much virtue, has made shipwreck upon that one little shoal, the omitting to secure in a partner for life, that congeniality of temperament, that accord of mind with mind, which we find indispensable in the chosen companion of a leisure hour!

After ad, my dear girl, I believe you are quite right, with your notions, not to hurry into an engagement, of which you might afterwards repent. Your time will come one day or other; or even if it should not, you scarcely need my testimony that the wedding ring is not the magic circle, beyond which all is desolate and dreary, while within it is fairy land." After thus concluding an armistice with aunt Harriet, Ada had to engage in a fresh contest with her mother. That good lady, a county belle in her own young days, whose amiable disposition was more remarkable than the cul tivation of her intellect, had no object more at heart, next to the ordering of her husband's table, than the establishment (as ladies cad it) ofher only daughter. It reflected some dis- CLAUDE ; OR, credit she thought, upon her maternal tact, that Ada should remain so long unmatched ; and though she would have experienced the liveliest grief at parting from her child, it would have been a source both of pleasure and pride to have seen her carried off from the school room to the altar, " snapped up as soon as she came out," as Mrs. Francillon herself expressed it.

She could not enter into all Ada's refinements on the subject, being of opinion that it was the business of parents to " look out a proper person" to receive a young lady's hand ; and (satisfactory settle ments having been secured,) the young lady's part graciously to bestow it. As to the in clinations of the latter at least, for she was disposed to allow the gentlemen some freedom of choice, she held that Hymen ought to take precedence of Cupid, an arrangement in which her daughter, better instructed perhaps in the etiquette of the Olympic court, could not be brought to agree. Many a flood of parental lamentation and remonstrance did Ada encounter, as each successive season brought its batch of weddings amongst their acquaintance, and she still per formed the role of bridesmaid. In vain she protested her perfect contentment with the secondary character ; she was not permitted to be happy in her own way ; she " would be sorry when it was too late."

" Well, but my dear mamma," argued she, "it does not lie entirely in my power. I have not had so many offers." " But you might have had plenty, my dear," replied Mrs. Francillon, "if you had given people a little more encouragement. Very few men will come forward, except they fancy themselves tolerably certain of a favourable reception." CLAUDE ; OR, "But one is not supposed to know a gentleman's sentiments, until he absolutely declares them ;" objected the younger lady. " Oh ! as to that, a woman can always see when a man is paying his attentions to her, and can always show him they are not disagreeable," returned the elder. "But supposing his addresses are matters of complete indifference to her, why should she put herself out of her way to invite them ." urged Miss Francillon. " If a man laid very fierce siege to me, I might fall in love with him just out of gratitude ; but the only person I have ever seen yet, whose advances I should have thought it worth while to meet, was that elegant young officer who married my cousin Eliza last sum mer !

That is always the way with me, ' I never lov'd a dear gazelle but it was sure to marry a market-gardener,' as Mr. Swiveller pathetically observes. " " I don't know anything about market-gar deners," replied the mother ; " but I am sure you have had a fair choice of admirers. There was Mr. Cockburn for instance, a sensible man of mature age and domestic habits, looked up to by all his acquaintance, and quite the gen tleman in his appearance and manners ; he was certainly thinking of you, but you treated him so coolly, that he, being a little shy and stiff, fell into the snares of a pretty doll of a girl, who took the trouble to play the amiable to him, and made her his wife." " I wish her joy of her bargain," answered Ada. " My dear mamma, if that is the best witness you can put into the box, you must have a very weak case.

Why, Mr. Cockburn was old enough to be my father, grave enough for the bench, sadly belied by his countenance CLAUDE ; OR, if his temper be not insufferable, and encum bered moreover with a couple of prim, old fashioned sisters, who would have hated me for depriving them of a comfortable home ; with out counting a tribe of grown-up nieces and nephews, all execrating my introduction into the family. A pretty prospect truly !" " Well then, my dear, there was young Mr. Cooper," said Mrs. Francdlon, returning to the charge. " You can have no such objections to make to his family, for I think you will agree with me that a pleasanter set of people than they are, father and mother, brothers and sisters, and all their connexions, never existed ; they are all attached to you, and would have welcomed you heartily amongst them."