Philip Vaughan's Marriage. A novel

Front matter

ME. NEWBY WILL SHORTLY PUBLISH In 2 Vols. FAVILLA'S FOLLIES. A Novel. In 3 Vols. DE. AEMSTEONG. A Novel. In 1 Vol. 10s. 6d. A PEEP AT BEITTANY, THE BRETONS AND BRETON LITERATURE. In 3 Vols. M A E E I E D. By the Author of " Wondrous Strange," " Kate Kennedy," " Common Sense," &c. "'Married' must be classed amongst the best of novels. The authoress writes to please as well as improve readers, and admirably she does both."— Messenger. A CHEAPER EDITION. In 1 Vol. Price 7s. 6d. THE SPAS OF GERMANY, SWITZEELAND, FRANCE, AND ITALY. A HAND-BOOK OF THE PRINCIPAL WATERING PLACES ON THE CONTINENT. By THOMAS MORE MADDEN, M.D., Author of " Change of Climate in Pursuit of Health," &c. "A work accnrnte and serviceable in all its important details. Tlie chapter on the art of travel is a small volume in itself."1 — ■ Morning Post.

" We cordially recommend this bool* not only to the medical pro fession, but to educated persons of every calling." — Medical Press. ' ' The great value of the book lies in the judicious directions given to invalids as to the use and abuse of the individual springs they are enjoined to visit.' — The Warder. " Dr. Madden's 'Guide to tbe Spas' will find equal acceptance with medical and non -professional readers, as it supplies what has hitherto been a serious want — namely, a complete manual on the subject of mineral waters." — Irish Times. PHILIP VAUGHAN'S MAREIAGE. A NOVEL. IN TWO VOLUMES. r.\ Mrs. FITZ MAURICE OKEDEN, Author of "Felicia's Dowry." " Bid your friends." As You Like It, Act V. VOL. II. gottktt : T. CAUTLEY NEWBY, PUBLISHER, 30, WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. 1869. [all rights reserved et the author.]

Book II

(Cimimmed.) NETTINE VOL. II. B PHILIP VAUGHAN'S MAEKIAGE.

CHAPTER XI. AFTER THE WEDDING.

Miss Datchet's good star, there is no doubt, controlled the visit of the dragoon to his friends, so far at least as its duration was concerned. As long as his return to Bath might have embarrassed her, it was retarded ; in the first moment she could unreservedly desire it, it was accorded to her. About a quarter past two o'clock on the day succeeding that of Nettine 's wedding, Caroline, look- 's ing up from a glove she was mending near the drawing-room window, at the approaching footfall of a horse, beheld the gallant officer, completely accoutred for conquest if not for war, in the act of riding past the gate. There was not a second for preparation or for doubt. His face was turned full to the window ; and his smile, his auburn whisker, his yellow glove, his shining boot, the satin coat of his bright bay mare, the whole faultless get up, in short, of both animal and man flashed upon her like the sun.

He lifted his hat, too, and in doing so, and in slowly replacing it, left his eyes, so to speak, in her heart. She flew to her room. As to oversetting the water jug, the contents of which, being un attended to, might very probably descend through the ceiling ofthe apartment below, — that was Marianne's or Mrs. Arnold's affair. You will believe without difficulty that her toilette was not a protracted one. It might be hoped, indeed, that eyes so bright and a tint so carmine might compensate even in the gaze of an inflexible taste, for ill-tied bonnet strings. As it was, Rolleston had parted from his steed and reached the place of rendezvous before her. Their meeting was radiant, demonstrative; yet — ah ! must there always be a draw back? ■ — his first speech, the last sentence of his first speech, jarred upon her.

" How more than well you look ! But no wonder ! I find all the world talking of the marriage. How famously you managed it !'' Caroline supposed — she said — it was a good deal talked about. " Rayther. You knew nothing of it, I suppose, when I went away ?'' " Oh no ! nothing.'' " I hope you would have asked me if I had been here. I almost think I ought to have had an invitation sent to me. What a sensi ble young lady your cousin must be !" " Ye— es." " Why, they say old Templar has five or six thousand a year, and she will be in all the society. We shall be waltzing together, Carry — you and I, I mean ; that is if you in tend to patronise me. I shall expect such beautiful bows from you when I take off my hat in passing Mrs. Templar's carriage. And in the meantime, now that we have reached the discreet cover of these bushes, I mean to have exactly as many kisses as I have been weeks absent."

It is not in my power to say whether he carried out his intentions ; but I think it pro bable he did. Here we quit the pair. How ever acceptable to Miss Datchet an exact re petition of a former walk, it might not be equally so to the reader. Of this walk, then, I will only say further that Caro line returned from it at a rather later hour than usual, and with an aspect so radiant that Mrs. Arnold, whose reserve on the matter recent events in the family had a little broken down, observed that she " supposed Captain Rolleston had come back." "Be has, mamma." "And what has he got to say for him self?" " For himself ?" " What does he think of Nettine's marriage?" "Oh! he is delighted." " You keep your mouth shut very close, Caroline. Has he said nothing on his own account?" " Not anything — exactly."

" ' Not anything — exactly,' is nothing.' " Not quite, mamma !" and Caroline turned a crimson face to the window. " I wouldn't let it go on much longer for all that,'' said Mrs. Arnold. " I am getting not to like it, I can tell you. There's been time for him to make up his mind. If he has anything to say, let him say it ; and if not—" " Mamma, it will be all right." " You are not a simpleton, — you ought to know. But it has gone on long enough. Now mind what I say, — it has gone on long enough. Y ou know what they are beginning to hint about Anastasia, — that Sir Walter Wing has never had such a thought in his head." " Mamma, it will be all right I" Caroline repeated ; in a low voice, however, and with eyes averted from her mother, who, but half satisfied, took up her sewing. The dear lady was not at her best.

The afternoon of the previous day having brought her no visitors, she had sallied forth on this one designedly to air her new consequence, and receive the congratulations of her friends. These had disappointed her; they had not been very liberally or cordially tendered. A reserve and a different sort of surprise from that she had expected, had characterised them. Her grander acquaintances had bowed to her, she thought, coldly ; and she had been distinctly cut by no less a personage than the Lady Anne Wing. If, upon self-examination, she was constrained to endorse the verdict of disapproval which she was a person to feel rniup yauuhan's marriage. '.) deeply, we have the more need to pity her. Auy way, she hail begun to see (begun even at the moment in which Caroline was perform ing lin.i'jinHi-y waltzes with the dragoon officer; thtft the social position of her daugh ter .md herself would be little improved by the marriage that had taken place in the family : nay, that they might be credited willi clever aorl successful manoeuvring, and the Rollestons of the gay world set on their guard against a house hitherto unconsidered in such u. world, or considered there only with respect.

Yfii will conceive that an early letter from the bride would be looked for in Upper Cam den Place, and that the non-arrival of sucli a latter would be productive of further disappointment and uneasiness. The fourth day after the wedding was drawing to a close, Caroline had not again seen Rolleston, and the spirits of neither mother nor daughter were high. The Professor's pianoforte was silent, for he had an evening engagement; B and in the midst of the roll of carriages and wheel chairs that indicated a party in the fashionable crescent so little remote, the postman's evening knock commenced to be heard. " How about foreign letters, mamma ?" Miss Datchet asked, rising up from a recum bent attitude on the same crimson moreen sofa we have already more than once mentioned. "They may, perhaps, come in the evening."

" I don't know, I am sure." Very likely they did come in the evening ; but the postman went past Mr. Arnold's gate, and the younger lady returned to her former position, and the elder one inflexibly plied her needle and thread in silence. At the same time a woman who had been scanning the numbers over the doors of the houses in Cam den Crescent paused to consider the appearance of that one at which a party was beginning to assemble. The open door revealed a hall and staircase brilliantly lighted. Light streamed from the basement, from the drawing room windows, and from those on the second floor, — those of the probable dining-room being the only ones that shutters made dark ; and carriages were always arriving, so that the whole crescent resounded with the double knocks. The woman I have mentioned was unnoticed in such a scene, and when, having, as I have said, for a little while considered the house, she asked a man from whose chair a lady had just entered the hall, and who, with a quick, skilful turn peculiar, I think, to a Bath chairman, had withdrawn his vehicle from the doorway and constrained it to attach itself to the rails of a neighbouring area — when she asked the man if " Mrs. Arnold lived there ?" he replied without even regarding his questioner — " Mrs. Lowther's." " Is this Upper Camden Place ?"

" Straight on 1" he said, and stretched forth his hand in the direction she was to follow. A black silk gown and a well-to-do shawl were apparent to the glance he bestowed on her receding figure ; and in addition to these she wore a genteel straw bonnet and a thick lace veil, and hesitated a moment when she found herself quitting the wide, lighted cres cent for a dark interval and a narrow pave ment, with houses of inferior pretension beyond. The hesitation, however, was but momentary, and she went on, regarding the number on each gate she passed, till she reached that of Mr. Arnold, and made a longer pause. A lamp nearly opposite must have enabled her to read the name and inscription on the brass plate, and in fact, she seemed to do so attentively. Nevertheless, she walked on a little further, in a thoughtful sort of way ; presently turning, and, still thoughtfully, re tracing her steps to the gate.

Here she again stopped, and after three or four moments ex tended her hand to the bell handle. She did not ring it, however, but, by another impulse, tried the gate itself, which readily yielded to her touch ; and, opening and closing it without noise, she ascended to the door of the house. All here was dark. She knocked, and a not very clean woman-servant presently responded to the summons. " Does Mr. Arnold live here ?" the visitor asked. " Yes, ma'am." " Is be within ?" " No, he ain't." "Is Mrs. Arnold? "Missis is." " Can I see her ?" "I'll ask. What's your name?" " My name is not of consequence, — I am not known to Mrs. Arnold. Be so good as to say I have lately seen Mr. and Mrs. Templar." At this, the parlour door, which had been a little ajar, was opened from within, and the mistress of the house, with such a smile and curtsey as might have served to receive Miss Mackenzie Browne herself, came forward. uPray walk in !" she said, but, nevertheless, her smile and manner became something modified as her eye took in rapidly the details of an appearance that did not quite correspond, she found, with the purity of the voice and accent in which she had been inquired for.

She ushered in the visitor, however, and whilst the latter and Caroline, who had risen with eager expectation from the sofa, exchanged salutations, she closed the door. " You have seen Mrs. Templar ?" " I have. I speak to the mother and " — turning towards Caroline — " the sister of Mrs. Templar ?" "No. Mrs. Templar is Mr. Arnold's niece." " I am the person who was engaged by Mrs. Montmorency to accompany Mrs. Templar to Paris." "Oh!" Mrs. Arnold said; and her hand fell away from the chair she had twice made a sort of movement to offer — " The maid !" " The maid." "There is nothing the matter?" asked Caroline eagerly. " Nettine — Mrs. Templar —is well ?" " As far as I know, Mrs. Templar is well." " Sit down, pray !" and Miss Datchet stepped forward and distinctly placed a chair for the stranger.

Then she returned to the sofa, and Mrs. Arnold, too, felt herself con strained to be seated. " Now,'' said Caroline, " please tell us about her." " May I first ask," inquired the woman, looking from mother to daughter, " if Mrs. Templar has been brought up in this house?" It was the turn of mother and daughter to regard each other. " No !" the former replied. " Not brought up." " I should have done more properly in asking if she was long under your care ?" " Not very long !" Mrs. Arnold again an swered, and this time with increased reserve, and even a displeased and resentful expression of eye. " I am sorry to say I had not the good fortune to suit Mrs. Templar." " Oh !— indeed !" In the little silence succeeding this marked ejaculation, the visitor raised her lace veil, — partially raised it, so that only the scalloped edge continued to fall over her bonnet, and shade, if it did not soften, the contour of her face.

It was a large, thick-complexioned face, the features of which might have been con sidered handsome by a certain taste, but were without delicacy, while the eyes and heavy eyebrows of almost the Jewish type were found by the blonde young lady to whom they became revealed, more remarkable than engaging. " I met Mr, and Mrs. Templar at Padding ton, as Mrs. Montmorency had arranged, and accompanied them, that is to say, their luggage, to their hotel. Mrs. Templar expressed no disappointment or disapproval. I assisted her in such alteration of her dress for dinner as she would permit, and made a new arrangement of her hair with which she appeared pleased." " You must have been," said Mrs. Arnold, probably because she thought it requisite to say something, " quite surprised at it — her hair, I mean."

" Unexampled hair, certainly. After dinner I again waited on her, having heard her withdraw to her room- She then told me she should require no further attendance that evening, nor at night : she was unaccustomed to assistance at the hour of retirement. I made, therefore, when tea and coffee were being served in the salon to Mr. Templar and herself, such arrangements as a lady would usually require, and forbore any further intru sion. Nevertheless, it was not till sometime after both had retired for the night that I, too, went to rest. " At eight o'clock on the following morning I knocked lightly at the door of the sleeping chamber, and the answer returned me in the voice of Mr. Templar was, ' Who is there ?' M Almost at the same instant, however, the adjoining dressing-room was opened, and Mrs. Templar, wearing all but the bonnet and Cashmere of the travelling toilette in which I had first seen her, appeared at it.

Her face seemed to me of a more extraordinary paleness than on the previous day, and her eyes turned themselves on me with an anger, aver sion, and contempt, beyond which I received no notice. Her look and the manner in which she passed through the doorway made me at tribute to her an uncontrollable temper. It was necessary, however, forme to justify my self, and for this purpose I followed her as she swiftly traversed the gallery, and entered behind her a room in which breakfast was already laid, and which she crossed in a similar manner, taking up her position at a window at the further end that looked on the street. I know not that she was, in the first, aware of my presence. It seemed not. She stood for some moments — even minutes — with her back to me, looking out ; and when, at length, she turned and addressed me, her eyes dilated, and gleamed in a manner that suggested the idea of insanity.

" ' What,' she said, 'do you stand there for? Go out of the room — go out of the house ! I require no maid ; I will not have one ! Do you hear ? I don't want you. I dismiss you. What is to be paid you ?' And in an excited way she took out a purse and emptied some gold into her hand. " I declined to receive it, and with a little irritation, which my suspicions as to the state of her mind should have checked (but her look and manner were indescribably offensive), I informed her that I must appeal to Mr. Templar. At the same moment, probably fearing an outbreak, and without much pre paration at the hands of his valet, Mr. Tem plar entered the room. " ' Pay her !' said his lady, without an in troductory word. ' She refuses to be paid by me, and I have dismissed her. I do not want a maid.' '" My dear Mrs. Templar—' the old gentle man began — " ' Pay her !' his wife reiterated. ' I tell you I will not have a maid ! ' " ' My dear madam ! — I must beg to be heard.

Mrs. Templar cannot travel without one. " ' Then — I will have a stranger. I will not have that woman ! — I will have a stranger ! ' " ' My dear Mrs. Templar, she is a stranger.' " ' No !' Mrs. Templar exclaimed, her face all in a sudden flame, as you ladies may no doubt have seen it, with the contradiction * 1 saw her yesterday ! ' And she swept across the room, cast herself on a sofa, and burst into a passion of tears.' ' A sort of smile that now appeared on the woman's unpleasant face altered a little, with out much improving, its character. "Mr. Templar's morning toilette," she continued, " was, I have said, incomplete. He was distressed, disconcerted, prevented only perhaps by the novelty of his circumstances from expressing mortification and anger. His long dressing-gown trailed behind him on the floor, and more than once while taking short turns in front of the couch on which his lady was indulging so extraordinary a paroxysm, and while always repeating with a wave of the hand towards myself — ' This will subside ! — This will subside ! ' his legs would become entangled in the folds, and he presented an appearance whic h it is difficult to recall and preserve one's gravity."

Her auditors had at least no difficulty in preserving theirs. Mother and daughter regarded each other, and then returned their eyes to the face of the raconteuse. " Probably,'' the latter continued, " relieved of a part of the excitement by the tears she had shed, Mrs. Templar began to grow aware of the ridicule attaching to so extraordinary a scene ; for suddenly she started from the sofa, nearly overturning her husband by the violence of her movement, and escaped from the room. Mr Templar then seated himself, wiped with a handkerchief the moisture of agitation from his face, and took out his purse." " Of course," Mrs. Arnold said, " he paid you your month ? " " Three months, — such had been the arrangement; and he in a manner apologised for the behaviour of his wife . She had not been accustomed to attendance, he informed me ; and, naturally, I could not understand it at the time."

"And what, then," questioned Mrs.Arnold, not too ceremoniously, " has brought you to Bath?" " If you permit me I will explain. At the time I unfortunately agreed with Mrs. Mont morency I declined a situation at Clifton to which I had been highly recommended; and, since my services have been rejected in the one quarter, it behoves me to ascertain if the other remains open to me. I have some rea son to hope that my personal application may still obtain the engagement, and am on my PHILIP VAOGTTANS MARRIAOE. way, tlievetbie, to Clifton. My object in re mainlug a night at Bath was to see the rela tives of Mrs. Templar and request their good word." 11 I am afraid," Mrs. Arnold replied, M we can be of little use " 11 No, I perceive. You will not think me uncivil or unreasonable if I say that I had presumed the family of Mrs. Templar to occupy a different position."

"You were furnished, however," said Mrs. Arnold, " with our address." "By accident. The old envelope of a letter that had probably fallen through inadvertence into one of the trunks gave me the informa tion 1 have made use of." The envelope presented to Mrs. Arnold for her inspection had probably fallen into the woman's hands in the manner alleged. Too much discomposed to know quite what she was doing, Mrs. Arnold continued to regard it. " Will the person," Caroline asked, u take any refreshment, mamma ? " " Nothing whatever, I am greatly obliged to you !" replied 'the person,' who had al ready risen. " It is getting late, and I may find it possible to go on to Bristol to-night. I wish you a good evening." " If, " Miss Datchet civilly said, in accom panying the visitor to the door, "you should not obtain the situation you hope for, it is just possible that Mr. Arnold may be able, — lie has a large acquaintance, and is sometimes inquired of in matters of the kind."

" I thank you," the woman returned. "At any rate, if I should pass through Bath again I will call to acquaint you with my success or otherwise. I thank you very much. Good evening." " She has not," said Mrs. Arnold, averting her eyes from her daughter when the latter returned to the room, " done so badly, since she got a quarter's wages." And Caroline replied "No.'' But both knew this was not what they were thinking of.

CHAPTER XII.

A BRIDE. Mr. Templar had not designed that his wedding visit to Paris should be of very long duration. It presently became apparent to those interested for, or anxious in regard to, the return of himself and his bride, that the furnishing of the house he had taken in the Royal Crescent — I am not sure by the way, he had not bought it — was being carried on with extraordinary vigour; and, in fact, the honeymoon had scarcely expired, and the VOL. ii. c Bath "season" was at its full, when the beautiful face of Nettine was seen to look from the windows. Society had in the interval made up its mind as to the course to be pursued. The young singing wife of the rich old fanatico was to be petted and feted. Mr. Arnold — a creature, Society said, all simplicity, and who had probably been as ignorant of the audacious scheming going on within his doors as Society itself — Society would recei ve with the same respect as heretofore ; neither more, it pro tested, or less.

On the devoted heads, how ever, of the wife and step-daughter of the Professor, affronted Society would pour out its wrath. It would not ask Mrs. Arnold and Caroline even where they had been acccus tomed to be asked. It would not see them even where they had been accustomed to be seen. It would not have them in any way at any price. It is true this young singing wife, being rich and beautiful, might perhaps have a will of her own in regard to the reception by her friends ofthe persons under whose roof she had resided, who were so nearly connected with herself, who had shown her some kindness, and from whose door she had passed into a lady of fashion and consequence. She might, we say, have intentions of her own in such a matter. We will see ; and the sooner the better, lest we attribute to the influence of So ciety a conduct for which it was in no way responsible.

" My dear Mrs. Tempi ar," said her husband when, after some promenading and peering about his spacious drawing room, he had ascer tained that Nettine in her silk dinner dress and jewels occupied a corner of one of the costly lounges the newly furnished apartment contained. " My dear Mrs. Templar, can you at all understand how it is possible that your letters have never been received in Upper Camden Place ? " " I could not," Mrs. Templar replied, "have at all understood it if they had." " How ! " c " It is quite simple. I have not written any. " You have not written any? " " I have not written any." " What do you mean ? " " That I have not written any." "Not to your uncle!— Not to his good wife ! — Not to your cousin ! ! " To none of them." " Good God ! And my compliments ! — my civilities to persons I respect " V The result of Nettine's Parisian visit was a faint shrug of her white shoulders.

"They remain to be offered by you in person. " On my soul, Madam ! — But this is inconceivable — incomprehensible! — it even appears to me " " That dinner is served," said Mrs.Templar ; and rising from her sofa as the door was thrown open, and gently taking the old gen tleman by the arm, she walked him down stairs and to the head of the table, at which she seated herself for the first time in the manner of a person unconscious of the faint est novelty in the position. The subject, however, was not at an end; Mr. Templar waited only the withdrawal of the servants to return to the charge. " You tell me," he said, and in taking this tone his curled toupee had always the appear ance of elevating itself a little, " you tell me that you have not written to your uncle, or to his wife, or to his wife's daughter, since your marriage?

" " I have not," replied Mrs. Templar, " written since my marriage to any one of the three." " Allow me to say, Madam," observed her lord, and spilled half the wine he intended to pour into his glass upon the table-cloth, " your conduct is in bad taste. What earthly motive you can have had for the omission I inquire not— I care not ! No motive can jus tify it, or excuse it. I am compromised ! It is an omission, madam, in bad taste ! — in bad taste, by Heaven ! " I have seen an animal — I have seen a ma niac — when about to become dangerous, look as Mrs. Templar looked while her husband spoke. There came a glitter into the eye which she fixed steadily upon him. " Once for all," she said — this child, this chit of a Nettine who but the other day was practising her notes and running round the garden in Upper Camden Place, " once for all, understand that I have begun as I mean to go on ; — that I will not write to my uncle, or my uncle's wife, or my uncle's wife's daughter; that I will not go to their house ; that I will receive him in mine ; but that I will not receive them, either now or ever !"

" By my soul, Madam ! by my soul !" the old Benedict exclaimed, and started up from the table, aad began walking to and fro, turning each time so sharply that one had no difficulty in comprehending how easily he would have entangled his legs in a long, flowing dressing gown. "This is a little too extraordinary ! — you improve, you progress — allow me to remind you — in fact, you have not now to practice for the stage. By my soul !" Nettine followed him with her angry eyes in which, however, the anger soon began to fade, and to be replaced by amusement, — a somewhat bitter, mocking sort of amusement, it is true, but which gradually became more genuine merriment, and culminated in a ringing fit of laughter. " By my soul ; by my soul !" Mr. Templar always exclaimed ; and then, " By my God !" but Nettine laughed more and more.