The Bateman Household. Reprinted from 'Chambers' Journal.'

Chapter I. Tt The Beck

It is in August, and in Westmoreland, that our story opens ; and has, therefore, for Time and Place of its commencement the most charming month of the year, and the fairest county of England. The Scene is a tangled wilderness of underwood, which strives to climb a low green mountain, or ' How,' and fails before it has reached some quarter of the ascent, or so. A murmurous, sweet complaint pervades this wood, partly from its dreamy foliage, basking in the sunlight, and stirred by the summer breeze, and partly from a hundred unseen streams, which, robbed of their silvery wealth by the drought, cannot make way so swiftly as of yore down to the lake below. The largest of these 'becks,' running through a ravine between high well-foliaged banks, is very broad and deep in the rain-time ; but the huge stones that form its bed are now bare in places, and active B , legs may leap from one to another without more than wetting shoe-leather.

A pair of such are now coming up the stream, belonging to a youth of sixteen or seventeen, of so resolute and even pugnacious an appearance, that we should hardly like to provoke him by calling him Boy. He is a young gentleman not far from six feet in height ; dark featured, with such eyes as take fire easily, and with a bronzed complexion, healthy as the Morn as yet, although he is already trying it by the pernicious habit of smoking. He has a handsome meerschaum in his mouth, from which issues a perfume far from divine, but which he prefers, or affects to prefer, to the natural incense which, from a thousand flowery altars, salutes him on every side. It is easy to perceive, therefore, from the first, that this young Robert Marsden is our bad character. He is, however, at all events, not deficient in courage.

Although he cannot swim, there is no pool however deep — and some of them are far enough out of his depth — which can turn him ; but when he comes to a place more dangerous than common, he only takes a longer time about his spring, and alights upon the stone of safety with a more determined foot. Presently, however, the stream takes a rectangular sweep through a very deep chasm indeed, and where there is only one huge boulder in the middle, with a slippery foothold at the base, and a conical top beyond it. By the look he casts upon the banks on either side, he is evidently meditating the more prudent plan of climbing one of them, and re entering the beck above the point of danger; but they are very high in that spot, and he is too lazy just now to use his hands, one of which is, besides, almost constantly engaged upon the meerschaum, which is long and ill adapted for violent exertion ; so he settles his cap firmly upon his head, takes a long pull at the execrable tobacco, perhaps of West moreland growth, in order to keep it alight; sets his eye steadily upon the wet blue stone that rises above the smiling foam before him ; and, once, twice, thrice — he has taken his leap as resolutely as he who rode into the gulf at Rome.

He reaches his aim with his toes only ; from the treacherous surface glides the too well-nailed sole, and only by throwing himself upon his knees and clutching the pinnacle, does he save himself from a very serious ducking — and alas, at what an expense ? The treasured meerschaum, deprived of its guardian hand, escapes from his teeth in the struggle, and — foam of the sea though it is said to be — sinks into the boiling flood for ever. It is not for us to chronicle the soliloquy which the young man indulged in after this occur rence ; enough to say, that besides the vice of smoking, he had another evil habit of indulging in bad language ; in favour of which wickednesses, the only thing that is to be said is this, that one cannot well indulge in both at the same time. Mr. Robert Marsden stood in the centre of that beautiful stream, and surrounded by the most exquisite scenery, without their charms having, for several minutes, any softening influence upon his mind ; nor, even after expressing the ' cursory remarks ' we have alluded to, did he recover his b2 former equanimity ; for the rest of the way he was less careful than ever about what places he leaped at, and wetted his feet, and even his legs, with the most savage recklessness.

However, he had a cigar case in his pocket still, and he looked forward to a certain rock, which now became visible further up, as to a Mount Ararat whereon he might repose himself, and enjoy the deleterious weed, after his long pilgrimage over the waters. This rock with its surroundings would have satisfied the soul of Creswick for days ; covered with heather and lichen, it lifted its lofty top far above the stream, whose tumbling falls and circling eddies it could mark down to the rectangular turn where the young man had met with his misfortune. Above this rock, the beck grew almost impregnable ; a tremendous pool, with only a narrow shelving ledge around one side of it, divided it from the remainder of the stream, which soon afterwards got quit of the trees, and in time — supposing it to be going backwards — reached its mountain mother, and dark-grassed Tarn.

From the rock's summit, through openings of the trees, were visible the silver sheen of the Lake, and the gray peaks of an amphitheatre of distant hills, while the blue expanse of heaven, flecked with white, over canopied all. Embosomed in the heather, and commanding all this scene, without being himself observed, lay a second young gentleman ; he had a book in his hand, but instead of reading it, lay watching the approach of our agile friend, with a countenance unsmiling indeed, but by no means harsh or repulsive. He had not seen him lose his pipe or heard his violent soliloquies — the roar of the beck being sufficient to drown all the bad language that our troops ever used in Flanders — but he seemed to feel that the new comer would not be an agreeable companion, and to wish to avoid him.

He once even half rose up, as if to escape into the wood, by a sort of natural cause way that joined the rock and bank, but muttering to himself: 'Pooh, pooh; I came here first; tis for me to stay,' he settled himself in his comfortable hollow again, and awaited the other. "Whatever were his apprehensions, Charles Ryder had little to fear from the result of a personal contest ; although not so tall as Marsden, he was at least as old as his fellow-pupil — for such was their mutual relation — and far more powerfully made ; and his blue eyes, though tender, were determined, and ready enough to reflect the fire which they might themselves be slow to originate. Robert Marsden's face grew a shade darker than common, when he saw his favourite loungingplace thus pre-occupied. Ryder looked up once from his volume with quiet undefiant eyes, and perceiving the other occupied in that intense admiration of nature peculiar to persons who are desirous of cutting their acquaintances, let them fall again upon its pages.

It was evident that these young men were on the worst terms with one another ; if they had been total strangers meeting upon the same lonely rock, half a mile deep in coppice, they could scarcely have done otherwise than speak to each other ; whereas they were in fact dwellers in the same house, pupils of the same private tutor, nay more — and which somewhat ex plains their antagonism — they were lovers of the same very pretty young woman. There was plenty of room upon this rock for both of them. Robert Marsden might have found for himself several other heathery resting-places where he could have sat unseen to windward of his hated rival, and almost poisoned him with bad tobacco smoke ; but he chose to clamber down instead to the very brink of the upper pool. Unless he retraced his steps down the beck, which he was too proud to do, he would have had to step over Ryder's legs to get to the bank, and therefore he made up his haughty mind to go right on ; to coast round this deep and dangerous spot, upon the shelving slippery ledge, rather than to let the enemy believe his plans were changed by this previous occupation of the territory.

Just opposite to where he stood, and at the distance of some thirty feet, there leaped a lofty waterfall, churning the dark face of the pool into substantial foam, which eddied away to the sides and stuck there, or was carried out of sight by some Tartarean channel under the rock. The roar of this ' force ' was deafening, and far from calculated to preserve that steadiness of hand, and foot, and eye, so essential to the passage in prospect ; the penalty for failure in which, to one who, like Marsden, could not swim, would be nothing less than death. Reckless though he was at that moment, therefore, the young man hesitated ; as he did so, a shadow fell across him and into the pool, whereby he knew that Ryder had risen to his feet, and was watching him from behind, with most probably a sneer upon his lip.

The next instant Marsden was upon the ledge, like a fly against a wall, and would have given one of his fingers — which, however, he could little spare just then, since they were all being employed, talon-wise, in clinging to the perpendicular wet bank — to have found himself safe upon the rock. Ryder, who had divined how matters stood, and* only risen with the good-natured intention of departing, and relieving the other from his embarrassment, as soon as he perceived what had been done, and that for the young man to return was really impossible, threw off his coat and boots. ' If you can't get round, Marsden,' cried he in a voice above the roar of the waters, ' throw yourself off right under the fall ; there are hidden rocks everywhere else.' The face of the imperilled young man grew sterner than even his danger had made it, and his lips closed together still more firmly ; he was either one who did not easily believe in the generosity of a foe, or supposed that Ryder, underrating his hazard, was laughing at him.

By efforts that could not have been put forth by one less active, Marsden managed to traverse some three-quarters of the semi circle with scarcely any assistance from his feet at all ; there, however, the ledge grew even narrower than before, and his strength was evidently ebbing fast. Again, with trumpet-voice, Ryder repeated his advice, with this addition : ' I shall be with you instantly, be sure, but do not cling to me if you can possibly help it ! ' This time, the other was fairly touched by his noble kindness. ' Thank you, Ryder ; God bless you ; but you would be killed yourself; I see a sharp stone beneath the water in front of you.' ' All right, Robert,' answered the other gaily ; 'leave go while you have strength, if you feel you cannot hold on there.' Marsden was speechless, and growing white as the foam, when, ' Now then," vociferated Ryder ; ' once, twice, thrice.' A couple of splashes echoed round the pool at the same instant.

Ryder rose to the surface badly bruised in the shoulder, but not incapacitated from swimming, and was horror-struck to see no trace of his unfor tunate companion. Having slipped into the water, feet foremost, he could not very well have come to harm against a stone, and there were no weeds to hamper his legs. A blue cap was whirling among the eddies at the mouth of the Tartarean channel. He must therefore have been carried down into that unknown abyss beneath the rock. "Without the slightest hesitation, Ryder backed himself into this dangerous spot, keeping his head up-stream ; he was a splendid swimmer, or could never have main tained himself stationary in such a current and yet struck out his legs with the due caution : he knew well that if he should kick Robert Marsden in the face, that that companion of his early days would be a dead man.

All this, which takes so long to write, was not a minute in action ; at the second stroke, his leg was clutched by drowning fingers, and hampered as he was, he brought out the almost inanimate body of his friend into the light, as a prize is towed into harbour hj its triumphant but hardly less crippled victor. Then he turned round, and seized the rescued youth by the hair, who there upon, with rare and heroic self-possession, let go his own hold. "With a few steady strokes, Charles Ryder reached the other side of the so nearly fatal pool, and dragged his man to land.

Chapter II. The Promise

We do not know any person so endowed by.nature with an aristocratic appearance that he can preserve it when dripping wet. No tailor can make garments to stand it; no hatter, hats; that ' pish-pash-posh ' which one's boots give forth with every step, under those circumstances, is certainly a most inelegant sound ; their limp unpolished appearance is as pitiable as, on the other hand, the gloss which water temporarily imparts to coats of broadcloth is unreal and pretentious. The two friends — for had not one saved the other's life ? — were by no means the same brilliant specimens of Youth which they had appeared ten minutes before, as they now plashed homeward down a winding path that led through the coppice almost at right angles from the beck. ' Well,' exclaimed Marsden, with one of those bursts of eloquent gratitude peculiar to the young gentlemen of Britain, ' I '11 be hanged if you are not a regular brick.' ' Pooh, pooh,' replied Ryder modestly, who knew exactly what was meant, and was far from criticising the extreme inaccuracy of the metaphorical allusion ; • there was no danger to me you know ; I can swim like anything, I can ; ' and then by way of precluding further thanks, he began to whistle.

THE PROMISE. 11 ' But I want to say a few words to you, I do indeed,' insisted the other; and he laid his hand upon Ryder's shoulder, as though to stop him. The young man shook it off with an expression of pain. ' Well, if I ever make an advance to be friends again with such a sulky fellow,' cried Marsden, mis taking the gesture, and roused by it to quite a paroxysm of passion, ' I 'd rather be drowned ten times over first. 1 11 see you' ' No, you won't,' interposed Ryder quietly. ' My shoulder is rather hurt, Robert, and that is why I shook you off ; you told me of the stone yourself, so it was through my own stupidity that I came against it.' ' What an abominable wretch I am ! ' exclaimed the penitent Marsden, whose good impulses were at least as violent as his bad ones. ' I do believe my temper will be the death of me.

I shall be choked with passion some day, and only just live long enough to hear that there was nothing to be angry about after all. Why, your shoulder's as big as your thigh ; it 's bigger : you must surely have put out your arm ! Here let me carry you.' ' I have not indeed,' replied Ryder, smiling, ' for I swam with it since ; and as for your carrying me, my dear fellow, that is the business which my legs are set to do. I may be a beast, as you sometimes affirm, but I don't go on all-fours.' ' You look precious faint, though, old fellow,' insisted the other; 'do just take a pull at this.' As he spoke, he produced a pocket-flask half filled with brandy ; and his friend, who was in great pain, was persuaded to put his lips to it, although, as it seemed, rather to please Marsden than for any other reason. ' Is there nothing I can do for you, Ryder?' inquired the young man earnestly: you have no idea how I feel your conduct to-day.' ' I should like to ask one favour of you,' said the other, hesitating ; ' but I daresay I shall offend you in so doing, although I am sure I am right in the matter.' A burning flush overspread Robert Marsden's features, and he turned his face aside to break off a branch from a young tree, as he inquired laughingly : ' Well, Charley, what is it ? ' ' It 's nothing selfish — it 's nothing to benefit me,' said Ryder carelessly, while his companion left the branch half broken to look up at him with undisguised wonder and satisfaction ; ' it is only to entreat you, as a friend, not to take up with that fellow Luders so much ; you know he is a black guard, and can never be made anything else of, whatever the governor may say.

That 's his brandy I 've just swallowed, I know' ' Ungrateful wretch ! ' ejaculated Marsden. 'And that meerschaum of yours, which he sold you at about twice its original price, I '11 answer for it — a filthy imitation' ' Stop ! ' cried the other, interrupting him with mock solemnity — ' stop ; and speak, I charge you, tenderly of the departed : that meerschaum lies at the bottom of Teesdale Beck, drowned and lost for ever.' THE PROMISE. 13 ' It would be no great pity if Bartholomew Luders lay there also,' answered Ryder, angrily. ' Nobody but the governor would have the charity to keep such a wretch in the house with honest women in it, and, and ' 'And virtuous lads,' suggested Marsden. 'Very good, go on : I like to hear these sentiments.' ' You have not told me, however, whether you will grant me this favour, Robert," continued the other seriously ; ' we are just clearing the wood, and I see the very man we speak of in the field beyond.' ' Grant it you !

I '11 grant you anything, pre server of my life, and would-be guardian of my morals,' returned Marsden, in a tone half-bantering, half-serious. ' Welcome the root and the spring ; begone the noxious weed and the ensnaring alcohol. I embrace Ryder and virtue ; avaunt Bartholomew Luders and company. And, by the bye, who is the company with Luders ? I thought I saw the flutter of a petticoat by the rascal's side just now ! ' ' Yes, and I saw the pattern,' observed Ryder gloomily ; ' it was red with yellow bars ; that belongs to Phœbe, the miller's daughter.' ' Well," laughed Marsden, ' for so admirably prin cipled a young gentleman, you seem to possess a tolerably accurate acquaintance with female gar ments. How the deuce did you come to know that Phœbe Rosthwaite wore a red and yellow petticoat ? ' ' I was in the draper's shop at Kendal with Miss Ellen the day I drove her over in the pony carriage, and saw Phœbe choose it ; her taste made us both laugh.' ' Oh,' replied Marsden, coldly, ' that explains it.

Now, behold this innocent man of whom we speak, and confess yourself a calumniator. He looks like the central figure in any one of those pastoral sketches upon the governor's best china tea-service. Why has he not got a hook or a crook in his hand ? He always gets everything he wants by their help, don't he ? ' Mr. Bartholomew Luders, the unconscious subject of these remarks, was tying upon the green slope of the field that skirted the wood, with a small sketch book in his hand, to which he was, with much dexterity, transferring the scene before him. He was in reality rather older than either of the pair who now approached him, but he had the appearance of being their senior by half-a-dozen years. Dark and swarthy as a West Indian — which indeed he was — there was scarce a trace of life -colour in his cheeks ; his shoulders had a slight stoop in them, begotten of a habit of continuous down-looking; and his cold eyes, which never glowed with any sentiment, had a faculty of congealing, of becoming almost like stone in their intensity of expression, when he was angered.

So engrossed did he appear to be in his present occupation, that he never turned his head until Marsden leaned over his sketch-book, and mockingly addressed him with : ' Well, Corydon, and where are your sheep ? ' ' I have only two just now,' returned Luders, looking up with a grim smile : ' and they are both melancholy objects. They have the appearance of having been very recently dipped. Why, where THE PROMISE. 15 have you two been bathing with your clothes on?' ' We thought we saw one ewe-lamb in your neigh bourhood, too,' observed Marsden drily. Luder's impressive eyes scanned searching!)' both countenances of his companions before he answered: ' Yes, Phœbe Rosthwaite stopped here a moment, as she went by, to tell me — and I was particularly to tell you, Marsden — that she hopes to be queen of the rushbearing at Greendale.' ' Is this her short cut to the mill, then ? ' inquired Ryder, sardonically. ' One would as soon think of going to Grasmere over Kirkstone Pass.' ' You '11 go to the feast, of course ? ' said Luders, without reply, and directing his inquiry to Marsden only ; ' it 11 be great fun, and we 11 take a gig together.' ' We 11 take a dog-cart rather, and then Ryder can go.' ' I have passed my word to the governor not to do so,' replied Ryder quietly; 'and indeed, I thought we all had.' ' Oh, of course, if you say it 's wrong, that settles it,' sneered Luders ; ' you sill the chair of Moral Philosophy at Teesdale How, we know.' ' Most gentlemen keep their words,' observed Ryder contemptuously. ' Come, Marsden, we are wet through ; do let us get home.' ' Then 1 11 order the gig,' cried Luders, as the two turned away. ' Well, I don't know,' answered Marsden hesitatingly.

Ryder gave the arm that was linked in his a squeeze, and the young man, thus reminded of his recent promise, added briskly : ' No, not for me ; thank you. I shan't go.' ' Yes, you will, you fool,' muttered Luders, as he looked after their retreating forms ; ' but that adds another figure to the long score I have got chalked up against you, Master Morality.'

Chapter III. The Brunette And The Blonde

Teesdale Howt, which was the name of the dwelling of which these three young gentlemen were inmates, might have been built under the personal superintendence of ' the Solitary ' of Mr. Words worth's Excursion. It was six miles from a market town ; and the by-way that led to it out of the high road was impassable for anymore ambitious convey ance than the car of the Lake District — a species of vehicle which, in a narrow road, seems to possess the faculty of becoming as compressible as gutta percha ; while, in all the great expanse of mountain ground visible from its windows, there was but a single house, and even that was an empty one, and enjoyed the reputation of being haunted. This seclusion made Teesdale How admirably adapted for study, as well as rendered it, for a yearly tenant — it was dear enough to hire for 'the season' — remark ably cheap ; and both these considerations, doubtless, had their weight with Mr. Onslow Bateman, who eked out an income of £150 a year of his own, by taking £300 per annum from each of his pupils.

It would have puzzled one a good deal to give a categorical account of the qualifications which enabled this gentleman to set so high a value upon his educational services, and yet few who knew him o would be found to deny that they were worth the money. He was not a clergyman ; he had never written a treatise upon the Greek Particles ; he had not distinguished himself at the universities, for he had never been to either of them ; he was not con nected, however indirectly, with the aristocracy ; and his appearance was that of an intellectual captain of dragoons. Moreover, he was a widower, with no Mrs. Onslow Bateman to superintend his household ; and he possessed a couple of grown-up daughters, beautiful, and therefore dangerous for any young man of expectations to be associated with, at an age when views of ' the marriage question ' are apt to be crude and unpractical, and the affections to possess an influence uncontrolled by the sense of Social Position, and what the Best Society is expecting of us.

On the other hand, Mr. Onslow Bateman was a walking encyclopædia (always elegantly bound), full of very charming illustrations upon every branch of knowledge, and furnished with a most uncommon clasp, which shut up just at the right time, and never suffered too much of the contents to escape at once. He imparted the politest facts to the rudest capacities with the air of a man acquiring information, and rubbed off so adroitly with the pumice stone of his own perfect manners the nodosities of a clownish youth, that the rough diamond had no idea of the process, although he saw the result reflected in the eyes of his delighted friends when he returned for the holidays. The specialty of Mr. Bateman was, in fact, to impart gentlemanly behaviour, or — to express it in a manner which he himself would have shuddered at — to make silk purses out of sows' ears.

Thus it was that in those not quite exceptional cases where nature omits to dower the aristocracies of birth or wealth with her more elegant charms, this great artist undertook, upon the above terms, to supply them. By a not unusual confusion, his success in this particular department was considered to be proof of his fitness as a moral reformer also ; and among those tbat came to his tutorial net — where all was fish — from the vexed waters of the public schools and fashionable seminaries, were found, occasionally, some very loose fish indeed. Of this class, among his present pupils, Mr. Robert Marsden was a mitigated, and Mr. Bartholomew Luders an aggravated specimen. They had both been expelled from their respective cradles of learn ing ; the former for a persistence in pursuing his favourite pastime of card-playing, beyond its legiti mate six days' limit, into the Sunday ; and the latter for an act of cruel brutality to a junior, which had fairly roused the ire of a school community, com monly jealous for the privileges of its seniors, and disposed rather to permit their powers to be strained to the utmost.

Marsden was the son of an extravagant country squire of good family ; Luders, of a Jamaica planter, who had purchased depreciated property, but at a very depreciated price, and had thus procured for himself riches, accompanied by the desirable right of complaining about his poverty. Charles Ryder was the younger brother of a Yorkshire baronet, with o2 little to be said against him, except that he was somewhat bashful and retiring in company, so as to make some people remark that it was a providential thing that he was not the eldest son, and had not succeeded to the title instead of Sir Harry, against whom those objections could not certainly with justice be urged. He was rather a modest and reserved person, it must be confessed — though with no constitutional want of confidence and determination — and this was especially apparent in the society of ladies, wherein he seldom opened his lips without a blush.

If he had but known, as he now came across the lawn with his friend, that he was the subject of conversation between two young women sitting at one of the upper windows of the house, we are sure that, drenched and shivering as he was, there would have been quite a peony flush all over him. ' Well,' said Florence, who was the elder of the two Bateman girls, and the brunette — her sister being orthodoxly blonde, as the second Sister and the second Traveller, according to all novelists, is bound to be — ' Well, all I can say is this, my dear Ellen, everybody to their own taste, as the old woman observed when she kissed her cow.' ' It is a pity, my dear Florence, that we did not begin our conversation with that sentiment,' returned the other, laughing, ' and save our breath to cool our porridge.

Nay, if elegant saws and poetical illustrations are all you can say upon the matter, my love, I shall be more than a match for you.' ' Well, my dear, as long as you will not be a match for Robert Marsden,' responded Florence, sighing, ' you may be my everlasting conqueror, and welcome.' ' Nobody asks me, sir, she said, nobody asks me, my pretty maid,' carolled Ellen gaily, accompanying the baby-song with such a charmingly innocent ex pression upon her lovely face that one might have taken her up in one's arms, under the impression that she was a child out of the nursery, and kissed her ; and without perhaps, even afterwards, being altogether sorry for the mistake. ' He has asked you,' returned Florence seriously, ' as plain as eyes can speak.' ' Madam,' observed Miss Ellen with mock solemnity, and imitating, as well as she could, the deep bass tones of Mr. Charles Ryder, while she uttered his favourite piece of slang repartee — 'Madam, jtou are another.' 'Yes,' replied Florence, impetuously, and under standing, with womanly intuition, all that the other had meant to suggest, ' I know that Charles Ryder is not a clever man, and that he makes use of dull stereotyped school-boy vulgarisms ; but I would rather a thousand times have him for my brother-in law, for my dear, dear sister Ellen's companion for life, than a young man without religion, without principle, without self-government of any descrip tion, and who does not know his own mind for two minutes together.' ' If his mind, if Mr. Marsden's mind,' answered the younger girl, beginning to cry, ' is so peculiarly bad, it does seem exceedingly hard,' (sobbing) ' that he shouldn't always knoiv it, at least.