The Loyal'st Husband; or, Till Death us Sever ... New edition, revised, etc

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■ I ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ THE LOYAL'ST HUSBAND THE LOYAL'ST HUSBAND; OR gtlT peaf§ us fpevex A NOVEL. by J. LOTHIAN ROBSON. Facilis descensus Averno ; Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis, Sed revocare gradurn, superascrue evadere auras, Hoc opus, hie labor est. Heto (Ebttisltt. (Revised and Corrected by the Author.) LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO. Edinburgh ano Glasgow: John Menzies & Co. 1891. (AIL RIGHTS RESERVED.) PERTH : PRINTED RY D. LESLIE, 20 ST. JOHN STREET. Dedication. TO MY SPOUSE. / have written of the desecration of marriage — /, whose experience of it has been love and fidelity alone. Am I therefore, as some would argue, incompetent to give an opinion as to whether marriage is a failure or not ? — Surely it is not so. For it is to the successful pioneers of any enterprise, and not to those who have failed therein, that men look confidently for direction.

And you and I know that the only sure basis of happy marriage is pure human love, the only certain promise of its permanence trust in the divine; and we cannot doubt that, did all men and women liold this same faith, humanity could afford to laugh alike at conjugal miseries atid divorce courts. Yours ever, J. LOTHIAN ROBSON. PKEFACE. Lest anyone should misunderstand the motive which impelled me to write the following story, I propose to preface it with a few introductory remarks. And, primarily, as the title sufficiently indicates, it was not composed for the benefit of our young maidens. Neither have I sought to illustrate the worn out truism that the world is harder to the female than to the male sinner. This is so, undoubtedly; and it is just. We have committed social morality into the hands of women, and they have done their work fairly well.

If one of them betrays our trust, let her be dealt with by her own sex ; they will not be very merciful, but it is justice and not mercy which a traitress must look for at the hands of her judges, and it is better that one woman should be trodden down into the mire than that many women should go through life with stained garments. In proportion as women grow complaisant manners become lax, and too much sentimental interest has already been thrown around the most disgusting of human vices. It is evident, therefore, that on account of necessary care for the innocent, man can do

Preface

. little comparatively to help the guilty. — Is there anyone else who can? Mr. Matthew Arnold, in a very well known book, speaks of a power outside of us which makes for righteousness — my story is an illustration of what that power can effect. A woman, endowed with everything which ought to bind to virtue, falls from it; in her humiliation she encounters the Son of God ; being set up in the old place whence she sunk to perdition, and being weighted with everything which could drag her down again, she now traverses her slippery path with steady feet. This is no dream, such victories are common to human experience, and the influence which, unaided, saves from the power of sin, cannot be a delusion. In tracing this woman's sad way I have been compelled to note each circumstance of insult, suspicion, and temp tation which would only too surely assail one in her unhappy plight.

If I have therein wounded the delicacy of anyone, I offer to her the apology of necessity, for in as far as I had passed over such circumstances, I had weakened the truth which I desire to mark ; and I can at the same time con fidently assure the most scrupulous that in these pages will be found nothing inimical to the interests of true and pure morality. J. LOTHIAN ROBSON. preface to tbe Secono Eoition. In sending forth a new edition of my novel, I would take the opportunity of thanking the critics who publicly, and the authors who privately, have extended to a new writer their kindly appreciation and generous encouragement ; and this I do the more gratefully since the subject of which I have treated lays me especially open to misunderstand ing and detraction. Of my censors I ask only an unprejudiced hearing, feeling sure that no Englishman with any love of fair play would condemn the most contemptible adversary save on the grounds of his proved demerits.

And I claim that my book is no mere doubtful love story, to be lightly taken up to while away an idle hour, and as lightly censured and cast aside. It is an earnest appeal to all thinking persons against a great evil, in favour of a mighty remedy. It was conceived with set purpose, it was the outcome of patient labour and deep thought, it is the fruit of a matured heart and brain ; there is hardly a sentence in it but has been separately weighed and con sidered. But, while seeking to convey a sound moral lesson, I have not attempted to model society to suit the gravity of the situation I have presented, nor to depict men and women other than as they are. My characters are no perfections of wisdom and eloquence, no demons of craft and wickedness, but merely commonplace human creatures, each one of them burdened with the weakness natural to his type : strength marred by bitterness and conceit, feminine perfection allied to moral weakness, chatter, silly, slanderous, or free according to inclination and ability —

PREFACE.

TO THE SECOND EDITION. X all, by their very inconsistencies, proving their consistency as human creatures. Exception cannot legitimately be taken either to the subject, or to the straightforward manner in which it is handled. If a book is to be condemned for its plain language, we must yield up both the Bible and Shakespeare ; if delicate subjects may not be dealt with by noveUsts, we must exclude the works of our best authors — Scott, Thackeray, George Eliot, and the like — from our libraries. The question to be decided is — Which side does the book take ? — the right or the wrong ? Does it invest the sin of adultery with an alluring halo ? does it pave the way for another wife to take the heroine's unhappy course ? Does it not rather, by a faithful portrajTal of the consequences of her fall, do all that fiction can do to deter others from following her example ?

In one matter I have been misunderstood — I do not advise the taking back of an un faithful wife — my hero, influenced by natural weakness of the affections, does so ; but, while holding that every thinking human being is responsible for his own bit of " social wreckage," I have never advocated such a step. For it is quite evident that in all probability Lorraine's course of action would have proved a failure had not a far mightier factor than any mere human love been brought into play. It is the power of this unseen and divine love in restraining sin and in conquering sorrow which I have sought to illustrate. Each one of us, honestly seeking to help his kind, can do it effectually through no better means than by drawing on his own experience ; and I can bear witness that, having lived in this troubled world for nearly half a century, I have not yet seen any other power which may compete with this in solving humanity's sad problems, in vanquishing Use's bitter woes.

J. LOTHIAN ROBSON. CONTENTS. gtoofe the barton oi (Sbcn. CHAP PAOE. I. DAMON AND PHINTIAS, ...... 3 II. JANET, ......... 13 III. AMOR VICTOR, ....... 22 IV. MAIDEN CONFIDENCES, . . . . . .30 V. COURTSHIP, ....... 39 VI. BETROTHED, . . . . . . .50 VII. THE BRIDE, . . . . . . .60 VIII. THE BRIDEGROOM, . . . . . .71 IX. THE MAN TAKES HIS MARRIAGE VOW, . . . .81 X. HOME, ........ £>4 XI. ALONE WITH ARTHUR, ...... 103 XII. ARTHUR'S FIRST RIVAL, . . . . . .111 gook the §cconb.—^he Jail, XIU. HAKRY, ...... ■ . 125 XIV. ONLY A GLANCE, ...... 137 XV. NO MORE CAUSE FOR ANXIETY, ..... 150 XVI. MARY, . ...... CONTENTS. XII CHAP. PAGE. XVII. TEMPTED, .,..<•• 16/ XVIII. BETRAYED, . . , • • .1/9 XIX. DESOLATION, ....... 190 XX. THE MAN PROPOSES TO KEEP HIS MARRIAGE VOW, . . 201 XXI. " TU BRUTE !".... ■ 209 XXII.

LORD AND MASTER, ...... 217 XXIII. HUSBAND AND WIFE, ...... 226 XXIV. " DE PROFUNDIS CLAMAVI," ..... 240 XXV. MRS. LORRAINE TRIES HER HAND AT MATCH-MAKING AGAIN, ....... 247 glook the Jlnb Rising up Jlgattt XXVI. "NEITHER DO I CONDEMN THEE," .... 257 XXVII. RE-MARRIED, ....... 273 XXVIII. THE MOTHER AND MISTRESS,. .... 284 XXIX. MARJORIE'S ACQUAINTANCES AND RELATIONS, . . 290 XXX. ONE WOMAN AND ANOTHER, ..... 300 XXXI. THE DINNER PARTY, ...... 314 XXXII. CAPTAIN CARR, ...... 326 XXXIII. AFTER THREE YEARS, ..... 337 XXXIV. GOD AGAINST THE DEVIL, ..... 349 xxxv. harry's last attempt, ..... 35S xxxvi. harry's repentance, ..... 36S XXXVII. SLANDERED, ....... 376 XXXVIII. CONDEMNED, ....... 386 xxxix. the mother's sorrow, ..... 395 XL. MARJORIE ASSERTS HERSELF, .... 405 XLI. MARJORIE CONQUERS SOCIETY, .... 422 XLII. "MY PUNISHMENT IS GREATER THAN I CAN BEAR,". . 436 XLin. RUTH,. ••-.... BOOK THE FIRST. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. "THE MAN AND HIS WIFE."

Chapter I

Damon and PniNTiAS. I know him, as myself ; . We have conversed and spent our hours together : And though myself have been an idle truant, He is complete in feature aud in mind, With all good grace to grace a gentleman. Two Gentlemen of Verona. HEY were Loth in the vigour and beauty of earlymanhood, whole in health as in temper ; each had been the only child of a wealthy father ; both belonged to that class of society whence nations draw their intellectual, moral, and commercial |strength. Here their likeness ended, For while Arthur Lorraine, the Scotchman, was by inherit ance a Tory in politics and an Anglican in religion, Harry- Clinton, the American, was a Radical and Independent ; while Lorraine by nature was reticent and contemplative, a gentle enthusiast in music and poetry, Clinton was practical and out spoken, full of pranks and mischief, caring little for books, and yet reading much after an energetic and superficial fashion.

Nevertheless the souls of these young men were knit together even as the souls of David and Jonathan. Dear friends they had been in their schoolboy days, and now that they were men the tender romance of that early love pos sessed them still ; in Lorraine there lingered the chivalric, protecting care which he had once used to his bright Harry, whose battles he had fought, whose lessons he had helped, whom he had allowed no one but himself to oppress ; and Clinton, the saucy, daring heretic, the bold denouncer of every human sham, believed in his Arthur's goodness with simple, unwaver ing trust. The time was September, 1864; the place the Highlands of Scotland. " How much further does your worship intend me to drag these weary limbs to-day 1 " demanded Harry. "Why, what possesses the boy this morning?" asked Arthur in surprise.

"We have walked from Blair- Athole to this Pass of Killiecrankie ; the feeblest of women could hardly do less. Do you not intend to go to Dunkeld then 1 " "Of course I submit," replied Harry, dejectedly; "but what is the hurry 1 Why disregard my humble prayer for one more day at Blair- Athole 1 " Arthur lit a cigar and gazed down into the Pass for some minutes in silence ; at last he spoke. " What good was to be gained by staying 1 the lady is very pretty I daresay, at least you say so — how you happen to know so much about her I do not understand, for I am sure she was not five minutes in the coffee-room — the man is probably her husband." " Yes, he is," said Harry. "Then there is no use in thinking about her; but comfort yourself, my boy ; you will soon pick up a new fancy." " And so it was here that villain met his fate," said Harry, crossly, after a pause.

"Dundee, I suppose you mean." " Yes, Dundee, the notorious Claverhouse, the slaughterer of the saints, the destroyer of God's heritage, the blaspheminc red-handed ruffian." " His friends would hardly recognise his portrait, although I daresay it is a common enough one in Scotland," replied Arthur, quietly. " You stand up for him of course ; most Tories do. The King can do no wrong, therefore let him slay and torture to his heart's content; it is only what the stupid wretches deserve — let them submit. What is all this confounded bother about a prayer-book ? let them use it in the devil's name, or let Claverhouse and his dragoons teach them how." "There is no harm in the prayer-book." " It made a good many men heroes and martyrs then any way," retorted Harry. " Heroes, I grant you — but not martyrs."

"And why not martyrs? — they suffered for their religious belief." "They suffered for no such thing; they suffered because they would not be content without their own way. I am willing enough to let you call them patriots, if you like, but martyrs they were not in any sense of the word." " Do you deny that they suffered for their faith ? " "Their faith in what? No one interfered with their faith : they might serve their God and read their Bible to their hearts' content." "It was not fair to force the prayer-book on them," persisted Harry. " Neither would it be fair to take it from us, and force us to conform to the Kirk of Scotland. Yet I do not suppose you would honour us with the name of martyrs if it were so." " You ! " laughed Harry, getting over his bad humour, " prelatists ! idolators !

I daresay not. Pretty martyrs you would make ! " "It is difficult to know these times," said Arthur, "there was so much bitterness and intolerance everywhere. It is likely that Dundee was neither the faultless hero of the one party, nor the heartless devil of the other." 'The last view of the gentleman is the more probable, I reckon." " It seems impossible to know anything of human nature, even of our own human nature, from the inside," said Arthur, thoughtfully. " That is a pretty speech : what may it mean ? " "Mr. Paton said in a sermon lately that we have no direct consciousness of our spiritual being, that we judge of ourselves only by experience. This is on reflection reasonable, and here we have another limitation to human enquiry — no self know ledge possible, only scattered hints by the aid of experience."

" I thought your man was Lexington," said Harry. "Yes, and in my father's time no wandering from the church of our ancestors was tolerated ; but lately I have got into the habit of attending service at the Kirk of a morning. The minister is a clever fellow, and thinks deep. — If self knowledge is impossible, who may pretend to judge fairly of the springs of action of another man ? " " Leave metaphysical speculations alone, I don't understand them," said Harry, impatiently. '■ And yet you understand character so well — you never make a mistake." " That is simple enough ; while you are nine fathoms deep in mystical contemplation of people's motives, I am taking note of them and their doings. But, I say, Arthur, Shakespeare must have seen inside a good many people, I reckon." " Ah ! here we touoh the mystery of inspiration ; his crea tions were not his own, I suppose they were heaven sent ; and, though he repeated their words as he received them, it is un likely that he could have analysed their characters or motives.

To one God gives this message, to another that; but the fault is that the earth is filled with vain babblers who have no message." " The message seems occasionally to come from an opposite direction from heaven," suggested Harry. "Then, my fine young man, you had as well have nothing to do with it. It is evident that the pretty story which I used to kindle up the fire with the day before yesterday had already seen a very warm place indeed." DAMON AND PUINTIAS. Harry blushed. " Have you never read anything yourself, Arthur, but what was fit for young ladies ? — not that they are very particular by the way." " Of course I have, you know that as well as I do ; but it is one thing to tolerate the faults that dim the lustre of genius, and quite another to wallow in filth for its own sake." " By heavens !

I don't think the faults dim the lustre of genius at all," returned Harry, laughing ; " on the contrary, they vastly improve and brighten the whole performance. But you are right enough about the book ; that cad Lorimer gave me it, and, upon my honour, the fire was the best place for it." " Drop Lorimer, Harry." " I wish I could drop the whole kit of them and bolt — why won't my father let me go to the war ? it looks awfully mean of a great strong fellow, nearly two-and-twenty, a New York citizen, to be idling away my time on this side of the water, while all my companions are fighting on the other." " You are all your father has, and he is an old man, Harry," said Arthur, gently. "Ay, that is it, and I would not vex him for the world; but all this is bad for me, and then such a chance will never come to me again ; this will not last much longer either, for we are clearly getting the best of it now."

"I don't know about that; the Southerners fight with extraordinary spirit, and they never seem to know when they are beaten — at it they go. They are a gallant lot ; but, by-the bye, some of your officers are not very gallant, especially when they go south," added Arthur, slyly. Harry reddened, but let the taunt go. " Your sympathies were always against us," he said, " and yet you must see that we fight for principle." " There is no use going at it again, Harry, we have argued the matter times out of mind since ever the war began, and we always leave off where we commenced. If it was justifiable of you to break with us, how could it be unjustifiable of the South to break with you ? " " You Tories always sympathise with the slave owners," said Harry, bitterly. " There you go again, Harry, speaking as if you got up this war for the express purpose of letting the oppressed go free ; and you know that is nonsense."

" Any way, I shall never have another chance of fighting for my country," said Harry with a sigh. " There is my friend Tannacher, he was with Sherman's army, you now, and he feU on the 27th of June. I wish I had been there; it would be glorious to die like that." " And I am glad that you were not there, for I cannot spare my Harry," returned Arthur, affectionately. " I often wonder if the day will ever come when we shall all wish that I had lain where he does now," said Harry, sadly. " Why, Harry, what is the meaning of all this ? " " It is this way, you see, Arthur, life is such a disappointment, and how grand it looks when one is young ! Do you remember how I wrote up everywhere : Dnlce et decorum est pro patriot morif — I was a little chap then, Arthur." " Yes, I remember," replied Arthur, laughing, " and how Hall did not see your patriotism in the same light as you did, and gave you a pretty strong lesson on the subject."

But Harry did not laugh. " I envy that little boy, Arthur, he was so happy and so enthusiastic, and — and — so innocent. Life is not grand any more when you grow up, there is nothing to do, not even to make money, and then — " " And then ? " asked Arthur. " Oh ! and then one begins to think of going to the devil, you know." " I fail to see the necessity," said Arthur, laughing again. " It is all very well to laugh, but I don't see what else there is to do." DAMON AND PIIINTIAS. "No choice between dying for your country and going to the devil ! Life holds other possibilities, Harry. It is better to save life than to destroy it ; it is better to fight with St. Michael than to fall with Lucifer." "But if a fellow cannot help falling?" " Cannot help it ! " exclaimed Arthur, scornfully ; " are we not men ?

" "This is the letter about poor Tannacher," said Harry, taking from his pocket an envelope deeply edged with black, " from his sister, poor girl ! " "You ought not to have shown me this,"said Arthur, gravely, when he returned the letter, " the lady would not like it." " Why not ? " asked Harry in surprise. " Because it is a love letter," replied Arthur, flushing. "A love letter ! I am sure it is not." " Why, what else can it mean ? she speaks of something like that between you." "That is easily explained," said Harry, slightingly, "there was some boy and girl nonsense once, but that is long past of course." " She does not seem to think so." " She is very silly then, that is all. I was not nineteen, and it was as harmless as anything. Why, I cannot remember that I ever kissed her even — yes, but I daresay I did," reflected the young man, " at least it is likely, when I said good-bye."

" Aud you call that nothing ! " " Don't be vexed, Arthur ; upon my honour, I never said anything about marrying her — if I had, of course I would have stood to it," said Harry, anxiously, for he did not like the cloud upon his friend's brow. " American manners must be much freer than ours, or your social views are very loose; that is all." "Leave the girl alone, Arthur; a pitiful thing indeed to come between you and me ! you are really making a mountain out of a mole hill. I am an old friend of her brother and her too, and of course she writes affectionately, that is all. You Scotchmen are so cold and undemonstrative, and cannot make any allowance for people. If the girl had been my sister, I could not have behaved better to her than I did always." " But, man, if you make love to a girl, you are bound to ask her to marry you, don't you see ?

" said Arthur, desperately. " But, then, I have made love to such a lot, and if I marry them all I must go among the Mormons, that is it," replied Harry, lifting his grey eyes innocently to his friend's face; "it is only my way to flirt a bit, you see." " It is not a nice way." "Indeed, it is; you just try it, Arthur," returned Harry, laughing ; " but whether it is nice or not I cannot help it. It is just as natural for me to talk nonsense with a pretty woman as for you to open your New Testament every morning." " Come and stay with me this winter," suggested Arthur, after they had smoked in silence for ten minutes. "Some one will welcome me if I do." "Ah! my mother, so she will. What a fuss she makes over you to be sure ! I could never have believed that she could be half so demonstrative."

" That is because you are always as cold as an icicle your self," replied Harry. " My friend, ladies like our affection to be made evident to them. Ay, you are fortunate in having your mother. Did you not feel a want in our masculine establishment over there 1 " " I only know that I enjoyed my visit very much, and that your father was very kind to me." " Ay, but one wants women about, you know," said Harry, wistfully. " Marry then," suggested his friend ; " some people say that wives are better than mothers, but for my part I don't care to hazard an opinion where I am quite inexperienced." " It would be a gem of a wife that would beat your mother, any way. She is a dear old lady, and so beautiful. There is nothing so delightful as teasing her, and she will forgive any thing to the poor motherless boy."

" That is where you have her, you scamp ; it is enough to make any son jealous to see the affection she wastes on you." " You have little cause to be jealous, my friend, for the poor motherless boy is nowhere when your worship is by. By heaven, she does love you and no mistake ! — but why not ? I suppose that you could take the oath of a gentleman that there is nothing in your life for her to be ashamed of." " Come, come, Harry, you are too flattering," said Arthur, blushing. " My mother gives me many a piece of her mind on my shortcomings, and I am bound to say that she is generally right." " Ay," persisted Harry, " she finds fault with you as she might with a girl for petty transgressions ; but did you ever do anything that would have made her blush for you ? " "No," replied Arthur, readily.

"And you are five-and-twenty ; I wonder how many men of your age can say the same ? " mused Harry, with another deep sigh. "Ah! mothers are easily pleased," replied Arthur, lightly, — for figuring as a paragon was repugnant to his reserve ; " my father held opposite views occasionally. On the election day, when I threw Bill Hobbs into the Ash, there was no bringing him round ; in vain did I plead my youth — I was only seventeen — and that the gentleman in question had made a grossly insulting speech to my mother. He would not listen to me : such failure in self-control was unpardonable ; I believe he greatly regretted that I was seventeen, and rather taller than himself, otherwise he might have tried some more telling arguments. Of course all your Radical papers had the little incident reported in paragraphs entitled, ' Savage cruelty of a Tory mill-owner,' ' How our Conservative friends get the votes,' and so on.

My father made me write an apology to the newspapers, and he had to pay dearly to compromise the matter and keep it out of court ; there we should have had no chance, for the bloated capitalist must always go to the wall before the divinity of the people." " But, Arthur, don't you think really now that drowning a man was too strong a way of vindicating your political prin ciples ? " "I suppose it was; and yet I am sure that any lad in my place would have done the same thing ; besides, he did not drown." " No, returned Harry, laughing, " that was not to your credit though ; you did not stop to help him out." " Indeed, I did not," said Arthur, emphatically, " he should have staid in for me ; I believe the fellow could not swim either, and it was a deepish hole, just below the mill clam." "By heavens, Arthur, you might have swung for it."

" In that case you could not have had my company during your present tour, but I do not suppose they would hang a boy of seventeen, at least," added Arthur, laughing, " if he had not been previously convicted. I don't think I was in the wrong though." " Were you ever in the wrong," asked Harry, slyly. " Often, I daresay, but not then. The scamp wanted a lesson ; only, unfortunately, my father thought exactly the same of me." " I was a bit afraid of your father, Arthur," said Harry, " he was always so silent and so grave." " Ah ! there was a good man," mused Arthur, " and the best thing in all the world is the goodness of a man : strong in passion, stronger in self-control ; Christ-like in gentleness and pity — and he was all that." Arthur sprang to his feet and walked away. Harry looked after him with pride in his eyes. "What a flimsy piece of goods a young woman is to the like of him," he said to himself.

Chapter II

Janet. 'Twere all one, That I should love a bright particular star, And think to "wed it, he is so above me : In his bright radiance and collateral light Must I be comforted, not in his sphere. All's Well that Ends Well. RTHTJR LORRAINE, tweed and blanket manu facturer, lived at the village of Ashleigh, eight miles south of Edinburgh, and his dwelling place was very pretty and romantic, if his occupation was not. There is a river close by the village, and the mill is built on it ; it is called the Ash. There are hills in the distance, and the place is sweet with trees and flowers, and luxurious with the fresh beauty of Midlothian. In the neighbourhood of the village Arthur's grandfather had built a house, large and commodious for his station in life : there were about it conservatories, fair flower gardens, and pleasant lawns ; at the back, stables and such like necessary additions to the establishment of a wealthy trader.