'Made in Heaven.' A novel

Front matter

"MADE IN HEAVEN." % flobd. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. i873- All rights reserved. CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAPTER PAGE I. " CLAMAVI AD TE" I II. THE ELEVENTH HOUR .... 32 III. "hymen, o hymenæe !" .... 64 IV. MADAME DUROC ..... 93 V. " SEEING ALL THEIR OWN MISCHANCE" . 12 1 VI. " FOR MY SAKE" ..... 141 VII. DOING DUTY . . . . . 1 76 VIII. ON THE EDGE 215 IX. OVER ... . . . . . 258 X. MY LADY TO THE RESCUE . . .281 XI. THE END OF IT "MADE IN HEAVEN."

Chapter I

" CLAMAVI AD TE." ADY GWEN and her daughter. pursuant to that arrangement you wot of, had gone doAvn from Brighton to Mallalieu that February, and had stayed the week de rigueur there. And there and then it became an understood thing that Miss Cassilis Avas to be Lady Edward. The reception the suture Lady Edward VOL. II. "Made hi Heaven." 2 got from the family Avas perhaps as gracious as could be expected. Lord Ted's sisters, the Lady Jacqueline, and the Lady Yolande, were unmarried still, you see, and already pretty Avell stricken in years. And to Fulke, Marquis of Malpas, their elder brother, this matri monial move of Ted's Avas objectionable on more practical grounds. Lord Ted was his mother's favourite child. If he outlived his maternal parent the Duchess's money Avas quite safe to go to him.

But Fulke the Marquis, a practical man, and a cool shreAvd calculator, had always decided that Ted never Avould out live the Duchess. Ted's Indian career, Ted's style of life at home, Ted's peculiar weakness, and that sunstroke, as they called it ; — all this had taken a deal too much out of Ted, the Marquis thought. All this Avould have destroyed a naturally " Clamavi ad te." 3 good constitution ; and Ted's was a naturally bad one. Poor Ted, in short, was bound to drop early. In which case the Duchess's money would eventually revert to him, Fulke the Marquis, and lighten those burdens Avhich Fulke the Duke had prepared for the shoulders of the heir he didn't love. That Ted would ever disappoint this calculation and marry, it had not entered into the mind of his elder to conceive. " What do I think of it ?" he said, Avhen he had been told what had happened at Brighton ; " I think it's Avhat you good people call tempting Providence, Jack."

The Lady Jacqueline didn't quite see this. She was one of the good people re ferred to, no doubt ; but she would have been quite ready to tempt Providence her self in this fashion if she had ever had a chance once in the last twenty years or so. i — " Made in Heaven!' 4 " We think poor Ted might have done much better," observed the Lady Yolande. " If he'd let it alone, he might," her brother returned ; " as it is, he may do much worse, you know." " How ?" they asked. " Suppose there's a son, eh ?" But these ancient virginities didn't seem to care about plunging so far into futurity as that, quite. Their future sister-in-law's promotion, Avithout any such consequences, was as much as they could stand at a time. HoAvever, as aforesaid, they were as gracious to her as could be expected when she came.

So was Fulke the Duke, Avho could perfectly understand his heir's feelings. So was the Duchess, Avho had con sented to bury the hatchet of her objections for the sake of her dearest EdAvard's happiness. " Clamavi ad te." 5 " Dearest Edward's happiness before all," she would declare magnanimously, by way of conclusion to the elaborate ha rangue she favoured Car with each morning during the visit. Such magnanimity as this caused Miss Cassilis's pale face to flush. Indeed the Duchess and her graciousness, and the Ladies Jacqueline and Yolande, and their graciousness, Avere hard enough to bear, without elaborate harangues and magnanimity. Car had had a trying time of it all the Aveek ; and now this sort of thing was to be said to her ! No Avonder her pale face flushed. But, then, the Duchess fancied the girl was ingenuously blushing ; fancied that what Car was going to say was the dutiful and grateful something proper for the oc casion.

And, magnanimously still, she fancied she had prevented this becoming "Made in Heaven!' ebullition Avhen she lifted her gracious hand in deprecation. " I know, my dear — Avell, my dear Car," she interrupted ; " I knoAv, of course, that his happiness will be your first considera tion Avhen you are his Avife. No, no ; you needn't assure me of it, my dear — well, my dear Car. I know it. I know what your feelings towards my son must be. And, noAv, I Avon't keep you from him any longer." And her Grace rose to shoAV that the audience Avas over, and that Miss Cassilis might retire. She had not meant to be offensive, you understand. She had merely meant to be what with her Avas apt to come to very much the same thing ; she had meant to be gracious. And she thought she had been very gracious. She had called the girl " her dear Car."

Gracious ness surely could no further go. " Clamavi ad te!' 7 Howbeit, Car Avent out of the presence with that flush still on her pale face, and a sensation in her throat as of choking. Could she stand this sort of thing much longer ? Was it possible to put up with the Duchess, and those dreadful old maids, continually ? And with the prospect, too, of Avhat reward ? The reward, forsooth, of marrying Lord Ted, and of placing his happiness before all for the rest of her life ! No ; she couldn't bear it, and she would not. She Avould go and tell Ted it had better not be ; that she didn't love him, and could never make him happy ; that she wouldn't marry him at all. And she would go and tell him so at once. There he Avas, pottering about on the Terrace over a cigar, waiting for her to come and talk to him.

Well, she would go and talk to him about this, then. And, in desperation, she was going, " Made in Heaven." when mamma's voice Avas audible below ; and she stopped short. Desperate as she Avas, she Avas yet not desperate enough to face mamma after the talk she purposed with Ted. She wasn't in any aAve of Ted. She would have gone down and have had her scene Avith him, and have broken off the engagement then and there, and his heart into the bargain, maybe, and not have cared. After him, though, she Avould have to meet mamma, — mamma, Avhose anger Avould be aAvful, whose terrible tongue Avould punish worse than ever a whip ; mamma, Avho Avould rake up, in her diatribes, those sorest of sore subjects, Don and Mrs. R. D. again ; mamma, Avho would be only too likely, with such a man as this Lord Ted, to get her OAvn AA7ay after all.

Ah ! no ; it was no use. There was no chance for her with mamma. So the flush paled out of her face, and " Clamavi ad te!' 9 her desperation died away. And Car crept up-stairs, instead of hurrying down, and locked herself up in her room from everyone, for a Avhile ; and, I fear, took out of the dressing-case, Avhere it had been supposed to be going to lie for ever, a certain locket with a certain likeness, and -cried over it quite helplessly. Now, I admit she had had a rather trying Aveek of it, that time, at Mallalieu. It was trying to be magnanimously for given for that Lord Ted had fallen in love with her. It was trying to be graciously pardoned for that Lord Ted, who might have done so much better, insisted upon marrying her. It was trying to be told that the devotion of a life would be, at best, but a poor return for the honour that would be done her.

It was trying to have it summarily assumed that her " feelings for my son must be" those of never-ending " Made in Heaven." 10 gratitude and adoration. Then, it Avasn't pleasant to be taken possession of by the family, as Miss Cassilis Avas from the moment of her arrival at Mallalieu, in the character of " dearest EdAvard's " fiancee, Avho left so very much to be desired, and to have her deficiencies pointed out, and made good, as nearly as might be, by the united efforts of her future mother and sisters-in-law. It Avasn't pleasant to find " dearest EdAvard " everything, and herself nothing, in prospective arrangements. Then, too, the Duchess Avould summon her up-stairs at all sorts of hours, to be harangued, Avhenever her Grace happened to have an harangue ready for delivery. And the Lady Jacqueline Avould lecture, and the Lady Yolande would school, their pupil beloAv ; and mamma AA-ould sit by and look as if she really Avere A7ery much obliged to them.

And so forth. " Clamavi ad te!' 11 Yes ; it Avas all very trying, no doubt ; but the most trying thing of all was to feel that she suffered such martyrdom for no better reason than that she Avas going to be married to a man Avhom she would have given the Avhole Avorld not to have been going to marry. If she had been in love with this man, her martyrdom would still have been parlous unpleasant. Her affec tions being in the untoward state they Avere, such martyrdom was almost unendurable. Not quite, because she went on enduring it, somehow. Fulke the Marquis used to Avonder how she could. He had conceived certain hopes of her whilst she stayed at Mallalieu. He understood Avhat used to make her face flush so hotly, if the AA-omen kind didn't, or wouldn't. The way the Duchess, and Jack, and Oily, nagged at that girl, would have driven a saint into wild rebellion, the Marquis averred.

He "Made in Heaven." 12 had his hopes it might drive her to that, still. " The old one," the Marquis said to himself, referring to my Lady Gwen, " has all she can do to keep the young one straight to the finish. By Gad ! I believe she'd swerve if she could, now." He was right in his surmise, no doubt. Car would have " swerved " if she could have managed it Avith my lady " up." Even in such experienced and determined hands, the girl might have been nagged on suffi ciently to try, perhaps, if that stay at Mallalieu had lasted another Aveek. " It Avas rather awful, I know," Lord Ted said, when they got back to Brook Street ; " but it's all over noAA-. You stood it stunning. I kneAV you Avould, for my sake, darling." For his sake ! Poor Ted ! If mamma had kept out of the room a little longer " Clamavi ad te'.' 13 he might have been told the truth about this.

Mamma, hoAvever, Avas never very long out of the room now. In Brook Street it was not quite so awful. The Duchess could not be ahvays harangu ing there. Lady Jacqueline's lecturing perforce became intermittent ; and there were occasional holidays even for the Lady Yolande's pupil. Car got breathing time, and so was able to endure. Fulke the Marquis felt his hopes doomed to disap pointment. The girl had more staying power than he had expected. The odds were, noAv, she'd marry Ted. Fulke the Marquis thereupon went on the virtuous indignation tack. "It's too bad," he used to declare to his intimates ; " she oughtn't to be let to marry him. Look at Ted's constitution," said the Marquis, as though his own were im maculate : " look at the life the beggar's " Made in Heaven." 14 led out there. Why, hang it, I'm his brother ; I don't Avant to talk about it, of course, but he had D. T. ; that's a fact.

And he's never got over it, either ; that's another fact. And he's going to marry this girl. I say it ain't right. She don't know. She believes because he comes the good boy to her, he's been the good boy ahvays, I suppose. I'm his brother ; I can't interfere. But I pity that girl, upon my soul I do. Ted seems all right enough, but you mark my words, if he marries her there'll be a toav. in the house one of these days, and no mistake." His intimates took the prophecies of the disinterested Fulke for what they Avere worth, probably. They didn't much care what the consequences of Lord Ted's marriage might be, and so they Avould turn the conversation to matters they did care for. " Clamavi ad te." 15 There were other people, though, who ought to have knoAvn quite as much about poor Ted, for all practical purposes, as his affectionate brother, and who might have had an eye to such consequences as the latter hinted at.

But the home theory about Ted was, I believe, that it was all that dreadful climate, and that, at any rate, he was quite recovered now ; and although Lady Gwen might have an idea that her future son-in-law had been "a little wild, you know, like other young men," yet she could have laid her hand upon her heart and declared that she had never seen any thing in the least degree calculated to excite her maternal apprehensions. And this Avouldhave been tolerably true. Lord Ted had been more or less " careful " ever since my lady had known him, and he had been in love with Car. As Miss Cassilis's accepted lover, his form had been superhumanly good, even. His scrupulous " carefulness " had astonished and disgusted his affectionate brother. When the two would be left over their wine sometimes at Mallalieu, Fulke the Marquis Avould sneer and jeer at Ted's abstemiousness, in a way Ted Avould have found very hard to bear a little while back.

It didn't seem to ruffle him the least, then. "No thank you, Fulke," he would say, " I know what I'm about, old boy." " All right. Mind you keep it up, Teddy." " I mean to," Teddy Avould return, and then go and take his coffee beside Car. " You mean to," Fulke the Marquis Avould mutter into his glass. " Ah ! I daresay. But how long Avill that fit last ? Qui a bu, boira, don't you knoAv ? You'll break out again by-and-by, and, by Gad, Avhen you do " " Clamavi ad te." 17 This calculator Avould then fall to calcu lating what might be the consequences of that " row in the house " of his brother. which he foresaw. However, Ted was his brother, as he observed ; and he couldn't interfere. He couldn't go and tell Miss Cassilis she'd better not marry Ted because Ted would be sure to break out again by-and-by.

Of course he Avished to heaven somebody would tell her that, or anything else that might put a stop to the thing. But no one told Miss Cassilis anything of this kind. No one gave her this very excellent reason for refusing to carry out her engagement. The sole reason she could have alleged why she should not marry this man, Avas that she didn't love him. And each day made such allegation more and more impossible. If she didn't love him, why had she accepted him ? VOL. II. Straitly cross-examined like this, how could she have answered ? She couldn't have told them the truth — that she had accepted poor Ted under the smart of the recollec tion of Don the married man's behaviour to her on a certain night ; — under the immi nent terror of Mrs. R. D. That she had accepted him because it was the only Avay out of an intolerable position.

Because she was miserable and hopeless, and didn't care much what she did. She couldn't tell people this, and then urge that, having got out of her intolerable position, and having got quit of Mrs. R. D., she found she could never love her Ted, and had better break with him. DoAvn at Brighton, it had seemed a far cry to St. James's or St. George's — a long Avay from being eno-ao-ed to being married ; and Avhile it seemed so she had been resigned, if not content, to let matters go on. And matters had o-one " Clamavi ad te" 19 on, and still she had said nothing ; nay, she had tried to love Ted, and make the best of him. True, she had failed ; but now it Avas rather too late to say so, Avhen the engagement had been duly published, when the Duchess had magnanimously forgiven, and the Ladies Jacqueline and Yolande had graciously come round to it ; when mamma was busy Avith the milliners ; when bridesmaids and breakfast had been bespoke ; when the lawyers were at work on the settlements ; when St. George's or St. James's was in the immediate perspective ; and poor Ted's happiness so terribly close, that it Avas now only a question of days.

It was too late altogether. How was my lady's daughter, alone and unsupported, to turn and do battle with my lady, and all the rest, now ? It might have been dif ferent if she had had Don, and some sort of hope to fight for. But Don had turned 2 — " Made in Heaven." 20 out to be Mrs. R. D.'s husband, and Car had no sort of hope. Still, even at the eleventh hour, you may hold she Avas bound to say she would not marry Lord Ted if she didn't love him. Your Avife, or your sister, would have done so in her place. Would they ? That is, I fancy they tell you they Avould ; and vous aimez mieux les croire que d'y alter voir, as the Frenchman has it. Alone and unsupported, Car felt, at any rate, she couldn't do it. As much as she could do, though, perhaps she did. It Avas one day — the day after a great gathering at Mallalieu Flouse, Avhere "my dear , Avell, my dear Car," had been presented to all the Elect, and had suffered many things at their hands on the score of her coming great promotion — Avhen she and Lord Ted were riding homeAvards, Wimble don Avay, alone together.

" Clamavi ad te." 21 She had screwed her courage to the sticking point, and stuck there for some time. However, at last she contrived to open the subject, with the family opinion for her text — the opinion, namely, that she wasn't half good enough for him. " Pooh !" Ted laughed ; " they don't mean that. It's only because they're so jolly fond of me, you know. Besides, Avhat does it matter, if they did ? We know better." " Ah, Ted, if you only thought I wasn't, too !" she sighed — amorously, he fancied ; in reality, wistfully. " If I did, indeed !" "We might — " " Might what ?" " Break it off, you know," Car got out. " I suppose so. What's the use of talk ing about that, though ?" " Because I — I've been thinking, per- " Made in Heaven." 22 haps we ought to, Ted," she explained, in tones that were rather husky.

"Ought to break it off?" he repeated, staring at her. " Good God, Car, Avhat do you mean ?" " What I say," she told him. " Yes, I have thought so." Poor Ted turned very Avhite. The ex pression of her countenance, just then, Avas not reassuring. Was it — could it be, that she did mean it ? " You ain't serious, Car ? I say, you're only chaffing ? Don't, please, — not about this. I can't stand it." She could see he was pitifully affected, even by the bare notion that she spoke in earnest. He Avas very much in love, poor devil ; and, notwithstanding all his careful ness, his nerves Avere in too queer a state to bear sudden shocks of this sort. " Say it's only chaff, Car," he pleaded. " Clamavi ad te." 23 She needs must pity him ; but she couldn't say it Avas only chaff. So she said nothing. " At least, say Avhy, then," he cried to her, in desperate bewilderment at this awful change in his prospects the last five minutes seemed to have made.

" Because I'm afraid," she said at last " Afraid !" " Yes." " Of marrying me ?" " Yes." " By George !" he muttered through his teeth, Avhilst his eyes glared about him un pleasantly, and his fear and beAvilderment appeared to turn to bitter Avrath, — " By George ! It's too bad." She couldn't deny it. She could only boAv her head. " It's a shame," poor Ted went on, altogether on the wrong scent, you see ; "just when I'd been trying so hard to — to get over it." "Made in Heaven." 24 " Get over what ?" she Avondered. " Because I loved you so, Car. And noAv they've gone and told you a lot of lies and things about me, I suppose. And just Avhen I'm all right, you come and tell me you're afraid to marry me. It is a shame, you know," the victim moaned, pathetically. She hadn't the least idea Avhat he meant.

She said as much. Then it was his turn to stare. " Well, but what is it, then, you're afraid of, if you ain't afraid of — of that ?" he enquired. " I'm afraid of myself, Ted." " Of yourself ?" he repeated. " Yes. I'm afraid I — I'm not fit to i » marry you. " Oh ; that's it !" he cried, Avith the most provoking air of relief possible ; " that's all you mean ?" " Cla7navi ad te." 25 " Yes ; but it's quite reason enough, isn't it, why " " Why you shouldn't marry me ? Pooh : not a bit, darling," he laughed ; " you say you're not fit, and I say you are. It's my affair, not yours, don't you see ? And if I say you are, that settles the question. Why on earth did you put me in such a ghastly fright for nothing ?" " It isn't nothing," she returned, miser ably, in despair at the failure of her wretched little attempt — at the worse than failure ; for she perceived that what he fancied Avas her diffidence about herself had actually flattered him !

" Just nothing at all," Ted persisted ; " there would have been something in it, perhaps, if you'd thought I wasn't good enough for you. But, don't you remember you told me that night at Brighton that I was quite good enough for you." " Made in Heaven!' She remembered she had, in her disgust Avith herself that night ; and it seemed to complete her discomfiture to hear this used in evidence against her noAv. " And," Ted added, working up his a fortiori not unaptly, " I'm a deal better man, all round, to-day. I've kept straight as a line ever since I've knoAvn you. So there's no getting out of it on that score. As for being afraid about yourself, Ave'll never say another word about that, please. If I ain't afraid, I don't see why you've to be, my darling." His darling said no more. What A\-as the use ?

There Avas no getting out of it unaided, under any pretext. It Avas too late ; and they Avere all too many and too strong for her. And Avhere was she to look for any aid ? By-and-by, I suppose, this question suggested Don. Don, of course, in quite a " Clai7iavi ad te!' 27 new character for the occasion ; Don simply as her kinsman, the only available friend and champion she had in this her dire ex tremity. If he had been in England, I think before marrying Lord Ted, she would have cried out to Don, in this character, to come and help her, notwithstanding Mrs. R. D. For, in this character, what had Mrs. R. D. to do Avith him ? But Don Avas away in India. Well, a letter might reach him there in time, yet. And, in the event, that letter Avas Avritten and dropped furtively into the village post box.

And it might have reached Don in time if he hadn't happened to be hors-de co7nbat when it came. When it was Avritten, and was gone, Car had to sit still and Avait for her deliverance, if haply there might be deliverance for her. She had a desperate blind belies that nothing Avould pre- " Made in Heaven." vent Don's coming to her cry ; also a belief, more reasonable, that, if he did come, he Avould prevail against circumstance and mamma, and set her free. In which case, Miss Cassilis had arranged to spend the — necessarily — brief remainder of her existence as a Sister of Mercy, or something of that sort. If, on the other hand, Don should fail her, Avhy, having done all she kneAV, and being unable to prevail against circumstance and mamma, she Avould have to marry Lord Ted, quand meme, she supposed.

Poor Ted ! Listening to the laying doAvn of the laAV of her life Avith him, as it was to be, by the Duchess and the Ladies Jacqueline and Yolande ; — listening to his OAvn particular plans for their future, Car was fain to spare him a trifle of pity now and again. He did love her. He would be badly hurt if she contrived to make her " Clamavi ad te." 29 escape. But she was in too sore a strait to care much, just then, about hurting him if she could but get out. She could not feel remorse by anticipation. She might have to marry him after all, you see. By and-by, if she didn't have to marry him, would be the time for remorse. When she was a Sister of Mercy it would be the cor rect and appropriate sort of thing to feel. So she kept it till then. Time passed ; and she could calculate her cry had been heard.

Presently, it might have been answered. But she scan ned the P. and O. passenger lists in vain. Don came not ; nor any word from him. Her heart grew sick with hope de ferred. One day she read a paragraph about herself in the Morning Mirror. It read like a sentence. She made a little calculation. If she " Made in Heaven." 30 were to have yet another chance this date Avas fixed too soon. She went straight to my lady and said so, without, of course, saying why, albeit my lady straitly ques tioned her to know. " Well, mamma," Car said in a tone that astonished herself as much as it did her parent, " if you and they insist on my mar rying him, then, I tell you, and I'll tell them, I'll never marry him at all. You can just do as you please." Having delivered this ultimatum, Miss Cassilis retired.

Mamma gazed after her uneasily. What Avas the meaning of this ? What Avas she waiting for ? My lady scented danger. But wuat danger ? Even her experience failed to hint to her the thing Car had done. She saAv, hoAvever, that, for some reason or other, the girl had quite Avorked herself up to mean what she said. And so, though " Clamavi ad te!' 31 not all because it pleased her, she got the date of the sentence deferred. Those anxious days of grace passed ; and nothing happened ; and my lady was beginning to persuade herself that they had been asked for only out of some girlish whim. And at last the eleventh hour came ; but Don the Deliverer came not.

Chapter II. The Eleventh Hour

ON the Deliverer, it was noAv pretty plain, either couldn't, or AA7ouldn't, come at all. Lord Ted, the previous evening, had kissed his fiance'e, and mumbled something rapturous about to-morrow. And his fiancee had been fain to submit to the embrace and to circumstances, and Avhen she Avent to bed to sup pose that, there being no help for it, she, Caroline, must on the morrow take him, EdAvard, to be her laAvful husband, according to the formula. The Eleve7ith Hour. 33 Well, if she must, then she must. And if she did, — Avhy, she would do her best to be a good wife to Ted. Indeed, indeed she Avould try, she sobbed out presently on her knees. After that she sobbed herself to sleep, and dreamed of Don who had not come to deliver her. At least, my lady, entering her daughter's chamber soft and early on her marriage morning, perceived the sleep er's face was wet with tears, and caught her obnoxious nephew's name on the uncon scious lips.

Her own lips pursed heavily in displeasure, and the fat fallow of her countenance was futther furrowed by a doAvmvard frown. Don, still ? What preposterous folly was this ? Had not even Mrs. R. D. effected its cure ? If, hoAvever, was my lady's consoling reflection, even Mrs. R. D. had not, mar- VOL. II. "Made in Heave7i." 34 riage— a proper marriage such as this — very soon would do so. My lady, like other model mothers, be lieved, cynically perhaps, but honestly certainly, in the curative properties of a good match for all the objectionable love-vagaries incidental to nubile virginity. There was nothing like it. Till a girl Avas safely mar ried there was no telling whither and to whom her unsophisticated feelings might not lead her. Ah ! my lady could have preached, like Cousin Amy's affectionate parent, — " They were dangerous guides, the feelings ; she herself was not exempt.