Lewis Arundel; or the Railroad of Life ... With illustrations by Phiz

Front matter

Price Is. America, 25 Cexts. ?ART 1. HALL, YIRTUE & CO. 25, PATERNOSTER ROW. NEW GIFT BOOKS FOR THE SEASON. Immediately will be Published, in 8vo. price 16s. handsomely bound, PILGRIMAGES TO ENGLISH SHRINES. By Mrs. S. C. Hall. With upwards of 100 Engravings on Wood. Also, in foolscap 8vo. price 5s. with gilt edges, THE ILLUSTRATED YEAR BOOK. Second Series. The Wonders, Events, and Discoveries of 1850. Edited by John Timbs. With numerous Engravings on Wood. Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co. 25, Paternoster Row. Shortly will be Published, in large foolscap 8vo. 32 Pages, Price Twopence, No. 1 of FAMILIAR THINGS, a Cyclopædia of Entertaining Knowledge; being Useful Information, Popularly Arranged. Illustrated with Wood cuts. How common is it to speak of ours being an inquiring age, and yet how much more common to meet with people well informed in Greek and Latin wbo are almost ignorant of the origin and history of the things about them.

For instance, we sit at breakfast, and are content to enjoy the con_tforts around us without knowing, or perhaps earing to know, anything of their history. Now, to give such popular information on familiar things as shall be acceptable to readers of all ages and conditions, is the aim and purpose of this work ; and it is hoped that it will supply a want, not hitherto felt in any great degree, because we have been content witb an exterior knowledge of ourselves and the articles we have in daily use. Perhaps, also, it may be as well to say that this book is not intended to supersede the use of larger and more complete Encyclopædias ; neither is it intended to embrace all subjects ; but it is designed simply to bring into a small and convenient compass such knowledge of common and familiar things as has not heretofore been treated of in works of greater pretension.

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Preface

. The Preface is to a book, what the beard is to an oyster, —au uncomfortable indispensable appendage, which people either reject altogether, or find the greatest difficulty in swallowing; but without this undesirable addition, both book and oyster would be deemed incomplete. To choose the subject matter of a Preface is not so easy as the uninitiated may imagine. If an Author writes about himself, the " gentle public " call him egotistical and con ceited ; if he writes about his book, he usually (supposing it to be a work of fiction) contrives to forestall any interest it may contain, by unconsciously laying bare the plot. This being my opinion, no reader, acquainted with the consistency of human nature, will be surprised to find the rest of this Preface devoted to two subjects, — myself and my book !

First and foremost — with a preliminary flourish of trum pets (penny ones, probably, but still trumpets) — myself! In publishing this my second novel, for the first time in a collected form, I have affixed to it my own name instead of the nom de plume under which I have hitherto written. Clear-sighted persons, who like to exercise their ingenuity by discovering unpleasant motives for the conduct of others, will naturally decide that I have done so in the hope that beneath the skin thus cast off, an enlightened public may discern a lion rather than an ass. To deny the imputation would be to stereotype it indelibly on the minds of those with whom it may originate. I prefer to throw out a suggestion which the amiable minority who are dissatisfied with the former hypothesis may adopt, viz. — a secret known to so many people that he who cares to penetrate it may ask and learn, becomes simply an absurdity ; — the incog nito of Frank Fairlegh is now such a secret ; therefore, the sooner it is dropped, the better.

PREFACE.

. Secondly— my book. In Frank Fairlegh the moral (if moral it contains) is purely incidental ; in Lewis Arundel it is the result of design. In a certain order of mind, a high one, but not the highest, — an overweening confidence in its own strength breeds a desire to test this strength by running into, rather than by avoiding, temptation. Thus its possessor advances, sowing dragons' teeth broadcast at every step, till they spring up a host of armed men, with whom contending single-handed, he falls overpowered, having perceived when too late, that he is but a weak and fallible mortal after all. The character of Lewis Arundel was drawn to illustrate this idea, by pointing out the evils necessarily arising from such mistaken self-confidence. Ere I conclude, I wish to mention a circumstance, which, having afforded me some amusement, may possibly do the same to others.

Being out of health in the summer of 1851, I was on one occasion prevented from furnishing my usual monthly quota of manuscript. Now, Brother Jonathan, who pays me the compliment (and nothing else) of republishing my works in the New World, not approv ing of this delay, saw fit to engage the pen of some go ahead writer straightway to indite a concluding chapter to Lewis Arundel, which, being accomplished, was inserted after the 64th chapter of this edition, and the work thus terminated, was brought out as a " genuine " whole. I have since read, with feelings which " can more easily be imagined than described," this conclusion, and beg hereby to thank my Transatlantic dopjiel-ganger for his liberal conduct towards my hero, on whom he generously bestows an Earldom and £40,000 a-year. To any of my friends in America, however, who wish to read the tale ended by the same hand which began it, I strongly recommend the perusal of the present edition only.

And thus, having affixed a " beard to my oyster," I leave the public to discuss it with what appetite they may. London, June 1852. OK, THE BAILBOAD OF LIFE.

Chapter I

IN* WHICH THE TRAIN STARTS, AND THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO THKEE FIRST-CLASS PASSENGERS. " Surely lie ought to be here by this time, Rose ; it must be past nine o'clock !" " Scarcely so much, mamma ; indeed it wants a quarter of nine yet ; the coach does not arrive till half-past eight, and he has quite four miles to walk afterwards." " Oh ! this waiting, it destroys me ■" rejoined the first speaker, rising from her seat, and pacing the room with agitated steps ; " how you can contrive to sit there, drawing so quietly, I do not comprehend ! " " Does it annoy you, dear mamma 1 — why did you not tell me so before 1" returned Rose gently, putting away her drawingapparatus as she spoke. No one would have called Rose Arundel handsome, or even pretty, and yet her face had a charm about it, a charm that lurked in the depths of her dreamy grey eyes, and played about the corners of her mouth when she smiled, and sat like a glory upon her high smooth forehead.

Both she and her mother were clad in the deepest mourning, and the traces of some recent heartfelt sorrow might be discerned in either face. A stranger would have taken them for sisters, rather than for mother and daughter; for there were lines of thought on Rose's brow which her twenty years scarcely warranted, while Mrs. Arundel, at eight-and-thirty, looked full six years younger, despite her widow's cap. " I have been thinking, Rose," resumed the elder lady, after a short pause, during which she continued pacing the room most assiduously, " I have been thinking, that if we were to settle j near some large town, I could give lessons in music and singing : my voice is as good as ever it was — listen •" and, seating herself at a small cottage piano, she began to execute some difficult solfeggi in a rich clear soprano, with a degree of ease and grace which proved her to be a finished singer; and, apparently carried away by the feeling the music had excited, she allowed her voice to flow, as it were unconsciously, into the words of an Italian song, which she continued for some moments, without noticing a look of pain which shot across her daughter's pale features.

At length, suddenly breaking off, she exclaimed in a voice broken with emotion, "Ah! what am I singings' and, burying her face in her handkerchief, she burst into a flood of tears • — it had been her husband's favourite song. Recovering herself more quickly than from the violence of her grief might have been expected, she was about to resume her walk, when, observing for the first time the expression of her daughter's face, she sprang towards her, and placing her arm caressingly round her waist, kissed her tenderly, exclaiming in a tone of the fondest affection, " Rose, my own darling, I have distressed you by my heedlessness, but I forget everything now ! " She paused ; then added, in a calmer tone, " Really, love, I have been thinking seriously of what I said just now about teaching ; — if I could but get a sufficient number of pupils, it would be much better than allowing you to go out as governess ; for we could live together then ; and I know I shall never be able to part with yon.

Besides, you would be miserable, managing naughty children all day long — throwing away your talents on a set of stupid little wretches, — such drudgery would ennui you to death." " And do you think, mamma, that I could be content to live in idleness, and allow you to work for my support 1 " replied Rose, while a faint smile played over her expressive features. " Oh, no ! Lewis will try to obtain some appointment ; you shall live with him, and keep his house, while I go out as governess for a few years ; and we must save all we can, until w*e are rich enough to live together again." " And, perhaps, some day we may be able to come back and take the dear old cottage, if Lewis is very lucky, and should make a fortune," returned Mrs. Arundel. " How shall wo be able to bear to leave it ! " she added, glancing round the room regretfully.

OR, THE RAILROAD OP LIFE. 3 " How, indeed !" replied Rose, with a sigh ■ "but it must be done. — Lewis will not feel it as we shall, — he has been away so long." " It seems an age," resumed Mrs. Arundel, musing ; " How old was he when he left Westminster V " Sixteen, was he not?" replied Rose. " And he has been at Bonn three years. — Why, Rose, he must be a man by this time ! " " Mr. Frere wrote us word he was the taller of the two by half a head last year, if you recollect," returned Rose. " Hark !" exclaimed Mrs. Arundel, starting up, and going to the window, which opened in the French fashion upon a small flower-garden. As she spoke, the gate-bell rang smartly, and in another moment the person outside, having apparently caught sight of the figure at the window, sprang lightly over the paling, crossed the lawn in a couple of bounds, and ere the slave of the bell had answered its impatient summons, Lewis was in his mother's arms.

After the first greeting, in which smiles and tears had mingled in strange fellowship, Mrs. Arundel drew her son towards a table, on which a lamp was burning, saying as she did so, ■" Why, Rose, can this be our Uttle Lewis _ He is as tall as a grenadier ! — Heads up, sir ! — Attention ! — You are going to be inspected. Do you remember when the old sergeant used to drill us all, and wanted to teach Rose to fence V Smiling at his mother's caprice, Lewis Arundel drew himself up to his full height, and, placing his back against the wall, stood in the attitude of a soldier on parade — his head just touching the frame of a picture which hung above him. The light of the lamp shone full upon the spot where he had stationed himself, displaying a face and figure on which a mother's eye might well rest with pride and admiration.

Considerably above the middle height, his figure was slender, but singularly graceful ; his head small, and intellectual-looking. The features, exquisitely formed, were, if anything, too delicately cut, and regular ; which, together with a brilliant complexion, and long silken eyelashes, tended to impart an almost feminine character to his beauty. The expression of his face, however, effectually counteracted any such tendency ; no one could observe the flashing of the dark eyes, the sarcastic curl of the short upper-lip, the curved nostril slightly drawn back, the stern resolution of the knitted brow, \ without tracing signs of pride unbroken, stormy feelings and passions unsubdued, and an iron will, which, according as it might be directed, must prove all-powerful for good or evil. His hair, which he wore somewhat long, was, like his mother's, of that jet black colour characteristic of the inhabitants of a southern clime rather than of the descendants of the fair-haired Saxons, while a soft down of the same dark hue as his clustering curls, fringed the sides of his face, affording promise of a goodly crop of whiskers.

Despite the differences of feature and ex pression — and they were great, — there was a decided resemblance between the brother and sister, and the same indescribable charm, which made it next to impossible to watch Rose Arundel without lovina her, shed its sunshine also over Lewis's face when he smiled. After surveying her son attentively, with eyes which sparkled with surprise and pleasure, Mrs. Arundel exclaimed, " Why, how the boy is altered ! Is he not improved, Rose _" As she spoke, she involuntarily glanced from Lewis to the picture under which he stood. It was a half-length portrait of a young man, in what appeared to be some foreign uniform, the hand resting on the hilt of a cavalry sabre. The features, though scarcely so hand some, were strikingly like those of Lewis Arundel, the greatest difference being in the expression, which was more joyous, and that the hair in the portrait was of a rich brown instead of black.

After comparing the two for a moment, Mrs. Arundel attempted to speak, but her voice sailing from emotion, she burst into tears, and hastily left the room. "Why, Rose, what is its' exclaimed Lewis in surprise; "is my mother ill 1 " " No ; it is your likeness to that picture, Lewis love, that has overcome her : you know it is a portrait of our dearest father " (her voice faltered as she pronounced his name), " taken just after they were married, I believe." Lewis regarded the picture attentively, then averting his head as if he could not bear that even Rose should witness his grief, he threw himself on a sofa, and concealed his face with his hands. Recovering himself almost immediately, he drew his sister gently towards him, and placing her beside him, asked, as he stroked her glossy hair, " Rose, dearest, how is it that I was not informed of our poor father's illness .

Surely a letter must have miscarried !" " Did not mamma explain to you, then, how sudden it was?" " Not a word ; she only wrote a few hurried lines, leading me to prepare for a great shock ; then told me that my father was dead ; and entreating me to return immediately, broke off abruptly, saying she could write no more." " Poor mamma ! she was quite overcome by her grief, and yet she was so excited, and so anxious to save me, she would do everything herself. I wished her to let me write to you, but she objected, and I was afraid of annoying her." " It was most unfortunate," returned Lewis ; " in her hurry she misdirected the letter ; and, as I told you when I wrote, I was from home at the time, and did not receive it till three weeks after it should have reached me. I was at a rifle match got up by some of the students, and had just gained the prize, a pair of silver-mounted pistols, when her letter was put into my hand.

Fancy receiving such news in a scene of gaiety !" " How exquisitely painful ! My poor brother ! " said Rose, while the tears she could no longer repress dimmed her bright eyes. After a moment she continued, " But I was going to tell you, — it was more than a month ago — poor papa had walked over to Warlington to negotiate about selling one of his paintings. — Did you know that he had lately made his talent for painting serve as a means of adding to our income J" " Richard Frere told me of it last year," replied Lewis. " Oh yes, Mr. Frere was kind enough to get introductions to several picture dealers, and was of the greatest use," continued Rose. " Well, when papa came in, he looked tired and harassed ; and in answer to my questions, he said he had received intel ligence which had excited him a good deal, and added something about being called upon to take a very important step.

I left him to fetch a glass of wine, and when I returned, to my horror, his head was leaning forward on his breast, and he was both speechless and insensible. We instantly sent for the nearest medical man, but it was of no use ; he pronounced it to be congestion of the brain, and gave us no hope : his opinion was but too correct ; my dear father never spoke again, and in less than six hours all was over." " How dreadful ! " murmured Lewis ; " My poor Rose, how shocked you must have been ! " — After a few minutes' silence he ; continued, "And what was this news which produced such an effect upon my father ? " "Strange to say," replied Rose, "we have not the slightest notion. No letter or other paper has been found which could at all account for it, nor can we learn that papa met any one at Warlington likely to have brought him news.

The only clue we have been able to gain is, that Mr. Bowing, who keeps the library there, remarked that papa came in as usual to look at the daily papers, and as he was reading, suddenly uttered an ex clamation of surprise, and put his hand to his brow. Mr. Bowing was about to inquire whether any thing was the matter, when he was called away to attend to a customer ; and when he was again at liberty papa had left the shop. Mr. Bowing sent us the paper afterwards, but neither mamma nor I could discover in it any thing we could imagine at all likely to have affected papa so strongly." " How singular !" returned Lewis, musing; "What could it possibly have been . You say my father's papers have been examined ?" " Yes, mamma wrote to Mr. Coke, papa's man of business in London, and he came down directly, but nothing appeared to throw any light on the matter.

Papa had not even made a will." She paused to dry the tears which had flowed copiously during this narration, then continued, " But oh ! Lewis, do you know we are so very, very poor ?" " I suspected as much, dear Rose ; I knew my father's was a life income. But why speak in such a melancholy tone 1 surely my sister has not grown mercenary 1 " " Scarcely that, I hope," returned Rose, smiling ; " but there is some difference between being mercenary, and regretting that we are so poor that we shall be unable to live together ; is there not, Lewis dear?" "Unable to live together!" repeated Lewis slowly; "Yes, well, I may of course be obliged to leave you, but I shall not accept any employment which will necessitate my quitting England, so I shall often come and take a peep at you." " Oh ! but Lewis love, it is worse than that — we shall not be able to — Hush ! here comes mamma ; we will talk about this another time."

" Why, Lewis," exclaimed Mrs. Arundel, entering the room with a light elastic step, without a trace of her late emotion visible on her animated countenance, " what is this _ here's Rachel complaining that you have brought a wild beast with you, which has eaten up all the tea-cakes." " Let alone fright'ning the blessed cat so that she's flowed up the chimley like a whirlpool, and me a'most in fits all the time, the brute ! But I'll not sleep in the house with it, to be de voured like a cannibal in my quiet bed, if there was not another sitivation in Sussex !" — And here Rachel, a stout serving woman, with a face which, sufficiently red by nature, had become the deepest crimson from fear and anger, burst into a flood of tears, which, mingling with a tolerably thick deposit of soot, acquired during the hurried rise and progress of the outraged cat, im parted to her the appearance of some pieballed variety of female Ethiopian Serenade!*.

" Rachel, have you forgotten me ? " inquired Lewis, as soon as he could speak for laughing : " What are you crying about 1 You are not so silly as to be afraid of a dog 1 Here, Faust, where are you V As he spoke, he uttered a low peculiar whistle ; and in obedience to his signal, a magnificent Livonian wolf hound, which bore sufficient likeness to the animal it was trained to destroy to have alarmed a more discriminating zoologist than poor Rachel, sprang into the room, and, delighted at rejoining his master, began to testify his joy so roughly, as not only to raise the terror of that damsel to screaming point, but to cause Mrs. Arundel to interpose a chair between herself and the intruder, while Rose, pale but silent, shrank timidly into a corner of the apartment. In an instant the expression of Lewis's face changed ; his brow contracted, his mouth grew stern, and fixing his flashing eyes upon those of the dog, he uttered in a deep low voice some German word of command ; and as he spoke, the animal dropped at his feet, where it crouched in a suppliant attitude, gazing wistfully at his master's countenance, without offering to move.

" You need not have erected a barricade to defend yourself, my dear mother," said Lewis, as a smile chased the cloud which had for a moment shaded his features ; " the monster is soon quelled. Rose, you must learn to love Faust — he is my second self; come and stroke him." Thus exhorted, Rose approached, and patted the dog's shaggy head, at first timidly, but more boldly when she found that he still retained his crouching posture, merely repaying her caresses ; by fixing his bright truthful eyes upon her face lovingly, and licking his lips with his long red tongue. " Now, Rachel," continued Lewis, " it is your turn ; come, I must have you good friends with Faust." " No, I'm much obliged to you, sir, I couldn't do it, indeed, — no disrespect to you, Mr. Lewis, though you have growed a man in foreign parts.

I may be a servant of all work, but I didn't engage myself to look after wild beastes, sir. No ! nor wouldn't, if you was to double my wages, and put the washin out — I can't abear them." " Foolish girl ! it's the most good-natured dog in the world. Here, he'll give you his paw ; come and shake hands with him." " I couldn't do it, sir ; I'm jest a-going to set the tea-things. I won't, then, that's flat," exclaimed Rachel, waxing rebellious in the extremity of her terror, and backing rapidly towards the door. " Yes, you will," returned Lewis quietly, " every one does as I bid them ;" and, grasping her wrist, while he fixed his piercing glance sternly upon her, he led her up to the dog, and in spite of a faint show of resistance, a half-frightened half-indignant " I dare say, indeed," and a muttered hint of her conviction, " that he had lately been accustomed to drive black nigger slaves in Guinea," with an intimation " that he'd find white flesh and blood wouldn't stand it, and didn't ought to, neither," succeeded in making* her shake its great paw, and finally, (as she perceived no symptoms of the humanivorous propensities with which her imagination had endowed it,) pat its shaggy sides.

" There, now you've made up your quarrel, Faust shall help you to carry my things up stairs," said Lewis ; and slinging a small travelling valise round the dog's neck, he again addressed him in German, when the well-trained animal left the room, with the astonished but no longer refractory Rachel. " You must be a conjuror, Lewis," exclaimed his mother, who had remained a silent but amused spectator of the foregoing scene ; " why, Rachel manages the whole house. Rose and I do exactly what she tells us, don't we, Rose 1 What did you do to her ? was it mesmerism ?" " I made use of one of the secrets of the mesmerist, certainly," replied Lewis ; " I managed her by the power of a strong will over a weak one." " I should hardly call Rachel's a weak will," observed Rose, with a quiet smile. oyiayw^yi i_ y?

" You must confess, at all events, mine is a stronger," replied Lewis ; " when I consider it necessary to carry a point, I usually find some way of doing it ;— it was necessary for the sake of Faust's well-being to manage Rachel, and I did so." He spoke carelessly, but there was something in his bearing and manner which told of conscious power and inflexible resolution, and you felt instinctively that you were in the presence of a master-spirit. Tea made its appearance ; Rachel, upon whom the charm still appeared to operate, seeming in the highest possible good humour, — a frame of mind most unusual with that exemplary woman, who belonged to that trying class of servants who, on the strength of their high moral character and intense respectability, see fit to constitute themselves a kind of domestic scourges, household horse-hair shirts (if we may be allowed the expression), and, bent on fulfilling their mission to the enth, keep their martyred masters and mistresses in a constant state of mental soreness and irritation from morning till night.

Tea came, — the cakes demolished by the reprobate Faust in the agitation of his arrival (he was far too well-bred a dog to have done such a thing, had he had time for reflection) having been replaced by some marvellous impromptu resulting from Rachel's unhoped-for state of mind. The candles burned brightly; the fire (for though it was the end of May, a fire was still an agreeable companion) blazed and sparkled cheerily, but yet a gloom hung over the little party. One feeling was uppermost in each mind, and saddened every heart. He whom they had loved with a deep and tender affection, such as but few of us are so fortunate as to call forth, the kind and indulgent husband and father, the dear friend, rather than the master of that httle household, had been taken from amongst them ; and each word, each look, each thought of the past, each hope for the future, served to realize in its fullest bitterness the heavy loss they had sustained.

Happy are the dead whose virtues are chronicled, not on sculptured stone, but in the faithful hearts of those whom they have loved on earth ! During the evening, in the course of conversation, Mrs. Arundel again referred to the project of teaching music and sinking. Lewis made no remark on the matter at the tims, though his sister fancied, from his compressed lip and darkened brow, that it had not passed him unobserved. When the tw*o LEWIS AEUNDEL ; ladies were about to retire for the night, Lewis signed to his sister to remain ; and, having lighted his mother's candle, kissed her affectionately, and wished her good night, he closed the door. There was a moment's silence, which was broken by Lewis saying abruptly, " Rose, what did my mother mean about giving singing lessons?" " Dear unselfish mamma !