Quits; a novel

Chapter I. Page

In the midst of Life we are in Death . 1 CHAPTEE II. A Short Pedigree . . . . . . 10

CHAPTER IIL

Down the Rhine and up the Thames . . 26

CHAPTER IV.

Leonora Nixon lands, — and forthwith finds a Guardian 33

CHAPTER V.

The Willows 52

CHAPTER VI.

An Enemy procures Leonora an English Home. 65

CHAPTER VII.

A City Uncle VI CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII. TAGE

How- Leonora's Name came to be shortened . 105

CHAPTER IX.

A Practical Lesson on the Force of Habit . 120

CHAPTER X.

Arrival of, an Addition? or, an Acquisition? 132

CHAPTER XL

Battledore and Shuttlecock . . .151

CHAPTER XII.

To Marry, — or not to Marry, — that is the Question 176

CHAPTER XIII.

All Serene 199

CHAPTER XIV.

Seven years later 210

CHAPTER XV.

Return to Germany after Ten Years' Absence 225

CHAPTER XVI.

First Mountain Excursion attempted by the Nixon Family QUITS!

CHAPTER I.

in the midst of life we are in death. The bell of the steamer tolled. A hissing sound of escaping vapour, and the gradual cessation of even the slight motion of a Rhine boat, informed the passengers that they had reached their destination for the night, and induced those who had taken refuge in the cabins from the heat of a July afternoon to commence a tumultuous rush on deck. Stretched on one of the sofas in what is called the pavilion, and perfectly unmoved by the bustle around him, lay a young Englishman, apparently in a pre carious state of health, and in such very deep mourning that some inquisitive tourists took the trouble to make inquiries about him, and, without much difficulty, discovered that he was a nobleman returning home to take possession of his estates on the death of his father.

Yet great as had been the attention lavished on him during the day by VOL. I. B most of the English travellers who had become acquainted with his name and rank, they now all hurried past him without word or look, so wholly intent were they on securing their luggage, and ob taining apartments at the usually crowded hotels. Two persons who had entered the steam-boat but a couple of hours previously, stopped, however, at the door, looked back and spoke to each other, but in tones so low, that no sound reached the invalid's ear, though, from the direction of their eyes, he had little doubt that he was himself the subject of discussion. Father and daughter they seemed to be, and had attracted his attention directly on their entrance, from the evident desire of both to remain unobserved.

The gentleman had the remains of considerable beauty of face and person, disfigured by an unusual degree of corpulence, which, how ever, he seemed in no way disposed to lessen, for during his short sojourn in the steam-boat he had left the pavilion no less than three times to strengthen and refresh himself with soup, beefsteak, and coffee, each time inviting his daughter to join him, and receiving for answer a quick shake of the head, followed, after he had left her, by a still closer drawing into the corner of the sofa, from which she never moved, and a pressing nearer to the adjacent window, while she raised towards it, to catch the waning light, a volume of Tauchnitz's edition of ' British Authors.' Perhaps this last circumstance, as much as the mysterious whisper ing of the travellers, had excited his lordship's curiosity, for he concluded that if she were not English, she at least understood the language, and perfectly too, as her quick reading and expressive changes of countenance proved beyond a doubt.

Certain it is that his eyes had seldom wandered from the face of the young girl from the moment of her entrance ; and a charming youthful face it was, with its small undefined nose, lustrous black eyes, well-formed mouth, and high intellectual forehead partially covered by braids of raven hair. But it was the smile that had most of all attracted, for it was the brightest he had ever seen, and the more remarkable as the general expression of the countenance was pensive. She stood now leaning against the cabin door, while her father satisfactorily proclaimed his country, by offering, in very good English, to secure rooms for the invalid, in case he should reach the hotel before him. 'Thank you — you are very kind,' he replied, slowly rising, ' but as I have discovered that this boat goes on with us to-morrow, I have made arrangements for remaining in it.

Landing, or rather getting myself under way so early in the morning, fatigues me too much.' He advanced towards them while speaking, and then followed them up the stairs to the deck, where their perfect composure during the scene of con fusion that ensued, proved them to be experienced travellers. They exhibited none of the anxiety about their luggage, that put the whole ship's com pany into commotion when the tarpaulin was removed, which had during the day-time covered the innumerable trunks, boxes, bags, and portman teaux that had lain heaped together, not a few, as is usual on such occasions, without an address, or even the name of the proprietor. It seemed as if each individual expected at once to have his pro perty, and the murmuring, growling voices of the men mixed strangely with the sharp, impatient tones of the women.

Many, though surrounded by packages of all kinds and dimensions, neither trusting their eyes nor memories, imagined that something must still be failing, and eagerly watched each piece of luggage as it was drawn forward, while the different emissaries from the hotels thrust cards into their hands, and vociferated recommenda tions into their bewildered ears. Some oddly shaped cases, that seemed to have once belonged to a carriage, were pointed out with a silent gesture by the Englishman, and then instantly seized by the nearest porters, while he turned to the invalid, and, taking off his hat, politely hoped to have the pleasure of seeing him the next day. A few minutes afterwards, he and his daughter disap peared in the long procession of travellers, emis saries, porters, and truck-drivers, who hurried towards the different hotels.

An unusually brilliant sunset had left a bright orange-coloured sky that served to render the chief buildings of the town still conspicuous, and which, reflected in the broad tranquil river, gave the warmth of colouring and distinctness of outline to the numerous boats and their picturesque rigging that is supposed to be peculiar to warmer climes. That recollections of similar places crowded on the memory of the traveller, as he stood alone near the rudder of the steam-boat, is possible, but not very probable, for Englishmen are not prone to medita tions on past scenes or scenery ; it is more likely that he was thinking of home, and what awaited him there, while his eyes followed slowly the golden ripple on the water, or rested in reverie on the lounging figures of the surrounding boatmen.

The colours of evening changed imperceptibly from violet to blue, from blue to grey ; but it was not until the landscape had faded in the twilight, and lights from the suburbs of the town began to glimmer redly through the intervening mist, that he turned away and descended to the pavilion. It is unnecessary to follow him. We have but to record that he was reminded of his dark-eyed countrywoman by finding the book she had been reading where she had probably placed it when putting on her bonnet. The name written on the yellow cover was 'Nixon,' and, though neither euphonious nor remarkable, it seemed to attract his attention in no common degree, for he repeated it several times, and then murmured, ' Surely a relation of ours married a man of the name of Nixon — yes — certainly, that was the name—^and it was Harry Darwin's mother — the man a mer chant, or something of that sort, who became a bankrupt, or — no — squandered his fortune and was obliged to live abroad— that was it.

Harry never liked speaking of his mother's second marriage or his stepfather ; however, I am rather surprised he did not mention this half-sister of his, whom he must have seen repeatedly, for before he began to live in his yacht, he was continually making excursions abroad, and especially to Germany. I wonder is this the man I mean ? My mother said he was a vulgar parvenu — parvenu he may be — vulgar he is not — and as to his daughter — one of whose grandmothers I strongly suspect to have been the black-eyed Susan of nautical celebrity — she is the nicest creature I have seen for an age, and may turn out to be a relation of ours. Let me see ; her maternal and my paternal grandfather having been brothers, we should be second cousins — or first cousins once removed — or third cousins — or — At all events the name is a sufficient pretext for commencing an acquaintance with both of them to-morrow, and that I shall certainly do.' At a very early hour the next morning most of the passengers of the preceding day, reinforced by many others, began to crowd noisily into the steam-boat; not one, however, descended to the cabin until long after the boat had left her moorings, and our traveller was given more than time to finish his breakfast in undisturbed solitude.

Tapping rather impatiently on Mr. or Miss Nixon's book, which he had placed beside him on the table, he awaited the entrance of a group of English who seemed to have chosen the stairs as the place for discussing the events of the previous night; and the words that he overheard proved them to have been of no common-place description : — ' Dreadful — awfully sudden — enormously stout man — looked apoplectic — must have taken place just after he went to bed — the body was quite cold when they broke open the door this morning — the poor girl fainted — I saw her being carried across the passage to her room.' With a degree of anxiety and in terest that surprised himself, he approached the speakers, and learned from them that Mr. Nixon, their fellow passenger of the previous day, had been found dead in his bed about half an hour before they had left the hotel. ' And is his poor daughter quite alone ?' he asked compassionately. ' It seems so, but really I had no time to make inquiries,' answered a gentleman, endeavouring to pass into the cabin. ' Oh I dare say the people at the hotel will do everything that is necessary,' observed a lady, apparently of a more inquisitive and communicative disposition ; ' and, at all events, the young lady seemed to me extremely well able to take care of herself under all circumstances.

We joined the table d'hote yesterday, when we found that we could not procure a sitting-room, for you know it is only Germans or French who can drink tea in a bed-room ! She and her father were not far distant from us, and my attention was attracted towards them by the variety and quantity of meat and sauces devoured by him in the course of half an hour. Poor man ! I did not know it would be his last dinner or supper, whichever he called it — nor he either, of course. But I must say, at a public table I should be sorry to see my daughters so perfectly at their ease as she seemed to be. The manner in which her father made acquaintance with all the people about him was quite extra ordinary, and the young lady joined in the con versation with a fluency scarcely becoming her years, and not at all English !' ' I wish,' said the invalid traveller, languidly, 'I wish I had gone on shore yesterday evening.

I might, perhaps, have been of use. Going back to the aw — aw — town, what's its name ? is aw — out of the question now, as my return home has already been provokingly protracted one way or another.' ' Yery kind of your lordship to feel so much interest about a stranger, ' rejoined the lady, ' but you may be assured the people at the hotel will pay the greatest attention to this Miss Nixon : my daughters were actually refused a room they par ticularly wished to have, in order to let her be near her papa, and the whole household was so occupied with her this morning that we came away without breakfast.' This seemed to have been the case with many other passengers also, and a clattering of cups and saucers, and a hurrying to and fro of waiters ensued, which apparently disturbed his lordship's meditations, for he went on deck and watched the swift motion of the steamer, as, aided alike by art and nature, it hurried forward with the stream : the water widening, the banks sinking, and wind mills serving as landmarks from the time they entered the territories of Holland.

Flow on, river, as you have done for ages ! press forward, steam-boat, to complete your daily task — forward as quickly as your impatient passengers can desire — there is but one among them who in the course of the day bestows a passing thought on the orphan girl whose sudden bereavement had that morning so unpleasantly reminded them that ' In the midst of life we are in death.'

Chapter II

A SHORT PEDIGREE. Though few people could be induced by the sudden death of a stranger at an hotel to protract their journey in order to be of service to the survivor — even supposing that person a young and helpless girl — a return to the town on the Rhine, and a short delay there with the daughter of Mr. Nixon, will scarcely be objected to by any humane novel reader. After the body of the deceased had been examined, and the cause of death ascertained, the civil authorities requested an interview with Miss Nixon, and questioned her respecting her parents, her age, her past life, and future prospects, ex hibiting very evident satisfaction on learning that she had two uncles in London, was related to the Earl of Medway, and had a step-brother who she described as being of no profession but a gentleman and a baronet.

On being advised to write to this brother without delay she was obliged to confess that she did not know his address — her mother had always sent her letters to him under cover to Lord Medway, who had been his guardian, and who had also managed all their English affairs for them. She had never corresponded with her uncles, but had written to inform Lord Medway of her mother's death, which had taken place some months previously, and she had received a very kind answer ; her brother also had written, but had not come to see them — he and her father had never been on good terms. These few particulars had been in a manner extorted from the poor girl, as, scarcely recovered from the shock she had so recently received, she leaned her head weeping on the table beside her ; but when, on being asked if she had money to defray her expenses to London, she silently pro duced a purse full of English sovereigns, they recommended her, without further hesitation, to the care of the landlady of the hotel, who was present; and after a whispered proposal to the latter to give her, in some more convenient place, the necessary directions about the interment of the Englishman, they all withdrew, and Leonora Nixon found her self, for the first time since she had known her bereavement, alone.

She instantly sat upright, pushed her dark hair from her pale face, seemed to listen intently to the sound of the retreating footsteps ; and, when silence was restored to the corridor, she rose, and mur muring the words, ' Once more — I must see him once more,' left the room, and ran quickly towards a door at the opposite side of the passage, which she opened with a precipitancy that proved the violence of feelings she had thought it necessary to control in the presence of strangers during the preceding hour. In the doorway, however, she stood amazed, at first incapable of uttering an articulate sound. No trace of her father was there ; the bed in which he had died was deprived of all its furniture, and a woman with water and a brush stood scouring the interior, as if death had infected the very boards.

Strips of carpet hung pendant at the wide-open windows, from which the curtains had been removed, and a housemaid was deluging the painted floor with fresh water, after having placed the chairs and tables in an adjoining room. Somewhat startled by Leonora's sudden appearance, the girl stopped her work, and leaned on her long-handled brush, while Leonora ad vanced, stammering, ' Where is — is — my — father ?' ' The room must be got ready for the steam-boat passengers this evening, miss,' answered the girl, evasively. -;., 'Where have they laid him?' she asked, with assumed calmness. ' Surely, miss, you don't want to see the corpse again after being so frightened this morning ?' ' I do wish to see it,' said Leonora, ' and you must take me to the room directly.' ' But I have got orders not to let any one into it until the coffin comes.' ' Such orders cannot concern me.

Give me the key, and I promise to bring it back to you in half an hour.' 'I must first ask the landlady,' said the girl, evidently impressed with involuntary respect by Leonora's decided manner; and passing her quickly, she was soon after heard speaking to her mistress at the other end of the passage. They then both advanced towards Leonora ; and after a few words of remonstrance on the part of the landlady, which of course made no sort of im pression, the latter proposed herself accompanying the orphan to take leave of the remains of her parent. They descended the stairs, traversed a broad corridor, and, to Leonora's infinite surprise, entered the ball-room. She looked round her with a bewildered air, while her companion slowly and reluctantly unlocked the door of an adjoining refreshment-room, and then silently pointed to a long table, where, stretched on a mattress, and covered with a linen cloth, the outline of a human figure could be distinguished.

The windows were open, but the green jalousies so arranged that little light fell on the features, uncovered with eager haste by Leonora's trem bling hand. If the landlady had dreaded being witness to a violent ebullition of grief, she was soon convinced that her apprehensions had been unnecessary. Large tears gathered slowly in the eyes of the youthful mourner, and fell heavily on the face of the dead :— alas ! that we should have to record they were the only tears likely to be shed for Frederick Nixon ! No bad criterion of our worth and usefulness in this world would be these tears, could they but be collected ; and not without deep meaning was the Roman lachrimatory and many funeral customs of other nations of antiquity. In the present civilised states of the world it has become a sort of maxim that of the dead we should only speak advantageously.

The Egyptians thought otherwise; and their post mortem trials, where every one was at liberty to accuse the deceased, and the defence alone de pended on the good will and affection of surviving friends and relations, may often have found a place in the thoughts of the living, and prevented many a sin of omission as well as commission. Not few would, in such a case, have been Fred erick Nixon's accusers, his sole defender the orphan girl, who, with the prospect of dependence on unknown relations before her, and uncertainty as to her reception among them, nevertheless sincerely mourned the parent who had squandered her in heritance and left her homeless. We regret the necessity of recording the story of his life, which, in its dismal details, is too common either to create interest or serve as warning.

His paternal pedigree had been of a more re spectable than brilliant description, until his father became a man of importance in the commercial world. This father had commenced his career in the manner hereditary in the family, that is, as shop-boy in his father's old established house in the city, and had wisely preserved through life a vivid recollection of having carried parcels to their destination, and considered it an honour when permitted, in his turn, to stand behind the counter and weigh sugar and spice for the' numerous cus tomers ; or, on receiving an ' order,' to make up with dexterous hand the various packages and consign them to the care of his successor in office, the attendant boy, who had been especially com manded to say ' Sir' to him. Being without brothers or sisters, he found himself, on the death of his parents, in possession, not only of an ex tensive business, but also a considerable sum of money : the latter he increased by a judicious marriage, and, being of an enterprising disposition, engaged in successful speculations during the war, which raised him to a state of opulence quite beyond his powers of enjoyment ; so that the accu mulated money amounted, by means of interest and compound interest, to sums of such magnitude that the shop was at length closed, and an emi gration commenced beyond the precincts of the city.

He had now an office and warehouses, and when death deprived him of his wife, he found no difficulty in obtaining the hand of one of the very handsome daughters of an Irish gentleman of wonderfully ancient family and distinguished poverty, whose name, preceded by the euphonious particle O, satisfactorily proved that he belonged to one of the illustrious races said to be of royal lineage. In the course of time, Mr. Nixon was made fully to comprehend that a name is by no means so insignificant a thing as Juliet Capulet supposed it to be; for his wife, ardently desiring to regain what she considered her proper position in the world, made many and desperate efforts to rise in the social scale, and, as a first step thereto, unceasingly endeavoured to induce her husband to remove to the ' West End.' From the house in Russell square, purchased and furnished at the time of their marriage, he could never be induced to move ; neither would he give up old friends or habits, and to the last day of his life continued proud of having been Lord Mayor, and gloried bond, fide in the title of alderman.

The two sons of his first wife, born and educated while he was still a hard-working man, acquired his tastes and habits, and in process of time be came his partners ; but the only son of his second wife, when rendered unmanageable at home by indulgence, had been consigned to the care of, — ' A clergyman, married, of much experience, with extensive premises at the West End,' who would ' receive into his family Eight Young Gen tlemen. The course of Instruction securing a solid preparation for the universities, &c. &c. &c. The treatment of the pupils truly parental.' Parental it was in one sense certainly, for parents are almost always careless instructors ; but while lazily construing Yirgil and Homer, Master Frederick grew healthy and handsome, and ac quired tastes, habits, and manners that his mother pronounced exquisite, and which raised expecta tions of future triumphs in life, the disappointment of which was spared her by an early death.

With half a dozen of the ' eight young gentlemen ' Frederick Nixon afterwards went to Oxford, where he proved notoriously idle and indolent. Good humoured and lavishly profuse in his expenditure, he was, however, universally called and considered a ' capital fellow,' and in this opinion his father probably concurred, for he paid his debts without expressing much astonishment at their amount, was easily convinced that his son's talents were more of a military than civil description, got a commission for him in the Guards, and dying soon afterwards used his plebeian privilege of dividing his fortune with perfect equality among his sons, thereby leaving them all well provided with what is but too generally considered the greatest blessing in life. The step-brothers, unlike in disposition, temper, education, and habits, dissolved partnership, and in the world of London seldom met again.

Fre derick, freed from all restraint, possessed of a large fortune and handsome person, fell at once into the disorderly, if not actually profligate, mode of life of his companions and nominal friends, and, without being worse than others, contrived to give himself an unpleasant kind of notoriety by the numerous foolish things he said, and did, to obtain tolerance, if not a position in society where a total want of connexion nevertheless ever caused him to feel himself isolated. His efforts to remedy this latter evil were unremitting, and at length partially suc- VOL. i. c cessful, when he persuaded Lady Darwin, the widow of a baronet of good family and daughter of an Honourable Augustus Thorpe, to become his wife. It is true, her cousin, the Earl of Medway, did not receive his new relative with any demonstration of satisfaction ; it was even said that he had openly pronounced him to be a weak-headed spendthrift, and given Lady Darwin to understand that, in consequence of her marriage, he should consider it necessary to send her only son (his ward) to school without further delay.

She resigned the youthful Harry to the care of his guardian, and perceived not at all the boy's gradual but total estrangement, as year after year he spent less of his holidays with her, and began completely to identify himself with the Medway family. Lady Darwin was still young and handsome, and for some years her career was as brilliant as apparently inexhaustible wealth could make it; but Frederick Nixon had, even before his marriage, considerably encroached upon his capital, which, placed in the Funds, was completely at his disposal ; and, totally averse to business of any kind, he continued to supply all deficiencies of income in the same manner. His wife, purposely kept in igno rance of the state of his affairs, thought not of making retrenchments ; and, in the course of time, was eager to plunge deeper into the dissipations of the world to escape from the society of her husband, who, after having frittered away a noble fortune in the vain pursuit of selfish pleasure and ostentation, began altogether to lose the good temper for which he had once been so remarkable.

He became irritable and restless, continually changing his place of residence, and relieving immediate want of money by the sale of one house, while incurring debt, at the same time, by the purchase of another ; and thus he struggled on until the crash, long fore seen by every one, took place ; when the sale of his effects, and his wife's resignation of thirty thousand pounds, his wedding gift to her, having satisfied his creditors, he was at liberty to retire to the continent, there to live on her jointure from her first marriage. They had lost many children while in England, but Leonora, born at a quiet town in Germany, during the time of their first fresh grief, lived ; and the change produced in their small household, and cares imposed on them by her birth, turned their thoughts into a new channel, and greatly alleviated their useless regrets.

While, however, Lady Darwin quickly resigned herself to her loss of fortune, and continued to devote herself exclu sively to her child, her husband, suffering intolerably from ennui, began, by degrees, to indulge in the roving propensities common to his countrymen when they have left England in search of a foreign home. As far as was possible, too, he fell into his former habits, and squandered, and wandered when and where he could during his wife's life-time. Her death, just as his daughter had attained her fifteenth year, left him and his child in a state of painful destitution, and to the two brothers he had so openly despised in the days of his prosperity, Frederick Nixon was at length obliged to apply for assistance. It was not refused ; each brother consented to give an annual sum of money for his support ; and in order to be near England in case of pecuniary difficulties, he had commenced a Rhine pilgrimage, uncertain where he should finally establish himself with his daughter, and contrive to live on an income, of the smallness of which he complained as only those do who have spent but never earned.

His faults and follies were alike forgotten by his mourning daughter, as she bent over the well known face, and drew towards her the cold stiff hand, that, but a few hours before, had, warm with life, pressed hers. The landlady's various move ments of impatience — jingling of keys, opening of windows, and displacing of furniture in the adjacent room — were unheeded by Leonora until she became conscious of the approach of two men, who, talking loudly, and walking heavily, carried between them a coffin of large dimensions. As they deposited it on the end of the table, they took off their caps and looked towards the landlady for orders. Leonora shuddered, and allowed herself to be led from the room without remonstrance, receiving a chilling sort of consolation from the assurance given her that her father should be interred with all the consideration due to his rank.