East Lynne

Front matter

Intending Subscribers can enter their names at all booksellers'. MRS. HENRY WOOD'S NOVELS. J^IEW I£SUE. ORDER OF APPEARANCE. East Lynn .... Now Ready. The Channinjs . . .In February, 1888. Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles . In March, 1888. The Shadow of Ashlydy^t . In April, 1888. Lord Oakburn's Dau^htirs . In May, 1888. Vern^r's Pr.de . . . .In June, 1S88. Roland Yorke . . . .In July, 1888. Johnny Ludlow . . .In August, 1888. Mildred Arkell . . • .In September, 1888. St. Martin's Eve . . .In October, 1888. Trevlyn Hold . . . .In November, 1888. George Canterbury's "Will . In December, 1888. tfallobJEti bg the succEcains &loxits at similar intm&als. Each Volume sold separately, in crown Svo, 3/6. Entire Sets of Mrs. Henrv Wood's Novels can also be obtained in the original Six-Shilling Edition (28 Volumes, 8 Guineas).

EAST LYNNE " Truly the heart is deceitful, and out of its depths of corruption Rise, like an exhalation, the misty phantoms of passion ; Angels of light they seem, but are only delusions of Satan. ******* This is the cross I must bear ; the sin and the swift retribution." Longfellow. N, EAST LYNNE r,y MRS. HENRY WOOD, AUTHOR OF "THE CHANNINGS," "JOHNNY LUDLOW," ETC, ETC. £Ivjo |^unUrtUt6 Œl)ousan"&. LONDON: RICHARD BE NT LEY AND SO publisljrrs in ©rtitrara to $cr fHajcstg tfjc ©uten. 1888. '.-I.'/ nyA's reserved?) LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. CONTENTS. PART THE FIRST. chapter tace I. The Lady Isabel ... ... ... ... i II. The Broken Cross ... ... ... ... 7 III. Barbara Hare ... ... ... ... ... 12 IV. The Moonlight Interview ... ... ... 21 V. Mr. Carlvle's Office ... ... ... ... 25 VI.

Richard Hare, the Younger ... ... 33 VII. Miss Carlyle at Home "... ■„ ... ... ... 43 VIII. Mr. Kane's Concert ... ... ... ... 4S IX. The Bats at the Window ... ... ... 54 X. The Keepers of the Dead ... ... ... 64 XI. The New Peer, and the Bank-note ... ... 73 XII. Life at Castle Marling ... ... .. S2 Xlls. Mr. Dill's Shaking ... ... ... ... go XIV. The Earl's Astonishment ... ... ... 100 XV. Coming Home ... ... ... ... ... 104 XVI. Barbara Hare's Revelation... ... ... 113 XVII. Death or Life ... ... ... ... ... 124 XVIII. Wilson's Cossip ... ... ... ... 130 XIX. Captain Thorn at West Lynne ... ... ... 136 PART THE SECOND. I. Going from Home ... ... ... ... 146 II. Francis Levison ... ... ... ... 151 III. Quitting the Danger ... ... ... ... 159 IV. The Fractured Axkle ... ... ... 164 V. Mrs. Hare's Dream ... ... ... ... 171 VI.

Chapter I. The Lady Isabel

In an easy chair of the spacious and handsome library of his town-house sat William, Earl of Mount Severn. His hair was grey, the smoothness of his expansive brow was defaced by premature wrinkles, and his once attractive face bore the pale, unmistakable look of dissipation. One of his feet was cased in folds of linen, as it rested on a soft velvet ottoman, speaking of gout as plainly as any foot ever spoke yet. It would seem— to look at the man as he sat there — that he had grown old before his time. And so he had. His years were barely nine-and-forty ; yet in all, save years, he was an aged man. A noted character had been the Earl of Mount Severn. Not that he had been a renowned politician, or a great general, or an eminent statesman, or even an active member of the Upper House : not for any of these had the earl's name been in the mouths of men.

But for the most reckless among the reckless, for the spendthrift among spendthrifts, for the gamester above all gamesters, and for a gay man outstripping the gay ; by these characteristics did the world know Lord Mount Severn. It was said his faults were those of the head ; that a better heart or more generous spirit never beat in human form ; and there was much truth in this. It had been well for him had he lived and died plain William Vane. Up to his five-and-twentieth year he had been industrious and steady, had kept his terms in the Temple, and studied late and early. The sober application of William Vane had been a byword with the embryo barristers around ; Judge Vane, they ironically called him, and they strove ineffectually to allure him away to idleness and pleasure. But young Vane was ambitious, and he knew that on his own talents and exertions must depend his rising in the world.

He was poor, of excellent family, but counting a relative in the old Earl of Mount Severn. The possibility of his succeeding to the earldom never occurred to him, for three healthy lives, two of them young, stood between him and the title. Yet those lives died off; one of apoplexy, one of fever in Africa, the third boating at Oxford ; and the young Temple student, William Vane, suddenly found himself Earl of Mount Severn, and the lawful possessor of sixty thousand a year. His first idea was, that he should never know how to spend his nioney : that such a sum, year by year, could not be spent. It was a East Lynne. wonder his head was not turned by adulation at the outset ; he was courted, flattered, and caressed by all classes. He became the most attractive man of his day ; for, independently of his newly-acquired wealth and title, he was of distinguished appearance and fascinating manners.

Unfortunately, the prudence which had sustained William Vane, the poor law student, in his solitary Temple chambers, utterly forsook William Vane, the young Earl of Mount Severn, and he com menced his career at a speed so great, that all staid people said he was going to ruin and the deuce headlong. But a peer of the realm, and one whose rent-roll is sixty thousand per annum, does not go to ruin in a day. There sat the earl in his library now, in his nine-and-sortieth year, and ruin had not come yet that is, it had not overwhelmed him. But the embarrassments which had clung to him and been the destruction of his tranquillity, the bane of his existence, who shall describe them ? The public knew them pretty well, his private friends better, his creditors best ; but none, except himself, knew, or could ever know, the torment that was his portion ; well-nigh driving him to distraction.

Years ago, by dint of looking things steadily in the face, and by economizing, he might have retrieved his position ; but he had done what most people will do in such cases — put off the evil day sine die, and gone on increasing his enormous list of debts. The hour of exposure and ruin was now fast advancing. Perhaps the earl himself was thinking so, as he sat there before an ominous mass of papers which strewed the library table. His thoughts were back in the past. That was a foolish marriage of his, that Gretna Green match for love, foolish so far as prudence went ; but the countess had been an affectionate wife to him, had borne with his follies and his neglect, and had been an admirable mother to their only child. One child alone had been theirs, and in her thirteenth year the countess had died.

If they had only been blessed with a son — the earl groaned over the long-continued disappointment still — he mi^ht then have seen a way out of his difficulties. The boy, as soon as he was of age, would have joined with him in cutting off the entail, and " My lord," said a servant, entering the room and interrupting the earl's castles in the air, " a gentleman is asking to see you." " Who is it ? " cried the earl, sharply, not perceiving the card the man was bringing. No unknown person, although wearing the externals of a foreign ambassador, was ever admitted unceremoniously to the presence of Lord Mount Severn. Years of duns had taught his servants caution. " His card is here, my lord. It is Mr. Carlyle, of West Lynne." " Mr. Carlyle, of West Lynne," groaned the earl, whose soot just then gave an awful twinge ; " what does he want ?

Show him up." The servant did as he was bid, and introduced Mr. Carlyle. He was a very tall man of seven-and-twenty, of remarkably noble presence. He was somewhat given to stooping his head when he spoke to any one shorter than himself ; it was a peculiar habit, almost to be called a bowing habit, and his father had possessed it before him ; when told of it, he would laugh, and say he was unconscious of doing it. His features were good, his complexion was pale and clear, his hair dark THE LADY ISABEL. 3 and his full eyelids drooped over his deep grey eyes. Altogether it was a countenance that both men and women liked to look upon, the index of an honourable, sincere nature ; not that it would have been called a handsome face so much as a pleasing and distinguished one. Though only the son of a country lawyer, and destined to be a lawyer himself, he had received the training of a gentleman, had been educated at Rugby, and taken his degree at Oxford.

He advanced at once to the earl in the straightforward way of a man who has come on business. " Mr. Carlyle," said the latter, holding out his hand — he was always deemed the most affable peer of the age — " I am happy to see you. You perceive I cannot rise ; at least without great pain and incon venience : my enemy, the gout, has possession of me again. Take a seat. Are you staying in town ? " " I have just arrived from West Lynne. The chief object of my journey was to see your lordship." " What can I do for you ? " asked the earl, uneasily, for a suspicion now crossed his mind that Mr. Carlyle might be acting for some one of his many troublesome creditors. Mr. Carlyle drew his chair nearer to the earl and spoke in a low tone. " A rumour has reached my ears, my lord, that East Lynne is in the market."

" A moment, sir," exclaimed the earl, reserve, not to say hauteur, in his tone, for his suspicions were gaining ground : " are we to converse confidentially together, as men of honour, or is there something con cealed behind, your question ? " " I do not understand you," said Mr. Carlyle. " In a word — excuse my speaking plainly, but I must feel my ground — are you here on the part of some of my rascally creditors, to pump information out of me that otherwise they would not obtain ? " " My lord," said the visitor, " I know that a lawyer gains credit for possessing lax notions on the score of honour, but you can scarcely suspect that I should be guilty of underhand work towards you. I never was guilty of a mean trick in my life, to my recollection, and I do not think I ever shall be." " Pardon me, Mr. Carlyle.

If you knew half the tricks and ruses played upon me, you would not wonder at my suspecting the whole world. Proceed with your business." " I heard that East Lynne was privately for sale : your agent dropped half a word to me in confidence. If so, I should wish to be the pur chaser." " For whom ? " inquired the earl. " Myself." " You ! " laughed the earl. " Egad ! lawyering can't be such bad work, Carlyle." " Nor is it," rejoined Mr. Carlyle, "with an extensive first-class con nexion, such as ours. But you must remember that a good fortune was left me by my uncle, and a large one by my father." " I know. The proceeds of lawyering also." " Not altogether. My mother brought a fortune on her marriage, and it enabled my father to speculate successfully. I have been looking put for an eligible property to invest some money upon, and East Lynne will suit me well, provided I can have the refusal of it, and we agree about terms." , Lord Mount Severn mused for a few moments before he sp0ke- , " Mr. Carlyle," he began, " my affairs are in a very bad state, ana ready money I must find somewhere.

Now, East Lynne is not entailea ; neither is it mortgaged to anything like its value, though the latter tact, as you may imagine, is not patent to the world. When I bought it a bargain, eighteen years ago, you were the lawyer on the other side, I remember." . " My father," smiled Mr. Carlyle. " I was a child at the time. " Of course : I ought to have said your father. By selling East Lynne, a few thousands will come into my hands, after all claims on it are settled ; I have no other means of raising the wind, and that is why I have resolved to part with it. But now, understand : if it were known abroad that East Lynne is going from me, I should have a hornet's nest about my ears : so that it must be disposed of, as you have just remarked, privately. Do you comprehend ? " " Perfectly," replied Mr. Carlyle.

" I would as soon you bought it as any one else, if, as you say, we can agree about terms." " What does your lordship expect for it — at a rough estimate ?" " For particulars I must refer you to my men of business, Warburton and Ware. Not less than seventy thousand pounds." " Too much, my lord," cried Mr. Carlyle, decisively. " And that's not its value," returned the earl. " These forced sales never do fetch their value," answered the plainspeaking lawyer. " I had thought, until this hint was given me by Beauchamp, that East Lynne was settled on your lordship's daughter." " There's nothing settled on her," rejoined the earl, the contraction on his brow standing out more plainly. " That comes of your thoughtless, runaway marriages. I fell in love with General Conway's daughter, and she ran away with me, like a fool : that is, we were fools together for our pains.

The general objected to me ; and said I must sow my wild oats before he would give me Mary : so I took her to Gretna Green, and she became Countess of Mount Severn, without a settlement. It was an unfortunate affair, taking one thing with another. When her elopement was made known to the general, it killed him." " Killed him ! " interrupted Mr. Carlyle. " It did. He had disease of the heart, and the excitement brought on the crisis. My poor wife never was happy from that hour : she blamed herself for her father's death ; and I believe it led to her own. She was ill for years : the doctors called it consumption ; but it was more like a wasting insensibly away, and consumption had never been in her family. No luck ever attends runaway marriages : I have noticed it since, in many, many instances : something bad is sure to turn un from it."

" There might have been a settlement executed after the marriage » observed Mr. Carlyle, for the earl had stopped, and seemed lost1 in thought. " I know there might : but there was not. My wife had possessed no fortune ; I was already deep in my career of extravagance ; and THE LADY ISABEL. 5 neither os us thought of making provision for our future children : or, if we thought of it, we did not do it. There is an old saying, Mr. Carlyle, that what may be done at any time, is never done at all." Mr. Carlyle bowed. " So my child is portionless," resumed the earl, with a suppressed sigh. " The thought that it may be an embarrassing thing for her, were I to die before she is settled in life, crosses my mind when I am in a serious mood. That she will marry well there is little doubt, for she possesses beauty in a rare degree, and has been reared as an English girl should be, not to frivolity and foppery.

She was trained by her mother, who (except for the mad act which she was persuaded into by me) was all goodness and refinement, sor the first twelve years of her life, and, since then, by an admirable governess. No fear that she will be decamping to Gretna Green." " She was a very lovely child," observed the lawyer. " I remember that." "Ay; you have seen her at East Lynne, in her mother's lifetime. But, to return to business. If you become the purchaser of the East Lynne estate, Mr. Carlyle, it must be under the rose. The money that it brings, after paying off the mortgage, I must have, as I tell you, sor my private use ; and you know I should not be able to touch a farthing of it, if the confounded public got an inkling of the transfer. In the eyes of the world, the proprietor of East Lynne must still be Lord Mount Severn — at least for some little time afterwards.

Perhaps you will not object to that ? " Mr. Carlyle considered before replying : and then the conversation was resumed, when it was decided that he should see Warburton and Ware the first thing in the morning, and confer with them. It was growing late when he rose to leave. " Stay and dine with me," said the earl. Mr. Carlyle hesitated, and looked down at his dress : plain, gentlemanly morning attire, but certainly not dinner costume for a peer's table. " Oh, that's nothing," said the earl ; " we shall be quite alone, except my daughter. Mrs. Vane, of Castle Marling, is staying with us ; she came up to present my child at the last Drawing-room, but I think I heard something about her dining out to-day. If not, we will have it by ourselves here. Oblige me by touching the bell, Mr. Carlyle, and set the trouble down to the score of my unfortunate foot."

The servant entered. " Inquire whether Mrs. Vane dines at home," said the earl. " Mrs. Vane dines out, my lord," was the man's immediate reply. " The carriage is at the door now, waiting to take her." " Very well. Mr. Carlyle remains." At seven o'clock dinner was announced, and the earl was wheeled into the adjoining room. As he and Mr. Carlyle entered it at one door, some one else came in by the opposite one. Who — what — was it ? Mr. Carlyle looked, not quite sure whether it was a human being : he almost thought it more like an angel. A light, graceful, girlish form, a face of surpassing beauty, beauty that is rarely seen, save from the imagination of a painter, dark shining curls falling on her neck and shoulders smooth as a child's, fair delicate arms decorated with pearls, and a flowing dress of costly white lace.

Altogether the vision did indeed look to the lawyer as one from a fairer world than this. " My daughter, Mr. Cariyle ; the Lady Isabel." They took their seats at the table. Lord Mount Severn at its head, in spite of his gout and his footstool, and the young lady and Mr. Carlyle opposite each other. Mr. Carlyle had not deemed himself an especial admirer of woman's beauty, but the extraordinary loveliness of the young girl before him almost took away his senses and his self possession. It was not so much the perfect contour of the exquisite features that struck him, or the rich damask of the delicate cheek, or the luxuriant falling hair ; no, it was the sweet expression of the soft dark eyes. Never in his life had he seen eyes so pleasing. He could not withhold his gaze from her, and he became conscious, as he grew more familiar with her face, that there was in its character a sad, sorrowful look.

Only at times was it to be noticed, when the features were in repose, and it lay chiefly in the very eyes he was admiring. Never does this unconsciously mournful expression exist, but it is a sure index of sorrow and suffering ; but Mr. Carlyle understood it not. And who could connect sorrow with the anticipated brilliant future of Isabel Vane? " Isabel," observed the earl, "you are dressed." " Yes, papa. Not to keep old Mrs. Levison waiting tea. She likes to take it early, and I know Mrs. Vane must have kept her waiting dinner. It was past six when she drove from here." " I hope you will not be late to-night, Isabel." " It depends upon Mrs. Vane." " Then I am sure you will be. When young ladies, in this fashion able world of ours, turn night into day, it is a bad thing for their roses. What say you, Mr. Carlyle?"

Mr. Carlyle glanced at the roses on the cheeks opposite to him ; they looked too fresh and bright to fade lightly. At the conclusion of dinner, a maid entered the room with a white cashmere mantle, placing it over the shoulders of her young lady as she said the carriage was waiting. Lady Isabel advanced to the earl. " Good-bye, papa." " Good-night, my love," he answered, drawing her towards him and kissing her sweet face. " Tell Mrs. Vane I will not have you kept out until morning hours : you are only a child yet. Mr. Carlyle, will you ring ? I am debarred from seeing my daughter to the carria°-e." " If your lordship will allow me— if Lady Isabel will pardon the attendance of one little used to wait upon young ladies, I shall be proud to see her to her carriage," was the somewhat confused answer of Mr. Carlyle, as he touched the bell.

The earl thanked him, the young lady smiled, and Mr. Carlyle con ducted her down the broad lighted staircase, stood bareheaded bv the door of the luxurious chariot, and handed her in. She put out her hand in her frank, pleasant manner, as she wished him good-ni°-ht The carriage rolled on its way, and Mr. Carlyle returned to the ears " Well, is she not a handsome girl ? " he demanded. THE BROKEN CROSS. 7 " Handsome is not the word for beauty such as hers," was Mr. Carlyle's reply, in a low warm tone. " I never saw a face half so beautiful." " She caused quite a sensation at the Drawing-room last week— as I hear. This everlasting gout kept me in-doors all day. And she is as good as she is beautiful." The earl was not partial. Lady Isabel was wondrously gifted by nature, not only in mind and person, but in heart.

She was as little hke a fashionable young lady as it was well possible to be, partly because she had hitherto been secluded from the great world, partly from the care bestowed upon her training. During the lifetime of her mother, she had lived occasionally at East Lynne, but chiefly at a larger seat of the earl's in Wales, Alount Severn : since her mother's death, she had remained entirely at Mount Severn, under the charge of a judicious governess, a very small establishment being kept up for them, and the earl paying them impromptu and flying visits. Generous and benevolent was she ; timid and sensitive to a degree ; gentle and considerate to all. Do not cavil at her being thus praised : admire and love her whilst you may ; she is worthy of it now, in her innocent girlhood ; the time will come when such praise would be misplaced.

Could the fate, that was to overtake his child, have been foreseen by the earl, he would have struck her down to death, in his love, as she stood before him, rather than suffer her to enter upon it.

Chapter II. The Broken Cross

Lady Isabel's carriage continued its way, and deposited her at the residence of Mrs. Levison. Mrs. Levison was nearly eighty years of age, and very severe in speech and manner ; or, as Mrs. Vane expressed it, "crabbed." She looked the image of impatience when Isabel entered, with her cap pushed awry as she pulled at her black satin gown, for Mrs. Vane had kept her waiting dinner, and Isabel was keeping her from her tea : and that does not agree with the aged, with their health or their temper. " I fear I am late," exclaimed Lady Isabel, as she advanced to Mrs. Levison ; " but a gentleman dined with papa to-day, and it made us rather longer at table." " You are twenty-five minutes behind your time," cried the old lady, sharply, " and I want my tea. Emma, order it in." Mrs. Vane rang the bell, and did as she was bid.

She was a little woman of six-and-twenty, very plain in face, but elegant in figure, vastly accomplished, and vain to her fingers' ends. Her mother, who was dead, had been Mrs. Levison's daughter, and her husband, Raymond Vane, was heir presumptive to the earldom of Mount Severn. " Won't you take off that tippet, child ? " asked Mrs. Levison, who knew nothing of the new-fashioned names for such articles ; mantle, bernous, and the whole string of them. Isabel threw it off, and sat down by her. "The tea is not made, grandmamma ! " exclaimed Mrs. Vane, . in an accent of astonishment, as the servants appeared with the tray the silver urn. " You surely do not have it made in the room . " Where should I have it made ? " inquired Mrs. Levison. )( " It is much more convenient to have it brought in ready made, said Mrs. Vane.

" I dislike the embarras of making it. "Indeed ! " was the reply of the old lady ; " and get it slopped over in the saucers, and as cold as milk ! You always were lazy, Emma and ahvays given to those French words I'd rather stick a printed label on my forehead, for my part, ' I speak French,' and let the world know it that way." , , . " Who makes tea for you in general ? " asked Mrs. Vane, telegraphing a contemptuous grimace to Isabel behind her grandmother. But the eyes of Lady Isabel fell timidly, and a blush rose to her cheeks. She did not like to appear to differ from Mrs. Vane, her senior, and her father's guest ; but her mind revolted at the bare idea of ingratitude or ridicule cast to an aged parent. " Harriet comes in and makes it for me," replied Mrs. Levison : "ay, and sits down and takes it with me when I am alone, which is pretty often.

What do you say to that, Madame Emma ; you, with your fine notions ? " " Just as you please, of course, grandmamma." " And there's the tea caddy at your elbow, and the urn's fizzing away, and if we are to have any tea to-night, it had better be made at once." " I don't know how much to put in," grumbled Mrs. Vane, who had the greatest horror of soiling her hands or her gloves : who, in short, had a particular antipathy to doing anything useful. "Shall I make it, dear Mrs. Levison?" said Isabel, rising with alacrity. " I used to make it at Mount Severn, and I make it sor papa." " Do, child," replied the old lady. " You are worth ten of her." Isabel laughed merrily, drew off her gloves, and sat down to the table : and at that moment a young and elegant man lounged into the room. He was considered handsome, with his clearly-cut features, his dark eyes, his raven hair, and his white teeth ; but, to a keen observer, those features had not an attractive expression, and the dark eyes had a habit of looking away while he spoke to you.

It was Francis, Captain Levison. He was grandson to the old lady, and first cousin to Mrs. Vane. Few men were so fascinating in manners (at times and seasons), in face, and in form ; few men won so completely upon their hearers' ears, and few were so heartless in their heart of hearts. The world courted him, and society honoured him : for, though he was a graceless spendthrift, and it was known that he was so, he was heir presumptive to the old and rich Sir Peter Levison. The ancient lady spoke up. " Captain Levison ; Lady Isabel Vane." They both acknowledged the introduction : and Isabel, a child yet in the ways of the world, blushed crimson at the admiring looks cast upon her by the young Guardsman. Strange— strange that she should make the acquaintance of those two men in the same day, almost in the same hour : the two, of all the human race, who were to exercise so powerful an influence over her future life !