For Better, for Worse: a Romance of the Affections. Edited by E. Y

Preface

. The reader of this book will speedily perceive that my connexion with it has been confined to Avhat is technically termed " seeing it through the press," evidencing, as the writing does, an ac quaintance with feminine instincts, attri butes, and qualities such as is given to very few men. If there be, as I sincerely trust there is, a reaction from the feverish pursuit of sensation novels ; if the story of tolerably commonplace adventures — commonplace, that is to say, in the sense that they might and do occur to many in the daily round of ordinary life — be acceptable to VI

PREFACE.

. a portion of the enormous mass of library subscribers, I think that the proprietors Avill deserve thanks for having published this " Romance of the Affections," which is, to say the least of it, bright and whole some, natural and unaffected. Edmund Yates. London, December, 1803. CONTENTS TO VOL. I. CniPIER PAG3 I. FACING THE FUTURE 1 II. RETROSPECTIVE 0 III. FAMILT COUNSEL 32 IV. MOTHER AND SON 44 V. THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS . . 67 VI. MARGARET STARTS IN LIFE .... 79 VII. NEAVS FROM HOME 101 viii. ethie's avedding 115 IX. A LITTLE CLOUD 132 X. HOAIE 154 xi. Margaret's pupils 194 XII. A VISIT FROM RALPH 208 XIII. EALPH'S AVEDDING 218 XIV. GRACE LEARNS SOME FAMILT HISTORT 245 XV. THE WELCOME HOME 269 XVI. THE CARES OF STATE 282 xvn. ethelind's trials FOE BETTER, FOR WORSE

Chapter I. Facing The Future

The time was evening; the scene a small quiet garden, ivy-covered AA'alls shutting out everything belonging to the old city but the grey weather-stained toAver of the cathedral close beside it; the persons, a young man twenty-five years old, and a girl about a year younger, tall and slight, Avith pale oval face, dark hair, and deep earnest grey eyes. They Avere in earnest conversation. " It seems very hypocritical of me to talk of despising riches when so much happiness or misery apparently depends on their possession." " Perhaps, Ralph, it is the temptation againstAvhichAve are appointed to struggle. vol I. Every heart has its OAvn especial trial to pass through. We are poor, and so are always sighing for riches, in a vague belief they AArould give us the one thing Avanting to make us happy ; and yet Avith riches hoAv often comes the closing up of the heart against all its better and holier impulses!"

" I dare say, if the truth Avere told, poverty is not so great an evil as we are often led to believe. If Ave are obliged to calculate ways and means so narrowly, and debar ourselves from the pleasures and luxuries others indulge in, it is very good discipline for the heart ; it calls out energies Ave might not know we possessed had no motive arisen for exerting them." " I donot think I should feel sodispirited if I alone had to suffer ; but there is mama, Avho has seldom had a Avish un gratified, if' it Avere in papa's power to grant it, at however great the cost to himself; and Grace and Ethie, and poor Frank " "And yourself, Margaret. Why do you exclude yourself? If comparative WORSE. poverty is hard for them, it is equally so for you." " If I only felt certain they could live comfortably on Avhat my father Avas able to save, I could trust confidently to my OAvn future; I should at once Sfeek some employment Avhich Avould make me in dependent."

" You would go out as a governess, you mean, my dear Margaret." " There are many worse lots than a governess's, Ralph ; but I have feAv quali fications for such an office. Too much stress is laid on accomplishments now a-days, for me, with my matter-of-fact education, to be successful in such a calling. When I start in the Avorld on my own behalf, I must take a very sober course. The education of the heart and hands Avould be all I could attempt." " A village schoolmistress, for instance," Ralph Atherton said; and he laughed out, in spite of the grave serious face turned to his. " Oh, Maggie," he added, " you little calculate on all the clever things you would be expected to teach even in 1—2 the humble sphere your modesty has made you fix upon. There will be no end of government certificates, and ab struse studies enough to daunt a braver heart than yours, my little sister."

Margaret smiled as she looked up into his handsome face. " You should not despise my choice ; you do not knoAv how useful a one it may be : and even Avithout a government certificate, you will think of me for your school Avhen you get your curacy, Ralph?" " I will think of you as my housekeeper : you must live with me, Avherever my home may be, remember." " Once I used to dream of such a thing, and the idea ahvays came fraught Avith a thousand bright suggestions ; but, like many other dreams, that is over now. You must tret a curacv and a wife. I have my mother and sisters and Frank to care for." There was a silence for a few minutes, and then Ralph said, " I cannot quite see what is to be done about my mother and the girls. What do you propose, Margaret? or have you not yet thought seriously about it?"

" Oh, indeed, it seems the one thought never absent from my mind since our father's death. I think I told you the long conversation I had Avith him the night before he died. I Avas alone Avith him, and it seemed a relief to him to be able to tell me what he most wished us to do." " You mentioned that much, but you never told me more." " It has all been so hurried and sad," Margaret said, passing her hand Avearily across her brow, " I can hardly think of anything beyond the present moment. But he told me how greatly it had tried him that he could save so little for his Avise and children. Our mother's money has remained untouched, and accumu lating; and that, he hoped, with a curacy, would give you a fair start in life, and Avhere, if needs be, you might, for a time, share your home with Grace and Ethie.

His insurances, he hoped, Avith great care, AA'ould support my mother in such a way WORSE. as should make her regret least the com forts of the home she must iioav quit. His books and furniture Avould, he hoped, more than pay off his feAv debts; and he Avould trust to me to do my best for Frank until his pay in the Navy Avas sufficient for him to live on it, without the assistance he had hitherto given him. You knoAV, Ralph," she added, " how little my mother has been accustomed to struggle with difficulties : and seeing hoAv anxious my dear father seemed about her, I pro mised him, so far as I could, that she, my sisters, and Frank, should henceforth be my first consideration." " My father, I knoAv, ahvays had the greatest confidence in you, Margaret, but I am sure he never meant that you should entirely forget yourself in your anxiety for them and me."

" I have no anxiety for you, Ralph ; you are sure to get a curacy somewhere before long ; and that will be a home for Grace and Ethie, if need be. Frank will soon be able to shift for himself. You need not be unhappy about me ; a life of FOR BETTER, FOE AVORSE. activity is the only one I could endure at present: had it been left to choice, I should have chosen it." " And once it might have been so different for you !" This Avas said as if Ralph Avere rather thinking aloud than address ing his sister, round Avhose Avaist he fondly passed his arm and dreAv her close to his side. Margaret looked up into his face. "Hush, Ralph, do not say so; it is better as it is noAV," she said, in a low tone. They had reached the little door in the Avail, half hidden by the ivy Avhich trailed over it. A narroAv lane divided the garden from the cathedral cloisters.

Margaret slipped back the bolt, closed the door behind them, and the next minute the brother and sister Avere standing in the centre of the small plot of grass round Avhich the cloisters ran, looking down with tearful eyes and saddened hearts on the small square stone at their feet, Avith the simple initials " R.A." en graved upon it. Neither of them spoke. Each Avas trying to realize the bright exchange the purified spirit of their father had made in those last awful moments which had separated parent and child; Avhile they, in all the bitterness of their own great loss, Avere striving to say from their hearts, and not their lips only, " Thy will be done."

Chapter II. Retrospective

Few people had better performed their duty in this world, or had gone to the grave more honoured or respected, than Dean Atherton. Simple and unostenta tious in his manners, and yet earnest and energetic in his office, the cares of his deanery, together with his struggle to maintain his family in the position they filled on an income barely sufficient to cover his limited expenditure, told se verely on a constitution never strong, and Aveakened by the effects of a hot climate. Never entirely recovered from an illness engendered during the previous Avinter, a sudden attack of influenza, Avith its attendant prostration and debility, had overpowered his enfeebled constitution, and carried him off almost before the absent members of his family were fully aAvare of his danger. Many years before our story begins, Mr. Atherton Avas a curate in a small village on the sea-coast of H — shire, where, during the summer months, an old gentleman and his daughter occupied a little cottage opening on the shore.

Mr. Waldron Avas a Quaker, but his daughter had for some years joined the Church of England; and here, in their bright sum mer home, Margaret Waldron cultivated her kindly charities among the poor, and entered Avarmly into every scheme for their improvement. The young curate often found his way into their cottage, at first for the sake of the arguments he Avas'fond of holding AA'ith the venerable disciple of George Fox, but aftenvards for the love Avhich insensibly greAv up between himself and the old man's daughter. Ralph Atherton's prospects Avere fair. He had few relations of his OAvn — none near enough to be consulted on such a step. His little patrimony had well nigh been expended in his school and college .life; but he hoped, as all young curates do hope in the first blush of their career, to Avin his way to some thing better than the small curacy he then held.

Mr. Waldron frankly told him that Margaret's property Avould be settled on herself and children. At his OAvn death she would inherit all he had, which was no great deal; but that, until that event occurred, she could only have the little he could spare from his OAvn income. The old man Avas too fond of his child to deny her anything it was in his power to grant; and though in a worldly point of vieAV he thought she might have done better, he liked the young curate too AveU to make any serious objections to the match. As he could not bear to be parted from his child, he took up his permanent abode at Sandham. For some years they continued to reside close to each other; but soon after the birth of their second child, a chaplaincy in the East India Company's service was offered to Ralph Atherton; and with the increasing necessity for some effort on his part, while health and vigour Avere his, to enable him to make provision for his family, neither he nor Margaret thought it right to refuse it.

This decision, how ever, Avas not arrived at Avithout painful thought and anxiety. The separation it entailed on Margaret from father and children called forth all her Christian zeal and fortitude to sustain her in this ovenvhelming necessity; but the sacrifice was for their sakes, and that feeling nerved her to its endurance. Long and fondly the young mother lingered over the last embraces of her father and children. Some doubts had arisen in the mind of Ralph about their religious training during their tender years ; but to have made any other house their home than that tenanted by their grandfather Avould have utterly crushed the heart of the old man ; and as Mar garet trustfully dAvelt on the same good Providence Avhich had brought her through the narrow views of Quakerism to the place found in the fulness and truth of the Church's teaching, she could not doubt that He who never fails those Avho really trust in Him Avould so order the future for her young lambs as should eventually bring them at last into His fold.

The discipline of Quakerism Mar garet did not fear for them; and before they Avere old enough to feel the Avant of the sustaining helps and guides, Avhich only can be truly experienced in the sacraments appointed by the Church for her believing people, she trusted either she or her husband would have them again under their care. This hope, however, in her own case, was never to be realized. In less than two years after quitting England, a premature confinement, followed by fever, laid Margaret Atherton in an Indian grave. The intelligence reached her father Avhen he Avas sloAvly recovering from an attack of illness, and so great was the shock to his already weakened frame that a feAv weeks only intervened before he also succumbed. In the cathedral town of Wylminstre resided the younger brother and sister of Mr. Waldron.

Formerly the brothers had been in partnership in a small coun try bank; but having amassed enough money to satisfy their moderate Avishes, they had given up the firm to the two clerks, Avho had saved capital sufficient during their servitude under generous and considerate masters. With his sister, the youngest brother still resided in the old red-brick house they had inhabited so many years. It Avas a tall unsightly edifice in one of the back streets of Wylminstre; but its pleasant garden front opened on a laAvn intersected by straight gravel walks and gay flower borders, with such an abundance of fruit, floAvers, and vegetables as would have astonished a modern gardener. Miss Waldron's favourite parlour looked out on this bit of bright floral beauty; and sitting in the bow-window, in her arm chair, with her little old-fashioned round table beside her, dressed in her dove coloured silk-gOAvn, the thick folds of her clear muslin handkerchief crossed on her ample bosom, the little silk shaAvl pinned so exactly over her shoulders, the closely crimped border of her clear muslin mob cap softening and blending with the narrow bands of her soft brown hair, still only here and there streaked with silver threads — she imparted an air of purity and quiet simplicity you hardly expected to encounter under a roof apparently so destitute of all the luxurious adjuncts of modern taste and refinement.

The greatest simplicity pervaded their small establishment both in furniture and dress ; but in this contrast to the Avorld neither she nor her brother exercised any self denial. If his coat or her gOAvn Avere the self-same pattern as those worn by their parents before them, it Avas no act of self-denial in them to wear them, even when mixing with the gayest votaries of fashion; but had the shape or shade varied in ever so small a degree from their own self-established model of right or Avrong, it is doubtful whether their peace of mind Avould not have been seriously disturbed : exemplifying, even in the case of the most rigid followers of George Fox, an evil he in his leathern doublet could hardly have foreseen, and which Quakers, in their great anxiety to avoid, have most unwittingly rushed into — that of allowing their minds to be un duly influenced by trifles in matters of no real importance.

Naturally shrewd, intelligent, and full of that kindness of heart so characteristic of the sect, they could not see their little grand-nepheAv and niece homeless Avithout at once bringing them to the old place their mother had filled years ago. Mar garet Avas too voting to have more than a confused remembrance of her first en trance into hej uncle's house. She and her brother, ever kept studiously neat and plain in their dress, were alloAved to range at will over the roomy old-fashioned house and large garden. And Avell could they remember the old pony they Avere allowed, as they grew older, to scamper up and doAvn the orchard, and the pleasant rides they took in the quiet country lanes in their uncle's old-fashioned roomy gig ; and the long walks beyond the old city-walls Avith their active aunt Sarah, and their visits Avith her to the poor families crowded into the narroAv back streets behind their own house.

It was these visits which first awakened in Mar garet's young heart an intense love for the poor, and an earnest desire to do her part toAvards ameliorating and improving their condition. The only recollection the children had of their father or mother Avas connected with tAvo drawings, which an artist of little celebrity had taken of them many years ago, and Avhich now hung in Mar garet's bedroom. But the strong imagi nation of the little girl needed few outAvard aids to developing bright pictures of her OAvn future, in Which her father invariably held a prominent part. Sunday after Sunday, she sat by her aunt's side in those dull silent meetings, at first striving hard to compose her rebellious hands and feet into the same statuelike stillness Avliich seemed to fall like a spell upon the grave motionless figures around her ; then dreamily AA'ondering Avhy people vol. i. WORSE. should punish themselves so severely when they Avere old enough to do as they pleased; listening to the cheerful chimes of the various church-bells as they broke on her ear; following the loud hum of some large restless fly, whose very free dom as it flitted by her she felt tempted to envy.

Or tracing by the aid of her quick imagination, in the large flaws and cracks in the Avhitewashed walls of the sombre meeting-house, all sorts of quaint faces and odd pictures. Or her active mind would rove aAvay into her own world of thought, and visions of her dear papa would flash across her, toiling away in a distant land. Or she Avould draAv airy pictures of some pretty home in this country, to which he would return ; and of her being to him all that a daughter could be — housekeeper, companion, friend. Or she Avould go to him, and amid the splendours of a dazzling Indian home, such as she delighted to picture, she Avould rival the princesses of her own fairy-tales. These day-dreams she never confided to her aunt. Young as she was she soon acquired an intuitive knowledge of her aunt's practical and very unro mantic mind, and she felt she would not only meet with no sympathy, but Avould most probably get rebuked for indulging in such idle and enervating speculations.

At ten years old Ralph Avas sent to Eton ; a piece of parental extravagance his uncle and aunt could neither comprehend nor approve. Why so much money should be lavished on a boy, Avhose education elseAvhere for a quarter of the sum, they believed, could have been carried on equally AveU, Avas a wastefulness in their nephew they could never understand. unwillingly enough they sent him, and under the firm conviction they were as sisting to lay the foundation for all sorts of future extravagance. When her bro ther left, a craving came over little Margaret for the companionship of younger people. Her aunt, therefore, who had hitherto been her only instruc tress, sent her, with the sanction of her father, as a daily pupil to two amiable and intelligent Quaker ladies, who Avere 2—2 educating a feAv young girls a little older than herself.

This opened a new field to Margaret's young ardent mind ; and she eagerly set herself to acquire all the knoAvledge she had longed for, that Ralph and her father might find in her a com panion and friend, Avhen the vision of her future home should be realized. If none of the accomplishments of female education Avere included in her studies, if music, and singing, and dancing Avere considered only as a sinful Avaste of time, and snares set to catch young unwary hearts by our great enemy — Margaret yielded them Avithout any visible regret, consoling herself that it left her more time for other things; and these, when her father returned, might be acquired under his sanction. Deeply as Mr. Atherton had mourned the loss of his beloved Margaret, he had not long remained a widower. His second marriage Avas less one of love than expe diency.

His OAArn residence Avas far aAvay from any other station, up the countrj', and here chance threw on his hands the orphan daughter of an officer, to Avhose aid he ministered during a sudden and fatal illness. Utterly unprovided for, with no relative or connexion in India, and none to whom she could be sent to in England, committed to his charge by the dying lips of her father — there seemed no way Open to him of fulfilling his trust short of offering to make her his Avise. Pretty, half-educated, Aveak minded, and indolent, the match Avas too much a matter of convenience to be re jected; and though nothing more than a feeling of gratitude for the shelter and home offered her animated the bosom of the neAV Mrs. Atherton, it Avas impossible to live with Ralph Atherton and not learn to love him.

The neAvs of her father's marriage startled poor little Margaret, and broke in rudely on her sunny pic tures of the future ; but her fertile ima gination quickly recovered the shock, and set her off Avith a new train of ideas, in which the little brother and sisters she after a while heard of, formed a prominent part in the grouping round the happy English home to which she hoped to Avelcome them before very long; for Mr. Atherton's health was failing under a Avarm climate, and his physicians agreed in the necessity for his return, so soon as a successor could be appointed to his important sphere of duties. Mr. Atherton lost considerably in the estimation of John and Sarah Waldron by his second marriage. The chivalrous feeling which prompted it they could not at all appreciate. But Avhile they looked forAvarcl with anxious fears to the neAV mother Avho AA-ould claim their darling Margaret, they Avisely forbore showing before her the doubts they entertained of the Avisdom of her father's choice.

" We must make her a useful Avoman, fit to fill her own mother's place in her father's family," Avas the constant thought of Miss Waldron; and well and laudably she carried out her intentions. Nothing pleased the little girl better than assisting her aunt in her prepara tions for the annual gatherings of "Friends" from the neighbouring toAvns. when they transact the business of the Society, and by the interchange of their religious feelings and experience strengthen the faith and stability of the sect. The airing of spare beds and snow-white linen ; the dusting of rooms already guilt less of such disfiguring ugliness; the cookery of spiced meats and savoury dishes; the tender chickens, large hams, and portly rounds of beef, with all the delicate fabrications of sweet dishes and rich cakes, in which Sarah Waldron prided herself; — these and a thousand other things, under the skilful superin tendence of her aunt, in her clean brown holland apron and sleeves, Margaret de lighted to join in; but she never could take kindly to the quiet, grave, old people, in their sombre dresses, who flocked round her uncle's hospitable table.

Perhaps Margaret inherited her father's prejudices; and though it often raised a sigh in her aunt's bosom for the Avant of religious zeal she feared it augured, she never could resist that niece's pleading to spend the greater part of those days in her OAvn room. Sometimes a young girl would come with her parents, and then Margaret Avould draw her aAvay into her own room, or doAvn into the sunny garden, and astonish her young guest no less by her own amusements than the deep thought and often Avild speculations she loved to pour out into some more enthusiastic and youthful mind than her aunt's. The visits Avhich most distressed Margaret Avere, when Quakers (often per fect strangers) came from all parts of the Avorld on purely religious errands; — "Household Missionaries," if one may so style them, having what they called " family sittings" with the different mem bers of each household.

The deep gloomy awe, which seemed mysteriously to per vade both visitor and visited, was so utterly repugnant to her OAvn bright cheerful spirit ; the oracular tone, giving to any human ministry the air of an in spired address, revolted so against the best feeling of the child's heart, that she longed for an angel's tongue to frame her reasons into burning Avords against such self-constituted authority. Her uncle, seeing how she despised and rejected all attempts to overcome her repugnance, Avisely forbore to press it upon her; and though he encountered much opposition from those in authority over him, Avho accused him of not acting up to the " light of his iinvard monitor," in suffering an earthly love to mislead his judgment, they could not shake his resolve. " She is not a member of our Society," he said; "I have given her shelter until her father claims her of me.

Her mother quitted friends for conscience sake; if I did not agree in her reasons, I have no right to betray her confidence by taking advantage of my poAver over her child." And from that time Maggie Avas sheltered from those grim aAvful per sonages, whose very rebukes and denun ciations Avere treasured up by her uncle and aunt as if they had really contained something of a mystic spell from Heaven. Margaret's chief recreation AA'as Avan dering up and down the nave of the old cathedral Avith her maid; Avatching the shadoAvs and sunlight as they fell across the massive pillars and chequered the stone pavement with the reflected colours from the stained-glass AvindoAvs; poring over the old carved monuments on the grey walls, and sitting on the steps of the choir during service — her aunt would have forbidden her joining in it; listening in rapt attention to the deep tones of the organ, or the heart-stii'ring voices of the young choristers, Avhose places she often envied, as day by day she watched them trooping along to join their young voices in God's praise in His own beautiful temple.

Never did Margaret forget the moment when she was first folded in her father's arms — that unknown but still loved father, Avith Avhom it had been her great est pleasure to correspond, and who now gazed doAvn upon her Avith eyes filled with tears, as she so vividly recalled to him the image of the Margaret of his heart's first love ; her OAvn timid anxious glance at the pretty delicate-looking lady they told her AA'as her new mama; and better still, Avhen she found herself hugged and kissed by the curly-headed little Grace and Frank, and crept softly to the heap of shaAvls and cushions, over Avhich a strange black ayah presided, and saAV nestled up in them the tiny face of the little Ethelind. It seemed at that mo ment as if Margaret had found all she most longed to possess ; and to be in the love of them all, and to nurse and care for little Ethie, to guide her tottering steps, and teach her lisping tongue — to love her Avith her whole heart and soul — soon became Margaret's ambition.

Neither John nor Sarah Waldron could part with Margaret Avithout very great regret ; it seemed to them as if the light of their home had been extinguished; neither did they easily reconcile them selves to her father's second Avise. Mrs. Atherton's natural indolence and inac tivity had been increased by delicate health; believing she really could not exert herself, the care of the family soon devolved on Mr. Atherton and his daughter; and by the time Margaret had reached her twentieth year, the manage ment of all household affairs had insensibly lapsed into her hands. Influenced by the stronger mind of her daughter-in laAv, Mrs. Atherton, as Avell as Grace and Ethie, oAved much of their education and formation of character to Margaret's careful superintendence, who, while her brother AA'as pursuing his career at Eton and Cambridge, was brightening her father's home by her industry, energy, and never-failing good sense.

Mr. Atherton had made many friends in India, and through the interest of one of them he obtained, shortly after his re turn home, a small living in a little coun try village. As livings go, it was a pretty good one ; the stipend moderate, the population small, and the duties no more than could be readily performed without the aid of a curate. It possessed the advantage also of a good neighbourhood ; no slight one to a clever intelligent man, avIio liked the relaxation afforded him by intercourse with educated friends. Mrs. Atherton, who could never understand the reasons for any economy, Avould gladly haA'e availed herself of any pretext for a gayer life; but this neither suited the wishes nor limited means of her more studious and retiring husband. Some years passed away, and then the deanery of Wylminstre becoming vacant, the inhabitants of Fair field Avere startled by the unexpected offer of it made to Mr. Atherton.