Breaking a butterfly;

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CHAPTER I. All is vanity

Those three words come often hoipe to many who never willingly listen to sermon ever so short, or sit under preacherWer so winning — ay, and to many of creeds, nations, and languages other than ours, who have not so much as heard of the name of Ecclesiastes. The world’s kaleidoscope may shift as it will, with myriad changes of form and color ; but the centre-point of the prisms bides steadfast and unaltered, round which is inscribed the trite old dreary text. Frequent amongst the illustrations of its truth are those trilling disillusions — scarcely amounting to disapj t merits — that affect us when we confess that

the reality falls somewhat short of the ideal ; that i he substance is something coarser in outline, oiler in proportion, than the foreshadowing.

feaid a friend to me the other day,

“ I have tramped and sailed over three parts of the globe now ; and I never saw but one thing, alive or dead, that thoroughly answered its warranty— and that was a Cyclone. You must remember that, being an indifferent sailor at all times, I ivas just then in a state of mortal fear.”

Now, the man who thus expressed himself was of a temper neither sombre nor sanguine ; not given to philosophy — cynical or otherwise ; but one who Avent his Avay about the Avorld in a quiet Odyssean fashion ; taking the rough and the smooth as they came, and keeping, so far as I knoAv, his heart Avhole and his digestion unimpaired.

Most of us — putting cases of exceptional luck aside — have thought, or Avill think, nearly the same. The mountain is lofty, yet not quite so stupendous — the river is romantic, yet winds not quite so picturesquely — the face is fair, yet not quite so lovely — as had been set forth by fancy or Avord-painting. In the after-time we* may come to dwell in the shadoAv of that same mountain, and Avax so jealous of its honor that Ave shall scarce alloAV there is its peer among the everlasting hills ; Ave may float on that same river till Ave knoAv and love every rippling eddy and quiet pool, and SAvear that there Aoavs seaAvard no pleasanter stream ; Ave may look on that same face till we are ready to maintain against all comers its sovereignty in beauty. But, if we go back honestly to our first impression of any Avonder of nature or art that Ave have approached Avith expectation on the strain, Ave shall remember a faint reaction, like the slackening of a damped cord.

In the commonplace amusements and pleasures of life the apothegm holds specially good. Inhundred people, of different ages or sexes, attend any entertainment whateA-er that has been announced Avith a certain flourish of trumpets, the odds against some few of the number coming aAvay disappointed are such as would puzzle Mr. Babbage, or the subtlest in the Ring, to compute.

On these premises it would seem a fact not less worthy of record than many set doAvn in the Annual Register , that the first ball given at Nithsdale House, after the bride AA-as brought home, Avas pronounced a thorough success by each and eArery one Avho assisted thereat, from the royal Personage Avho, Avith infinite grace and agility, opened first quadrille, down to the linkman without Avho, Avith a hoarse and unctuous blessing, sped the very last of the parting guests.

The host himself Avould scarcely haA'e claimed any share in the social triumph. Hugh, tenth Earl of Nithsdale, was a grave, gentle person, now someAvhat past middle age. He did not shine in ordinary comTersation — though he could speak sensibly enough at need from his place in the House — and Avas too shy to be a general favorite. Nevertheless, few Avere better loA'ed or esteemed by such as kneAV him thoroughly. In his nature there Avas not an atom of arrogance or self-assertion ; but he Avas thoroughly imbued Avith the pride of caste, being more careful of the obligations than of the privileges of his order. From his youth upAvard he had striven, in his oven quiet fashion, to the uttermost of his poAver and light, to discharge his duty both to God and to his neighbor ; and kept the Fifth not less religiously than the other commandments. So when his mother— Avidow of the ninth Earl — found a helpmeet for her son soon after he came of age, Nithsdale shoAved no signs of rebellion or reluctance ; though the damsel Avas something hard of feature and meagre of frame, and, to say the least of it, acidulated in temper. But then she Avas of stainless descent, and had wealth enough to parcel-gild richly a faded coronet.

For many years that couple plodded on together, peacefully if not happily. Indeed, after they had once settled down into their places there Avas little chance of domestic jars : fretfulness Avas simply Avasted on Nithsdale’s grave, placid temperment; and for domestic jealousy neither gave cause. The Earl never — so far as the nearest of his intimates kneAA- — suffered his fancy to Avander beyond bounds ; and the Countess carried down to her grave a virtue absolutely unsullied.

There Avas born of this marriage only one sickly boy, Avho died in infancy. The lack of an heir perhaps troubled Nithsdale more than he cared to confess even to himself : to such as are free from all taint of avarice, it is weary work laying up riches without knowing who shall gather them. Nevertheless, he slackened not a whit in the skill and care that he had displayed since he came of age in administering a vast encumbered patrimony ; mortgage after mortgage was cleared off, acre after acre drained, farmstead after farmstead repaired, till the great Nithsdale estates not only were set free of burden, but in such order as to become an agricultural ensample far and near.

When he was left a widower, Hugh of Nithsdale felt his bereavement heavily. He had never himself cared for country sports, though he took care to provide them plentifully for his guests ; his own relaxations were chiefly sedentary, of mildly scientific kind ; so that most of his time was spent within doors. Naturally, the absence even of that hard-featured face and spare angular figure made a dreary blank, both at fireside and board-head ; and just as naturally, after a decent interval, the Earl began to reflect how that blank should be filled.

Perhaps he had never absolutely regretted the first alliance; yet he may have considered that in contracting it he had discharged all his duty to his house ; and he determined, in wiving again, to please only his own fancy. Moreover, there was no pi'ivy-councillor, to insist on state-policy and the like, since his lady-motlier went to her rest.

The union of January and May is so common nowadays that no one thinks of inditing epithalamia thereon, satiric or otherwise. Nevertheless there was a certain stir of wonderment in the great world wrhen it became noised abroad that Lady Rose Marston was. to be the second Countess of Nithsdale. In truth there were disparities betwixt the affianced pair seemingly more serious than that of age, though the bride was barely in her twentieth year.

She came of rather a wild stock, and her bringing-up had been none of the staidest. Her mother, Viscountess Daventry, once a famous beauty, had not ceased to be dangerous and enterprising; and her father, though too lazy to be vicious, had never cared himself to practice any virtue, domestic or otherwise, and devoted all the energy he could muster to the mismanagement of his racing-stable, taking no thought as to the training of his olive-branches. From him the Lady Rose inherited the long, sleepy brown eyes that never grew eager or troubled when a race on which a year’s income hung was being won or lost by the shortest of heads ; and the soft, rich auburn hair, the envy of Lord Daventry’s bald or grizzled compeers. There was much beauty in her face, but of the stillest, quietest kind ; and it might have been inanimate but for the perfect little mouth, which, smiling often, smiled never unmeaningly. She was not particularly clever, and not a whit ambitious ; hereditary indolence would have prompted her to glide listlessly down the social stream, accepting such flowers as floated into her hands, yet not straining after such as grew out of her reach. But, early in her first season, a large mixed jury of natives and foreigners pronounced Lady Rose Marston one of the best valseuses in Europe.

In these days, most demoiselles endowed with lithe light figures, and a fair ear for music, dance

; — as our forefathers would have said — more or less “ divinely ;” so that one should be singled out and set above her sisters, involves some marked peculiarity. And Rose Marston’s waltzing icas very peculiar. However rapid the whirl, she never lost the languid grace that distinguished her in repose. But all the while a practiced eye, to say nothing of a practiced arm, could detect, in all her movements, a latent energy and suppressed power. Men found they could go on longer with Lady Rose without feeling the exertion than with any other ; as for tiring her — a month after she was presented, there was no question of such a thing.

“ She’s always going so thoroughly within herself,” Regy Avenel remarked ; “ that’s about the secret of it.”

His opinion in these matters was worth having ; for he was the crack cotillon-leader of that year.

Every man or woman who has a reputation to keep up, however flimsy or trivial, has a certain object and interest in life ; and, after all, there seems no reason why there should not be choregraphic as well as atheletic champions. The girl became imbued with a kind of artistic enthusiasm, and looked forward to her balls as a successful actress looks forward to her scenic triumphs. She was too lazy, perhaps too frank, ever thoroughly to flirt ; yet she would do much in an innocent way to win or retain an eligible partner, and was not niggardly of looks, words, or smiles, in rewarding her special favorites. These were found naturally enough in a fast though not a very vicious set. They were too young for the most part to be thoroughly depraved ; for among Lady Rose’s attaches, there was scarce one whose beard was fairly grown.

Nevertheless, certain matrons, and maids whose “snoods ” had lost their gloss, looked askance as she passed by, whispering bitter words ; even as Rebecca, on the day after she cheated her first-born of his birthright, may have wagged her head, and scowled from under her brows, at some laughing daughter of Ileth. v Whatever may have been her temptations, the Lady Rose must have kept herself heart-whole if not quite fancy-free. When she first heard of Lord Nithsdale as a suitor, she showed no signs of repugnance or terror, but said placidly to her mother, that she liked him as well as she liked any one else ; and she was sure he would be kind to her. Speaking on the subject to the most intimate of her male and female friends she consistently declined to be looked on as a martyr. It was true that she had known the Earl from childhood upward ; for one of his diverse estates, on which he had of late resided frequently, marched with her father’s property at Daventry Court.

Perhaps among their mutual acquaintance, more pity was felt for the bridegroom than for the bride ; though none of these amicable impertinences were expressed aloud. Despite his homely bearing and quiet manner, none, gentle or simple, dreamed of taking liberties with Hugh of Nithsdale; and pity, real or feigned, was utterly uncalled for.

The Earl had no mind to cage or clip the wings of the beautiful bird that had perched so willingly on his shoulder, and knew right well he could trust her not to range too far. Though there was no verbal compact, Lady Rosa under-

BLANCHE ELLEKSLIE’S ENDING. 9 stood that she was free to follow her own inclinations in any reasonable way ; that she was still free to indulge her own taste, to plan and carry out her own amusement, and to gather her own friends round her when and where she would. It was a very blithe bridal ; and when the honeymoon had waned, the bride did not scruple to confess, to whom it might concern, that she was perfectly — I believe her own words were “awfully happy.

In the shape of this same ball, her first matronly anxiety came upon her. The ordinary cares of preparation troubled her not a whit, she left all such things in perfect confidence to her housekeeper and house- steward, and to the tradesmen, whom she had learned to look upon as trusty Slaves of the Ring. Neither was she nervous ; though she would have to play hostess for the first time before a critical audience, and in presence of royalty. She had other causes of disquietude ; and these were solemnly discussed one day at luncheon by a council of three, whereat assisted her mother and Reginald Avenel of choragic fame. The chiefest trouble, as may be imagined, was the revision of the invitationcards.

The Countess had set her delicate foot down on one point — that, come what would, her first ball should not be over-crowded — a just and pleasant resolve, but not so easily carried out in the face of a visiting-list of portentous dimensions, when people congregated from the uttermost parts of the earth for the express purpose of showing themselves — if they had the chance — on that especial night at Nithsdale House. The worst of it was, that friends who had made their own election sure declined to be content therewith, and persisted in pleading for others who seemed likely to be left in the outer darkness. Lady Nithsdale was at her wits’ end. She had calculated, by the help of some cunning in such matters, howr many her rooms would hold comfortably ; and she was on the very verge of such a limit now. Yet still the letters came pouring in, and her carriage could not halt for five minutes in the Mile, 'without being beset by petitioners. She Was too good-natured to like vexing any body, and too wise in her simple way to make needless enemies thus early in her career. Even whilst she sat at luncheon two notes were brought in, of which she guessed the import so soon as she glanced at the monograms.

44 One can’t even eat a poor little plover’s egg in peace,” the Countess said, pouting. 44 I declare it’s a thousand times worse than Christmas bills !” And she tore open one of the envelopes quite viciously.

Avenel looked at her with a half-smile — a little sad and a little envious. He had been trying for some time now to make a younger son’s fortune square with expensive tastes, and had come to the conclusion that there are not many things worse than Christmas bills, when the patience of creditors waxes threadbare.

The first note contained only one of the ordinary petitions ; for the Countess threw it carelessly across to her mother, after a glance at its contents, saying,

“Lady Blakeston wants to bring that plain prim niece. Quite impossible, isn’t it, mamma ? — What can M. de Fonteyrac want ?” she went on, as she opened the other ^envelope. 4 ‘ All the embassy, except those two who don’t dance, have got cards already.”

But the second note seemed to touch the Countess more narrowly ; and, as she passed it to Avenel, she clasped her hands in comic despair.

Yet there wras nothing very alarming on the face of the document, couched in the courtliest of diplomatic styles. Therein M. de Fonteyrac, referring himself to the angelic goodness of Madame la Comtesse, prayed permission to bring with him to her ball his especial friend Gaspard de Sauterel.

Now Lady Nithsdale, as you know', was, in a certain wray, imbued with an artistic spirit ; and all real artists are more nervous in exhibiting before a single maestro than before five hundred cognoscenti. Gaspard, Marquis de Sauterel, was an European celebrity. Filling a high post at the Imperial Court, he held another office, quite as well recognized and refined, though betokened by no outward insignia. For the last four seasons he had reigned without a rival over Parisian cotillons. The haughtiest of the female noblesse altered the date of their entertainments to insure his presence ; and the lightest feet in France were only too proud to follow in his wake.

“ O Regy, wrhat is to be done ?” the Countess asked half pettishly. 4 4 Something is sure to go wrong ; and then, can’t you fancy his going back to Paris, and talking compassionately about insular ambition ?”

Before he answrered, Avenel finished slowdy a goblet of weak claret-cup. lie wras very temperate, both in food and drink — training so to speak, for his work — and from mere condition would have run into a place in any ordinary two mile handicap. Then he read the note through carefully, lifting his brows : he wras not a handsome man, but his eyebrows were unexceptionable, and he made play with them accordingly.

“Don’t you flurry yourself, Lady Rose” (to the Countess of Nithsdale’s intimates her maiden name seemed to come always most naturally) ; “we’re not beat yet, and I don’t see why we should be either. De Sauterel isn’t running in his old form, so Dolly Forester says, and he ought to know, for there never was more than seven pounds between ’em. Baccarat after balls, and absinthe before breakfast, are beginning to tell. The Marquis is as quick on his legs as ever ; but, I hear, he can't stay.”

What might have been a dark speech to others was intelligible enough to his hearer. Turf metaphors were scarcely likely to offend the ears of Lord Daventry’s daughter. Her sweet face cleared somewhat, though doubt still lingered there.

4 4 Besides,” Avenel went on placidly, 44 it’s very easy to make things quite safe. Why don’t you let De Sauterel lead in his own fashion? He can’t find fault then. Don’t mind me ; I’ll abdicate with pleasure. I’ve always said my life is one long self-sacrifice.”

Rose Marston by many of her acquaintances was called capricious and fickle — and not without reason. Her preferences were often wonderfully shortlived, and the first favorite of one night would become the extremest outsider the next. Indeed, sometimes after supper her card became so terribly involved that she was forced, so to speak, to take the benefit of the Act, and start afresh ; paying her creditors nothing whatever in the pound. But in her real friendships she was stanch as steel. She had known Reginald Avenel long before she came out, and had always looked upon him as one of the family — their ancestors had been related in some very remote age : it was strange but perfectly true, that their cousinly familiarity had never ripened into the cousinly flirtation which is almost de rigueur.

“ Don’t be so utterly absurd, Regy,” she said, with a flush on her cheek and a flash in her lazy brown eyes. “ Throwing one’s old friends over for people one has never seen, isn’t the way to bring luck about the house. If you say two words more, I shall think you want to change me for the Firefly ; I always thought her step suited you best.”

He held up his hand in deprecation.

“ L' Empire, cest la Paix , Lady Rose. So said a greater than De Sauterel. Always remember that, before you begin to quarrel. If your Majesty won't accept our resignation, it’s easily withdrawn. We’ll pull through somehow, never fear. Only don’t fret any more about these things. You’re beginning to look quite fagged already. ”

Lady Daventry was in no sort of way a model of matronhood ; but she was foolishly fond of her children, and specially of this, her eldest-born daughter. She was a better listener than talker, and up to this time had taken little part in family-council ; but she got up now and wound her arm around her daughter’s neck caressingly.

“Regy is quite right, darling,” she said ; “you mustn’t fret, and there’s no earthly reason for it. I saw a good deal of M. de Sauterel last year in Paris. There’s not a more good-natured little creature alive ; and, if he were given to fault finding, he would scarcely practice it here.” Lady Daventry’s smile was full of memorial meaning. “I’ll take care that every body knows to-day that your list is full ; so you shall be bored with no more begging-letters. That’s settled.”

Then the conclave broke up.

Is it likely that, in this hard workday world, many should be found who could throw themselves seriously into a discussion frivolous as that set down here ? Truly, I know*, not. The statesmen’s plans probably were no less deep, the swords of soldiers no less sharp, the quibbles of lawyers no less astute, the song of poets no less musical, the lash of critics no less sharp, in Liliput than in Brobdingnag. Insects, as well as carnivora, are integral parts of creation ; and Ephemeris, setting things in order for her bloodless banquet, has cares just as real, though less truculent than those of Megatherium, who shakes the forest-land with his roaring as he seeks his meat from God.

o

Chapter II

So Lady Nithsdale’s ball was a success — teres atque rotundas — without a single flaw. The Dieu de la Danse was thoroughly propitious, sanctioning every thing and every body with the benignest of smiles, and before daybreak became the merest mortal in his readiness to lay down his divinity at a mortal’s feet. Indeed, when Gaspard de Sauterel returned to his own place he created great scandal and discontent among the faithful beyond the seas by what they were pleased to call his

Anglo-mania. It was months before he ceased to rave about Lady Nithsdale’s waltzing, which he was wont to characterize as “ a poesy.”

But no triumph can last forever, so Lady Nithsdale’s ball was over at last. Carriage after carriage drove away with its cloaked and hooded freight ; while the men for the most part strolled off by twos and threes through the fresh spring morning. But only one brougham we need follow. In it sat two women, both fair to look upon though neither was in her very first youth, and their beauty, such as it was, differed essentially in style.

The first thing which you would probably have remarked was, how wonderfully both faces stood that trying after-dawn light, under which few damsels, even in their first season, willingly linger. It only seemed to soften becomingly the exceeding brilliancy of Laura Brancepeth’s coloring ; and it did not bring out a line or deepen a shadow on Blanche Ellerslie’s cheeks — soft, smooth, and white as the leaves of a tropical lily.

On neither countenance was there trace of weariness ; and they were not too sleepy, it seemed, for a little quiet talk, opened by Lady Laura Brancepeth — better known in her own set as “La Reine Gaillarde.”

“Thoroughly well done, wasn’t it, Blanche? The rooms just full enough to look their best, and not a particle of heat or crowd. Anne Daventry has a specialty for these things, when she will only give herself the trouble. Those leafscreens round the fountains in the conservatory were the prettiest things I ever saw ; and you admired them even more than I apparently, for you spent about half the night there. By the by^ that reminds me — I should just like to know where you were all the cotillon ? I missed you after the first figure ?”

“I was tired,” Mrs. Ellerslie answered. “I should certainly have got one of my headaches if I had gone on ; you know what my headaches are? The fact is, I am going down fast into the vale of years ; after this season I don’t mean to waltz any more.”

Few and faint were the signs of age on the delicate face just then, and so Laura Brancepeth thought as she gazed at her companion, with a mischievous flash in her broad black e}Tes.

“Yes ; I know what your headaches are, and how they come and go, and how easily tired you are sometimes. As for that excuse about your age, I consider it positively rude. I'm two years older than you are, but I’ve no idea of wall-flowering just yet. You wicked little comedienne ! I never saw you act better than you did to-night ; you know very well you only slipped away, to take another long lesson in botany from Mark Ramsay. Why, Blanche — is it possible? I can’t believe it ; you’re actually blushing !”

If an aurora borealis had blazed forth suddenly in the clear gray sky above them, Lady Laura could not have spoken with more astonishment. She was in truth looking on a natural phenomenon. The practiced coquette was no more likely to betray signs of discomfiture at the mention of any ordinary name than a charger is likety to start at a pistol-shot. Yet there was no mistake about the tell-tale flush — rather deepening than fading under the other’s searching gaze.

“O Blanche! Was it not acting then, afi,er all ?” Lady Laura went on, in quite a changed

BLANCHE ELLEKSLIE’S ENDING.

II tone ; and the mockery died out of her eyes. “ You can’t mean that you have been in earnest to-night. The worst of your flirtations would be better than such fearful folly.”

Mrs. Ellerslie’s look of injured innocence was scarcely so successful as usual.

“You’re too tyrannical, Queenie,” she said plaintively ; “ there’s no possibility of contenting you. Well, allowing that you are right in your suspicion — which I don’t — is it not better to be foolish once in a way, than wicked always ?”

But the other was not to be put off with a jest.

“ I am quite serious,” she said. “ You and I are very old friends, fast friends too ; though you’d provoke a saint sometimes, and I owrn I’m rather apt to bully you. Though I often tease you about men, I never really pity them much. But I should pity you awfully if you came to grief; and I’d sooner hear of your breaking half a dozen honest hearts, than giving the least bit of yours to Mark Ramsay.”

“ What fresh story have you heard against him ?”

The low voice was quite steady ; but the down trimming fluttered, though there wuis no breeze to stir it.

“Are not the old ones enough?” the other answered gravely. “If I had never heard a single word against him, I should take warning from his face — wonderfully handsome, I allow, and gentle too, when he chooses to let it soften. But when it is in repose, I think it the cruellest face I ever looked upon. It would be rather nice to be lorded over by some people I know ; but I don’t like to think of any woman as that man’s slave. And slave she would be ; depend upon it, there would be no half-measures there.”

Blanche laughed, quite naturally now.

“ What a vampire you have made of poor Mr. Ramsay! If you knew him better, perhaps you wouldn’t think him so fatal in any way. It’s rather refreshing to talk to him, after the platitudes one has to listen to as a rule ; though he neither talks politics nor scandal, and doesn’t seem to consider flirting a matter of absolute duty. But — so far — Queenie, he has done me no harm. ”

Neither capitals nor italics, nor any other device of type, could do justice to Blanche Ellerslie’s “ me.” 23u, issuing from the tenderest lips that have murmured love-whispers in Rhine-land, never sounded half so cosy and caressing. Very few men heard it for the first time, without feeling a new sympathy awaking within them, and a kind of prescience that some confidence was coming.

Lady Laura’s wiry night-slaves scuffled over the ground quicker than the best pair of steppers in town ; and they were so nearly at home now that she had only time to say :

“I’m too sleepy to go on preaching; only, Blanche, do pray take care.”

So the two women embraced, and parted for the night.

With a sinful indifference to beauty-sleep, Mrs. Ellerslie sat musing long after her maid had left her. Self-examination was not much in her line ; but in the solitude of her own chamber she did not affirm to herself quite so confidently as she had done to Laura Brancepeth, that “no harm has been done to me.”

Chapter III

Now what manner of man was he, whose name had made Blanche Ellerslie flush and flutter like a girl, and the reckless Reine Gaillard earnest in warning ?