The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly. Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ musicians call mezzo soprano, whose gift it is to steal softly over the senses and steep them in a sweet rapture of peaceful delight. As the strains floated out, he felt as though the measure of incantation was running over for him, and he arose with a bound, and hurried off into the wood. “I ‘ll start to-morrow. I ‘ll not let this folly master me,” muttered he. “A fellow who can’t stand up against his own fancies is not worth his salt. I ‘ll go on board again and think of my duty,” and he tried to assure himself that of all living men a sailor had least excuse for such weaknesses as these.

      He had not much sympathy with the family ambitions. He thought that as they had wealth enough to live well and handsomely, a good station in the world, and not any one detracting element from their good luck, either as regarded character or health, it was downright ingratitude to go in search of disappointments and defeats. It was, to his thinking, like a ship with plenty of sea-room rushing madly on to her ruin amongst the breakers. “I think Nelly is of my own mind,” said he, “but who can say how long she will continue to be so? these stupid notions of being great folk will get hold of her at last. The high-minded Marion and that great genius Temple are certain to prevail in the end, and I shall always be a splendid example to point at and show the melancholy consequences of degenerate tastes and ignoble ambitions.”

      The sharp trot of a horse on the gravel road beside him startled him in his musings, and the pony-carriage whisked rapidly by; Augustus driving and Julia at his side. She was laughing. Her merry laugh rang out above the brisk jingle of horse and harness, and to the poor sailor it sounded like the knell of all his hopes. “What a confounded fool I was not to remember I had an elder brother,” said he, bitterly. That he added something inaudible about the perfidious nature of girls is possibly true, but not being in evidence, it is not necessary to record it.

      Let us turn from the disconsolate youth to what is certes a prettier picture – the croquet lawn behind the house, where the two sisters, with the accomplished Temple, were engaged at a game.

      “I hope, girls,” said he, in one of his very finest drawls, “the future head of house and hopes is not going to make a precious fool of himself.”

      “You mean with the curate’s sister,” said Marion, with a saucy toss of her head. “I scarcely think he could be so absurd.”

      “I can’t see the absurdity,” broke in Ellen. “I think a duke might make her a duchess, and no great condescension in the act.”

      “Quite true, Nelly,” said Temple; “that’s exactly what a duke might do; but Mr. Bramleigh cannot. When you are at the top of the ladder, there’s nothing left for you but to come down again; but the man at the bottom has to try to go up.”

      “But why must there be a ladder at all, Temple?” asked she, eagerly.

      “Is n’t that speech Nelly all over?” cried Marion, haughtily.

      “I hope it is,” said Ellen, “if it serves to convey what I faithfully believe, – that we are great fools in not enjoying a very pleasant lot in life instead of addressing ourselves to ambitions far and away beyond us.”

      “And which be they?” asked Temple, crossing his arms over his mallet, and standing like a soldier on guard.

      “To be high and titled, or if not titled, to be accepted among that class, and treated as their equals in rank and condition.”

      “And why not, Nelly? What is this wonderful ten thousand that we all worship? Whence is it recruited, and how? These double wall-flowers are not of Nature’s making; they all come of culture, of fine mould, careful watering, and good gardening. They were single-petaled once on a time, like ourselves. Mind, it is no radical says this, girls, —moi qui vous parle am no revolutionist, no leveller! I like these grand conditions, because they give existence its best stimulus, its noblest aspirations. The higher one goes in life, – as on a mountain, – the more pure the air and the wider the view.”

      “And do you mean to tell me that Augustus would consult his happiness better in marrying some fine lady, like our grand step-mamma for instance, than a charming girl like Julia?” said Ellen.

      “If Augustus’ notions of happiness were to be measured by mine, I should say yes, unquestionably yes. Love is a very fleeting sentiment. The cost of the article, too, suggests most uncomfortable reflections. All the more as the memory comes when the acquisition itself is beginning to lose value. My former chief at Munich – the cleverest man of the world I ever met – used to say, as an investment, a pretty wife was a mistake. ‘If,’ said he, ‘you laid out your money on a picture, your venture might turn out a bargain; if you bought a colt, your two-year-old might win a Derby; but your beauty of to-day will be barely good-looking in five years, and will be a positive fright in fifteen.’”

      “Your accomplished friend was an odious beast!” said Nelly. “What was his name, Temple?”

      “Lord Culduff, one of the first diplomatists in Europe.”

      “Culduff? How strange! Papa’s agent, Mr. Harding, mentioned the name at breakfast. He said there was a nobleman come over from Germany to see his estates in the north of Down, where they had some hopes of having discovered coal.”

      “Is it possible Lord Culduff could be in our neighborhood? The governor must ask him here at once,” said Temple, with an animation of manner most unusual with him. “There must be no time lost about this. Finish your game without me, girls, for this matter is imminent;” and so saying, he resigned his mallet and hastened away to the house.

      “I never saw Temple so eager about anything before,” said Nelly. “It’s quite charming to see how the mere mention of a grand name can call forth all his energy.”

      “Temple knows the world very well; and he knows how the whole game of life is conducted by a very few players, and that every one who desires to push his way must secure the intimacy, if he can, or at least the acquaintance, of these.” And Marion delivered this speech with a most oracular and pretentious tone.

      “Yes,” said Nelly, with a droll sparkle in her eye; “he declared that profound statement last evening in the very same words. Who shall say it is not an immense advantage to have a brother so full of sage maxims, while his sisters are seen to catch up his words of wisdom, and actually believe them to be their own?”

      “Temple may not be a Talleyrand; but he is certainly as brilliant as the charming curate,” said Marion, tartly.

      “Oh, poor George!” cried Nelly; and her cheek flushed, while she tried to seem indifferent. “Nobody ever called him a genius. When one says he is very good-looking and very good-humored, tout est dit!”

      “He is very much out of place as a parson.”

      “Granted. I suspect he thinks so himself.”

      “Men usually feel that they cannot take orders without some stronger impulse than a mere desire to gain a livelihood.”

      “I have never talked to him on the matter; but perhaps he had no great choice of a career.”

      “He might have gone into the army, I suppose? He’d have found scores of creatures there with about his own measure of intelligence.”

      “I fancied you liked George, Marion,” said the other. And there was something half tender, half reproachful, in her tone.

      “I liked him so far, that it was a boon to find anything so like a gentleman in this wild savagery; but if you mean that I would have endured him in town, or would have noticed him in society, you are strangely СКАЧАТЬ