The Wanderer Volume I Part 21

Affrighted by this suggestion, Ellis, who then perceived Lord Melbury from the window, ran herself, after the housekeeper, to the door, and eagerly exclaimed, as he dismounted, 'O, My Lord, I hope no accident--'

'None!' cried he, flying to her and taking and kissing both her hands, and drawing, rather than leading, her back to the parlour, 'none!--or if any there were,--what could be the accident that concern so bewitching would not recompense?'

Ellis felt amazed. Lord Melbury had never addressed her before in any tone of gallantry; had never kissed, never touched her hand; yet now, he would scarcely suffer her to withdraw it from his ardent grasp.

'But, My Lord,' said Mrs Greaves, who followed them in, 'pray let me ask Your Lords.h.i.+p about my Lady, and My Lady Aurora, and how--'

'They are perfectly well,' cried he, hastily, 'and gone on. I am ridden back myself merely for something which I forgot.'

'I was fearful,' said Ellis, anxious to clear up her eager reception, 'that something might have happened to Lady Aurora; I am extremely happy to hear that all is safe.'

'And you will have the charity, I hope, to make me a little breakfast?

for I have tasted nothing yet this morning.'

Again he took both her hands, and led her to the seat which she had just quitted at the table.

She was extremely embarra.s.sed. She felt reluctant to refuse a request so natural; yet she was sure that Mrs Howel would conclude that they met by appointment; and she saw in the face of the housekeeper the utmost provocation at the young Lord's behaviour: yet neither of these circ.u.mstances gave her equal disturbance, with observing a change, indefinable yet striking, in himself. After an instant's reflection, she deemed it most advisable not to stay with him; and, saying that she was in haste to return to Lewes, she begged that Mrs Greaves would order the chaise that Mrs Howel had mentioned.

'Ay, do, good Greaves!' cried he, hurrying her out, and, in his eagerness to get her away, shutting the door after her himself.

Ellis said that she would see whether her trunk were ready.

'No, no, no! don't think of the trunk,' cried he: 'We have but a few minutes to talk together, and to settle how we shall meet again.'

Still more freely than before, he now rather seized than took her hand; and calling her his dear charming Ellis, pressed it to his lips, and to his breast, with rapturous fondness.

Ellis, struck, now, with terrour, had not sufficient force to withdraw her hand; but when she said, with great emotion, 'Pray, pray My Lord!--'

he let it go.

It was only for a moment: s.n.a.t.c.hing, it then, again, as she was rising to depart, he suddenly slipt upon one of her fingers a superb diamond ring, which he took off from one of his own.

'It is very beautiful, My Lord;' said she, deeply blus.h.i.+ng; yet looking at it as if she supposed he meant merely to call for her admiration, and returning it to him immediately.

'What's this?' cried he: 'Won't you wear such a bauble for my sake? Give me but a lock of your lovely hair, and I will make myself one to replace it.'

He tried to put the ring again on her finger; but, forcibly breaking from him, she would have left the room: he intercepted her pa.s.sage to the door. She turned round to ring the bell: he placed himself again in her way, with a flushed air of sportiveness, yet of determined opposition.

Confounded, speechless, she went to one of the windows, and standing with her back to it, looked at him with an undisguised amazement, that she hoped would lead him to some explanation of his behaviour, that might spare her any serious remonstrance upon its unwelcome singularity.

'Why, what's this?' cried he gaily, yet with a gaiety not perfectly easy; 'do you want to run away from me?'

'No, my lord,' answered she, gravely, yet forcing a smile, which she hoped would prove, at once, a hint, and an inducement to him to end the scene as an idle and ill-judged frolic; 'No; I have only been afraid that your lords.h.i.+p was running away from yourself!'

'And why so?' cried he, with quickness, 'Is Harleigh the only man who is ever to be honoured with your company tete-a-tete?'

'What can your lords.h.i.+p mean?'

'What can the lovely Ellis blush for? And what can Harleigh have to offer, that should obtain for him thus exclusively all favour? If it be adoration of your charms, who shall adore them more than I will? If it be in proofs of a more solid nature, who shall vie with me? All I possess shall be cast at your feet. I defy him to out-do me, in fortune or in love.'

Ellis now turned pale and cold: horrour thrilled through her veins, and almost made her heart cease to beat. Lord Melbury saw the change, and, hastily drawing towards her a chair, besought her to be seated. She was unable to refuse, for she had not strength to stand; but, when again he would have taken her hand, she turned from him, with an air so severe of soul-felt repugnance, that, starting with surprise and alarm, he forbore the attempt.

He stood before her utterly silent, and with a complexion frequently varying, till she recovered; when, again raising her eyes, with an expression of mingled affliction and reproach, 'And is it, then,' she cried, 'from a brother of the pure, the exemplary Lady Aurora Granville, that I am destined to receive the most heart-rending insult of my life?'

Lord Melbury seemed thunderstruck, and could not articulate what he tried to say; but, upon again half p.r.o.nouncing the name of Harleigh, Ellis, standing up, with an air of dignity the most impressive, cried, 'My lord, Mr Harleigh rescued me from the most horrible of dangers, in a.s.sisting me to leave the Continent; and his good offices have befriended me upon every occasion since my arrival in England. This includes the whole of our intercourse! No calumny, I hope, will make him ashamed of his benevolence; and I have reaped from it such benefit, that the most cruel insinuations must not make me repent receiving it; for to whom else, except to Lady Aurora, do I owe grat.i.tude without pain? He knows me to be indigent, my lord, yet does not conclude me open to corruption! He sees me friendless and unprotected,--yet offers me no indignity!'

Lord Melbury now, in his turn, looked pale. 'Is it possible--' he cried, 'Is it possible, that--' He stammered, and was in the utmost confusion.

She pa.s.sed him, and was quitting the room.

'Good Heaven!' cried he, 'you will not go?--you will not leave me in this manner?--not knowing what to think,--what to judge,--what to do?'

She made no answer but by hastening her footsteps, and wearing an aspect of the greatest severity; but, when her hand touched the lock, 'I swear to you,' he cried, 'Miss Ellis, if you will not stay--I will follow you!'

Her eyes now shot forth a glance the most indignant, and she resolutely opened the door.

He spread out his arms to impede her pa.s.sage.

Offended by his violence, and alarmed by this detention, she resentfully said, 'If you compel me, my lord, to summon the servants--' when, upon looking at him again, she saw that his whole face was convulsed by the excess of his emotion.

She stopt.

'You must permit me,' he cried, 'to shut the door; and you must grant me two minutes audience.'

She neither consented nor offered any opposition.

He closed the door, but she kept her place.

'Tell--speak to me, I beseech you!' he cried, 'Oh clear the cruel doubts--'

'No more, my lord, no more!' interrupted Ellis, scorn taking possession of every feature; 'I will neither give to myself the disgrace, nor to your lords.h.i.+p the shame, of permitting another word to be said!'

'What is it you mean?' cried he, planting himself against the door; 'you would not--surely you would not brand me for a villain?'

She determined to have recourse to the bell, and, with the averted eyes of disdain, resolutely moved towards the chimney.

He saw her design, and cast himself upon his knees, calling out, in extreme agitation, 'Miss Ellis! Miss Ellis! you will not a.s.semble the servants to see me groveling upon the earth?'

Greatly shocked, she desisted from her purpose. His look was aghast, his frame was in a universal tremour, and his eyes were wild and starting.

Her wrath subsided at this sight, but the most conflicting emotions rent her heart.

'I see,' he cried, in a tremulous voice, and almost gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth, 'I see that you have been defamed, and that I have incurred your abhorrence!--I have my own, too, completely! You cannot hate me more than I now hate--than I shrink from myself! And yet--believe me, Miss Ellis! I have no deliberate hardness of heart!--I have been led on by rash precipitance, and--and want of thought!--Believe me, Miss Ellis!--believe me, good Miss Ellis!--for I see, now, how good you are!--believe me--'

He could find no words for what he wished to say. He rose, but attempted not to approach her. Ellis leant against the wainscoat, still close to the bell, but without seeking to ring it. Both were silent. His extreme youth, his visible inexperience, and her suspicious situation; joined to his quick repentance, and simple, but emphatic declaration, that he had no hardness of heart, began not only to offer some palliation for his conduct, but to soften her resentment into pity.

He no sooner perceived the touching melancholy which insensibly took place, in her countenance, of disgust and indignation, than, forcibly affected, he struck his forehead, exclaiming, 'Oh, my poor Aurora!--when you know how ill I have acted, it will almost break your gentle heart!'

This was an apostrophe to come home quick to the bosom of Ellis: she burst into tears; and would instantly have held out to him her hand, as an offering of peace and forgiveness, had not her fear of the impetuosity of his feelings checked the impulse. She only, therefore, said, 'Ah, my lord, how is it that with a sister so pure, so perfect, and whose virtues you so warmly appreciate, you should find it so difficult to believe that other females may be exempt, at least, from depravity? Alas! I had presumed, my lord, to think of you as indeed the brother of Lady Aurora; and, as such, I had even dared to consider you as a succour to me in distress, and a protector in danger!'