Part 43 (2/2)
A heavy sense of faintness seized on the heart of Helen, but she stood up and endeavoured to advance; Rosalind, on the contrary, stepped back and seated herself in the darkest corner of the room; while Charles hastily walked towards the veiled lady, and in a voice thick from emotion, exclaimed, ”My mother!”
”Yes, Charles!” she replied; ”your mother; but no longer a widowed, desolate mother, shrinking before the unnatural rebuke of her son. I would willingly have acted with greater appearance of deliberation, but your conduct rendered this impossible. Mr. Cartwright! permit me to present you to this hot-headed young man and his sister, as my husband and their father.”
This terrible but expected annunciation was received in total silence.
Mowbray seemed to think only of his sister; for without looking towards the person thus solemnly presented to him, he turned to her, and taking her by the arm, said, ”Helen!--you had better sit down.”
f.a.n.n.y, who had entered the room immediately after her mother, looked pale and frightened; but though she fixed a tearful eye on Helen, she attempted not to approach her.
Mr. Cartwright himself stood beside his bride, or rather a little in advance of her: his tall person drawn up to its greatest height.
Meekness, gentleness, and humility appeared to have his lips in their keeping; but unquenchable triumph was running riot in his eyes, and flashed upon every individual before him with a very unequivocal and somewhat scornful air of authority.
This tableau endured till the door was again thrown open, and one by one the servants entered, forming at last a long line completely across the room. When all were in their marshalled places, which here, as elsewhere, were in as exact conformity to the received order of precedence as if they had been n.o.bles at a coronation, the lady bride again lifted her voice and addressed them thus: ”I have called you all together on the present occasion in order to inform you that Mr.
Cartwright is my husband and your master. I hope it is unnecessary for me to say that every thing in the family must henceforward be submitted solely to his pleasure, and that his commands must on all occasions supersede those of every other person. I trust you will all show yourselves sensible of the inestimable blessing I have bestowed upon you in thus giving you a master who can lead you unto everlasting life; and as I have married for the glory of Heaven, so I trust to receive its blessing upon the same, and to see every member of my family advancing daily under the guidance of their earthly master's hand to that state which shall ensure them favour from their heavenly one in the life to come. Amen! Repeat, I beg you--all of you repeat with me Amen!”
Though there were some throats there in which Amen would have stuck, there were enough present besides these to get up a tolerably articulate Amen.
Mr. Cartwright then stepped forward, and laying his hat and gloves on the table, said aloud, ”Let us pray!”
The obedient menials knelt before him,--all save one. This bold exception was the housekeeper; a staid and sober person of fifty years of age, who during the dozen years she had presided over the household, had constantly evinced a strict and conscientious adherence to her religious duties, and was, moreover, distinguished for her uniformly respectful, quiet, and un.o.btrusive demeanour. But she now stepped forward from her place at the head of the line, and said in a low voice, but very slowly and distinctly, ”I cannot, sir, on this occasion kneel down to pray at your bidding. This is not a holy business at all, Mr.
Cartwright; and if you were to give me for salary the half of what you are about to wring from the orphan children of my late master, (deceased just eight calendar months ago,) I would not take it, sir, to live here and witness what I cannot but look upon as great sin.”
The good woman then gave a sad look at Helen and her brother, who were standing together, dropped a respectful curtesy as her eyes rested on them, and then left the room.
”Her sin be on her own head!” said Mr. Cartwright as he himself kneeled down upon a footstool which stood near the table. He drew a cambric handkerchief from his pocket, gave a preparatory ”hem,” and apparently unconscious that Miss Torrington had darted from the remote corner in which she had been ensconced and followed the housekeeper out of the room, remained for a moment with his eyes fixed on Mowbray and Helen, who remained standing.
”It would be a frightful mockery for us to kneel!” said Charles, drawing his sister back to the sofa she had quitted. ”Sit down with me, Helen; and when we are alone we will pray for strength to endure as we ought to do whatever calamity it is Heaven's will to try us with.”
The bride was kneeling beside her husband; but she rose up and said, ”You are of age, Charles Mowbray, and too stiff-necked and wilful to obey your mother: but you, Helen, I command to kneel.”
She then replaced herself with much solemnity; and Helen knelt too, while breathing a silent prayer to be forgiven for what she felt to be profanation.
Charles stood for a moment irresolute, and then said, dropping on his knees beside her, ”Heaven will pardon me for your sake, dear Helen,--even for kneeling at a service that my heart disclaims.”
Mr. Cartwright hemmed again, and began.
”I thank thee! that by thy especial calling and election I am placed where so many sinful souls are found, who through and by me may be shown the path by which to escape the eternal pains of h.e.l.l. But let thy flames blaze and burn, O Lord! for those who neglect so great salvation!
Pour down upon them visibly thy avenging judgments, and let the earth see it and be afraid. To me, O Lord! grant power, strength, and courage to do the work that is set before me. Let me be a rod and a scourge to the unG.o.dly; and let no sinful weakness on the part of the wife whom thou hast given me come across or overshadow the light received from thee for the leading of the rebellious back unto thy paths. Bless my virtuous wife; teach her to be meekly obedient to my word, and to thine through me; and make her so to value the inestimable mercy of being placed in the guiding hands of thy elected servant, that the miserable earthly dross which she maketh over to me in exchange for the same may seem but as dirt and filthiness in her sight! May such children as are already born unto her be brought to a due sense of thy exceeding mercy in thus putting it into their mother's heart to choose thine elected servant to lead them through the dangerous paths of youth; make them rejoice and be exceeding glad for the same, for so shall it be good in thy sight!”
This terrible thanksgiving, with all its minute rehearsing of people and of things, went on for a considerable time longer; but enough has been given to show the spirit of it. As soon as it was ended, the new master of the mansion rose from his knees, and waiting with an appearance of some little impatience till his audience had all recovered their feet, he turned to his bride with a smile of much complacency, and said, ”Mrs. Cartwright, my love, where shall I order Chivers to bring us some refreshments? Probably the dining-room fire is out. Shall we sup here?”
”Wherever you please,” answered the lady meekly, and blus.h.i.+ng a little at the sound of her new name p.r.o.nounced for the first time before her children.
This address and the answer to it were too much for Helen to endure with any appearance of composure. She hid her face in her handkerchief as she pa.s.sed her mother, and giving f.a.n.n.y, who was seated near the door, a hasty kiss, left the room, followed by her brother.
Helen ran to the apartment of Rosalind; and Mowbray ran with her, forgetful, as it seemed, of the indecorum of such an unauthorized intrusion at any time, and more forgetful still of the icy barrier which had seemed to exist between him and its fair inhabitant since the first expression of his love and of his hope had been so cruelly chilled by her light answer to it. But in this moment of new misery every thing was forgotten but the common sorrow: they found Rosalind pa.s.sionately sobbing, and Mrs. Williams, the housekeeper, weeping very heartily beside her.
”Oh, my Helen!” exclaimed the young heiress, springing forward to meet her; ”Williams says they cannot take my money from me. Will you let us divide my fortune and live together?”
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