Part 40 (1/2)
”Is there nothing you can recollect to sing, my dear?” asked Mrs.
Coleman.
She paused for a moment as if in thought, ere she replied:--
”There is an old air, which I think I could remember; but I do not know whether you will like it. The words,” she added, glancing towards me, ”refer to the subject on which we have just been speaking.”
She then seated herself at the instrument, and, after striking a few simple chords, sang, in a sweet, rich soprano, the following stanzas;--
I
”Behold, how brightly seeming All nature shows: In golden sunlight gleaming, Blushes the rose.
How very happy things must be That are so bright and fair to see!
Ah, no! in that sweet flower, A worm there lies; And lo! within the hour, It fades--it dies.
II
”Behold, young Beauty's glances Around she flings; While as she lightly dances, Her soft laugh rings: How very happy they must be, Who are as young and gay as she!
'Tis not when smiles are brightest, So old tales say, The bosom's lord sits lightest-- Ah! well-a-day!
III
”Beneath the greenwood's cover The maiden steals, And, as she meets her lover, Her blush reveals How very happy all must be Who love with trustful constancy.
By cruel fortune parted, She learns too late, How some die broken-hearted-- Ah! hapless fate!”
-263-- The air to which these words were set was a simple, plaintive, old melody, well suited to their expression, and Miss Saville sang with much taste and feeling. When she reached the last four lines of the second verse, her eyes met mine for an instant, with a sad, reproachful glance, as if upbraiding me for having misunderstood her; and there was a touching sweetness in her voice, as she almost whispered the refrain, ”Ah! well-a-day!” which seemed to breathe the very soul of melancholy.
”Strange, incomprehensible girl!” thought I, as I gazed with a feeling of interest I could not restrain, upon her beautiful features, which were now marked by an expression of the most touching sadness--”who could believe that she was the same person who, but five minutes since, seemed possessed by the spirit of frolic and merriment, and appeared to have eyes and ears for nothing beyond the jokes and drolleries of Freddy Coleman?”
”That's a very pretty song, my dear,” said Mrs. Coleman; ”and I'm very much obliged to you for singing it, only it has made me cry so, it has given me quite a cold in my head, I declare;” and, suiting the action to the word, the tender-hearted old lady began to wipe her eyes, and execute sundry other manoeuvres incidental to the malady she had named.
At this moment Freddy returned, laden with music-books. Miss Saville immediately fixed upon a lively duet which would suit their voices, and song followed song, till Mrs. Coleman, waking suddenly in a fright, after a tremendous attempt to break her neck, which was very near proving successful, found out that it was past eleven o'clock, and consequently bed-time.
It can scarcely be doubted that my thoughts, as I fell asleep (for, unromantic as it may appear, truth compels me to state that I never slept better in my life), turned upon my unexpected meeting with Clara Saville. The year and a half which had elapsed since the night of the ball had altered her from a beautiful girl into a lovely woman. Without in the slightest degree diminis.h.i.+ng its grace and elegance, the outline of her figure had become more rounded, while her features had acquired a depth of expression which was not before observable, and which was the only thing wanting to render them (I had almost said) perfect. In her manner there was also a great alteration; the quiet reserve she had maintained when in the presence of Mr. Vernor, and the calm frankness displayed during our accidental meeting in Barstone -264-- Park, had alike given way to a strange excitability, which at times showed itself in the bursts of wild gaiety which had annoyed my fastidious sensitiveness in the earlier part of the evening, at others in the deep impa.s.sioned feeling she threw into her singing, though I observed that it was only in such songs as partook of a melancholy and even despairing character that she did so. The result of my meditations was, that the young lady was an interesting enigma, and that I could not employ the next two or three days to better advantage than in ”doing a little bit of OEdipus.” as Coleman would have termed it, or, in plain English, ”finding her out ”;--and hereabouts I fell asleep.
CHAPTER x.x.xIV -- THE RIDDLE BAFFLES ME!
”Your riddle is hard to read.”
--_Tennyson_.
'”Are you content?
I am what you behold.
And that's a mystery.”
_The Two Foscari_.
THE post next morning brought a letter from Mr. Vernor to say that, as he found the business on which he was engaged must necessitate his crossing to Boulogne, he feared there was no chance of his being able to return under a week, but that, if it should be inconvenient for Mrs.
Coleman to keep Miss Saville so long at Elm Lodge, he should wish her to go back to Barstone, where, if she was in any difficulty, she could easily apply to her late hostess for advice and a.s.sistance. On being brought clearly (though I fear the word is scarcely applicable to the good lady's state of mind at any time) to understand the position of affairs, Mrs. Coleman would by no means hear of Miss Saville's departure; but, on the contrary, made her promise to prolong her stay till her guardian should return, which, as Freddy observed, involved the remarkable coincidence that if Mr. Vernor should be drowned in crossing the British Channel, she (his mother) _would have put her foot in it_.
The same post brought Freddy a summons from his father, desiring him, the moment he returned from Bury with the papers, to proceed to town immediately. There was nothing left for him, therefore, but to deposit himself upon the roof of the next coach, blue bag in hand, which he accordingly did, after having spent the intervening time in reviling -265-- all lawyers, clients, deeds, settlements, in fact, every individual thing connected with the profession, excepting fees.