"My dear Richard," said she, as the door closed after Lord Netherby, "I must keep you prisoner in the drawing-room for a few minutes, while I receive a visitor of Lord Netherby's. Don't close the doors; I can't endure heat and this room becomes insupportable without a slight current of air. Besides, there is no secret, I fancy, in the communication. As well as I understand the matter, it does not concern us; but Netherby is always doing some piece of silly good-nature, for which no one thanks him!"

The last reflection was half soliloquy, but said so that Forester could and did hear every word of it. While her Ladyship, therefore, patiently awaited the arrival of her visitor in one room, Forester threw himself into a chair, and taking up a book at hazard, endeavored to pa.s.s the interval without further thought about the matter.

Sitting with his back towards the door of the boudoir. Forester accidentally had placed himself in such a position that a large mirror between the windows reflected to him a considerable portion of the scene within. It was then with an amount of astonishment far above ordinary that he beheld the strange-looking figure who followed Lord Netherby into the apartment of his mother. He was a short, dumpy man, with a bald head, over which the long hairs of either side were studiously combed into an ingenious kind of network, and meeting at an angle above the cranium, looked like the uncovered rafters of a new house. Two fierce-looking gray eyes that seemed ready for fun or malice, rolled and revolved unceasingly over the various decorations of the chamber, while a large thick-lipped mouth, slightly opened at either end, vouched for one who neglected no palpable occasion for self-indulgence or enjoyment. There was, indeed, throughout his appearance, a look of racy satisfaction and contentment, that consorted but ill with his costume, which was a suit of deep mourning; his clothes having all the gloss and shine of a recent domestic loss, and made, as seems something to be expected on these occasions, considerably too large for him, as though to imply that the defunct should not be defrauded in the full measure of sorrow. Deep c.r.a.pe weepers encircled his arms to the elbows, and a very banner of black hung mournfully from his hat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 368]

"Mr.-------" Here Lord Netherby hesitated, forgetful of his name.

"Dempsey, Paul Dempsey, your Grace," said the little man, as, stepping forward, he performed the salutation before Lady Netherby, by which he was accustomed to precede an invitation to dance.

"Pray be seated, Mr. Dempsey. I have just briefly mentioned to her Ladyship the circ.u.mstances of our interesting conversation, and with your permission will proceed with my recital, begging that if I fall into any error you will kindly set me right. This will enable Lady Netherby, who is still an invalid, to support the fatigue of an interview wherein her advice and counsel will be of great benefit to us both."

Mr. Dempsey bowed several times, not sorry, perhaps, that in such an awful presence he was spared the office of chief orator.

"I told you, my dear," said Lord Netherby, turning towards her Ladyship, "that this gentleman had for a considerable time back enjoyed the pleasure of intimacy with our worthy relative Lady Eleanor Darcy--"

The fall of a heavy book in the adjoining room interrupted his Lordship, between whom and Lady Netherby a most significant interchange of glances took place. He resumed, however, without a pause,--

"Lady Eleanor and her accomplished daughter. If the more urgent question were uot now before us, it would gratify you to learn, as I have just done, the admirable patience she has exhibited under the severe trials she has met; the profound insight she obtained into the condition, hopeless as it proves to be, of their unhappy circ.u.mstances; and the resignation in which, submitting to changed fortune, she not only has at once abandoned the modes of living she was habituated to, but actually descended to what I can fancy must have been the hardest infliction of all,--vulgar companionship, and the society of a boarding-house."

"A most respectable establishment, though," broke in Paul; "Fumbally's is known all over Ulster--"

A very supercilious smile from Lady Netherby cut short a panegyric Mr.

Dempsey would gladly have extended.

"No doubt, sir, it was the best thing of the kind," resumed his Lordship; "but remember who Lady Eleanor Darcy was,--ay, and is.

Think of the station she had always held, and then fancy her in daily intercourse with those people--"

"Oh, it is very horrid, indeed!" broke in Lady Netherby, leaning back, and looking overcome even at the bare conception of the enormity.

"The little miserable notorieties of a fishing-village--"

"Coleraine, my Lord,--Coleraine," cried Dempsey.

"Well, be it so. What is Coleraine?"

"A very thriving town on the river Bann, with a smart trade in yarn, two breweries, three meeting-houses, a pound, and a Sunday-school," repeated Paul, as rapidly as though reading from a volume of a topographical dictionary.

"All very commendable and delightful inst.i.tutions, on which I beg heartily to offer my congratulations, but, you will allow me to remark, scarcely enough to compensate for the accustomed appliances of a residence at Gwynne Abbey. But I see we are trespa.s.sing on Lady Netherby's strength. You seem faint, my dear."

"It's nothing,--it will pa.s.s over in a moment or so. This sad account of these poor people has distressed me greatly."

"Well, then, we must hasten on. Mr. Dempsey became acquainted with our poor friends in this their exile; and although from his delicacy and good taste he will not dwell on the circ.u.mstance, it is quite clear to me, has shown them many attentions; I might use a stronger word, and say kindnesses."

"Oh! by Jove, I did nothing. I could do nothing--"

"Nay, sir, you are unjust to yourself; the very intentions by which you set out on your present journey are the shortest answer to that question. It would appear, my dear, that my fair relative, Miss Darcy, has not forfeited the claim she possessed to great beauty and attraction; for here, in the gentleman before us, is an evidence of their existence. Mr. Dempsey, who 'never told his love,' as the poet says, waited in submission himself for the hour of his changing fortune; and until the death of his mother--"

"No, my Lord; my uncle, Bob Dempsey, of Dempsey's Grove."

"His uncle, I mean. Mr. Dempsey, of Dempsey's Hole."

"Grove,-Dempsey's Grove," interpolated Paul, reddening.

"Grove, I should say," repeated Lord Netherby, unmoved. "By which he has succeeded to a very comfortable independence, and is now in a position to make an offer of his hand and fortune."

"Under the conditions, my Lord,--under the conditions," whispered Paul.

"I have not forgotten them," resumed Lord Netherby, aloud. "It would be ungenerous not to remember them, even for your sake, Mr. Dempsey, seeing how much my poor, dear relative, Lady Eleanor, is beut on prosecuting this unhappy suit, void of all hope, as it seems to be, and not having any money of her owu--"

"Ready money,--cash," interposed Paul.

"So I mean--ready money to make the advances necessary--Mr. Dempsey wishes to raise a certain sum by loan, on the security of his property, which may enable the Darcys to proceed with their claim; this deed to be executed on his marriage with Miss Darcy. Am I correct, sir?"

"Quite correct, my Lord; you've only omitted that, to save expensive searches, lawyers' fees, and other devilments of the like nature, that your Lordship should advance the blunt yourself?"

"I was coming to that point. Mr. Dempsey opines that, taking the interest it is natural we should do in our poor friends, he has a kind of claim to make this proposition to us. He is aware of our relationship--mine, I mean--to Lady Eleanor. She spoke to you, I believe, on that subject, Mr. Dempsey?"

"Not exactly to _me_," said Paul, hesitating, and recalling the manner in which he became cognizant of the circ.u.mstance; "but I heard her say that your Lordship was under very deep obligation to her own father,--that you were, so to say, a little out at elbows once, very like myself before Bob died, and that then--"

"We all lived together like brothers and sisters," said his Lordship, reddening. "I 'm sure I can't forget how happily the time went over."

"Then Lady Eleanor, I presume, sir, did not advert to those circ.u.mstances as a reason for your addressing yourself to Lord Netherby?" said her Ladyship, with a look of stern severity.

"Why, my Lady, she knows nothing about my coming here. Lord bless us! I wouldn't have told her for a thousand pounds!"

"Nor Miss Darcy, either?"

"Not a bit of it! Oh, by Jove! if you think they 're not as proud as ever they were, you are much mistaken; and, indeed, on this very same subject I heard her say that nothing would induce her to accept a favor from your Lordship, if even so very improbable an event should occur as your offering one."

"So that we owe the honor of your visit to the most single-minded of motives, sir," said Lady Netherby, whose manner had now a.s.sumed all its stateliness.

"Yes, my Lady, I came as you see,--_Dempsius c.u.m Dempsio_,--so that if I succeed, I can say like that fellow in the play, 'Alone, I did it.'"

Lord Netherby, who probably felt that the interview had lasted sufficiently long for the only purpose he had destined or endured it, was now becoming somewhat desirous of terminating the audience; nor was his impatience allayed by those sportive sallies of Mr. Dempsey in allusion to his own former condition as a dependant.

At length he said, "You must be aware, Mr. Dempsey, that this is a matter demanding much time and consideration. The Knight of Gwynne is absent."

"That's the reason there is not an hour to lose," interposed Paul.

"I am at a loss for your meaning."

"I mean that if he comes home before it 's all settled, that the game is up. He would never consent, I 'm certain."

"So you think that the ladies regard you with more favorable eyes?" said her Ladyship, smiling a mixture of superciliousness and amus.e.m.e.nt.

"I have my own reasons to think so," said Paul, with great composure.