The O'Donoghue Part 27

"Is here to answer for himsel'," said M'Nab, quietly, as he came rapidly forward and kissed her on either cheek; and, with an arm leaning on each of the old men, she walked forward to the drawing-room.

"And are you alone, my dear child--have you come alone?" said the O'Donoghue.

"Even so, papa;--my attached and faithful Hortense left me at Bristol.

Sea sickness became stronger than affection. She had a dream, besides, that she was lost, devoured, or carried off by a merman--I forget what.

And the end was, she refused to go further, and did her best to persuade me to the same opinion. She didn't remember that I had sent on my effects, and that my heart was here already."

"My own dearest child!" said O'Donoghue, as he pressed her hand fervently between his own.

"But how have ye journeyed by yoursel'?" said Sir Archy, as he gazed on the slight and delicate figure before him.

"Wonderfully well, uncle. During the voyage every one was most polite and attentive to me. There was a handsome young Guardsman who would have been more, had he not been gentleman enough to know that I was a lady.

And, once at Cork, I met, the very moment of landing, with a kind old friend, Father Luke, who took care of me hither. He only parted with me at the gate, not wis.h.i.+ng to interfere, as he said, with our first greetings. But I don't see Herbert--where is he?"

"Poor Herbert has been dangerously ill, my dear," said the father, "I scarcely think it safe for him to see you."

"No, no," interposed Sir Archy, feelingly. "If the sight of her can stir the seared heart of an auld carle like mysel', it wad na be the surest way to calm the frenzied blood of a youth."

Perhaps Sir Archy was not far wrong. Kate O'Donoghue was, indeed, a girl of no common attraction. Her figure, rather below than above the middle size, was yet so perfectly moulded, that for very symmetry and grace it seemed as if such should have been the standard of womanly beauty, while her countenance had a character of loveliness, even more striking than beautiful; her eyes were large, full, and of a liquid blue that resembled black; her hair, a rich brown, through which a golden tinge was seen to run, almost the colour of an autumn sun-set, giving a brilliancy to her complexion which, in its transparent beauty, needed no such aid; but her mouth was the feature whose expression, more than any other, possessed a peculiar charm. In speaking, the rounded lips moved with a graceful undulation, more expressive than mere sound, while, as she listened, the slightest tremble of the lip harmonizing with the brilliant glance of her eyes, gave a character of rapid intelligence to her face, well befitting the vivid temper of her nature. She looked her very self--a n.o.ble-hearted, high-spirited girl, without a thought save for what was honourable and lofty; one who accepted no compromise with a doubtful line of policy, but eagerly grasped at the right, and stood firmly by the consequence. Although educated within the walls of a convent, she had mixed, her extreme youth considered, much in the world of the city she lived in, and was thus as accomplished in all the "usage," and conventional habits of society, as she was cultivated in those gifts and graces which give it all its ornament. To a mere pa.s.sing observer there might seem somewhat of coquetry in her manner; but very little observation would show, that such unerring gracefulness cannot be the result of mere practice, and that, innate character had a.s.sumed that garb which best suited it, and not one to be merely worn for a season. Her accent, too, when she spoke English, had enough of foreign intonation about it to lay the ground for a charge of affectation; but he should have been a st.u.r.dy critic who could have persisted in the accusation. The fear was rather, that one leaned to the very fault of p.r.o.nunciation as an excellence, so much of piquancy did it occasionally lend to expressions, which, from other lips, had seemed tame and common-place. To any one who has seen the graceful coquetry of French manner engrafted on the more meaning eloquence of Irish beauty, my effort at a portrait will appear a very meagre and barren outline; and I feel how poorly I have endeavoured to convey any idea of one, whose Spanish origin had left a legacy of gracefulness and elegance, to be warmed into life by the fervid character of the Celt, and tempered again by the consummate attraction of French manner.

The ease and kindliness of spirit with which she sat between the two old men, listening in turn to each, or answering with graceful alacrity the questions they proffered--the playful delicacy with which she evaded the allusions they made from time to time to the disappointment the ruined house must have occasioned her--and the laughing gaiety with which she spoke of the new life about to open before her, were actually contagious. They already forgot the fears her antic.i.p.ated coming had inspired; and gazed on her with the warm affection that should wait on a welcome. Oh! what a gift is beauty, and how powerful its influence, when strengthened by the rich eloquence of a spotless nature, beaming from beneath long-lashed lids, when two men like these, seared and hardened by the world's ills--broken on the wheel of fortune--should feel a glow of long-forgotten gladness in their chilled hearts as they looked upon her? None could have guessed, however, what an effort that seeming light-heartedness cost her. Poor girl! Scarcely was she alone, and had closed the door of her room behind her, when she fell upon the bed in a torrent of tears, and sobbed as if her heart was breaking. All that Father Luke had said as they came along--and the kind old man had done his utmost to break the shock of the altered state of her uncle's fortunes--was far from preparing her for the cold reality she witnessed.

It was not the ruined walls, the treeless mountain, the desolate and dreary look of all around, that smote upon her heart; sad as these signs were, her grief had a higher source: it was the sight of that old man she called father, tottering feebly to the grave, surrounded by images of poverty and misfortune. It was the aspect of Mark, the cousin, she had pictured to her mind as an accomplished gentleman in look and demeanour; the descendant of a house more than n.o.ble--the heir of a vast property; and now she saw him, scarce in gesture and manner above the peasant--in dress, as slovenly and uncared for. She was prepared for a life of monotonous retirement and isolation. She was ready to face the long winter of dreary solitude--but not in such company as this. That she never calculated on. Her worst antic.i.p.ations had never conjured up more than an unchequered existence, with little to vary or relieve it; and now, she foresaw a life to be pa.s.sed amid the miserable straits and s.h.i.+fts of poverty, with all its petty incidents and lowering accidents, to lessen her esteem for those she wished to look up to and love. And this was Carrig-na-curra, the proud castle she had so often boasted of to her school companions, the baronial seat she had loved to exalt above the antique chateaux of France and Flanders; and these the haughty relatives, whose pride she mentioned as disdaining the alliance of the Saxon, and spurning all admixture of blood with a race less n.o.ble than their own. The very chamber she sat in, how did it contradict her own animated descriptions of its once comforts and luxuries! Alas! it seemed to be like duplicity and falsehood, that she had so spoken of these things. More than once she asked herself--"Were they always thus?"

Poor child! she knew not that poverty can bring sickness, and sorrow and premature old age. It can devastate the fields, and desolate the affections, and make cold both heart and home together!

If want stopped short at privation, men need not to tremble at its approach. It is in the debasing and degrading influence of poverty its real terror lies. It is in the plastic facility with which the poor man s.h.i.+fts to meet the coming evil, that the high principle of rect.i.tude is sacrificed, and the unflinching course of honour deviated from. When the proud three decker, in all the majesty of her might, may sail along her course unaltered, the humble craft, in the same sea, must tack, and beat, and watch for every casualty of the gale to gain her port in safety. These are the trials of the poor, but proud man. It is not the want of liveried lacqueys, of plate, of equipage, and all the glittering emblems of wealth, that smite his heart, and break his spirit. It is the petty subterfuge he is reduced to, that galls him--it is the sense of struggle between his circ.u.mstances and his conscience--between what he does, and what he feels.

It is true, Kate knew not these things, but yet she had before her the results of them too palpably to be mistaken. Sir Archibald was the only one on whom reverse of fortune had not brought carelessness and coa.r.s.eness of manner. He seemed, both in dress and demeanour, little changed from what she remembered him years before; nor had time, apparently, fallen on him with heavier impress in other respects. What was Herbert like? was the question ever rising to her mind, but with little hope that the answer would prove satisfactory.

While Kate O'Donoghue was thus pondering over the characters of those with whom she was now to live, they, on the other hand, were exerting themselves to the utmost to restore some semblance of its ancient comfort to the long-neglected dwelling. A blazing fire of bog deal was lighted in the old hall, whose mellow glare glanced along the dark oak wainscot, and threw a rich glow along the corridor itself, to the very door of the tower. In the great chamber, where they sat, many articles of furniture, long disused and half forgotten, were now collected, giving, even by their number, a look of increased comfort to the roomy apartment. Nor were such articles of ornament as they possessed forgotten. The few pictures which had escaped the wreck of damp and time were placed upon the walls, and a small miniature of Kate, as a child--a poor performance enough--was hung up over the chimney, as it were to honour her, whose presence these humble preparations were made to celebrate. Sir Archy, too, as eager in these arrangements as Mark himself, had brought several books and ill.u.s.trated volumes from his chamber to scatter upon the tables; while, as if for a shrine for the deity of the place, a little table of most elaborate marquetrie, and a richly-carved chair beside the fire, designated the place Kate was to occupy as her own, and to mark which, he had culled the very gems of his collection.

It is scarcely possible to conceive, how completely even a few trifling objects like these can change the "morale" of a chamber--how that, which before seemed c.u.mbrous, sad, and dispiriting, becomes at once lightsome and pleasant-looking. But so it is: the things which speak of human thought and feeling appeal to a very different sense from those which merely minister to material comfort; and we accept the presence of a single book, a print, or drawing, as an evidence that mental aliment has not been forgotten.

If the changes here spoken of gave a very different air and seeming to the old tower, Kate's own presence there completed the magic of the transformation. Dressed in black silk, and wearing a profusion of lace of the same colour--for her costume had been adapted to a very different sphere--she took her place in the family circle, diffusing around her a look of refinement and elegance, and making of that sombre chamber a s.p.a.cious "salon." Her guitar, her embroidery, her old-fas.h.i.+oned writing-desk, inlaid with silver, caught the eye as it wandered about the room, and told of womanly graces and accomplishments, so foreign to the rude emblems of the chase and the field, henceforth to be banished to the old entrance hall.

The O'Donoghue himself felt the influence of the young girl's presence, and evidenced, in his altered dress and demeanour, the respect he desired to show; while Mark took from his scanty wardrobe the only garment he possessed above the rank of a shooting jacket, and entered the room with a half-bashful, half-sullen air, as though angry and ashamed with himself for even so much compliance with the world's usages.

Although Kate was quick-sighted enough to see that these changes were caused on her account, her native tact prevented her from showing that knowledge, and made her receive their attentions with that happy blending of courtesy and familiarity, so fascinating from a young and pretty woman. The dinner--and it was a "chef-d'oeuvre" on the part of Mrs. Branagan--pa.s.sed off most pleasantly. The fear her coming had excited now gave way to the delight her presence conferred. They felt as if they had done her an injustice in their judgment, and hastened to make every "amende" for their unfair opinion. Never, for years long, had the O'Donoghue been so happy. The cold and cheerless chamber was once more warmed into a home. The fire beside which he had so often brooded in sadness, was now the pleasant hearth, surrounded by cheery faces.

Memories of the past, soothing through all their sorrow, flowed in upon his mind, as he sat and gazed at her in tranquil ecstacy. Sir Archibald, too, felt a return to his former self, in the tone of good breeding her presence diffused, and evinced, by the attentive politeness of his manner, how happy he was to recur once more to the observances which he remembered with so much affection, a.s.sociated, as they were, with the brightest period of his life.

As for Mark, although less an actor than the others in the scene, the effect upon him was not less striking. All his a.s.sumed apathy gave way as he listened to her descriptions of foreign society, and the habits of those she had lived amongst. The ringing melody of her voice, the brilliant sparkle of her dark eyes, the graceful elegance of gesture--the French woman's prerogative--threw over him their charm, a fascination never experienced before; and although a dark dread would now and then steal across his mind, How was a creature, beautiful and gifted like this, to lead the life of dreariness and gloom their days were pa.s.sed in?--the tender feeling of affection she shewed his father, the fondness with which she dwelt on every little incident of her childhood--every little detail of the mountain scenery--showed a spirit which well might harmonise with a home, even humble as theirs, and pleasures as uncostly and as simple. "Oh! if she grow not weary of us!"

was the heart-uttered sentence each moment as he listened; and, in the very anxiety of the doubt, the ecstacy of enjoyment was heightened. To purchase this boon, there was nothing he would not dare. To think that as he trod the glens, or followed the wild deer along some cragged and broken mountain gorge, a home like this ever awaited him, was a picture of happiness too bright and dazzling to look upon.

"Now, then, 'ma belle.'" said Sir Archibald, as he rose from his seat, and, with an air of gallantry that might have done credit to Versailles of old, threw the ribbon of her guitar over her neck--"now for your promise--that little romance ye spoke of."

"Willingly, dear uncle," replied she, striking the chords as a kind of prelude. "Shall I sing you one of our convent hymns?--or will you have the romance?"

"It is no' fair to tempt-one in a choice," said M'Nab, slyly; "but sin'

ye say so, I must hear baith before I decide."

"Your own favourite, the first," said she, smiling, and began the little chanson of the "Garde Ecossaise," the song of the exiled n.o.bles in the service of France, so dear to every Scotchman's heart.

While the melody described the gathering of the clans in the mountains, to take leave of their departing kinsmen, the measured tramp of the music, and the wild ringing of the pibroch, the old chieftain's face lit up, and his eye glared with the fierce fire of native pride; but when the moment of leave-taking arrived, and the heart-rending cry of "Farewell!" broke from his deserted, the eye became glazed and filmy, and with a hand tremulous from emotion, he stopped the singer.

"Na, na, Kate; I canna bear that, the noo. Ye ha'e smote the rock too suddenly, la.s.sie;" and the tears rolled heavily down his seared cheeks.

"You must let me finish uncle," said she, disengaging her hand; and at the instant, sweeping the chord with a bold and vigorous finger, she broke into a splendid and chivalrous description of the Scottish valour in the service of France, every line swelling with their proud achievements, as foremost they marched to battle. To this succeeded the crash and turmoil of the fray, the ringing cheers of the plaided warriors mingling with the war-cries of the Gaul, till, in a burst of triumph and victory, the song concluded. Then, the old man sprang from his chair, and threw his arms around her in a transport, as he cried--

"It's a mercifu' thing, la.s.sie, ye did na' live fifty years ago: by my saul, there's nae saying how many a brave fellow the like o' that had laid low!"

"If that be one of the hymns you spoke of, Kate," said the O'Donoghue, smiling, "I fancy Mark would have no objection to be a nun; but where is he?--he has left the room."

"I hope there was nothing in my song he disliked?" asked she, timidly; but before there was time for an answer the door opened, and Mark appeared with Herbert in his arms.

"There!" said he, laying him gently on the sofa; "if cousin Kate will only sing that once more, I'll answer for it, it will save you a fortnight in your recovery."

Kate knelt down beside the sick boy, and kissed him tenderly; while he, poor fellow, scarce daring to believe in the reality of all before him, played with the long tangles of her silky hair, and gazed on her in silence.

"We maun be cautious, Mark," whispered M'Nab, carefully; but Mark had no ears nor eyes save for her who now sat beside his brother, and in a low soft voice breathed her affectionate greetings to him.

In this way pa.s.sed the first evening of her coming--a night whose fascination dwelt deep in every heart, and made each dreamer blest.

CHAPTER XVIII. A HASTY PLEDGE

While these things were happening within the ruined castle of the O'Donoghue, a guest, equally unexpected as theirs, had arrived at "the Lodge." Frederick Travers, delayed in Bristol by contrary winds, had come over in the same packet with Kate; but without being able either to learn her name, or whither she was going. His unlooked for appearance at "the Lodge," was a most welcome surprise both to Sir Marmaduke and Sybella; and as he did not desire to avow the real object of his coming, it was regarded by them as the most signal proof of affection. They well knew how much London life engrossed him--how completely its peculiar habits and haunts possessed attractions for him--and with what a depreciating estimate he looked down on every part of the globe, save that consecrated to the fas.h.i.+onable follies and amus.e.m.e.nts of his own set.

He was not, in reality, insensible to other and better influences; his affection for his father and sister was unbounded; he had a bold, manly spirit, unalloyed with any thing mean or sordid; a generous, candid nature, and straightforward earnestness of purpose, that often carried him farther by impulse, than he was followed by his convictions. Still a conventional cant, a tone of disparaging, half-contemptuous indifference to every thing which characterized his a.s.sociates, had already infected him; and he felt ashamed to confess to those sentiments and opinions, to possess and to act upon which should have been his dearest pride.

"Well, Fred," said Sybella, as they drew around the fire after dinner, in that happy home circle so suggestive of enjoyment, "let us hear what you thought of the scenery. Is not Glenflesk fine?"

"Matlock on a larger scale," said he coolly. "Less timber and more rocks.."

"Matlock! dear friend. You might as well compare Keim-an-eigh with Holborn--you are only jesting."

"Compare what? Repeat that droll name, I beg of you."

"Keim-an-eigh. It is a mountain pa.s.s quite close to us here."

"Admirably done! Why, Sybella dear, I shall not be surprised to see you take to the red petticoat and bare-feet soon. You have indoctrinated yourself wonderfully since your arrival."

"I like the people with all my heart, Fred," said she artlessly; "and if I could imitate many of their traits of forbearance and long-suffering patience by following their costume, I promise you I'd don the scarlet."

"Ay, Fred," said Sir Marmaduke, with a sententious gravity, "they don't know these Irish at all at our side of the water. They mistake them totally. They only want teaching, a little example--a little encouragement--that's all: and they are as docile and tractable as possible. I'll show you to-morrow what improvements a few months have effected. I'll bring you over a part of the estate, where there was not a hovel fit for a dog, and you shall see what comfortable dwellings they have. We hear nothing in England but the old songs about popery, and superst.i.tion, and all that. Why, my dear Fred, these people don't care a straw for the priest--they'd be any thing I asked them."

"Devilish high principled that, any way," said Fred, drily.

"I didn't exactly mean that; at least in the sense you take it. I was about to say, that such is their confidence, such their grat.i.tude to the landlord, that--tha----"