Tales from Blackwood Volume Vii Part 12

"We shall have better days yet, Copus, never fear."

After a few minutes' conversation, the face of affairs entirely changed. An apology was made by his lords.h.i.+p in person for the mistake of his servant; that individual was severely reprimanded, greatly to the satisfaction of Mr Copus; the two greys were peaceably yoked to the plain chariot, and Jock Brown cracked his whip and trotted off at a pace that set loose the tongues of all the dogs in the village.

"What a barbarous set of people these Lowlanders are!" exclaimed the senior lady--"so different from the brave and n.o.ble mountaineers. My brother, the chieftain, is lucky in having such a splendid set of retainers, and the tartan he invented is very becoming."

"Vell, only to think of picking up my old master in a inn-yard!"

murmured Mr Copus, resuming his old position, and fixing his guarding arm once more inside of the rumble-rail; "after all the rum goes we had together at Oxford and Brussels. Nothing couldn't be luckier than meeting a old friend among them Scotch savages. Do ye know, Mariar, they haven't no breeches?"

"For shame, Mr Copus!"

CHAPTER II.

It must be evident to the most unpractised eye that the young gentleman recognised by his old servant, and the pretty young lady in the plain chariot, are the hero and heroine of this true story. And a very fitting hero and heroine they would have been for a tale of far higher pretensions than the plain unvarnished one which it is now our duty to deliver. At present, all we can afford to tell the reader is the fact of their being consumedly in love--that their love proved its truth by not running very smoothly--and that, at the moment at which we have brought them on the stage, they had had no communication for several months before. The delight, therefore, of Henry Raymond on recognising Jane Somers at Meg Dods's door, was equalled by his surprise. He formed one of a party going down for the twelfth of August to the moors of his friend, Lord Teysham; but the interview he had had with his former domestic, Bill Copus, who had attended him through his career at Oxford, and afterwards for a short time to the Continent, somewhat cooled his zeal as a sportsman, by adding to his hopes as a lover. The forced embargo laid on them by the hostess of Fus.h.i.+e Bridge--for she was resolute in refusing to take them on with a pair, and the cattle of the last stage were miserably tired--gave him time to lay so much of his plans before his friends as he saw fit; and, long before the second pair, which had been with a party to Leith, had been refreshed, and were ready to start, his companions had unanimously pa.s.sed a resolution, "that it was inc.u.mbent on the members of this excursion, collectively and individually, to give all possible aid and a.s.sistance to Henry Raymond, in overthrowing the plans of all persons of the name of Smith, or of any other name or denomination whatever, and marrying a certain young lady of the name of Jane Somers."

But Lord Teysham, who united a great deal of good plain sense with his buoyancy of spirits, took him quietly aside, and asked him--

"Why, in heaven's name, if he liked the girl, he didn't propose for her in form?"

"I have, my dear fellow," replied Harry, "and been refused."

"By whom?"

"The uncle. He wrote me a letter, saying my favour of 3d ult. had come duly to hand, and he declined the offer as expressed therein,--and he remains, sir, for self and niece, my obedient servant, Thomas Smith."

"But had he a right to send you this letter?"

"As guardian and uncle, I suppose he has; but as empowered by Jane herself, none whatever."

"But what's his objection?"

"I've an elder brother."

"Well, but your governor is a close old boy. He has metal enough for a frigate besides his First-rate."

"Yes; but he has told me a hundred times that t.i.t for tat is the only game he plays at--whatever fortune I bring he will pay me over the same; if I marry for love, I must live on it. I could give you a score or two more of his wise sayings."

"Oh! thank ye--I've a good stock of my own; but why, in the name of wonder, is he so distrustful? Can't he give you credit for being able to choose, without bribing you, as it were, to look out for a fortune?"

"My father won't give credit to any one, especially to me; besides, he has some little cause to be suspicious, for I've cleaned him out of a trifle once or twice, in a way that makes him slow to bite now. I have been on the point of marriage twice--once to old Crocky, and once to Stulz."

"How?"

"Why, you see, last year I was dipt a little to the fishmonger, and wrote a matrimonial letter home hinting at trousseaus and other expenses, but mentioning no names. Nothing could please the old gentleman so much, and it was on that occasion he sent me up the paper, properly signed and attested, binding himself to give me guinea for guinea whatever fortune I might get with my wife. A thousand he sent me to do the needful in the way of jewels and other presents, set me square with all the world."

"And your progenitor was indignant at the disappointment?"

"Oh! horribly; and unless it had been for a four-year bill of Stulz, I shouldn't have troubled him so soon. But, as I was aware that Walter knew of the obligation about my future fortune, I gave him to understand that I was devoted to Miss Coutts, and that I had no reason to despair. The very thought of such a thing was death both to the old Jack Daw and the young. The squire and his eldest hope would have been both in the poor-house if I had succeeded in carrying off the heiress, and had kept them to their bond. So, after a week or two, I let them off for their alarm, and a moderate tip. But all these things, my dear Teysham, are over now. I am resolved to marry Jane Somers, and cut both Stulz and Crocky."

"If you can get her; but this old monster, with the uncommon name, has her in his power. We must concert measures calmly, and we need not despair. Will she herself help us?"

"To be sure she will. Her new home must be misery to her. She is the daughter of a sister of this old Smith, who, by some chance or other, married a gentleman. She had a large fortune, which now belongs to this only child. Colonel Somers has long been dead; the widow died a few years ago. Jane was then educated in the house of another guardian, a cousin of Colonel Somers, who lived near Bath; and, on his lately being sent to India on a high command, she was claimed by this Manchester hobgoblin, and torn from all her old friends."

"Yourself among the rest?"

"Just so--and now you know the whole story."

In which respect, as we conclude, the reader is by this time on a par with Lord Teysham, we quit the conclave at Fus.h.i.+e Bridge, and proceed to the more splendid apartments in Douglas's Hotel.

In the little drawing-room that looks to St Andrew Square, the evening seemed to have pa.s.sed stupidly enough. Aunt Alice, after yawning till tea time, and scolding the greater part of that excellent time-killer, had at last, at about nine o'clock, betaken herself to her bedroom, to bring down the _Scottish Chiefs_--a book of manners and statistics from which all her notions of the Scottish nation of an early period were derived. _Waverley_, and the other northern stories of the enchanter, supplied her with all her modern information; and not very bad sources they would have been, if Miss Alice had been able to understand the language in which they were written. But our n.o.ble vernacular was to her a more impenetrable mystery than any revealed at Eleusis, and it was, perhaps, on this account that she entertained so decided a preference for the performance of Miss Porter.

Jane Somers, whom we have hitherto represented as either listless or sleeping, was sitting busily engaged in the somewhat unusual occupation of thinking. And, as her thoughts were wandering about Lansdowne, and a vast apartment, n.o.bly lighted and filled with the sounds of revelry by night, we need not be surprised if they occasionally made a detour to the stables of Fus.h.i.+e Bridge, and the sight that met her there. While musing deeply on these very interesting subjects, our friend Copus entered the room and said--

"Please, mum, one of the vaiters here knows all about them there places as master talks so much on; p'raps Miss Alice would like to hear about 'em?"

"I will tell my aunt, William," said the young lady, and returned to her former musings.

Copus retired and shut the door.

A low voice at her ear as she again rested her head upon the arm of the sofa, whispered "Jane!"

On looking up she saw a tall man dressed in the usual waiter's costume, with a large white cloth spread over his left arm.

"Harry Raymond!" she said, but by some unaccountable instinct speaking, even in the extremity of her surprise, in a tone of voice that scarcely reached beyond the person she addressed,--"In Heaven's name, what do you here?--in this disguise? Aunt Alice will detect you, and then my situation will be made doubly miserable."

"Then it _is_ miserable, Jane? Why do you submit to it? Ah, Jane, you have forgotten, surely, the promises you gave me."

"Forgetfulness seems to have existed on more sides than one. I have been four months in Lancas.h.i.+re, and am indebted, at last, to a chance meeting in Scotland for being recalled to your recollection."

"Recollection!" echoed the young man, in the liveliness of his emotion flinging the white cloth upon the floor. "Good heavens! what can have put such a notion into your head? I have written letter upon letter, both to you and your guardian--that is, after I found out where you had gone to. My letters to you have not been answered; my letter to him was answered by a refusal."

"Harry, Harry, he never consulted me--I never"----but here she checked herself, as perhaps she considered that the vehemence of her denial might be construed into something very like an anxiety to retract it; and whether this was the construction put on it or not, all we have to say is, that on Miss Alice Smith slipping quietly into the room, with a volume of the _Scottish Chiefs_ in her hand, she almost screamed, as she saw a stranger seated on the sofa beside her niece, and holding her very earnestly by the hand.

"How! what's all this?" exclaimed Miss Alice. "Them Scotch is the oddest people!"

"Young lady nearly fainted, ma'am, at some accounts I was giving her of the Highlands, ma'am. I'm waiter here, ma'am; and it's part of my business, ma'am, to give all sorts of information to the English families as they pa.s.s through the city, ma'am."

"And what were you a-telling of to this young lady?"

"Only a few incidents that occasionally happen in such wild scenes as Fash-na-Cairn or Ben-na-Groich. They say the new Ben-na-Groich is an English n.o.bleman, with a very handsome sister;--I was merely telling this young lady here what would probably be the fate of the beautiful English-woman."

"Gracious me!" exclaimed Miss Alice: "no wonder she fainted, poor thing. What was it? for mercy's sake--what will they do to her?"

"Fash-na-Cairn and all his clan have been at war for hundreds of years with Ben-na-Groich. He will probably lead a foray upon the new chief and carry off his sister."

"Gracious! how old is this Fash-na-Cairn?"

"About five-and-twenty. He has buried his fifteenth wife. They seldom live more than three months."