CHAPTER IV.
"Con una Dama tenia
Un galan conversacion."*
MORATIN: /El Teatro Espanol/.--Num. 15.
* With a dame he held a gallant conversation.
MALTRAVERS was first at the appointed place. His character was in most
respects singularly energetic, decided, and premature in its
development; but not so in regard to women: with them he was the
creature of the moment; and, driven to and fro by whatever impulse, or
whatever passion, caught the caprice of a wild, roving, and all-poetical
imagination, Maltravers was, half unconsciously, a poet--a poet of
action, and woman was his muse.
He had formed no plan of conduct towards the poor girl he was to meet.
He meant no harm to her. If she had been less handsome, he would have
been equally grateful; and her dress, and youth, and condition, would
equally have compelled him to select the hour of dusk for an interview.
He arrived at the spot. The winter night had already descended; but a
sharp frost had set in: the air was clear, the stars were bright, and
the long shadows slept, still and calm, along the broad road, and the
whitened fields beyond.
He walked briskly to and fro, without much thought of the interview, or
its object, half chanting old verses, German and English, to himself,
and stopping to gaze every moment at the silent stars.
At length he saw Alice approach: she came up to him timidly and gently.
His heart beat more quickly; he felt that he was young and alone with
beauty. "Sweet girl," he said, with involuntary and mechanical
compliment, "how well this light becomes you. How shall I thank you for
not forgetting me?"
Alice surrendered her hand to his without a struggle.
"What is your name?" said he, bending his face down to hers.
"Alice Darvil."
"And your terrible father,--/is/ he, in truth, your father?"
"Indeed he is my father and mother too!"
"What made you suspect his intention to murder me? Has he ever
attempted the like crime?"
"No; but lately he has often talked of robbery. He is very poor, sir.
And when I saw his eye, and when afterwards, while your back was turned,
he took the key from the door, I felt that--that you were in danger."
"Good girl--go on."
"I told him so when we went up-stairs. I did not know what to believe,
when he said he would not hurt you; but I stole the key of the front
door, which he had thrown on the table, and went to my room. I listened
at my door; I heard him go down the stairs--he stopped there for some
time; and I watched him from above. The place where he was opened to
the field by the back-way. After some time, I heard a voice whisper
him; I knew the voice, and then they both went out by the back-way; so I
stole down, and went out and listened; and I knew the other man was John
Walters. I'm afraid of /him/, sir. And then Walters said, says he, 'I
will get the hammer, and, sleep or wake, we'll do it.' And father said,
'It's in the shed.' So I saw there was no time to be lost, sir,
and--and--but you know all the rest."
"But how did you escape?"
"Oh, my father, after talking to Walters, came to my room, and beat
and--and--frightened me; and when he was gone to bed, I put on my
clothes, and stole out; it was just light; and I walked on till I met
you."
"Poor child, in what a den of vice you have been brought up!"
"Anan, sir."
"She don't understand me. Have you been taught to read and write?"
"Oh no!"
"But I suppose you have been taught, at least, to say your
catechism--and you pray sometimes?"
"I have prayed to father not to beat me."
"But to God?"
"God, sir--what is that?"*
* This ignorance--indeed the whole sketch of Alice--is from the life;
nor is such ignorance, accompanied by what almost seems an instinctive
or intuitive notion of right or wrong, very uncommon, as our police
reports can testify. In the /Examiner/ for, I think, the year 1835,
will be found the case of a young girl ill-treated by her father, whose
answers to the interrogatories of the magistrate are very similar to
those of Alice to the questions of Maltravers.
Maltravers drew back, shocked and appalled. Premature philosopher as he
was, this depth of ignorance perplexed his wisdom. He had read all the
disputes of schoolmen, whether or not the notion of a Supreme Being is
innate; but he had never before been brought face to face with a living
creature who was unconscious of a God.
After a pause, he said: "My poor girl, we misunderstand each other. You
know that there is a God?"
"No, sir."
"Did no one ever tell you who made the stars you now survey--the earth
on which you tread?"
"No."
"And have you never thought about it yourself?"
"Why should I? What has that to do with being cold and hungry?"
Maltravers looked incredulous. "You see that great building, with the
spire rising in the starlight?"
"Yes, sir, sure."
"What is it called?"
"Why, a church."
"Did you never go into it?"
"No."
"What do people do there?"
"Father says one man talks nonsense, and the other folk listen to him."
"Your father is--no matter. Good heavens! what shall I do with this
unhappy child?"
"Yes, sir, I am very unhappy," said Alice, catching at the last words;
and the tears rolled silently down her cheeks.
Maltravers never was more touched in his life. Whatever thoughts of
gallantry might have entered his young head, had he found Alice such as
he might reasonably have expected, he now felt that there was a kind of
sanctity in her ignorance; and his gratitude and kindly sentiment
towards her took almost a brotherly aspect.--"You know, at least, what
school is?" he asked.
"Yes, I have talked with girls who go to school."
"Would you like to go there, too?"
"Oh, no, sir, pray not!"
"What should you like to do, then? Speak out, child. I owe you so
much, that I should be too happy to make you comfortable and contented
in your own way."
"I should like to live with you, sir." Maltravers started, and half
smiled, and coloured. But looking on her eyes, which were fixed
earnestly on his, there was so much artlessness in their soft,
unconscious gaze, that he saw she was wholly ignorant of the
interpretation that might be put upon so candid a confession.
I have said that Maltravers was a wild, enthusiastic, odd being--he was,
in fact, full of strange German romance and metaphysical speculations.
He had once shut himself up for months to study astrology--and been even
suspected of a serious hunt after the philosopher's stone; another time
he had narrowly escaped with life and liberty from a frantic conspiracy
of the young republicans of his university, in which, being bolder and
madder than most of them, he had been an active ringleader; it was,
indeed, some such folly that had compelled him to quit Germany sooner
than himself or his parents desired. He had nothing of the sober
Englishman about him. Whatever was strange and eccentric had an
irresistible charm for Ernest Maltravers. And agreeably to this
disposition, he now revolved an idea that enchanted his mobile and
fantastic philosophy. He himself would educate this charming girl--he
would write fair and heavenly characters upon this blank page--he would
act the Saint Preux to this Julie of Nature. Alas, he did not think of
the result which the parallel should have suggested. At that age,
Ernest Maltravers never damped the ardour of an experiment by the
anticipation of consequences.
"So," he said, after a short reverie, "so you would like to live with
me? But, Alice, we must not fall in love with each other."
"I don't understand, sir."
"Never mind," said Maltravers, a little disconcerted.
"I always wished to go into service."
"Ha!"
"And you would be a kind master."
Maltravers was half disenchanted.
"No very flattering preference," thought he: "so much the safer for us.
Well, Alice, it shall be as you wish. Are you comfortable where you
are, in your new lodgings?"
"No."
"Why, they do not insult you?"
"No; but they make a noise, and I like to be quiet to think of you."
The young philosopher was reconciled again to his scheme.
"Well, Alice--go back--I will take a cottage to-morrow, and you shall be
my servant, and I will teach you to read and write and say your prayers,
and know that you have a Father above who loves you better than he
below. Meet me again at the same hour to-morrow. Why do you cry,
Alice? why do you cry?"
"Because--because," sobbed the girl, "I am so happy, and I shall live
with you and see you."
"Go, child--go, child," said Maltravers, hastily; and he walked away
with a quicker pulse than became his new character of master and
preceptor.
He looked back, and saw the girl gazing at him; he waved his hand, and
she moved on and followed him slowly back to the town.
Maltravers, though not an elder son, was the heir of affluent fortunes;
he enjoyed a munificent allowance that sufficed for the whims of a youth
who had learned in Germany none of the extravagant notions common to
young Englishmen of similar birth and prospects. He was a spoiled
child, with no law but his own fancy,--his return home was not
expected,--there was nothing to prevent the indulgence of his new
caprice. The next day he hired a cottage in the neighbourhood, which
was one of those pretty thatched edifices, with verandas and monthly
roses, a conservatory and a lawn, which justify the English proverb
about a cottage and love. It had been built by a mercantile bachelor
for some Fair Rosamond, and did credit to his taste. An old woman, let
with the house, was to cook and do the work. Alice was but a nominal
servant. Neither the old woman nor the landlord comprehended the
Platonic intentions of the young stranger. But he paid his rent in
advance, and they were not particular. He, however, thought it prudent
to conceal his name. It was one sure to be known in a town not very
distant from the residence of his father, a wealthy and long-descended
country gentleman. He adopted, therefore, the common name of Butler;
which, indeed, belonged to one of his maternal connections, and by that
name alone was he known in the neighbourhood and to Alice. From her he
would not have sought concealment,--but somehow or other no occasion
ever presented itself to induce him to talk much to her of his parentage
or birth.
