By the Rural Dean I would have you know,then,that a great many years ago there lived in a classical mansion with which I used to be familiar,standing not a hundred miles from the city of Melchester,a lady whose personal charms were so rare and unparalleled that she was courted,flattered,and spoilt by almost all the young noblemen and gentlemen in that part of Wessex.For a time these attentions pleased her well.But as,in the words of good Robert South (whose sermons might be read much more than they are),the most passionate lover of sport,if tied to follow his hawks and hounds every day of his life,would find the pursuit the greatest torment and calamity,and would fly to the mines and galleys for his recreation,so did this lofty and beautiful lady after a while become satiated with the constant iteration of what she had in its novelty enjoyed;and by an almost natural revulsion turned her regards absolutely netherward,socially speaking.She perversely and passionately centred her affection on quite a plain-looking young man of humble birth and no position at all;though it is true that he was gentle and delicate in nature,of good address,and guileless heart.In short,he was the parish-clerk's son,acting as assistant to the land-steward of her father,the Earl of Avon,with the hope of becoming some day a land-steward himself.It should be said that perhaps the Lady Caroline (as she was called)was a little stimulated in this passion by the discovery that a young girl of the village already loved the young man fondly,and that he had paid some attentions to her,though merely of a casual and good-natured kind.
Since his occupation brought him frequently to the manor-house and its environs,Lady Caroline could make ample opportunities of seeing and speaking to him.She had,in Chaucer's phrase,'all the craft of fine loving'at her fingers'ends,and the young man,being of a readily-kindling heart,was quick to notice the tenderness in her eyes and voice.He could not at first believe in his good fortune,having no understanding of her weariness of more artificial men;but a time comes when the stupidest sees in an eye the glance of his other half;and it came to him,who was quite the reverse of dull.
As he gained confidence accidental encounters led to encounters by design;till at length when they were alone together there was no reserve on the matter.They whispered tender words as other lovers do,and were as devoted a pair as ever was seen.But not a ray or symptom of this attachment was allowed to show itself to the outer world.
Now,as she became less and less scrupulous towards him under the influence of her affection,and he became more and more reverential under the influence of his,and they looked the situation in the face together,their condition seemed intolerable in its hopelessness.That she could ever ask to be allowed to marry him,or could hold her tongue and quietly renounce him,was equally beyond conception.They resolved upon a third course,possessing neither of the disadvantages of these two:to wed secretly,and live on in outward appearance the same as before.In this they differed from the lovers of my friend's story.
Not a soul in the parental mansion guessed,when Lady Caroline came coolly into the hall one day after a visit to her aunt,that,during that visit,her lover and herself had found an opportunity of uniting themselves till death should part them.Yet such was the fact;the young woman who rode fine horses,and drove in pony-chaises,and was saluted deferentially by every one,and the young man who trudged about,and directed the tree-felling,and the laying out of fish-ponds in the park,were husband and wife.
As they had planned,so they acted to the letter for the space of a month and more,clandestinely meeting when and where they best could do so;both being supremely happy and content.To be sure,towards the latter part of that month,when the first wild warmth of her love had gone off,the Lady Caroline sometimes wondered within herself how she,who might have chosen a peer of the realm,baronet,knight;or,if serious-minded,a bishop or judge of the more gallant sort who prefer young wives,could have brought herself to do a thing so rash as to make this marriage;particularly when,in their private meetings,she perceived that though her young husband was full of ideas,and fairly well read,they had not a single social experience in common.It was his custom to visit her after nightfall,in her own house,when he could find no opportunity for an interview elsewhere;and to further this course she would contrive to leave unfastened a window on the ground-floor overlooking the lawn,by entering which a back stair-case was accessible;so that he could climb up to her apartments,and gain audience of his lady when the house was still.
One dark midnight,when he had not been able to see her during the day,he made use of this secret method,as he had done many times before;and when they had remained in company about an hour he declared that it was time for him to descend.
He would have stayed longer,but that the interview had been a somewhat painful one.What she had said to him that night had much excited and angered him,for it had revealed a change in her;cold reason had come to his lofty wife;she was beginning to have more anxiety about her own position and prospects than ardour for him.
Whether from the agitation of this perception or not,he was seized with a spasm;he gasped,rose,and in moving towards the window for air he uttered in a short thick whisper,'Oh,my heart!'
