CHAPTER vi. -- A MYSTERY.
For two days, in consequence of violent colds caught during the storm,Lady Honoria Pemberton and Cecilia were confined to their rooms.Cecilia, glad by solitude and reflection to compose her spirits andsettle her plan of conduct, would willingly have still prolonged herretirement, but the abatement of her cold affording her no pretence, shewas obliged on the third day to make her appearance.
Lady Honoria, though less recovered, as she had been more a sufferer,was impatient of any restraint, and would take no denial to quittingher room at the same time; at dinner, therefore, all the family met atusual.
Mr Delvile, with his accustomed solemnity of civility, made variousenquiries and congratulations upon their danger and their security,carefully in both, addressing himself first to Lady Honoria, and thenwith more stateliness in his kindness, to Cecilia. His lady, who hadfrequently visited them both, had nothing new to hear.
Delvile did not come in till they were all seated, when, hastily sayinghe was glad to see both the ladies so well again, he instantly employedhimself in carving, with the agitation of a man who feared trustinghimself to sit idle.
Little, however, as he said, Cecilia was much struck by the melancholytone of his voice, and the moment she raised her eyes, she observed thathis countenance was equally sad.
"Mortimer," cried Mr Delvile, "I am sure you are not well; I cannotimagine why you will not have some advice."
"Were I to send for a physician, Sir," cried Delvile, with affectedchearfulness, "he would find it much more difficult to imagine whatadvice to give me."
"Permit me however, Mr Mortimer," cried Lady Honoria, "to return you myhumble thanks for the honour of your assistance in the thunder storm! Iam afraid you made yourself ill by attending me!"
"Your ladyship," returned Delvile, colouring very high, yet pretendingto laugh; "made so great a coward of me, that I ran away from shame atmy own inferiority of courage."
"Were you, then, with Lady Honoria during the storm?" cried Mrs Delvile.
"No, Madam!" cried Lady Honoria very quick; "but he was so good as toleave me during the storm."
"Mortimer," said Mr Delvile, "is this possible?"
"O Lady Honoria was such a Heroine," answered Delvile, "that shewholly disdained receiving any assistance; her valour was so much moreundaunted than mine, that she ventured to brave the lightning under anoak tree!"
"Now, dear Mrs Delvile," exclaimed Lady Honoria, "think what a simpletonhe would have made of me! he wanted to persuade me that in the open airI should be less exposed to danger than under the shelter of a thicktree!"
"Lady Honoria," replied Mrs Delvile, with a sarcastic smile, "the nexttale of scandal you oblige me to hear, I will insist for your punishmentthat you shall read one of Mr Newbury's little books! there are twentyof them that will explain this matter to you, and such reading will atleast employ your time as usefully as such tales!"
"Well, ma'am," said Lady Honoria, "I don't know whether you are laughingat me or not, but really I concluded Mr Mortimer only chose to amusehimself in a tete-a-tete with Miss Beverley."
"He was not with Miss Beverley," cried Mrs Delvile with quickness; "shewas alone,--I saw her myself the moment she came in."
"Yes, ma'am,--but not then,-he was gone;"--said Cecilia, endeavouring,but not very successfully, to speak with composure.
"I had the honour," cried Delvile, making, with equal success, the sameattempt, "to wait upon Miss Beverley to the little gate; and I was thenreturning to Lady Honoria when I met her ladyship just coming in."
"Very extraordinary, Mortimer," said Mr Delvile, staring, "to attendLady Honoria the last!"
"Don't be angry in earnest, Sir," cried Lady Honoria, gaily, "for I didnot mean to turn tell-tale."
Here the subject was dropt; greatly to the joy both of Delvile andCecilia, who mutually exerted themselves in talking upon what next wasstarted, in order to prevent its being recurred to again.
That fear, however, over, Delvile said little more; sadness hung heavilyon his mind; he was absent, disturbed, uneasy; yet he endeavoured nolonger to avoid Cecilia; on the contrary, when she arose to quit theroom, he looked evidently disappointed.
The ladies' colds kept them at home all the evening, and Delvile, forthe first time since their arrival at the castle, joined them at tea;nor when it was over, did he as usual retire; he loitered, pretended tobe caught by a new pamphlet, and looked as anxiously eager to speak withCecilia, as he had hitherto appeared to shun her.
With new emotion and fresh distress Cecilia perceived this change; whathe might have to say she could not conjecture, but all that foreran hiscommunication convinced her it was nothing she could wish; and much asshe had desired some explanation of his designs, when the long-expectedmoment seemed arriving, prognostications the most cruel of the event,repressed her impatience, and deadened her curiosity. She earnestlylamented her unfortunate residence in his house, where the adoration ofevery inhabitant, from his father to the lowest servant, had impressedher with the strongest belief of his general worthiness, and greatly,though imperceptibly, encreased her regard for him, since she hadnow not a doubt remaining but that some cruel, some fatal obstacle,prohibited their union.
To collect fortitude to hear it with composure, was now her wholestudy; but though, when alone, she thought any discovery preferable tosuspence, all her courage failed her when Delvile appeared, and if shecould not detain Lady Honoria, she involuntarily followed her.
Thus passed four or five days; during which the health of Delvile seemedto suffer with his mind, and though he refused to acknowledge he wasill, it was evident to every body that he was far from well.
Mr Delvile frequently urged him to consent to have some advice; buthe always revived, though with forced and transitory spirits, at themention of a physician, and the proposal ended in nothing.
Mrs Delvile, too, at length grew alarmed; her enquiries were morepenetrating and pointed, but they were not more successful; everyattack of this sort was followed by immediate gaiety, which, howeverconstrained, served, for the time, to change the subject. Mrs Delvile,however, was not soon to be deceived; she watched her son incessantly,and seemed to feel an inquietude scarce less than his own.
Cecilia's distress was now augmented every moment, and the difficulty toconceal it grew every hour more painful; she felt herself the cause ofthe dejection of the son, and that thought made her feel guilty in thepresence of the mother; the explanation she expected threatened her withnew misery, and the courage to endure it she tried in vain to acquire;her heart was most cruelly oppressed, apprehension and suspence neverleft it for an instant; rest abandoned her at night, and chearfulness byday.
At this time the two lords, Ernolf and Derford, arrived; and Cecilia,who at first had lamented their design, now rejoiced in their presence,since they divided the attention of Mrs Delvile, which she began to fearwas not wholly directed to her son, and since they saved her fromhaving the whole force of Lady Honoria's high spirits and gay rattle toherself.
Their immediate observations upon the ill looks of Delvile, startledboth Cecilia and the mother even more than their own fears, which theyhad hoped were rather the result of apprehension than of reason. Cecilianow severely reproached herself with having deferred the conferencehe was evidently seeking, not doubting but she had contributed to hisindisposition by denying him the relief he might expect from concludingthe affair.
Melancholy as was this idea, it was yet a motive to overpower herreluctance, and determine her no longer to shun what it seemed necessaryto endure.
Deep reasoners, however, when they are also nice casuists, frequentlyresolve with a tardiness which renders their resolutions of no effect;this was the case with Cecilia; the same morning that she came downstairs prepared to meet with firmness the blow which she believedawaited her, Delvile, who, since the arrival of the two lords, hadalways appeared at the general breakfast, acknowledged in answer to hismother's earnest enquiries, that he had a cold and head-ache;
and hadhe, at the same time, acknowledged a pleurisy and fever, the alarminstantly spread in the family could not have been greater; Mr Delvile,furiously ringing the bell, ordered a man and horse to go that moment toDr Lyster, the physician to the family, and not to return without him ifhe was himself alive; and Mrs Delvile, not less distressed, though morequiet, fixed her eyes upon her son, with an expression of anxiety thatshewed her whole happiness was bound in his recovery.
Delvile endeavoured to laugh away their fears, assuring them heshould be well the next day, and representing in ridiculous terms theperplexity of Dr Lyster to contrive some prescription for him.
Cecilia's behaviour, guided by prudence and modesty, was steady andcomposed; she believed his illness and his uneasiness were the same, andshe hoped the resolution she had taken would bring relief to them bothwhile the terrors of Mr and Mrs Delvile seemed so greatly beyond theoccasion, that her own were rather lessened than increased by them.
Dr Lyster soon arrived; he was a humane and excellent physician, and aman of sound judgment.
Delvile, gaily, shaking hands with him, said "I believe, Dr Lyster, youlittle expected to meet a patient, who, were he as skilful, would be asable to do business as yourself."
"What, with such a hand as this?" cried the Doctor; "come, come, youmust not teach me my own profession. When I attend a patient, I come totell how he is myself, not to be told."
"He is, then ill!" cried Mrs Delvile; "oh Mortimer, why have you thusdeceived us!"
"What is his disorder?" cried Mr Delvile; "let us call in more help; whoshall we send for, doctor?"
And again he rang the bell.
"What now?" said Dr Lyster, coolly; "must a man be dying if he is not inperfect health? we want nobody else; I hope I can prescribe for a coldwithout demanding a consultation?"
"But are you sure it is merely a cold?" cried Mr Delvile; "may not somedreadful malady"--
"Pray, Sir, have patience," interrupted the doctor; "Mr Mortimer and Iwill have some discourse together presently; mean time, let us all sitdown, and behave like Christians; I never talk of my art before company.'Tis hard you won't let me be a gentleman at large for two minutes!"
Lady Honoria and Cecilia would then have risen, but neither Dr Lysternor Delvile would permit them to go; and a conversation tolerably livelytook place, after which, the party in general separating, the doctoraccompanied Delvile to his own apartment.
Cecilia then went up stairs, where she most impatiently waited someintelligence; none, however, arriving, in about half an hour shereturned to the parlour; she found it empty, but was soon joined by LadyHonoria and Lord Ernolf.
Lady Honoria, happy in having something going forward, and not muchconcerning herself whether it were good or evil, was as eager tocommunicate what she had gathered, as Cecilia was to hear it.
"Well, my dear," she cried, "so I don't find at last but that all thisprodigious illness will be laid to your account."
"To my account?" cried Cecilia, "how is that possible?"
"Why this tender chicken caught cold in the storm last week, and notbeing put to bed by its mama, and nursed with white-wine whey, the poorthing has got a fever."
"He is a fine young man," said Lord Ernolf; "I should be sorry any harmhappened to him."
"He was a fine young man, my lord," cried Lady Honoria, "but he is grownintolerably stupid lately; however, it's all the fault of his father andmother. Was ever any thing half so ridiculous as their behaviour thismorning? it was with the utmost difficulty I forbore laughing in theirfaces; and really, I believe if I was to meet with such an unfortunateaccident with Mr Delvile, it would turn him to marble at once! indeedhe is little better now, but such an affront as that would never let himmove from the spot where he received it."
"I forgive him, however," returned Lord Ernolf, "for his anxiety abouthis son, since he is the last of so ancient a family."
"That is his great misfortune, my lord," answered Lady Honoria, "becauseit is the very reason they make such a puppet of him. If there were buta few more little masters to dandle and fondle, I'll answer for it thisprecious Mortimer would soon be left to himself; and then, really, Ibelieve he would be a good tolerable sort of young man. Don't you thinkhe would, Miss Beverley?"
"O yes!" said Cecilia, "I believe--I think so!"
"Nay, nay, I did not ask if you thought him tolerable now, so no need tobe frightened."
Here they were interrupted by the entrance of Dr Lyster.
"Well, Sir," cried Lady Honoria, "and when am I to go into mourning formy cousin Mortimer?"
"Why very soon," answered he, "unless you take better care of him. Hehas confessed to me that after being out in the storm last Wednesday, hesat in his wet cloaths all the evening."
"Dear," cried Lady Honoria, "and what would that do to him? I haveno notion of a man's always wanting a cambric handkerchief about histhroat."
"Perhaps your ladyship had rather make him apply it to his eyes?" criedthe doctor; "however, sitting inactive in wet cloaths would destroy astouter man than Mr Delvile; but he forgot it, he says! which of you twoyoung ladies could not have given as good reason?"
"Your most obedient," said Lady Honoria, "and why should not a lady giveas good a reason as a gentleman?"
"I don't know," answered he, drily, "but from want of practice, Ibelieve."
"O worse and worse!" cried Lady Honoria; "you shall never be myphysician; if I was to be attended by you, you'd make me sick instead ofwell."
"All the better," answered he, "for then I must have the honourof attending you till I made you well instead of sick." And with agood-humoured smile, he left them; and Lord Derford, at the same time,coming into the room, Cecilia contrived to stroll out into the park.
The account to which she had been listening redoubled her uneasiness;she was conscious that whatever was the indisposition of Delvile, andwhether it was mental or bodily, she was herself its occasion; throughher he had been negligent, she had rendered him forgetful, and inconsulting her own fears in preference to his peace, she had avoided anexplanation, though he had vigilantly sought one. She knew not, he toldher, half the wretchedness of his heart.--Alas! thought she, he littleconjectures the state of mine!
Lady Honoria suffered her not to be long alone; in about half an hourshe ran after her, gaily calling out, "O Miss Beverley, you have lostthe delightfullest diversion in the world! I have just had the mostridiculous scene with my Lord Derford that you ever heard in your life!I asked him what put it in his head to be in love with you,--and he hadthe simplicity to answer, quite seriously, his father!"
"He was very right," said Cecilia, "if the desire of uniting two estatesis to be denominated being in love; for that, most certainly, was putinto his head by his father."
"O but you have not heard half. I told him, then, that, as a friend,in confidence I must acquaint him, I believed you intended to marryMortimer--"
"Good heaven, Lady Honoria!"
"O, you shall hear the reason; because, as I assured him, it was properhe should immediately call him to account."
"Are you mad, Lady Honoria?"
"For you know, said I, Miss Beverley has had one duel fought for heralready, and a lady who has once had that compliment paid her, alwaysexpects it from every new admirer; and I really believe your notobserving that form is the true cause of her coldness to you."
"Is it possible you can have talked so wildly?"
"Yes, and what is much better, he believed every word I said!"
"Much better?--No, indeed, it is much worse! and if, in fact, he is souncommonly weak, I shall really be but little indebted to your ladyshipfor giving him such notions."
"O I would not but have done it for the world! for I never laughed soimmoderately in my life. He began assuring me he was not afraid, for hesaid he had practised fencing more than any thing; so I made him promiseto send a challenge to Mortimer as soon as he is well enough to comedown again; for Dr Lyster has ordered him to keep his room."
Cecilia, smot
hering her concern for this last piece of intelligenceby pretending to feel it merely for the former, expostulated with LadyHonoria upon so mischievous a frolic, and earnestly entreated her to goback and contradict it all.
"No, no, not for the world!" cried she; "he has not the least spirit,and I dare say he would not fight to save the whole nation fromdestruction; but I'll make him believe that it's necessary, in order togive him something to think of, for really his poor head is so vacant,that I am sure if one might but play upon it with sticks, it would soundjust like a drum."
Cecilia, finding it vain to combat with her fantasies, was at lengthobliged to submit.
The rest of the day she passed very unpleasantly; Delvile appeared not;his father was restless and disturbed, and his mother, though attentiveto her guests, and, for their sakes rallying her spirits, was visiblyill disposed to think or to talk but of her son.
One diversion, however, Cecilia found for herself; Delvile had afavourite spaniel, which, when he walked followed him, and when he rode,ran by his horse; this dog, who was not admitted into the house, she nowtook under her own care; and spent almost the whole day out of doors,chiefly for the satisfaction of making him her companion.
The next morning, when Dr Lyster came again, she kept in the way, inorder to hear his opinion; and was sitting with Lady Honoria in theparlour, when he entered it to write a prescription.
Mrs Delvile, in a few moments, followed him, and with a face and voiceof the tenderest maternal apprehensions, said "Doctor, one thing entrustme with immediately; I can neither bear imposition nor suspense;--youknow what I would say!--tell me if I have any thing to fear, that mypreparations may be adequate!"
"Nothing, I believe, in the world."
"You believe!" repeated Mrs Delvile, starting; "Oh doctor!"
"Why you would not have me say I am certain, would you? these are notimes for Popery and infallibility; however, I assure you I think himperfectly safe. He has done a foolish and idle trick, but no man is wisealways. We must get rid of his fever, and then if his cold remains, withany cough, he may make a little excursion to Bristol."
"To Bristol! nay then,--I understand you too well!"
"No, no, you don't understand me at all; I don't send him to Bristolbecause he is in a bad way, but merely because I mean to put him in agood one."
"Let him, then, go immediately; why should he increase the danger bywaiting a moment? I will order--"
"Hold, hold! I know what to order myself! 'Tis a strange thing peoplewill always teach me my own duty! why should I make a man travel suchweather as this in a fever? do you think I want to confine him in amad-house, or be confined in one myself?"
"Certainly you know best--but still if there is any danger--"
"No, no, there is not! only we don't chuse there should be any. And howwill he entertain himself better than by going to Bristol? I send himmerely on a jaunt of pleasure; and I am sure he will be safer there thanshut up in a house with two such young ladies as these."
And then he made off. Mrs Delvile, too anxious for conversation, leftthe room, and Cecilia, too conscious for silence, forced herself intodiscourse with Lady Honoria.
Three days she passed in this uncertainty what she had to expect;blaming those fears which had deferred an explanation, and tormentedby Lady Honoria, whose raillery and levity now grew very unseasonable.Fidel, the favourite spaniel, was almost her only consolation, and shepleased herself not inconsiderably by making a friend of the faithfulanimal.