Читать книгу Moderation, A Tale - Барбара Хофланд - Страница 6

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The Rev. Charles Carysford was the son of a merchant who was a rare example of wisdom and moderation, for he retired into the country as soon as he had acquired such a fortune as to ensure the comforts of competency, at a period of life when he was still capable of enjoyment, instead of seeking wealth to the very verge of existence, losing at once the pleasures of this world, and the provision for the next.

One motive for this early retirement arose from the extremely delicate health of his eldest child, a very sweet girl; and some fear that her brother on leaving his school in the country might partake the same evil. Happily Charles grew up in every respect according to their wishes, he was tall, graceful, and although of delicate complexion, yet remarkable for his manly beauty and personal activity. Untinctured by the vices, and unfettered by the artificial forms, of life in cities, he united with singular, yet not inelegant, simplicity of manners, a passionate attachment to literature, and with this direction of mind, aided by humanity and great sweetness of temper, his father was led to think him peculiarly qualified to make an exemplary and happy country clergyman.

To this purpose his studies were directed, and advancing time proved the choice to have been wise. Emma, the daughter, did not partake her brother's bodily strength, but she shared his mental energies and his fine taste. Their parents did not live long after the time when they had purchased the advowson of the Rectory of Ravenhill for their son, whither they had removed with him; and the brother and sister lived after their death in such strict amity, that for several years it was believed that the handsome Rector (as he was universally stiled) would never marry.

Such was not however the opinion of Lady Lyster, who with her husband Sir Marmaduke, resided (as their fathers had done some centuries before them) at Ravenhill Park, a place their hospitality kept pretty generally full of company, amongst which Mr. and Miss Carysford were introduced as dear and respectable friends. Like many old families who reside constantly in the country, the Lysters had a good deal of that pardonable attachment to ancestry from which few persons are exempt who have any pretensions to it; but with this they inherited, and adopted also, that deep veneration for the sacred profession, persons of more modernized manners dispense with. Let the Rector of Ravenhill have been what he might as to person and manners, so long as he performed his duties as a minister and a man conscientiously, he would have been received as a friend, and held as a gentleman; it was therefore natural that they should hold the present incumbent in more than ordinary regard, and conceive themselves happy in presenting him to their more fashionable guests, as a gem not often found in rural society.

To this disposition for exhibiting her Rector it must be added, that lady Lyster (a good-natured, kind-hearted creature, childless, but full of maternal feelings) was a little given to match-making. Happy as a wife herself, she conceived (perhaps very erroneously) that to be happy, every body must be married; for two or three years she made numerous efforts for disposing of Miss Carysford in this way, notwithstanding the apparent hopelessness of persuading a woman whose mind was as powerful as her person was weak, to commit what would be in her case an evident act of folly. After that time, she gave her thoughts and wishes to a generous solicitude on the subject for her brother.

Sir Marmaduke did not impede the schemes of his lady, but he could not do much to forward them, because there were few points of similarity in their taste, and neither were sufficiently men of the world to adopt traits of character foreign to their respective habits; so that, with much esteem and ever warm affection for each other, neither was quite devoid of contempt for the other's judgment in certain points. They seldom disagreed on any subject, but unluckily they had no subjects in common. The Rector lived on literature—a new book, or even a new edition, gifts from the world of letters, and more especially that of poetry, were to him the milk and honey of life. A huge package of quartos was never too much for him to carry home from the nearest market town, albeit distant more than five miles, if it had so happened he had walked thither; and his servant was always welcome to his favourite steed to fetch thence even the most trifling periodical. 'Tis true, to his taste for reading he added that of drawing, in which art his sister excelled; nor was he ignorant of music and botany, the latter of which added pleasure to those walks and rides over an extensive parish to which his duties called him; and the whole of those accomplishments and predilections, in the opinion of the Baronet, rendered him a very unsocial companion.

"Would you believe it? that fine looking fellow Carysford never rode out of a snail's pace in his life,—can't hunt at all, Sir, and has no more eye for a shot than a mole. In fact, he can't draw a trigger, he has'nt the heart to do it, I really believe; yet the man is no milksop, he has ventured both through fire and water to aid the parishioners. Then he can't carve even a turkey; never knows what vintage he is drinking, plays whist so abominably we are obliged to have a quadrille table on purpose for him; and, 'tis a fact, that the greatest fool in the village can cheat him out of five shillings in ten—not that they do, no! not a hair of his head shall be hurt, while I have a rood, or a guinea."

Now as Lady Lyster believed that, notwithstanding these deficiencies, Mr. Carysford would make an excellent and a happy husband, the more charges were brought against him, the more industriously did she repel them; and it so happened, that she was listened to with more than ordinary complacency by two sisters who arrived on the first of September, and probably found themselves a little incommoded by the boisterous manners of certain country 'squires, or disgusted by the frivolity of dandy sportsmen imported from the county town.

These ladies, Alathea and Harriet Tintagell, were Honourables, being daughters to the late, and aunts to the present, Lord Alfreton, an infant. They were highly accomplished women, the eldest was esteemed very handsome, and very witty; the youngest very pretty, and very amiable; but her figure was diminutive, and appeared at a first glance more so than it really was, from being contrasted with so fine a form as that of her sister. They shared alike the personal property of the late lord, amounting to something more than twenty thousand pounds, but the elder sister's fortune had been nearly doubled by the bequest of her godmother, a lady of high rank.

Whether the satirical vein of this lady had frightened all the men in that distinguished circle where she shone a star (literally) of magnitude and brilliance; or whether she was sincere in her assertion, "that she would lead a single life," we know not; but it is certain that she had now entered her twenty-seventh summer in that state, and what was more extraordinary, still gave daily proof,

"——that she could hear A sister's praises with unwounded ear,"

for she never appeared more happy than when the fair and elegant Harriet attracted the admiration so justly her due. They were indeed attached to each other beyond the ties of blood; they had lost their parents early in life, their brother had married unworthily and died prematurely, leaving his only child to the sole care of a mother with whom they could hold no intercourse; each was therefore all to the other. Each had her full share of family pride, but it was controlled by the higher pride of intellect in Alathea, and by gentle and truly delicate perception of propriety in Harriet, but this being well known to Lady Lyster, and greatly approved by her as a principle, it certainly never entered her mind to provide the Rector with a wife, in a quarter where the case forbade all hope of success.

This might be the reason perhaps, that the poor man fell insensibly into that state of anxiety, showed those occasional gleams of delight, and thence sunk into that despondency which betrayed the feelings never awakened before, in a heart so warm in its attachments, so full of the milk of human kindness, through every gradation of philanthropy, as to lead common observers to form a very different expectation. The moment Mr. Carysford perceived his own state, he resolutely avoided visiting at the Park, and the ladies determined to return to town before the time originally intended.

It was evident, that Harriet loved at least as fondly as she was loved; that family pride, and maiden coyness, alike yielded before that deep and ardent passion, which she had unconsciously imbibed, in those solitudes where every circumstance had favoured the encroachment of a sentiment, aided by voluntary admiration and perfect esteem for the character of the beloved. Sir Marmaduke was at this period perpetually employed in the sports of the field, Lady Lyster engaged with hospitalities in her house, charities in her village, and some family solicitudes of great importance, including the marriage of her only brother.—"Where could the sisters spend their mornings so pleasantly as with the sensible invalid at the rectory? how could they be so safely escorted to all the beauties of the neighbourhood, as by her excellent brother?"

The Baronet said, "it was a foolish affair, and bad for the parish," and wished the women in the red sea; Lady Lyster cried, and declared truly, "that she had had no hand in it,"—to the utter astonishment of all who had ever known her; Miss Tintagell, after shutting herself up twenty-four hours in her apartment, and emerging thence pale and haggard, as if from suffering acutely, declared it as her decided opinion "that Harriet would act wisely and well, in accepting Mr. Carysford; she loved him, she was independent, and had her sister's sanction for her conduct."

The rest will be readily supplied by the imagination of our young readers; but one particular attendant on this union must be revealed, for it will not be conceived. This was the constant gratitude expressed and acted upon by the husband towards his wife and sister-in-law, during the whole course of his married life. As a most amiable and unique trait of character, it well deserves to be recorded, but the consequences were not altogether such as we can retrace with pleasure. Mrs. Carysford became the mother of a numerous family, (four of which survived her,) and though tenderly attached to them all, she could not prevail upon herself to abandon, for their sakes, that stile of living to which her birth and fortune entitled her, in order to secure the provision necessary for children so born and educated as hers. Her own fortune was settled on herself, and in case of her demise on her eldest son, on whom the father also intended to bestow the living he held, so that there was but too much reason to fear, that these lovely young women, after enjoying all the elegant comforts which appertain to an extensive establishment and easy income, would be either compelled to marry for convenience, or condemned to the privations and obscurity attendant on narrow means, during that portion of existence when the goods of fortune are most valuable, because most consolatory.