CHAP. VI. AN EXPLANATION, "I never heard of such another encounter, which SHAKSPEARE. MORE extraordinary things than this have happened. That a man who thought himself in seclusion, beyond the reach of human interruption, in a large and empty chateau in a very retired part of France, should be annoyed at having his retirement interrupted by the chattering of a French housekeeper with a passing traveller, and, being interrupted, should shut up his books, and descend to see who, and what was the cause of it,-cannot be wondered at. That Tremaine should, in his anxious state, fly the world more than ever, and be glad to have found such a retreat, is as little astonishing; and how he found it, will be presently explained, without there being any thing marvellous in it. On the other hand, that his two friends should, in their state, and with the medical opinion given, also have resolved upon visiting France, is in nowise surprising; neither can it astonish, that having resolved to go to the south, and Orleans being in the direct road to the south, they should have taken that road in the pursuit of their object, and stop precisely where they did stop, to give rest and diversion (the very things they came for) to the poor Georgina. Then again, that a French girl is a very amusing thing, and that Lisette was a French girl -But hold, I have surely shown enough of what may be called second causes in this affair, to prove that it really was not preternatural; and may therefore venture to proceed with my narrative. The meeting may be conceived, but not described; at least not by me. I never was good at what is called a scene, though I can faithfully record what I have been told. The astonishment, the perturbation, the fear, the joy, the doubt, the convincing embrace, the shake by the hand, renewed and renewed, while the pauvre concierge remained in the back-ground, astounded, dismayed, and yet so excited as to be unable to quit the spot ; all this the reader must fancy for me, and allow the matter to subside a little, before I proceed with my story. A turn or two in the gallery brought things a little round, and we may fancy the friends stopping, as they frequently did, to survey, perhaps to criticise each other; each thinking, and not far wrong in do.... ing so, thathis friend's looks were all the worse since they parted. But when to Tremaine's question, what brought Evelyn to France, he answered, with a sigh of anxiety, "My daughter's health," the eagerness with which the enquiry was pursued, and the overwhelming agitation with which Tremaine learned that she was not only at hand, but almost within view,-all this I must trust to the reader's imagination; for no picture of mine can do it justice. "Gracious Heavens!" at last exclaimed Tremaine; "what then has been my fate! I have been driven into banishment by her own command; compelled by that command to forego, to renounce, to lose her society; and find her by chance, only perhaps, to lose her for ever!" Evelyn was astonished at some parts of this speech, but endeavoured to comfort him, by saying that their reunion might do much for them all; but at present the difficulty was, to know how to break the intelligence of their extraordinary rencontre, without overpowering her already shattered nerves. "Alas! my friend," said he," to break up that opening scene, of what it might have pleased Heaven to convert into the perfection of mortal happiness, was sufficient bitterness; but you must not be of fended if I tell you, you made bitterness tenfold more bitter, by withdrawing as you did, without an inti mation of your design, or vouchsafing afterwards, for near eighteen long months, one single word of yourself, your health, state of mind, or of those opinions upon which, you must have known, the happiness of us all was staked. Surely this was unkind to my poor girl, and much has she rued it. God grant she may ever yet recover!” Tremaine, infinitely moved, expressed his astonishment at this reproach. "Was I not exiled," said he, "not merely from my hopes, but my delight in her society, by her own determination? Was not my continuance near her, or even in England, refused by herself? Alas! am I to be reproached with these sad consequences of separation, when I myself repined at what I thought her unnecessary caution, I may say, almost her injustice, for condemning me to it?" "Nay, now my dear friend," said Evelyn, clasping his hand, "I cannot understand you; you hinted riddles to me just now; you have now told me a paradox which yourself must unravel. To banish you from our society, much more from England, was what neither I, nor my poor girl, ever either wished, or presumed to advise. Witness my own pursuit of you, first to Belmont, and then to Oxford." "You are equally paradoxical," returned Tremaine;"for surely the long letters I wrote, both to you and Georgina, the night before I left Wooding ton, might convince you, that in leaving you as I did, I obeyed your own wishes. In these, I left it to you to decide upon my stay or my banishment from England itself, together with all farther intercourse; only entreating, that if the last was your decision, I might gather it simply from your silence, as I could not bear a formal decree." "I am all astonishment!" replied Evelyn; "nor can I unriddle this mystery; and yet I am upon the whole pleased, for it convinces me that you were not proud." "Proud! Proud to Georgina !": "No! I am quite sure you could not be so. And yet these letters that you speak of! None of them ever came to hand." Tremaine started, and rubbed his forehead, as if to rouse recollection." "My scoundrel valet!" exclaimed he, "Dupuis ! do you remember him?" "It is impossible to forget him." "To him I confided these letters. I passed great part of the night in writing them; he took them at early morn, and joined me at Ferrybridge, where I waited for the answer; but answer, brought he none." "Did he give no account?" asked Evelyn. "Too good a one. He said he brought me your respects, but that was all. Alas! from the form I had put it in, it was answer enough!" |