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    October 16, 1852.] THE LEADER. 1001

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    also the seeing her mother , tvho met her at the station , and wished to take her straight home . But Margaret insisted on going to Edwardes ' s , to the amazement of the worthy lady ; who said that Margaret had never before hesitated to render the most immediate and implicit obedience . I was not prepared for that description of the daughter ; because she appeared to me to have not only an understanding far above any of her family , but also much stronger feeling , very much ; moreover a thoroughly independent wilL But Mrs . Johnson repeated her assertion ; and said that , in fact , that darkeyed , full-voiced young Ceres is the only one of her daughters of whom so much can be said . ? 'Girls will be girls , you know , " said the experienced mother ; " but Margaret was always the young woman , and never from the day she was born did she cause either of her parents an instant ' s trouble . " A strong sign there , I reflected , of self-possession and independent will ; a sign too that the young mind recognized its own unconscious superiority . But how did that soul stray into the grocer ' s family ? " However , " continued the blame ] ss matron , " she is not herself now , and we must excuse everything to illness : When I reminded her that she had never before refused to do what I bade her , she made the strangest reply : she said , ' Mamma , I was never before called upon to avoid sacrificing the greater to the less . ' But , indeed , she often says things not very easy to understand . " After her return to Harley-street the desire to see me increased . At first Edwardes ascribed it to the excitement of the fever ; and while he rep roached himself for encouraging her removal , he was not inclined to attend to her " morbid caprice . " His devotion to her is beyond all praise : I am sure that death , or ruin itself , which to an Englishman is worse than ten deaths , would not have made him neglect her for an instant . Indeed , singleness of purpose is one of the admirable traits in this man ' s character ; faithfulness of heart another . You will be surprised when I tell you that the fault lies in his understanding . Yes , the masterly , scientific , logical , accomplished , practical Edwardes fails , as thousands of educated Englishmen do , intellectually . But I should love him if it were only for his perfect devotion to Margaret . Yseult at last interfered , and said she was sure , from Margaret ' s manner , that the girl had a reason for wishing to see me . It is characteristic of Yseult that she did not care to ask what that reason was . She does not pick the character of a friend to pieces , selecting which part to like and which to condemn , and choosing her own times for trust ; but she accepts the character as it is , and puts no self-seeking reserves on her allegiance . Edwardes shares that trait in his wife ' s character , and he offered at once to come for me . But , to the surprise of both , Margaret peremptorily forbade him . " Let Walter go , " she said . Stanhope came off within five minutes . To Audley ' s dismay I left his house almost as abruptly , and left it still in possession of the policemen ; but of that presently . On the road Stanhope said little . There was nothing for either of us to say ; we were both intent on hastening to Margaret ' s bedside—both dreading lest we might arrive too late—both conscious of the other ' s thoughts . The journey was a simple endurance . Never did I more appreciate an act of devotion than Stanhope ' s instant and unquestioning obedience , when it sent him away from Margaret , perhaps never to see her again . Why she should be so anxious to see me I could not guess . That she knew , indeed , how much I loved her , as we all did , I understood ; there was beneath her grave and often silent self-possession so much vehemence of impulse and will , that I could easily conceive coming over her weary sickness a sudden longing to sec a companion . But " I want to tell him something , " was the constant expression on her lips as they grew hotter with the fever . I did not delay an instant after entering the house . Even Stanhope allowed Yseult to take me up first to the sufferer ' s bedside . She had grown far worse . The strain of excitement had brought on an alarming exhaustion , without abating the fever . At the sight of me she suddenly turned and held out her hand , and then , firmly grasping mine as if afraid that I might go , said to me , " Send them all away . " Yseult led Edwardes from the room . Margaret drew me down to her , and looked silently into my lace . A horrible expression of agony passed over her countenance ; she was vainly struggling for utterance . . But once have I felt such grief as I did "icn , at seeing that beautiful face so near a wreck , that great soul so prostrated . She evidently feared that I should leave her . I kissed her , and whispered to her that I would wait until she could speak , though it were » > r < 'ver . She closed her eyes , and lay so quiet that once or twice I felt "iKH'rtniu whether life remained . Slu : opened her eyes , and seeing me still gazing on her , she smiled faintly llll < l "gain lay still . ' " Arc they nil gone : ? " she asked . I nodded . Her voice was nearly extinct ; she drew me closer still , and in a hurried , harsh wliiHpcM- said , " " Yseult loves you . " 1 He assertion did not startle me so much as tin : appalling fnintness flint < auu - ° ver her who had made it . Her flushed cheek turned of ashy "'Into , her white lips gently relaxed as if in death itself ; and yet she held » io . I was about to call for help , but I know not what gesture of dissent » om her restrained me . The feeble grasp of her hand fixed me iu silence . At last she recovered . " Thank God ! " she said , " 1 have miid it . " She l"i < . the lUur oll - my fort , | ieiui nni [ lookd at mo long . Then she told me »« t now Mhc . should get well . She feared that I should arrive too late ;

    and that when I stood before her a horrible nightmare of anxiety chained her tongue . " I thought , " she said , " of books , in which half the miseries are made out of silences . And it is often so in life . If all had been said straight out how few would be unhappy . " I asked her no questions . I left her to rest . She was evidently satisfied with having told me , and admitted her attendants again with the patient smile of thankful recognition . Edwardes stooping down , to look at her , she kissed his hand , and turned to sleep .

    Yseult sat herself down in the seat of watch , and Edwardes came away with me . With what strange feelings I heard him tell Stanhope that Margaret was " really better already ! " The truth of what she had told me scarcely entered my mind . I had , and have , no reason to believe it . But after what Julia had said , indeed , I felt that my own manners must have suggested false conclusions as to Yseult ' s impression . And her perfectly single-minded friendship prevented her from avoiding the appearance of affection . Indeed , I knew she felt it—so much as she had ever shown ;

    and I so valued her friendship , that the dread of losing it , should she take alarm at the mistake , was very painful . Nay , the prospect that it might be necessary to be more " guarded , " as it is called—more distant , less direct and unreserved , was terrible . I was alternately possessed by the fear , that I must so far yield to " anarch custom , " which thus divides human fellow-creatures from each other ; and by a confidence that Yseult ' s noble simplicity would require no such sacrifice of the greater to the less , as Margaret called it .

    Of course I said nothing ; at last I postponed all resolution , until I should know more . Yseult ' s manner is wholly unaltered and unvarying , and says—nothing j which is in itself a sufficient contradiction of Margaret ' s delusion . But I admired the girl not the less for her resolute directness , and her care that the greater should not be sacrificed to the less . She has since shown that resolution again . Her mother has beeh here

    daily . Many anxieties oppress the poor lady , and bend her sorely . She is not strong enough for her fate . She often alludes to Sophy , who is doing well ; and who evidently dwells painfully on her mother ' s thoughts ; the subject of some vague maternal remorse , inexplicable to herself . Poor Mrs . Johnson wishes to take all her daughters' sins upon her own shoulders . William is behaving " excellently /^—" grown quite steady ; but it is too late . " I do not know what that " too late" means . The

    chief anxiety , however , is for the sufferer here . Mrs . Johnson is continually telling us what a dutiful child Margaret has been ; as if she desired to reassure herself of the daughter ' s obedience with returning health . She looked at Stanhope with suspicion ; hinted at Margaret ' s going home ; and at last , Yseult tells me , she fairly declared to Margaret that his presence " was not proper , " and that until he had spoken to her father , they must not see each other as they had done—too often . Margaret had several times avoided all answer to her mother ' s hints to the same effect ; but , when the matter was thus unequivocally mooted , she suddenly rose up in bed , and said , " Mamma dear , I never disobeyed you in my life , and I never loved and respected you as I do now ; but if you desire to separate Walter and me , you must do it by force ; for if you attempt it now , I will get out of bed and go to him . "

    « Oh !—my child ! " cried JVIrs . Johnson : " lie still , for Heaven ' s sake . We will say no more . " And the poor lady began to cry . " Mamma dear , " said the girl , who had looked upon her mother with a gaze strangely divided between a passionless indifference and pity , " when 1 am stronger I will help you to forgive inc . There is time for us to talk of it—two years nearly . " Mrs . Johnson ' s only reproach for this grievous addition to her perplexities was to cast up her eyes with an air of helpless resignation . I confess 1 am as little enlightened as Mrs . Johnson . Stanhope has said nothing , and I have no right to question him . Margaret has evidently her own intentions : but this is not the time to learn them ; and there is

    something so clear in her young judgment , that I scarcely doubt the right will be found in her ; if she only knows . Could Stanhope deceive her ? I think not . Both know too well for that . Meanwhile I have not told you what brought the policemen to Audley Hall . They came to arrest the wetnurse , Fanny Chetham . Her story is a common one , and soon told . When she whs driven forth from the respectable roof of the Johnsons , where her presence was accounted ii contamination , she had no resource liut to return to her home in Cheshire

    1 do not lind that she made any disclosure . Whether the indifference of rude servitude , expecting to gain nothing by " peaching , " or some regard for the man whom she must implicate in her disgrace , was the cause of her silence , I do not know . I only know that there is reason to believe that many a poor wretch , untaught save by the divine spark of life which lurks in all hearts , acts in these desperate trials from motives of noble generosity and self-sacrifice , incoherent enough , inconsistent enough with other

    conduct ; but still shaming the respectable morality which casts such strays to sheer perdition , without hope of return . At all events , Fanny Chetham did not bear witness against any one . She bore l »« r trouble alone . Returning home , middle-aged worldline . ss , doubly hardened by penury , made her parents welcome her with reproaches . J '

    October 16, 1852.] The Leader. 1001

    October 16 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 1001

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16101852/page/21/