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355 pages

English

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pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. 'Have you talked it over with her?' said Mr. Ferrars, as his little slender wife met him under the beeches that made an avenue of the lane leading to Fairmead vicarage.

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Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	23 octobre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819918653
Langue	English

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CHAPTER I.
'Have you talked it over with her?' said Mr.Ferrars, as his little slender wife met him under the beeches thatmade an avenue of the lane leading to Fairmead vicarage.
'Yes!' was the answer, which the vicar was not slowto understand.
'I cannot say I expected much from yourconversation, and perhaps we ought not to wish it. We are likely tosee with selfish eyes, for what shall we do without her?'
'Dear Albinia! You always taunted me with havingmarried your sister as much as yourself.'
'So I shall again, if you cannot give her up with agood grace.'
'If I could have had my own way in disposing ofher.'
'Perhaps the hero of your own composition might beless satisfactory to her than is Kendal.'
'At least he should be minus the children!'
'I fancy the children are one great attraction. Doyou know how many there are?'
'Three; but if Albinia knows their ages she involvesthem in a discreet haze. I imagine some are in their teens.'
'Impossible, Winifred, he is hardlyfive-and-thirty.'
'Thirty-eight, he said yesterday, and he marriedvery early. I asked Albinia if her son would be in tail-coats; butshe thought I was laughing at her, and would not say. She is quiteeager at the notion of being governess to the girls.'
'She has wanted scope for her energies,' said Mr.Ferrars. 'Even spoiling her nephew, and being my curate, have notafforded field enough for her spirit of usefulness.'
'That is what I am afraid of.'
'Of what, Winifred?'
'That it is my fault. Before our marriage, you andshe were the whole world to each other; but since I came, I haveseen, as you say, that the craving for work was strong, and I fearit actuates her more than she knows.'
'No such thing. It is a case of good hearty love.What, are you afraid of that, too?'
'Yes, I am. I grudge her giving her fresh wholeyoung heart away to a man who has no return to make. His heart isin his first wife's grave. Yes, you may smile, Maurice, as if Iwere talking romance; but only look at him, poor man! Did you eversee any one so utterly broken down? She can hardly beguile a smilefrom him.'
'His melancholy is one of his charms in hereyes.'
'So it may be, as a sort of interesting romance. Iam sure I pity the poor man heartily, but to see her atthree-and-twenty, with her sweet face and high spirits, giveherself away to a man who looks but half alive, and cannot, if hewould, return that full first love - have the charge of a tribe ofchildren, be spied and commented on by the first wife's relations -Maurice, I cannot bear it.'
'It is not what we should have chosen,' said herhusband, 'but it has a bright side. Kendal is a most right-minded,superior man, and she appreciates him thoroughly. She has greatenergy and cheerfulness, and if she can comfort him, and rouse himinto activity, and be the kind mother she will be to his poorchildren, I do not think we ought to grudge her from our ownhome.'
'You and she have so strong a feeling for motherlesschildren!'
'Thinking of Kendal as I do, I have but one fear forher.'
'I have many - the chief being the grandmother.'
'Mine will make you angry, but it is my only one.You, who have only known her since she has subdued it, haveprobably never guessed that she has that sort of quick sensitivetemper - '
'Maurice, Maurice! as if I had not been a mostprovoking, presuming sister-in-law. As if I had not acted so thatif Albinia ever had a temper, she must have shown it.'
'I knew you would not believe me, and I really amnot afraid of her doing any harm by it, if that is what you suspectme of. No, indeed; but I fear it may make her feel any trials ofher position more acutely than a placid person would.'
'Oho! so you own there will be trials!'
'My dear Winifred, as if I had not sat up tilltwelve last night laying them before Albinia. How sick the poorchild must be of our arguments, when there is no real objection,and she is so much attached! Have you heard anything about theseconnexions of his? Did you not write to Mrs. Nugent? I wish shewere at home.'
'I had her answer by this afternoon's post, butthere is nothing to tell. Mr. Kendal has only been settled atBayford Bridge a few years, and she never visited any one there,though Mr. Nugent had met Mr. Kendal several times before hiswife's death, and liked him. Emily is charmed to have Albinia for aneighbour.'
'Does she know nothing of the Meadows' family?'
'Nothing but that old Mrs. Meadows lives in the townwith one unmarried daughter. She speaks highly of theclergyman.'
'John Dusautoy? Ay, he is admirable - not that Ihave done more than see him at visitations when he was curate atLauriston.'
'Is he married?'
'I fancy he is, but I am not sure. There is one goodfriend for Albinia any way!'
'And now for your investigations. Did you seeColonel Bury?'
'I did, but he could say little more than we knew.He says nothing could be more exemplary than Kendal's whole conductin India, he only regretted that he kept so much aloof from others,that his principle and gentlemanly feeling did not tell as much ascould have been wished. He has always been wrapped up in his ownpursuits - a perfect dictionary of information.'
'We had found out that, though he is so silent. Ishould think him a most elegant scholar.'
'And a deep one. He has studied and polished hisacquirements to the utmost. I assure you, Winifred, I mean to beproud of my brother-in-law.'
'What did you hear of the first wife?'
'It was an early marriage. He went home as soon ashe had sufficient salary, married her, and brought her out. She wasa brilliant dark beauty, who became quickly a motherly,housewifely, common-place person - I should think there had been apoet's love, never awakened from.'
'The very thing that has always struck me when, poorman, he has tried to be civil to me. Here is a man, sensiblehimself, but who has never had the hap to live with sensiblewomen.'
'When their children grew too old for India, shecame into some little property at Bayford Bridge, which enabled himto retire. Colonel Bury came home in the same ship, and saw much ofthem, liked him better and better, and seems to have been ratherwearied by her. A very good woman, he says, and Kendal most fondlyattached; but as to comparing her with Miss Ferrars, he could notthink of it for a moment. So they settled at Bayford, and there,about two years ago, came this terrible visitation of typhusfever.'
'I remember how Colonel Bury used to come and sighover his friend's illness and trouble.'
'He could not help going over it again. The childrenall fell ill together - the two eldest were twin boys, one puny,the other a very fine fellow, and his father's especial pride anddelight. As so often happens, the sickly one was spared, thehealthy one was taken.'
'Then Albinia will have an invalid on herhands!'
'The Colonel says this Edmund was a particularlypromising boy, and poor Kendal felt the loss dreadfully. Hesickened after that, and his wife was worn out with nursing andgrief, and sank under the fever at once. Poor Kendal has never heldup his head since; he had a terrible relapse.'
'And,' said Winifred, 'he no sooner recovers than hegoes and marries our Albinia!'
'Two years, my dear.'
'Pray explain to me, Maurice, why, when peoplebecome widowed in any unusually lamentable way, they always are thefirst to marry again.'
'Incorrigible. I meant to make you pity him.'
'I did, till I found I had wasted my pity. Why couldnot these Meadowses look after his children! Why must the Colonelbring him here? I believe it was with malice prepense!'
'The Colonel went to see after him, and found him sodrooping and wretched, that he insisted on bringing him home withhim, and old Mrs. Meadows and her daughter almost forced him toaccept the invitation.'
'They little guessed what the Colonel would beat!'
'You will be better now you have the Colonel toabuse,' said her husband.
'And pray what do you mean to say to theGeneral?'
'Exactly what I think.'
'And to the aunts?' slyly asked the wife.
'I think I shall leave you all that correspondence.It will be too edifying to see you making common cause with theaunts.'
'That comes of trying to threaten one's husband; andhere they come,' said Winifred. 'Well, Maurice, what can't be curedmust be endured. Albinia'a heart is gone, he is a very good man,and spite of India, first wife, and melancholy, he does not lookamiss!'
Mr. Ferrars smiled at the chary, grudgingcommendation of the tall, handsome man who advanced through thebeech-wood, but it was too true that his clear olive complexion hadnot the line of health, that there was a world of oppression on hisbroad brow and deep hazel eyes, and that it was a dim, dreamy,reluctant smile that was awakened by the voice of the lady whowalked by his side, as if reverencing his grave mood.
She was rather tall, very graceful, and well made,but her features were less handsome than sweet, bright, andsensible. Her hair was nut-brown, in long curled waves; her eyes,deep soft grey, and though downcast under the new sympathies, newfeelings, and responsibilities that crowded on her, the smile andsparkle that lighted them as she blushed and nodded to her brotherand sister, showed that liveliness was the natural expression ofthat engaging face.
Say what they would, it was evident that AlbiniaFerrars had cast in her lot with Edmund Kendal, and that herenergetic spirit and love of children animated her to embracejoyfully the cares which such a choice must impose on her.
As might have been perceived by one glance at thefigure, step, and bearing of Mr. Ferrars, perfectly clerical thoughthey were, he belonged to a military family. His father had been adistinguished Peninsular officer, and his brother, older by manyyears, held a command in Canada. Maurice and Albinia, early leftorphans, had, with a young cousin, been chiefly under the charge oftheir aunts, Mrs. Annesley and Miss Ferrars, and had found a kindhome in their ho