University of Virginia Library

13. CHAPTER XIII.

Shakspeare.

“Well, Jenny, you are going to leave us to-day, it seems.”
said Mr. Wyllys, the next morning, at breakfast. “I am
sorry for it; but, I suppose your mother has a better right to
you than we have.”

“I promised mamma I would not stay after to-day, sir.
Aunt Agnes is to carry me over to Longbridge, before dinner.”

“You must come back again, as often as you can, child.
It always seems to me, that Harry and you belong here, as
much as you do anywhere else. How long do you suppose
your mother will stay at Longbridge?”

“We are going to New York next week. Father wishes
to be in Charleston early in October.”

“I can't bear to think of your going so soon. If you are
once in Carolina, I suppose, we shan't see you again until
next June; but, mind, you are to pass all next summer
with us,” said Elinor.

“That is to say, Nelly, if she has no more important engagement,”
added Mr. Wyllys, smiling.

“Even a very important engagement need not interfere,”
said Miss Agnes. “We shall be very happy, Jane, to see
any Charleston friend you may see fit to bring with you.”

“I don't think there is the least danger that any Charleston
friend will come with me;” said Jane, blushing a little.

“Have you selected a friend from some other place,
Jenny?” asked her uncle.

“Oh, no, sir!” was the answer; but her colour continued
to rise, and she appeared a little uneasy. As for Harry, he
had taken no part in the conversation, but seemed very busy
with his knife and fork.

“Pray remember, Jane,” said Elinor, “I am to have
timely notice of a wedding, in my capacity of bridesmaid.”

“Who knows, Nelly, but you may call upon Jane first.
You have fixed upon your friend, I take it; eh, Harry?”

“I hope so;” Hazlehurst replied, in a low voice, and he
drank off a cup of hot coffee with such rapidity, that Miss
Wyllys looked at him with astonishment.

Elinor made no answer, for she was already at the other
end of the room, talking gaily to her birds.

As Harry rose from table and walked into the next room,
he tried to feel very glad that Jane was to leave them that
day; he sat down, and took up a paper; but, instead of
reading it, silently followed a train of thought by no means
agreeable.

In the course of the morning, according to the arrangement
which had been made, Harry drove the ladies to Longbridge.
He thought he had never passed a more unpleasant
morning in his life. He felt relieved when Elinor, instead
of taking a seat with him, chose one inside, with her Aunt
and Jane; though his heart smote him whenever her sweet,
cheerful voice fell upon his ear. He tried to believe, however,
that it was in spite of himself he had been captivated
by Jane's beauty. Was he not, at that very moment, carrying
her, at full speed, towards her father's, and doing his
best to hope that they should meet but once or twice again,
for months to come? Under such circumstances, was not a
man in love to be pitied? For some weeks, Hazlehurst had
not been able to conceal from himself, that if he occupied the
position of the lover of Elinor, he felt like the lover of Jane.

As he drove on, in moody silence, the party in the carriage
at length remarked, that he had not joined in their conversation
at all.

“Harry does not talk so much as he used to;” observed
Miss Wyllys; “don't you think he has grown silent, Jane?'

“Perhaps he has,” she replied; “but it never struck me,
before.”

“Do you hear, Harry?” said Elinor: “Aunt Agnes
thinks the air of Paris has made you silent. It ought surely
to have had a very different effect.”

“This detestable road requires all a man's attention to
keep out of the ruts;” he replied. “I wish we had gone
the other way.”

“If Aunt Agnes has no objection, we can come back by
the river road,” said Elinor. “But your coachmanship is
so good, you have carried us along very smoothly; if the
road is bad, we have not felt it.”

Harry muttered something about holes and ruts, which
was not heard very distinctly.

“Out of humour, too; very unusual!” thought Miss Agnes.
There was a something unnatural in his manner,
which began to give her a little uneasiness; for she saw no
good way of accounting for it.

The ladies were driven to the door of the Bellevue Hotel,
where the Grahams had rooms. They found several visiters
with Mrs. Graham, among whom, the most conspicuous, and
the least agreeable, were Mrs. Hilson and her sister, both
redolent of Broadway, elegant and fashionable in the extreme;
looking, it is true, very pretty, but talking, as usual,
very absurdly.

Mrs. Graham had scarcely kissed her daughter, before
Mrs. Hilson gave Elinor an important piece of information.

“I am so delighted, Miss Wyllys, to hear this good
news—”

“My cousins' return, do you mean? Did you not know
they had arrived?”

“Oh, yes; we heard that, of course, last week; but I
allude to this morning's good news, which I have just heard
from this fascinating little creature;” added the lady, catching
one of Mrs. Graham's younger children, as it slipped
past her.

Elinor looked surprised, when Mrs. Hilson condescended
to explain.

“Mrs. Graham is to pass the winter in New York, I hear.”

“Indeed!” exclaimed Elinor, turning with joyful eagerness
towards Mrs. Graham. “Are you really going to stay
so near us?”

Mrs. Graham was thus obliged to inform her friends of
the change in her plans; she would, of course, have preferred
waiting until alone with Miss Agnes and Elinor, to do
so; but, Mrs. Hilson's officiousness obliged her to say something
immediately. One of her children, a little boy, had
been suffering with some disease of the spine, during the
last year, and a consultation of physicians, held the day
before, in New York, had decided that a sea-voyage, or a
long journey, was more than the poor little fellow could bear,
in the present state of his health, as he had been much worse,
during the last three months, since the Grahams had been
at Longbridge. It was therefore settled that Mrs. Graham,
Jane, and the younger children, were to remain in New York,
while the boy was under the care of Dr. S—, in whom his
parents had great confidence. Mr. Graham and his oldest
boy were to pass part of the winter on their plantation, and
then return to his family.

Miss Wyllys and Elinor, though regretting the cause, were,
of course, much pleased with this arrangement; Jane, too,
appeared perfectly satisfied.

“I should not be surprised, Miss Graham,” continued Mrs.
Hilson, “if some of your New York admirers had bribed
Dr. S— I'm sure, we are very much obliged to him
for having detained you. I hope you will be somewhere
near us, in the city. Emmeline is to pass part of the winter
with me; and, I dare say, you will be very intimate. I wish,
Mrs. Graham we could persuade you to come to our boarding-house.
Mrs. Stone is really a fascinating lady, herself;
and she always manages to have a charming clique at her
house.—Quite exclusive, I assure you.”

“I hope to find more private lodgings—I have too many
little people for a boarding-house.”

“Not at all. Mrs. Stone could give you an excellent nursery.
She has several lovely little darlings, herself. Her
little Algernon would make a very good beau for your
youngest little Miss. What do you say, my dear,” catching
the child again; “won't you set your cap for Algernon?”

The little girl opened her large, dark eyes without answering.
Mrs. Hilson, and her sister now rose to take leave of
Mrs. Graham, repeating, however, before they went, the
invitation they had already given, to a ball for the next week.
It was to be a house-warming, and a grand affair. The
ladies then flitted away on tip-toe.

The door had scarcely closed behind them, before Mrs.
George Wyllys, who had been sitting as far from them as
possible, began to exclaim upon the absurdity of the whole
Hubbard family.

“They are really intolerable, Agnes;” she said to her
sister-in-law. “They attack me upon all occasions. They
brought Mrs. Bibbs and Mrs. Tibbs to see me, and joined me
in the street, yesterday: they are almost enough to drive me
away from Longbridge. I can't imagine what makes them
so attentive to me—plain, sober body, as I am—what can
they aim at?”

“They aim at universal fascination, I suppose;” said
Elinor, laughing.

“And must we really go to this house-warming?” asked
Mrs. Wyllys.

“Elinor and I have already accepted the invitation;” said
Miss Agnes. “My father wished us to go, for he really has a
great respect for Mr. Hubbard.”

“Well, I can't say that the gentlemen strike me as so
much superior to the ladies of the family. `Uncle Josie'
seems to admire his daughter's nonsense; and `Uncle Dozie'
never opens his lips.”

“There is not a shade of fascination about them, however,”
said Elinor.

“I grant you that,” said Mrs. Wyllys, smiling. “I shall
decline the invitation, though, I think.”

“That you can do very easily;” said Miss Agnes.

The ladies then followed Mrs. Graham to an adjoining
room, to see the little invalid, and talk over the new arrangement
for the winter.

It was fortunate for Harry, that they had left the drawing-room
before he entered it; for he no sooner appeared at the
door, than the same little chatter-box, who had betrayed the
change in her mother's plans to Mrs. Hilson, ran up to him
to tell the great news that they were not going back to
Charleston, but were to stay in New York all winter, `mamma,
and Jane, and all of them, except papa and Edward.'
The varying expression of surprise, pleasure, and distress,
that passed over Hazlehurst's face, as he received the intelligence,
would have astonished and perplexed Miss Agnes,
had she seen it. He had depended upon Jane's absence to
lighten the course which he felt it was his duty to pursue;
and now she was to be in New York! Of course, she
would be half her time with Elinor, as usual. And, if he
had already found it so difficult, since they had all been together,
to conceal the true state of his feelings, how should
he succeed in persevering in the same task for months?

He determined, at least, to leave Longbridge, for a time,
and remain in Philadelphia, until the Grahams were settled
in New York.

The same evening, as the family at Wyllys-Roof, and
himself, were sitting together, he announced his intention.

“Can I do anything for you, in Philadelphia, Elinor?” he
asked; “I shall have to go to town, to-morrow, and may be
detained a week or ten days.”

“Are you really going to town?—I did not know you were
thinking of it. I wish I had known it this morning, for I
am very much in want of worsteds for the chair-pattern Jane
brought me; but, unfortunately, I left it at Aunt Wyllys's
Did you say you were going to-morrow?”

“Yes, I must be off in the morning.”

“Then I must give up my pattern, for the present.”

“Is there nothing else I can do for you?”

“Nothing, thank you—unless you bring some new books;
which, we will leave to your taste, to choose.”

“Is not this rather a sudden move, Harry?” said Mr.
Wyllys, who had just finished a game of chess with Miss
Agnes. “I haven't heard you mention it before?”

“I intended to put it off, sir; but, on thinking the matter
over, I find I had better go at once.”

“I wish you would look about you a little, for lodgings
for us; it is time we secured them. I suppose, you will
want us to go to town early, this winter, Nelly, won't you?
It will not do for Master Harry to be wasting half his time
here, after he has once taken seriously to law; you know he
will have two mistresses to wait upon, this winter.”

“It is to be hoped they will not interfere with each other,”
said Miss Agnes, smiling.

“That is what they generally do, my dear. By-the-bye,
Nelly, I suppose Louisa will have Jane in Philadelphia, with
her, part of the winter.”

“Yes, sir, after Christmas; it is already settled, much to
my joy.”

“So much the better!” said her grandfather.

“So much the worse!” thought Hazlehurst.

“Your Paris party will be all together again, Harry?”
continued Mr. Wyllys.

“Yes, sir;” was Hazlehurst's laconic reply. `I wish I
could forget it,' thought he. So much had he been annoyed,
throughout the day, that he soon after took up a candle, and,
wishing the family good-night, went to his own room.

“I am afraid Harry is not well,” said Miss Wyllys, after
he had left them. “He seems out of spirits.”

Elinor looked up from her work.

“Now you speak of it,” replied Mr. Wyllys, “I think he
does seem rather out of sorts.”

Nothing more was said on the subject; but some unpleasant
thoughts suggested themselves to Miss Wyllys; for,
during the last day or two, Hazlehurst's manner had repeatedly

struck her as unnatural, and she feared that something
weighed upon his mind. As for Elinor, her nature was as
far as possible from being suspicious; and, least of all,
would she have mistrusted Harry; she merely reproached
herself for having laughed once or twice, during the day, at
his expense, when he had been very absent. She remembered
he seemed a little annoyed, at the time, though he
never used to mind such things—`I am afraid he thought it
unkind, if he was not well,' she said to herself, and determined
to make amends, the next morning, by presiding at
his early breakfast, before he set out.