Book: Elinor Wyllys

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Mr. Wyllys and Miss Agnes, of course, approved the step Elinor
had taken. They were both deeply pained by Harry's conduct; they
both regretted having allowed the engagement to take place so
early, and at the moment of Harry's absence. Miss Wyllys, indeed,
blamed herself severely for not having used all her influence to
prevent it. With her father, on the contrary, indignation against
Harry was the strongest feeling.

"Heartless young coxcomb!" he exclaimed; "to dare to trifle with
Elinor. I had a good opinion of him; I thought he had too much
sense, and too much feeling, not to appreciate Elinor, though her
face may not be as pretty as some others. Agnes, he must never be
asked to Wyllys-Roof again. I can never forget his treatment of
my grandchild."



CHAPTER XVII.

"May this be so?"
SHAKSPEARE.

{William Shakespeare, "Much Ado About Nothing", III.ii.117}

WHILE the family at Wyllys-Roof were in this distress, Miss Agnes
had received the parting visit of the Taylors. The porticos of
Colonnade Manor rose before closed windows; the house was
abandoned for the winter; while Mr. Taylor and Miss Adeline were
engaged in putting the finishing touch to the elegance of No.
five hundred and -----, Broadway, preparatory to the display of
the winter.

Mr. Taylor was getting at home in New York. The atmosphere of a
large town, thoroughly commercial, was just fitted to his nature.
He had certainly every reason to be satisfied with the rapidity
with which he had mounted towards the top of the Wall-Street
ladder. He was already cheek-by-jowl with certain heavy men of
the place; he walked down Broadway of a morning with "Mr. A. of
the Ocean," and up again of an afternoon with "Mr. B. of the
Hoboken;" he knew something of most of the great men of the
commercial world; and as for the rest of the community, he cared
little enough for them or their interests. His house was as
handsome and as finely furnished as he could wish, his children
were as expensively dressed, as expensively schooled, as any in
the land. He had become accustomed to the first burst of luxury,
and began already to look upon a hundred things as necessaries,
of the uses of which he had been ignorant five years before. He
thought New York a commercial paradise; not only the place to
make a fortune, but the very spot to spend it in. He wondered at
Mr. Hubbard; who could be satisfied to retire from business so
early, and was content to live at Longbridge, the village where
he was born. Mr. Taylor looked upon himself as already a great
man, but he intended to be a greater man still, by a million, or
more.

About a week after the Taylors arrived in town, they gave a
party--quite a small affair, very sociable, some eighty or ninety
people only. The following morning, Mrs. Taylor, fatigued with
the toils and cares of gaiety, went to her own room to refresh
herself by darning more stockings than usual; while Mr. Taylor,
who had laboured hard the evening before by endeavouring to be
very 'affable' to some twenty new acquaintances, sought the
relief of his counting-house. As he walked down Broadway, his
thoughts were divided between two subjects. He had purchased some
lots the previous week, which proved so indifferent a bargain,
that he was anxious to persuade a particular friend to take them
off his hands. He had also just received letter from his son,
lately Tom Taylor, now T. Tallman Taylor, Esquire. The young man
had made very heavy demands upon his father's banker lately. Mr.
Taylor was perfectly satisfied that his son should spend his
money freely, and had given him a very liberal allowance, that he
might be enabled to cut a figure among his countrymen in Paris.
But his progress in acquiring habits of extravagance had become
of late rather more rapid than was desirable. As he was to
return, however, in the course of a few weeks, his father hoped
that he would be able to play the dandy in New York at less cost
than in Paris.

Mr. Taylor's meditations were interrupted by Mrs. Hilson, who
stopped to speak to him as he passed; she wished to inquire if
Miss Adeline were at home, as she was anxious to see her, having
a piece of news to communicate. Having given a satisfactory
answer, the merchant pursued his course towards the regions of
commerce, at one extremity of Broadway, and the city-lady went
her way towards the regions of fashion in the opposite direction.

Mrs. Hilson had already returned to her suite of apartments, and
her intimate friend, Mrs. Bagman. At the boarding-house she
patronised; and every morning between the hours of twelve and
three, she might be seen at the window of the drawing-room, if it
rained, or flitting up and down Broadway if the sun shone,
generally attended by Captain Kockney, the long {sic} Englishman,
whom she took great pleasure in showing off to the public. On the
present occasion she was alone however, and fortunate enough to
find Miss Adeline and the French furniture visible, for it was
the first time she had been in the new house. The rose-coloured
damask, and the pea-green satin of the two drawing-rooms was much
admired, and many compliments were lavished upon the gilt clocks,
the Sevres vases, &c., when Mrs. Hilson remembered she had a
piece of news to share with Miss Taylor.

"And such news--so unexpected to us all; you will be so
surprised! The engagement between Miss Wyllys and Mr. Hazlehurst
is actually broken off!"

Adeline was not so much astonished as Mrs. Hilson supposed she
would be.

"I am very quick at seeing such things," she said. "I was sure it
would come to that; though Miss Wyllys did not seem to suspect
anything herself. But no wonder--an engagement of two years is
too long for anybody. I am sure that in two years I should get
tired of the handsomest beau in New York."

The ladies had each their surmises as to which of the parties had
taken the first step, and what was probably the cause; but
although Miss Taylor had a pretty correct idea of the state of
things, she did not express her opinion on the subject very
decidedly. Mrs. Hilson soon made her curtsey, expressing the hope
that they should see each other very often during the winter; a
hope which Miss Adeline was determined not to gratify, for Mrs.
Hilson's standing was not sufficiently fashionable to satisfy
her. The visitor had no sooner left the room, than she ran up
stairs to put on her last Paris hat, and her handsomest cashmere,
and then hurried off to Barclay-Street to enjoy a confidential
meeting with Jane.

The young ladies were closeted together for an hour. We have no
authority for revealing what passed, and can only observe that
Jane returned to the drawing-room with a heightened colour, and
there was a certain expression of mystery still lingering about
Miss Adeline's face.

"Have you any commands for Boston, Mrs. Graham?" the young lady
inquired in her usual flippant manner. "I think I shall go there
next week, to pay a short visit to a friend of mine; I wish I
could hear of an escort."

Mrs. Graham thanked her civilly, but declined the offer of her
services.

"Have you really made up your mind to go to Boston?" asked Jane.

"Why, not positively. It depends, as I said before, upon my
finding an escort. I have six pressing invitations from different
quarters, most of them acquaintances that I made last summer at
Saratoga; and I have been hesitating between Albany, Boston, or
Baltimore. I am determined to go somewhere to spend the next
three weeks, till the gaiety begins in earnest, and Tallman comes
back."

"Is your brother expected so soon?" asked Mrs. Graham.

"Yes, he must have sailed now. We heard from him last night; he
will be here next month, I hope, just in time for the first great
parties. What would you advise me to do, Jane, to get rid of the
time until then?"

"I had much rather you would stay at home; if you go, I shall
miss you very much."

"But then we shall have the pleasure of corresponding--I like the
excitement of receiving a good long letter, full of nonsense,
above all things."

"You must not forget to let me know which way you are really
going," said Jane. "I will write, though I can't promise you a
long letter; I never wrote a long letter in my life."

"Well, you must write, at any rate, I shall see you half-a-dozen
times between this and Monday. I rather think I shall decide upon
Boston. Miss Lawrence says there are some delightful young
gentlemen there, and has promised to give me a ball. If I go, I
shall try hard to bring Miss Lawrence back with me. Mind, Jane,
you don't make too many conquests while I am gone. You must
reserve yourself for the one I have recommended to you. Oh,
by-the-bye, Mrs. Graham, I forgot to tell you the news; I am
astonished you have not heard it already."

"Pray, what is it?" asked Mrs. Graham.

"It seems the engagement between Miss Wyllys and Mr. Hazlehurst
has been broken off."

"You are mistaken, surely! We have heard nothing of it, and it is
highly improbable. If there be such a story, let me beg you will
not mention it again, Miss Taylor!"

"Oh, there is no mistake, I'm quite sure. I have heard it three
times already this morning, from Longbridge people; first Mrs.
Hilson told me, and then I met John Bibbs, and Edward Tibbs, who
said the same thing. Mrs. George Wyllys, it seems, contradicted
the engagement openly; Miss Hubbard heard her, and wrote it to
her sister."

"How grieved I should be if this story were to prove true; you
surely never remarked anything, Jane?"

"Elinor seemed to me just as usual; but Adeline thinks there has
been some change," said Jane, a little embarrassed.

"Oh, yes, give me credit for being quick-sighted; I suspected
something the first time I saw them together after Mr. Hazlehurst
came back."

"It is what none of their other friends appear to have done, Miss
Taylor," said Mrs. Graham, a little severely.

"I dare say not; but I am very quick at seeing such things. If
Jane has any mysteries, she had better not pretend to keep them
from me. But it is no wonder that the engagement was broken
off--I don't believe in long engagements. We must not let Jane
drag matters on at that rate when her turn comes;" and then
kissing her friend tenderly, and making a curtsey to Mrs. Graham,
without remarking the disapproving expression of that lady's
face, the lively Adeline left the mother and daughter alone.

"I dislike that Miss Taylor, excessively, Jane," observed her
mother, "she is very disagreeable to me; I wish you would find
some better companion while we are in New York. There are the
Howards, and de Vaux's--very amiable, pleasant girls, and for a
great many reasons far better associates for you."

"But I don't know them so well. Adeline is a great belle, mamma,
as much so as any girl in town."

"She is not at all to my taste, I confess. Your father, too,
dislikes the Taylors very much. The way in which she spoke of
this story about Elinor's engagement was really unfeeling. Not
that I believe it; but breaking off an engagement without good
reason, is no such trifle in my opinion, as it seems to be in
that of Miss Taylor."

Jane looked quite agitated; she blushed so much that her mother
would probably have remarked it, had she not been, at the moment,
stooping over her little invalid boy, who was lying on the sofa
near her.

"Miss Taylor has no claim whatever upon you, that I can see,"
continued Mrs. Graham. "It is true she was kind to you when you
were ill with the whooping-cough at school; but so were your
other companions--and I am sure she has not been half so
considerate and good to you as Elinor, and yet you seem to prefer
Miss Adeline now."

Poor Jane looked down, and coloured still more.

"Adeline would do anything for me, mother," she said, in a low
voice; "You don't know how much she is attached to me; I can't
help liking her," and Jane began to shed a few tears.

"Foolish child!" said her mother, beginning to relent, as she
usually did on such occasions, "I don't wish you to be uncivil to
her; but I should like you to be more with Kate Howard, and Anne
de Vaux;" and the conversation ended, as several others of the
same description had done, by leaving things precisely as they
were before. Mrs. Graham, indeed, looked upon herself as having
showed much decision on the occasion, and acted as a watchful
mother, by having made these objections, fruitless as they proved
to be.

The report that the engagement between Elinor and Harry had been
broken off, was soon known to be correct. It caused some surprise
to all who knew them, and much regret to their friends. Mrs.
Stanley, who felt a warm interest in both Harry and Elinor, was
grieved and disappointed. The Grahams, and Mrs. Robert
Hazlehurst, felt very unpleasantly when the cause of the rupture
came to be suspected. Mrs. Graham was, however, relieved by
finding that there was no understanding between Harry and her
daughter--thus far at least all was right; no explanation had
taken place between them, and Jane even assured her mother that
when in Paris, she had had no idea that Hazlehurst was attached
to her. Still there were many blushes whenever the subject was
alluded to, there were confidential meetings with Adeline, and
other symptoms which left little doubt to her friends that Jane's
feelings were interested. Mrs. Graham was obliged to console
herself with the idea, that the mischief had, at least, been
unintentional on the part of her daughter.

Harry, himself, was much mortified by the reception of Elinor's
note, which, by showing the full consequence of his conduct, made
it appear more culpable in his own eyes than he had yet been
willing to believe it. He even wrote a second time, begging
Elinor to re-consider her decision. Full as his fancy was of
Jane, yet his regard, one might say his affection, for Elinor,
was too well-founded, and of too long standing, for him to endure
quietly the idea of having trifled with her. She remained firm,
however; her second answer was as decided as the first. Harry's
self-reproach was sincere, at least, and he had never before felt
so much dissatisfied with himself.

He was less eager than one might suppose, to profit by his
newly-acquired liberty. He was in no hurry to offer Jane the
attentions which had so lately been Elinor's due. It is true that
his position was rather awkward; it is not every faithless swain
who is obliged to play the lover to two different individuals,
within so short a period, before the same witnesses. At length,
after doing penance for a while, by encouraging humiliating
reflections, some fear of a rival carried Hazlehurst on to New
York, in his new character of Jane's admirer. The first meeting
was rather awkward, and Harry was obliged to call up all his
good-breeding and cleverness, to make it pass off without leaving
an unpleasant impression. "Ce n'est que le premier pas qui
coute," however, as everybody knows. The sight of Jane's lovely
face, with a brighter colour than usual, and a few half-timid and
embarrassed glances from her beautiful dark eyes, had a
surprising effect in soothing Harry's conscience, and convincing
his reason that after all he had not acted so unwisely. He soon
showed himself very much in earnest in seeking Jane's favour;
though he persuaded himself that he must always do justice to
Elinor's excellence. "She is just the woman for a friend," he
observed to himself, "and friends I trust we shall be, when the
past is forgotten. But Jane, with her transcendant {sic} beauty,
her gentle helplessness, is the very creature that fancy would
paint for a wife!"

{"Ce n'est que le premier...." = it's only the first step that
hurts (French)}



CHAPTER XVIII.

"Be patient, gentle Nell, forget this grief."
Henry VI.

{William Shakespeare, "2 Henry VI", II.iv.26}

THE Wyllyses remained later than they had intended in the
country. Elinor, indeed, proposed to her aunt that they should
pass the winter at Wyllys-Roof, but Miss Agnes and her
grandfather were unwilling to do so. The variety of a life in
town would be preferable for her sake to the quiet monotony of a
country winter. They knew she had too much sense to wish to play
the victim; but it was only natural to believe, that in a
solitary country life, painful recollections would force
themselves upon her oftener than among her friends in town, where
she would he obliged to think less of herself, and more of
others.

It had been a great relief to her to find, that Jane had not
acted as unworthily as Miss Agnes had at first feared; in spite
of what she herself had overheard at Miss Hubbard's party, Elinor
threw off all suspicion of her cousin, as soon as she learned
that Jane denied any previous knowledge of the change in Harry's
feelings. Hazlehurst, himself, had said in his letter that she
was blameless.

"Then," she exclaimed, "I shall at least be able to love Jane as
before!" She immediately sat down, and wrote her cousin a short,
but affectionate letter, containing only a slight allusion to
what had passed. Jane's answer, of course, avoided wounding her
feelings, and their intercourse was resumed.

"The time will come, I trust," she thought, "when Harry, too,
will be a friend again." But she felt the hour had not yet
arrived. She could not so soon forget the past. It was no easy
task, suddenly to change the whole current of feeling which had
filled her mind during the last two years. In spite of her
earnest resolutions, during the first few weeks, thoughts and
feelings of the past would recur too often. For some time Elinor
was very unhappy; she felt that the strongest and deepest
affections of her heart had been neglected, rejected,
undervalued, by one whose opinion she had learned to prize too
highly. She wept and blushed to think how much she had become
attached to Harry, since she had looked upon him as her affianced
husband. She could not but feel herself free from all reproach
towards him; it was he who, unsought by her, had wished to draw a
closer tie between them. He had succeeded but too well, and then
he had forgotten her. The temptation which had proved too strong
for him, would not have deserved the name, had the case been
reversed, had she been exposed to it. And yet she did not
reproach him; men think so much of beauty, and she was so very
plain! It was but natural at such a moment, that she should be
oppressed by an over-wrought humility. She accused herself of
vanity, for having at one time believed it possible Harry could
love one like herself. But how happy was Jane!

Her efforts to struggle against low spirits were the greater, for
the sake of her aunt and her grandfather. She made it a duty to
neglect no regular task, and much of her time was occupied as
usual; but the feelings which she carried about to her
employment, were very different from what they had been
heretofore. It was her first taste of sorrow; well might her aunt
deeply reproach Hazlehurst for his versatile conduct towards her
beloved child. Elinor flattered herself that Miss Agnes knew not
half of what she felt. In general she succeeded in being quite
calm, and attentive to others; she was always sweet-tempered, and
unrepining. But she could not read, herself, the expression of
her own countenance, so tenderly watched by her aunt. She was not
aware that the musical tones of her voice were no longer
cheerful; that instead of the gay, easy conversation in which she
used to bear her part, she was now at times absent, often silent;
she whose graceful wit and youthful spirits had been until lately
the joy of her family. Mr. Wyllys's indignation against
Hazlehurst would have been boundless, if he could have seen him
at such moments, as was often now the case, sitting by the side
of Jane, admiring the length of her eye-lashes, the pearly
smoothness of her complexion, and the bright colour of her lips,
as she uttered some very common-place remark. Such had now become
Hazlehurst's daily pleasure, his daily habit.

["versatile" = inconstant, fickle}

Miss Agnes purposely left to her niece, this year, all the
arrangements for their removal to town; and Elinor was obliged to
be very busy. It happened too, quite opportunely, perhaps, that
just at that time Mrs. George Wyllys was coming over oftener than
usual, to consult her father-in-law and Miss Agnes. Against Mr.
Wyllys's advice, she had to withdraw her eldest boy from the
school where he had been first placed, and now a new choice was
to be made. Mr. Wyllys recommended a small establishment in their
own neighbourhood, recently opened by Miss Patsey's brother; he
thought it equally good with the one she had in view, and with
the additional advantage of more moderate terms, and a smaller
number of boys. But Mrs. Wyllys had a great deal to say on the
opposite side of the question; the low price was an objection in
her eyes.

"There, my dear sir, you must allow me to differ from you. I have
always intended to devote a large portion of my means to the
education of my children; economy in such a case, I cannot look
upon as economy at all."

"Certainly, Harriet, you are perfectly right to secure to your
children every advantage in your power. But this is not a case in
point. Thomas Hubbard, you know, was a principal in the very
school which you have in view, and only withdrew last spring on
account of ill health. He still continues the same system, and
has the same masters, with the advantage of only four boys
besides Evert, to occupy his attention."

This was too plain to be contradicted. "But in my opinion, sir, a
large school is very much to be preferred for a boy. I have
thought a great deal on the subject, since Evert has been of an
age to leave me."

"But what are your reasons for preferring a large school to a
small one?"

"I think it a better preparation for their entrance into life.
And then they have the advantage of choosing their intimates from
a larger number of boys; Evert's disposition will make it
particularly desirable for him. I am sure, if he were shut up
with two or three boys only, he would find it so dull that he
would be disgusted."

"Well, my dear, I view the matter in a different light," replied
Mr. Wyllys, who would never allow himself to be silenced, or
forced to advise anything against his conscience; though many men
would have been worried into it by such a woman. Unfortunately,
Mrs. Wyllys was the only guardian of her children, and Mr. Wyllys
was often obliged to see his daughter-in-law act in a manner that
he thought ill-judged; but though very good-natured, he could
never be talked into being a party to such plans. "It is
precisely on account of Evert's high spirits that I should like a
small school for him. He would be less likely to get himself and
others into scrapes; he would be more under his master's eye."

"I think, sir, from the conversation I had with Mr. Stone, he is
just the man to obtain an influence over Evert."

"You would like Hubbard still better, if you knew him."

"I doubt it very much, sir; I am sick of the very name of
Hubbard. Those Longbridge Hubbards are enough to spoil a
paradise."

"Well, Harriet," said Mr. Wyllys, "you seem to have made up your
mind; so have I; now what is to be done?"

"Of course, sir, your opinion has great weight with me; you know
I am always guided by you."

"Then the matter is settled, and Evert goes to Hubbard's."

Mr. Wyllys thought he had succeeded, on this occasion, in gaining
his point, by taking his daughter-in-law at her word; but the
very next morning she drove over to Wyllys-Roof, with a new view
of the subject; and it was not until after half-a-dozen more
conversations, that the matter was finally settled, by Mr. Wyllys
refusing to give any more advice; when his daughter-in-law, of
her own accord, determined to send her boy to Mr. Hubbard's
school. It must be confessed that some women, endowed too with
certain good qualities, are very trying, and possess a most
vexatious vein of caprice. In the mean time the child was taken
sick; he was ill for several weeks, and Elinor assisted in
nursing him.

Independently of these consultations, and cares about her little
cousin, there were other claims upon Elinor's attention at this
time, and those the least romantic in the world. Within the last
few weeks, all the men of Longbridge seemed to have their heads
full of a new rail-road, one of the first that were made in this
country. All the property Elinor had inherited from her father
was in this village, and so placed as to have its value very much
increased by this intended piece of internal improvement. Mr.
Hubbard was one of those most interested in the project, which
was of some importance to Mr. Wyllys, also. The gentlemen had
many meetings on the subject, and Elinor was obliged to hear a
great deal that was going on; which houses were to be pulled
down, which streets widened, what engineer was to be employed,
where the rails were to come from, at what time they hoped to get
the act through the Assembly. Mr. Taylor, of course, was not the
man to allow anything approaching to speculation, to take place
in his neighbourhood without having something to do with it
himself. He came over to Longbridge expressly to help matters on;
and as Colonnade Manor was shut up, Mr. Wyllys, always hospitably
inclined, asked him to his own house for a day or two. With such
a spirit under their roof, little else was heard of besides
stocks and lots, wharves and stores. Elinor's property was known
to be much interested in the affair, and Mr. Hubbard and Mr.
Taylor thought it necessary to congratulate her. Mr. Taylor,
indeed, would have been much shocked had he known how very little
she cared about the matter.

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