This eBook was produced by David Widger
In the letter which George told Waife he had received from his uncle,George had an excuse for the delicate and arduous mission he undertook,which he did not confide to the old man, lest it should convey more hopesthan its nature justified. In this letter, Alban related, with a degreeof feeling that he rarely manifested, his farewell conversation withLionel, who had just departed to join his new regiment. The poor youngman had buoyed himself up with delighted expectations of the result ofSophy's prolonged residence under Darrell's roof; he had persuaded hisreason that when Darrell had been thus enabled to see and judge of herfor himself, he would be irresistibly attracted towards her; thatInnocence, like Truth, would be mighty and prevail; Darrell was engagedin the attempt to clear William Losely's name and blood from the taint offelony;—Alban was commissioned to negotiate with Jasper Losely on anyterms that would remove all chance of future disgrace from that quarter.Oh yes! to poor Lionel's eyes obstacles vanished—the future becameclear. And thus, when, after telling him of his final interview with theMinister, Darrell said, "I trust that, in bringing to William Losely thisintelligence, I shall at least soften his disappointment, when I make itthoroughly clear to him how impossible it is that his Sophy can ever bemore to me—to us—than a stranger whose virtues create an interest inher welfare"—Lionel was stunned as by a blow. Scarcely could he murmur:
"You have seen her—and your resolve remains the same."
"Can you doubt it?" answered Darrell, as if in surprise. "The resolvemay now give me pain on my account, as before it gave me pain on yours.But if not moved by your pain, can I be moved by mine? That would be abaseness." The Colonel, in depicting Lionel's state of mind after theyoung soldier had written his farewell to Waife, and previous to quittingLondon, expressed very gloomy forebodings. "I do not say," wrote he,"that Lionel will guiltily seek death in the field, nor does death therecome more to those who seek than to those who shun it; but he will goupon a service exposed to more than ordinary suffering, privation, anddisease—without that rallying power of hope—that Will, and Desire toLive, which constitute the true stamina of Youth. And I have always seta black mark upon those who go into war joyless and despondent. Send ayoung fellow to the camp with his spirits broken, his heart heavy as alump of lead, and the first of those epidemics, which thin ranks morethan the cannon, says to itself, 'There is a man for me!' Any doctorwill tell you that, even at home, the gay and light-hearted walk safethrough the pestilence, which settles on the moping as malaria settleson a marsh. Confound Guy Darrell's ancestors, they have spoilt QueenVictoria as good a young soldier as ever wore a sword by his side! Sixmonths ago, and how blithely Lionel Haughton looked forth to the future!—all laurel!—no cypress! And now I feel as if I had shaken hands witha victim sacrificed by Superstition to the tombs of the dead. I cannotblame Darrell: I dare say in the same position I might do the same. Butno; on second thoughts, I should not. If Darrell does not choose tomarry and have sons of his own, he