Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 236: what you’re looking at

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JOSEPH WILMOT; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. 223 “Very kind and considerate indeed!” I said, | they advanced again—until at length some one with bitter irony. eame close up to the outside of the arbour, and “To be sure it was,” rejoined Cameron, who did | leant against one of the trees which formed it, not notice my accentuation and its significancy.| The intervals of these trees were so completely * But Mr. Stuart declined a filled up with roses, jasmines, honeysuckles, and - “ Of course he did!” I ejaculated, now burning | other creeping plants, as to form a perfect tapestry with indignation on the poor tutor’s account, of verdure and of flowers, so dense that the eye “Of course he did?” echoed Cameron. “And could not penetrate through: while the over- why should he? Only I suppose because he was | arching boughs of the trees themselves formed the not hungry—for after so much excitement and ex- | roof of this umbrageous retreat. 1 was avout to haustion, it is no wonder that the appetite should | issue forth, on hearing the person approach the have been lost.” arbour—for it struck me that it might be Mr. “ And if I had been My, Stuart,” I cried, —“ and | Lennox Vennachar himself: but the manner in if I had been starying, I would have refused a| which he threw himself against the tree, struck morsel of bread under such circumstances, even | me as so singular that I could not help remaining though that morsel were to save me from death!” | where I was. It was evidently in a sort of Cameron regarded me with a sort of stupified | desperate excitement that he had done so: for amazement, as if he were at a loss to comprehend | the entire arbour was shaken with the concus- how I could possibly so far forget myself as to | sion. utter observations at all militating against the; “Those looks which they exchanged!” he mur- generosity and the hospitality of the high and|mured audibly—and it was Lennox Vennachar mighty Chief, whom he looked upon as the highest | who spoke: “could there be anything in them? and mightiest not merely in the Highlands, but in | There is madness in the thought! By heayen! the whole world. Not choosing to prolong the|if that wretched teacher—a miserable unknown, discourse on that topic, I walked abruptly away: | without family or fortune—should have dared lift but as I thus turned on my heel, I heard Cameron | his hopes But no—it is ridiculous! Itis mere muttering to himself, “ He is an Englishman, poor | fancy on my part! I will not so humihate my- fellow ! and so he must be pitied rather than blamed, | self as to take any serious notice of the matter. But to think that Inch Methglin could do wrong | No—I will not speak to my father. But I will —it is incredible!” watch—yes, I will watch! And yet that were derogatory! Oh, this accursed jealousy !—that I — should ever haye known such a feeling !” With these words, Lennox Vennachar hurried CHAPTER XLIV. away from the vicinage of the arbour; and the sounds of his retreating footsteps were soon lost in ANOTHER VISIT TO THE VILLAGE, the distance. Accident had thus revealed to me the } state of his feelings: that scene upon the bank of I was not summoned, during the remainder of the loch—when Donald Stuart, recovering from the day, into the Chief’s presence to give an account | his state of unconsciousness, beheld Emmeline of my expedition to Carrondale. The exciting | bending over him—had inspired Lennox with a scenes on the lake had no doubt banished from | fierce jealousy. Yet his natural pride had made Mr. Vennachar’s mind the circumstance that he | him loathe the yery feeling which had thus sprung had despatched me on any such mission at all. | up in his heart: while, on the other hand, the Neither did I see anything more of Emmeline for feeling itself was threatening to drive him to mean the rest of that day: but in the evening—when the actions, and to keep watch upon his cousin and the family and the guests were sitting in the drawing- | tutor. Alas, poor lovers! I thought to myself room, with the windows thrown open, and no | that the difficulties of their position were increasing doubt enjoying the refreshing breeze which was | visibly and rapidly: but I resolved to help them wafted over the lake, and came softly tinctured | to the utmost of my ability, if opportunity should with the perfume of flowers—I noticed Mr, | render such services available. Lennox Vennachar come forth from the mansion,| When I entered Lennox Vennachar’s chamber and plunge in a somewhat hurried manner—me- | on the following morning, according to custom, to thought likewise with excitement too—into the | put out the clothes which he might require for the shadiest avenue of the spacious garden. I myself | day, the first glance which I threw at him, showed was rambling there at the time: but he passed | me that he was pale, and that his countenance me by without seeming to notice me; and this} bore the evident traces of a restless and uneasy was another reason why it occurred to me he had | night. He was up, and in the middle of his toilet something upon his mind. For if such were not | when I thus entered. the case, I thought to myself that he would surely| “Ah! Joseph, by the bye,” he said, with the have some kind and civil word to say after I had| abruptness of one whose feelings were imwardly rescued one of his little brothers from a watery | troubled, “you performed a noble deed yesterday : grave. you saved Ivor’s life—and I take the earliest op- I turned into another avenue; and while saun-| portunity to express all the gratitude I feel.” tering along, pondering on a variety of subjects— | “JT thank you, sir, for your kindness,’ was.my amongst which the image of the beloved Annabel] answer. “ It was at one moment a fearful scene ; was not forgotten—I reached a shady arbour, | and it is a wonder that life was not lost.” which I entered; and throwing myself upon a Lennox made no farther comment for some seat, pursued my meditations. I had not been| minutes: he had fallen into a profound abstrac- there many minutes, when I heard footsteps | tion; and then with another abrupt start, he said, slowly approaching: then they stood still—then | “I think, Joseph, that my father gave you ex- a iii GOMIGIOOKSHE im