ADG 3000 By Miss M. E. Braddon. AURORA FLOYD. A Novel. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents. BIRDS OF PREY. A Novel. With Illustrations. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents. per, 50 cents. DEAD-SEA FRUIT. A Novel. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. ELEANOR'S VICTORY. A Novel. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents. FENTON'S QUEST. A Novel. Illustrated. 8vo, Paper, 50 cents. JOHN MARCHMONT'S LEGACY. A Novel. 8vo, Paper, 75 cents. Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. Sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price. THE LOVELS OF ARDEN. CHAPTER I. COMING HOME. THE lamps of the Great Northern Terminus at King's Cross had not long been lighted when a cab deposited a young lady and her luggage at the departure platform. It was an October twilight, cold and gray, and the place had a cheerless and dismal aspect to that solitary young traveler, to whom English life and an English atmosphere were strange just now. She had been seven years abroad, in a school near Paris; rather an expensive seminary, where the number of pupils was limited, the masters and mistresses, learned in divers modern accomplishments, numerous, and the dietary of foreign slops and messes without stint. Dull and gray as the English sky seemed to her, and dreary as was the aspect of London in October, this girl was glad to return to her native land. She had felt herself very lonely in the French school, forgotten and deserted by her own kindred-a creature to be pitied; and hers was a nature to which pity was a torture. Other girls had gone home to England for their holidays; but vacation after vacation went by, and every occasion brought Clarissa Lovel the same coldly worded letter from her father, telling her that it was not convenient for him to receive her at home, that he had heard with pleasure of her progress, and that experienced people, with whom he had conferred, had agreed with him that any interruption to the regular course of her studies could not fail to be a disadvantage to her in the future. "They are all going home except me, papa," she wrote piteously on one occasion, "and I feel as if I were different from them somehow. Do let me come home to Arden for this one year. I don't think my school-fellows believe me when I talk of home, and the gardens, and the dear old park. I have seen it in their faces, and you can not think how hard it is to bear. And I want to see you, papa. You must not fancy that, because I speak of these things, I am not anxious for that. I do want to see you very much. By-and-by, when I am grown up, I shall seem a stranger to you." To this letter, and to many such letters, Mr. Lovel's reply was always the same. It did not suit his convenience that his only daughter should return to England until her education was completed. Perhaps it would have suited him better could she have remained away altogether; but he did not say as much as that; he only let her see very clearly that there was no pleasure to him in the prospect of her return. And yet she was glad to go back. At the worst it was going home. She told herself again and again, in those meditations upon her future life which were not so happy as a girl's reveries should be-she told herself that her father must come to love her in time. She was ready to love him so much on her part; to be so devoted, faithful, and obedient; to bear so much from him if need were, only to be rewarded with his affection in the end. So at eighteen years of age Clarissa Lovel's education was finished, and she came home alone from a quiet little suburban village just outside Paris, and having arrived to-night at the Great Northern Station, King's Cross, had still a long journey before her. Mr. Lovel lived near a small town called Holborough, in the depths of Yorkshire; a dreary little town enough, but boasting several estates of considerable importance in its neighborhood, having picturesque surroundings too, and being within an easy walk of the sea-shore. In days gone by the Lovels had been people of high standing in this northern region, and Clarissa had yet to learn how far that standing was diminished. She had been seated about five minutes in a comfortable corner of a first-class carriage, with a thick shawl over her knees, and all her little girlish trifles of books and traveling-bags gathered about her, and she had begun to flatter herself with the pleasing fancy that she was to have the compartment to herself for the first stage of the journey, perhaps for the whole of the journey, when a porter flung open the door with a bustling air, and a gentleman came in, with more traveling-rugs, canes, and umbrellas, Russialeather bags and dispatch-boxes, than Clarissa had ever before beheld a traveler encumbered with. He came into the carriage very quietly, however, in spite of this impedimenta, arranged his belongings in a methodical manner, and without the slightest inconvenience to Miss Lovel, and then seated himself next the door, upon the farther side of the carriage. Clarissa looked at him rather anxiously, wondering whether they two were to be solitary companions throughout the whole of that long night journey. She had no prudish horror of such a position, only a natural girlish shyness in the presence of a stranger. The traveler was a man of about six or eight and twenty, tall, broad-shouldered, with long arms, and powerful-looking hands, ungloved, and bronzed a little by sun and wind. There was the same healthy bronze upon his face, Clarissa perceived, when he took off his hat and hung it up above him; rather a handsome face, with a long straight nose, dark blue eyes with thick brown eyebrows, a well-cut mouth and chin, and a thick thatch of crisp dark brown hair waving round a broad, intelligent-looking forehead. The firm, full upper lip was half hidden by a carefully trained mustache, and in his dress and bearing the stranger had altogether a military air: one could fancy him a cavalry soldier. That bare, muscular hand seemed made to grasp the massive hilt of a sabre. She was tall, above the ordinary height of women. There was a grace in the long, flowing lines of her figure more striking than the beauty of her face. The long, slim throat, the sloping shoulder, not to be disguised even by the clumsy folds of a thick shawl. These the traveler noted, in a lazy contemplative mood, as he lolled in his corner, meditating an easy opening for a conversation with his fair fellow-voyager. He let some little time slip by in this way, being a man to whom haste was almost unknown. This idle artistic consideration of Miss Lovel's beauty was a quiet kind of enjoyment for him. She, for her part, seemed absorbed in watching the landscape-a very commonplace English no way disturbed by his placid admiration. His expression was grave-grave and a little proud, Clarissa thought; and, unused as she was to lonely wanderings in this outer world, she felt somehow that this man was a gentleman, and that she need be troubled by no fear that he would make his presence in any way un-landscape in the gentleman's eyes-and was in pleasant to her, let their journey together last as long as it would. She sank back into her corner with a feeling of relief. It would have been more agreeable for her to have had the carriage to herself; but if she must needs have a companion, there was nothing obnoxious in this one. He had a heap of newspapers and magazines, thrown pell-mell into the empty seat next him; and arousing himself with a faint show of effort presently, he began to turn these over with a careless hand. 66 The noise of his movements startled Clarissa; For about an hour they sped on in silence. she looked across at him, and their eyes met. This evening train was not exactly an express, This was just what he wanted. He had beert but it was a tolerably quick train, and the stop-curious to see her eyes. They were hazel and pages were not frequent. The dull gray twilight very beautiful, completing the charm of her face. melted into a fair, tranquil night. The moon "May I offer you some of these things?" he rose early, and the quiet English landscape said. I have a reading-lamp in one of my seemed very fair to Clarissa Lovel in that serene bags, which I will light for you in a moment. light. She watched the shadowy fields flitting won't pledge myself for your finding the magapast-here and there a still pool or a glimpse zines very amusing, but any thing is better than of running water, beyond the sombre darkness the blankness of a long, dreary journey." of wooded hills, and above that dark background a calm, starry sky. Who shall say what dim poetic thoughts were in her mind that night as she looked at these things? Life was so new "Pray don't consider that. It is not a questo her, the future such an unknown country-tion of a moment's trouble. I'll light the lamp, a paradise perhaps, or a drear gloomy waste, and then you can do as you like about the magacross which she must travel with bare, bleeding azines." feet. How should she know? She only knew that she was going home to a father who had never loved her, who had deferred the day of her coming as long as it was possible for him decently to do so. The traveler in the opposite corner of the carriage glanced at Miss Lovel now and then as she looked out of the window. He could just contrive to see her profile, dimly lighted by the flickering oil lamp; a very perfect profile, he thought; a forehead that was neither too high nor too low, a small aquiline nose, a short upper lip, and the prettiest mouth and chin in the world. It was just a shade too pensive now, the poor little mouth, he thought, pityingly; and he wondered what it was like when it smiled. And then he began to arrange his lines for winning the smile he wanted so much to see from those thoughtful lips. It was, of course, for the gratification of the idlest, most vagabond curiosity that he was eager to settle this question; but then, on such a long, dreary journey, a man may be forgiven for a good deal of idle curiosity. He wondered who his companion was, and how she came to be traveling alone, so young, so pretty, so much in need of an escort. There was nothing in her costume to hint at poverty, nor does poverty usually travel in first-class carriages. She might have her maid lurking somewhere in the second-class, he said to himself. In any case, she was a lady. He had no shadow of doubt about that. "Thank you, you are very kind; but I don't care about reading to-night; I could not give you so much trouble." He stood up, unlocked one of his travelingbags, the interior of which glittered like a miniature arsenal, and took out a lamp, which he lighted in a rapid, dextrous manner, though without the faintest appearance of haste, and fixed with a brass apparatus of screws and bolts to the arm of Clarissa's seat. Then he brought her a pile of magazines, which she received in her lap, not a little embarrassed by this unexpected attention. He had called her suddenly from strange, vague dreams of the future, and it was not easy to come altogether back to the trivial, commonplace present. She thanked him graciously for his politeness, but she had not smiled yet. "Never mind," the traveler said to himself; "that will come in good time." He had the easiest way of taking all things in life, this gentleman; and having established Clarissa with her lamp and books, sank lazily back into his corner, and gave himself up to a continued contemplation of the fair young face, almost as calmly as if it had been some masterpiece of the painter's art in a picture-gallery. The magazines were amusing to Miss Lovel. They beguiled her away from those shapeless visions of days to come. She began to read, at first with very little thought of the page before her, but, becoming interested by degrees, read on until her companion grew tired of the silence. He looked at his watch-the prettiest little toy in gold and enamel, with elaborate monogram and coat of arms-a watch that looked like a woman's gift. They had been nearly three hours on their journey. "I do not mean to let you read any longer," he said, changing his seat to one opposite Clarissa. "That lamp is very well for an hour or so, but after that time the effect upon one's eyesight is the reverse of beneficial. I hope your book is not very interesting." "If you will allow me to finish this story," Clarissa pleaded, scarcely lifting her eyes from the page. It was not particularly polite, perhaps, but it gave the stranger an admirable opportunity for remarking the dark thick lashes, tinged with the faintest gleam of gold, and the perfect curve of the full white eyelids. 66 Upon my soul, she is the loveliest creature I ever saw," he said to himself; and then asked, persistently, "Is the story a long one?" "Only about half a dozen pages more. Oh, do please let me finish it!" 66 You want to know what becomes of some one, or whom the heroine marries, of course. Well, to that extent I will be a party to the possible injury of your sight.' 66 ough a little, by-the-way. Does your father live in the town?" "Oh no; papa could never endure to live in a small country town. Our house is a couple of miles away-Arden Court; perhaps you know it?" "Yes, I have been to Arden Court," the traveler answered, with rather a puzzled air. "And your papa lives at Arden. I-I did not know he had any other daughter," he added, in a lower key, to himself rather than to his companion. "Then I suppose I have the pleasure of speaking to Miss-" 66 'My name is Lovel. My father is Marmaduke Lovel, of Arden Court." The traveler looked at her with a still more puzzled air, as if singularly embarrassed by this simple announcement. He recovered himself quickly, however, with a slight effort. 66 "I am proud and happy to have made your acquaintance, Miss Lovel," he said; your father's family is one of the best and oldest in the North Riding." After this they talked of many things; of Clarissa's girlish experiences at Belforêt; of the traveler's wanderings, which seemed to have extended all over the world. He had been a good deal in India, in the artil "I had rather an alarming touch of sun-stroke He still sat opposite to her, watching her in the old lazy way, while she read the last few pages of the magazine story. When she came to the end a fact of which he seemed immedi-lery, and was likely to return thither before long. ately aware-he rose and extinguished the little reading-lamp with an air of friendly tyranny. a year ago," he said; "and was altogether such Merciless, you see," he said, laughing. "Oh, la jeunesse, what a delicious thing it is! Here have I been tossing and tumbling those unfortunate books about for a couple of hours at a stretch without being able to fix my attention upon a single page; and here are you so profoundly absorbed in some trivial story that I dare say you have scarcely been conscious of the outer world for the last two hours. Oh, youth and freshness, what pleasant things they are while we can keep them!" 66 "We were not allowed to read fiction at Madame Marot's," Miss Lovel answered, simply. "Any thing in the way of an English story is a treat when one has had nothing to read but Racine and Télémaque for about six years of one's life." 66 "The Inimical Brothers, and Iphigenia, and so on. Well, I confess there are circumstances under which even Racine might become a bore; and Télémaque has long been a synonym for dreariness and dejection of mind. You have not seen Rachel? No, I suppose not. She was a great creature, and conjured the dry bones into living, breathing flesh. And Madame Marot's establishment, where you were so hardly treated, is a school, I conclude ?" "Yes, it is a school at Belforêt, near Paris. I have been there a long time, and am going home now to keep house for papa." "Indeed! And is your journey a long one? Are we to be traveling companions for some time to come?" "I am going rather a long way-to Holborough." a shattered, broken-up creature when I came It is "I have no mother," Clarissa said, mournfully; "mine died when I was quite a little thing. I always envy people who can speak of a mother." 66 But, on the other hand, I am fatherless, you see," the gentleman said, smiling. But Clarissa's face did not reflect his smile. "Ah, that is a different thing," she said, softly. They went on talking for a long while, talking about the widest range of subjects; and their flight across the moonlit country, which grew darker by-and-by as that tender light waned, seemed swifter than Clarissa could have imagined possible had the train been the most desperate thing in the way of an express. She had no vulgar commonplace shyness, mere schoolgirl as she was, and she had, above all, a most delightful unconsciousness of her own beauty; so she was quickly at home with the stranger, listening to him, and talking to him with a perfect ease, which seemed to him a natural attribute of high breeding. "A Lovel," he said to himself once, in a brief interval of silence; "and so she comes of that unlucky race. It is scarcely strange that she "I am very glad to hear that, for I am going should be beautiful and gifted. I wonder what farther myself, to the outer edge of Yorkshire, my mother would say if she knew that my northwhere I believe I am to do wonderful execution ern journey had brought me for half a dozen upon the birds. A fellow I know has taken a hours tête-à-tête with a Lovel? There would be shooting-box yorder, and writes me most flour-actual terror for her in the notion of such an acishing accounts of the sport. I know Holbor- cident. What a noble look this girl has!—an air that only comes after generations of blue | it has not been a bad one. But I should like the blood untainted by vulgar admixture. The last of such a race is a kind of crystallization, dangerously, fatally brilliant-the concentration of all the forces that have gone before." At one of their halting-places Miss Lovel's companion insisted upon bringing her a cup of coffee and a sponge-cake, and waited upon her with a most brotherly attention. At Normanton they changed to a branch line, and had to wait an hour and a half in that coldest, dreariest period of the night that comes before daybreak. Here the stranger established Clarissa in a shabby little waiting-room, where he made up the fire with his own hands, and poked it into a blaze with his walking-stick; having done which, he went out into the bleak night, and paced the platform briskly for nearly an hour, smoking a couple of those cigars which would have beguiled his night journey had he been alone. He had some thoughts of a third cigar, but put it back into his case, and returned to the waiting-room. feeling of perfect youth, the sense of having one's full inheritance of life lying at one's banker's, as it were, and being able to draw upon the amount a little recklessly, indifferent as to the waste of a year or two. You see I have come to a period of existence in which a man has to calculate his resources. If I do not find happiness within the next seven years I am never likely to find it at all. At five-and-thirty a man has done with a heart, in a moral and poetic sense, and begins to entertain vague alarms on the subject of fatty degeneration." Clarissa smiled faintly, as if the stranger's idle talk scarcely beguiled her from her own thoughts. "You said you had been at Arden," she began, rather abruptly; "then you must know papa." "No, I have not the honor to know Mr. Lovel," with the same embarrassed air which he had exhibited before in speaking of Arden Court. "But I am acquainted-or I was acquainted, rather, for he and I have not met for some time "I'll go and have a little more talk with the-with one member of your family, a Mr. Ausprettiest woman I ever met in my life," he said to himself. "It is not very likely that we two shall ever see each other again. Let me carry away the memory of her face, at any rate. And she is a Lovel! Will she be as unfortunate as the rest of her race, I wonder? God forbid !" Clarissa was sitting by the fire in the dingy little waiting-room, with one elbow resting on the arm of her chair, her chin leaning on her hand, and her eyes fixed thoughtfully upon a dull red chasm in the coals. She had taken off her gray felt hat, and she looked older without it, the traveler thought, in spite of her wealth of waving dark brown hair, gathered into a great coil of plaits at the back of the graceful head. Perhaps it was that thoughtful expression which made her look older than she had seemed to him in the railway carriage, the gentleman argued with himself; a very grave, anxious expression for a girl's face. She had, indeed, altogether the aspect of a woman rather than of a girl who had just escaped from boarding-school, and to whom the cares of life must needs be unknown. tin Lovel." "My brother," Clarissa said, quietly, and with a dark shadow upon her face. "Your brother; yes, I supposed as much." "Poor Austin! It is very sad. Papa and he are ill friends. There was some desperate quarrel between them a few years ago; I do not even know what about, and Austin was turned out-of-doors, never to come back any more. Papa told me nothing about it, though it was the common talk at Holborough. It was only from a letter of my aunt's that I learned what had happened; and I am never to speak of Austin when I go home, my aunt told me.' 66 "Very hard lines," said the stranger, with a sympathetic air. "He was wild, I suppose, in the usual way. Your brother was in a line regiment when I knew him; but I think I heard afterward that he had sold out, and had dropped away from his old set-had emigrated, I believe, or something of that kind; exactly the thing I should do if I found myself in difficulties; turn backwoodsman, and wed some savage woman, She was thinking so deeply that she did not who should rear my dusky race, and whose kinhear the opening of the door, or her fellow-trav-dred could put me in the way to make my foreler's light footstep as he crossed the room. He was standing on the opposite side of the fire-place, looking down at her, before she was aware of his presence. Then she raised her head with a start, and he saw her blush for the first time. "You must have been absorbed in some profound meditation, Miss Lovel," he said, lightly. "I was thinking of the future." tune by cattle-dealing; having done which, I should, of course, discover that fifty years of Europe are worth more than a cycle of Cathay, and should turn my steps homeward with a convenient obliviousness upon the subject of the savage woman.' He spoke lightly, trying to win Clarissa from her sad thoughts, and with the common masculine idea that a little superficial liveliness of this kind can lighten the load of a great sorrow. "Meaning your own future. Why, at your age the future ought to be a most radiant vision." "Indeed it is not that. It is all clouds and 66 Come, Miss Lovel, I would give the world darkness. I do not see that one must needs be to see you smile. Do you know that I have been happy because one is young. There has been watching for a smile ever since I first saw your very little happiness in my life yet a while; only face, and have not surprised one yet? Be sure the dreary, monotonous routine of boarding-your brother is taking life pleasantly enough in school." "But all that is over now, and life is just beginning for you. I wish I were eighteen instead of eight-and-twenty." "Would you live your life over again?" The traveler laughed. "That's putting a home question," he said. "Well, perhaps not exactly the same life, though some quarter of the globe. We worthless young fellows always contrive to fall upon our feet." "If I could believe that he was happy, if I could think that he was leading an honorable life any where, I should not feel our separation so much," the girl said, mournfully; "but to be quite ignorant of his fate, and not to be allowed to mention his name, that is hard to bear. I |