AUNT SARAH PUZZLED. 173 unworldly lady, that no better husband could be found for her beautiful and pious niece than this good, talented young man, who could make two thousand people hang on his words, as though they feared to lose the slightest intonation, and whose life was wholly in accordance with the holy doctrines he so eloquently preached. She was in a dilemma, that dear excellent Aunt Sarah; the young man himself had said nothing, so, of course, she could not speak to him; Grace talked about him quite unreservedly, and Miss Clayton had too much good sense to give a being and a reality to undefined and perhaps unconscious sentiments, by presenting them to her niece, under the startling form of an attachment! Where was Ernest? Generally by the side of Philip Austen; but his new trials and cares so weighed down his mind, that for once he was forgetful of his sister, and never dreaming of the danger, that was day by day becoming more imminent; he only felt relieved to find that Grace had some congenial friend, with whom she might converse and discuss all kinds of subjects, when he felt too depressed to be otherwise than a very indifferent companion. And so the days passed on. Sometimes Grace went to town and spent the day with Margaret, whom she found rather paler and thinner than usual, but always calm, cheerful, and excessively busy. Hester was poorly and fretful. Mabel looked fragile and unhappy. 174 WANING HOPES. CHAPTER XV. "Oh cast thou not Affection from thee! In this bitter world MRS. HEMANS. MARGARET, when she left Kingsdown Lodge, had no intention of remaining permanently with Hester, but from day to day, and from week to week, her stay was prolonged, till at length it seemed to her that duty for the present fixed her in her new abode. Hester was far from well, and still farther from being happy. Her hopes of winning her husband's love became fainter than ever. His daily conduct proved, beyond question, the careless indifference with which he regarded the woman whom he had vowed in the sight of God, to love and cherish all the days of his life. The husband and wife saw but little of each other. It is but fair to Hester to state, that for several weeks she refused many invitations, and remained pertinaciously by her own fire-side, in the vain hope of luring him to taste the sweets of domestic privacy. It was fruitless; the three accomplished women of his own family were little regarded, while in the society of comparative strangers. Sir Herbert Leslie sought to please and to be pleased. Then Hester, in the agony of her disappointed spirit, plunged into an excess of dissipation, that astonished, while it grieved both Mabel and Margaret. When not receiving at home, she was flying from ball to concert, from opera to rout, from post meridian breakfasts to crowded literary parties! and the result was, that tired with flattery and admiration, wearied in mind and in body, she found languor and monotony in every festive scene. Poor child of earth! she struggled, oh how mournfully to be happy; and in these pitiful, wearisome strivings, the unsatisfactory days rolled heavily along. The void, the aching, the restless craving, grew deeper and deeper; health failed, temper failed; and not Hester alone, but those around her, reaped the bitter fruits of her unprofitable harvest. As to Mabel, Margaret was grieved to see her. In her wild passionate love for Hester, she would have died, might her death have brought balm to the bosom she would fain have sheltered from all life's storms; and Hester's incessant irritability, her moodiness, which bore a very strong approximation to sullenness, and her icy coldness, when wrapped in those trance-like fits of haughty reserve, were torture unspeakable to poor little Mabel. There were moments when Mabel was repaid for all this suffering; when Hester, tired and desponding, would cling confidingly to her alone, and pour into her sympathising ear the long recital of her endeavours, her disappointments, and her hopelessness. 176 THE WEARY WAYSIDE. Then, when Mabel could gently caress the lovely being who was her idol, and wipe away her tears, and try to cheer the burdened, drooping spirit with the promise of a brighter morrow, she was comparatively happy. Then Hester would keep Mabel near her night and day. Had she consented to take a walk or a drive with Margaret, Hester would say, "Stay with me, Mabel, I cannot do without you;" and little Mabel, who would have pledged herself never to stand again with nought between her and the blue sky, had Hester asked it of her, felt her heart beat joyfully at the knowledge of her being so requisite to her idol's happiness. But these green spots in Mabel Grahame's life grew more unfrequent; once lost sight of, there were long, dreary stretches of flowerless, treeless sands, hot and parched, in the journey of her young life. Had she not loved so deeply; had she not clung to Hester like ancient ivy to the ruin, she might have been very happy. Poor girl! the world had dealt hardly with her; she had found so few to love her, so little to love; and there were in her passionate heart such deep, mighty well-springs of overflowing affection. There were such inexhaustible treasures of devoted love in her chilled bosom; and how she longed, half unknowing that she did so, for some being, some precious object whereon to lavish this wealth of feeling. Hester came, in all her graceful, winning beauty; she took the poor lonely orphan to her heart; she made her the confidant of her sorrows, the sharer of her joys and hopes, and the companion of her social and GATHERING CLOUDS. 177 solitary hours. And now it seemed to Mabel that the love she had so treasured, so guarded, was melting away in her grasp; its bright hues were fading, its brilliancy was dimmed; it was growing cold and uncertain. She strove to be patient; she tried to cheer herself with the idea that this painful declension was not to last; but the clouds deepened; it was almost always darkness on Mabel's horizon, only now and then came a fleeting glimpse of the old golden sunshine. One morning Hester's manner to Mabel had been so painful, that Margaret resolved to speak with her sister on the subject when they were left alone-for Mabel, wounded in her most sensitive feelings, and stung to the quick by Hester's haughty, disdainful reply to her warm, gentle greeting, had gone to indulge her grief in solitude. Margaret fetched her work-box, and watched to see when Hester would be likely to listen to her representations. Lady Leslie was studying the leading article of the Times; she had taken strongly to politics of late, because, not long before, her husband, detained at home one day by trifling indisposition, had begun to discuss a certain bill then before the Commons, and finding that his wife was ignorant of its very name, he expressed his contempt of women and their ignorance, coupled with their perusal of senseless novels, so strongly, that poor Hester began in her heart to plan ways and means of reading through all the blue-books of the last twenty years. Diligent study of the parliamentary debates, political articles, N |