It was on one of these visits, when we were seated round the fire,
conversing agreeably--the rector was relating some amusing anecdote, to
which we were all listening attentively, the rector himself laughing at
his own story--when suddenly we noticed that he stopped short in the
middle of his laughing, turned pale, and rose from his chair. The cause of this sudden change immediately became apparent to us all. There, immediately behind the chair of Claribel, who had been listening
attentively to the rector, with her chin resting on her hand, was her
double in exactly the same position, with its eyes fixed intently on the
rector's face. The rector having started to his feet, assumed a tone
and manner which he in vain strove to render firm, and conjured the
figure in the name of the Holy Trinity, if it were a thing of evil, to
come out of her and trouble her no more; but his exorcism fell as upon
the wind, the spectre apparently not hearing his words, and departing at
its leisure some two or three minutes afterwards, appearing again once
or twice in the same evening during the rector's visit. The following Sunday prayers were read publicly in the church, with the
view of dispelling the evil spirit, as it was called, and mention of the
phenomenon was made in the rector's sermon, but all to no purpose. The
spectre would appear and disappear whenever it chose, its coming being
never heralded by any particular signs, and its vanishing just as
uncertain. If anyone particularly wished it to appear, it was as if the spectre
took a malicious delight in disappointing them; if, on the other hand,
its presence was exceedingly undesirable, it would be almost certain to
appear. Of the numerous admirers of Claribel it will be necessary for me only to
mention two. The first was one John Archer, an ardent and virtuous
youth, aged twenty-one, whose honest English face revealed the sincerity
of his heart. He held the post of gamekeeper on the estate of Lord
Edgedown. He was bold and generous, but of a nature so bashful and timid
in matters regarding our sex, that he would have allowed himself to be
cut out in a love affair by a man not possessing one half his merit or
his good looks. As my father was on good terms with the father of John Archer, John was
always a welcome visitor at our house, and thus began his acquaintance
with Claribel. I really think if he had persisted in his suit, as a more
courageous lover would have done, that he must at last have won the love
of Claribel. I know that Claribel had the highest esteem for him, and
had learnt to sympathise with him as one noble nature sympathises with
another. They grew to treat each other as brother and sister, but this was all. The other lover was a totally different sort of man. Richard de Chevron
was a scion of a noble house, had received the education of a gentleman,
and could mix in the highest society; but he was debauched, profligate,
a gamester, and a drunkard, of a mean and spiteful disposition, with
nothing noble whatever in his character and not even good looking, but
he had that persistency in wooing which John lacked, added to a very
smooth tongue and plentiful flow of language. Neither was he quite
without accomplishments; he could both play and sing well, and dance to
perfection; qualities which might have won the heart of a less austere
maiden than my friend Claribel. But Claribel retired, as she was, in
disposition and a perfect dunce in that education which mixing in the
world gives, had yet by nature, by way of compensation, such a
marvellously acute perception of human character, that it bordered on
the prophetic in many instances. In a word, she was a physiognomist. On seeing Richard de Chevron for the first time, she had taken an
instant aversion to him, without ever having heard anything against his
character, and though De Chevron tried hard to dispel the sinister
impression with which he could not fail to observe he had inspired
her--and I must own that he did his best--yet that impression never left
her, but, on the contrary, deepened after every visit. Now, Richard de Chevron was nephew to Lord Edgedown, and heir-apparent
to that earl's fortune and estates; at least, he often used to hint as
much, but this was evidently more brag, as he was a younger son, and was
known to be no particular favourite with his uncle on account of his
dissipated habits. He had also the hopes of coming in for another
fortune, so he said; that of Squire Broadacre, a relative on his
mother's side, whose estate joined that of Lord Edgedown's; but whether
all this were true or not, it made not the slightest difference to
Claribel in her estimation of the man. She still saw in him a low,
debauched, false, and perjured villain, seeking to hide under a mask of
studied courtesy the evil promptings of his reptile heart. Even had De Chevron succeeded in making Claribel marry him, such a match
could have brought nothing but misery to her, even from a pecuniary
point of view, for at the time we knew him he had not a penny of his
own, and was, besides, head over ears in debt. Men of the De Chevron class do not often mean marriage when they go
a-courting, unless it happens to be particularly to their interest. What
they want is a fortune, and not a wife. If the former can be had without
the latter, why so much the better; if not, they are content to put up
with the latter incumbrance for the sake of being able to pay off their
debts. Now, poor Claribel was an orphan, without a penny in the world. What
good could his attentions bode the poor child? Claribel, however, was
not mercenary, and had she been capable of loving any man, she would
have been contented to live on a crust, and to have worked hard for it;
but she appeared not to be destined for earthly affection. The nearest
approach she ever made towards that passion commonly called love was the
deep friendship she had entertained for the youthful gamekeeper. Now, to meet with a rival in the person of his uncle's gamekeeper was
gall and wormwood to Richard de Chevron. He knew that John Archer was a
young man of trust who received a good salary, and was of a rank nearer
to that of Claribel's than his own was, and his attentions would be more
readily looked upon as earnest. Besides, John was good looking and noble, and had it not been for his
excessive modesty in coming forward, would have been the very man of all
men most likely to ensure the love of such a girl as Claribel. The
intentions of De Chevron were not honourable, whatever his protestations
might have made them out. He could not afford to marry Claribel, nor
did he ever for a moment meditate such a thing. Had an intimate friend asked him in confidence if he really entertained
thoughts of marriage towards the girl he so ardently professed to love,
he would have burst out laughing in his face, and asked him if he took
him for a fool.