'Lady Ashton,' stammered the Keeper, 'this is intolerable; and when I am desirous, too, to make you easy by any sacrifice, if you would but tell me what you would be at.'
'Go down to your guests,' said the imperious dame, 'and make your apology to Ravenswood, that the arrival of Captain Craigengelt and some other friends renders it impossible for you to offer him lodgings at the castle. I expect young Mr. Hayston of Bucklaw.'
'Good heavens, madam!' ejaculated her husband. 'Ravenswood to give place to Craigengelt, a common gambler and an informer! It was all I could do to forbear desiring the fellow to get out of my house, and I was much surprised to see him in your ladyship's train.'
'Since you saw him there, you might be well assured,' answered this meek helpmate, 'that he was proper society. As to this Ravenswood, he only meets with the treatment which, to my certain knowledge, he gave to a much-valued friend of mine, who had the misfortune to be his guest some time since. But take your resolution; for, if Ravenswood does not quit the house, I will.'
Sir William Ashton paced up and down the apartment in the most distressing agitation; fear, and shame, and anger contending against the habitual deference he was in the use of rendering to his lady. At length it ended, as is usual with timid minds placed in such circumstances, in his adopting a mezzo termine—a middle measure.
'I tell you frankly, madam, I neither can nor will be guilty of the incivility you propose to the Master of Ravenswood; he has not deserved it at my hand. If you will be so unreasonable as to insult a man of quality under your own roof, I cannot prevent you; but I will not at least be the agent in such a preposterous proceeding.'
'You will not?' asked the lady.
'No, by heavens, madam!' her husband replied; 'ask me anything congruent with common decency, as to drop his acquaintance by degrees, or the like; but to bid him leave my house is what I will nto and cannot consent to.'
'Then the task of supporting the honour of the family will fall on me, as it has often done before,' said the lady.
She sat down, and hastily wrote a few lines. The Lord Keeper made another effort to prevent her taking a step so decisive, just as she opened the door to call her female attendant from the ante-room. 'Think what you are doing, Lady Ashton: you are making a mortal enemy of a young man who is like to have the means of harming us——'
'Did you ever know a Douglas who feared an enemy?' answered the lady, contemptuously.
'Ay, but he is as proud and vindictive as an hundred Douglasses, and an hundred devils to boot. Think of it for a night only.'
'Not for another moment,' answered the lady. 'Here, Mrs. Patullo, give this billet to young Ravenswood.'
'To the Master, madam!' said Mrs. Patullo.
'Ay, to the Master, if you call him so.'
'I wash my hands of it entirely,' said the Keeper; 'and I shall go down into the garden, and see that Jardine gathers the winter fruit for the dessert.'
'Do so,' said the lady, looking after him with glances of infinite contempt; 'and thank God that you leave one behind you as fit to protect the honour of the family as you are to look after pippins and pears.'
The Lord Keeper remained long enough in the garden to give her ladyship's mind time to explode, and to let, as he thought, at least the first violence of Ravenswood's displeasure blow over. When he entered the hall, he found the Marquis of A—— giving orders to some of his attendants. He seemed in high displeasure, and interrupted an apology which Sir William had commenced for having left his lordship alone.
'I presume, Sir William, you are no stranger to this singular billet with which MY kinsman of Ravenswood (an emphasis on the word 'my') has been favoured by your lady; and, of course, that you are prepared to receive my adieus. My kinsman is already gone, having thought it unnecessary to offer any on his part, since all former civilities had been cancelled by this singular insult.'
'I protest, my lord,' said Sir William, holding the billet in his hand, 'I am not privy to the contents of this letter. I know Lady Ashton is a warm-tempered and prejudiced woman, and I am sincerely sorry for any offence that has been given or taken; but I hope your lordship will consider that a lady——'
'Should bear herself towards persons of a certain rank with the breeding of one,' said the Marquis, completing the half-uttered sentence.
'True, my lord,' said the unfortunate Keeper; 'but Lady Ashton is still a woman——'
'And, as such, methinks,' said the Marquis, again interrupting him, 'should be taught the duties which correspond to her station. But here she comes, and I will learn from her own mouth the reason of this extraordinary and unexpected affront offered to my near relation, while both he and I were her ladyship's guests.'
Lady Ashton accordingly entered the apartment at this moment. Her dispute with Sir William, and a subsequent interview with her daughter, had not prevented her from attending to the duties of her toilette. She appeared in full dress; and, from the character of her countenance and manner, well became the splendour with which ladies of quality then appeared on such occasions.
The Marquis of A—— bowed haughtily, and she returned the salute with equal pride and distance of demeanour. He then took from the passive hand of Sir William Ashton the billet he had given him the moment before he approached the lady, and was about to speak, when she interrupted him. 'I perceive, my lord, you are about to enter upon an unpleasant subject. I am sorry any such should have occurred at this time, to interrupt in the slightest degree the respectful reception due to your lordship; but so it is. Mr. Edgar Ravenswood, for whom I have addressed the billet in your lordship's hand, has abused the hospitality of this family, and Sir William Ashton's softness of temper, in order to seduce a young person into engagements without her parents' consent, and of which they never can approve.'
Both gentlemen answered at once. 'My kinsman is incapable——' said the Lord Marquis.
'I am confident that my daughter Lucy is still more incapable——' said the Lord Keeper.
Lady Ashton at once interrupted and replied to them both: 'My Lord Marquis, your kinsman, if Mr. Ravenswood has the honour to be so, has made the attempt privately to secure the affections of this young and inexperienced girl. Sir William Ashton, your daughter has been simple enough to give more encouragement than she ought to have done to so very improper a suitor.'
'And I think, madam,' said the Lord Keeper, losing his accustomed temper and patience, 'that if you had nothing better to tell us, you had better have kept this family secret to yourself also.'
'You will pardon me, Sir William,' said the lady, calmly; 'the noble Marquis has a right to know the cause of the treatment I have found it necessary to use to a gentleman whom he calls his blood-relation.'
'It is a cause,' muttered the Lord Keeper, 'which has emerged since the effect has taken place; for, if it exists at all, I am sure she knew nothing of it when her letter to Ravenswood was written.'
'It is the first time that I have heard of this,' said the Marquis; 'but, since your ladyship has tabled a subject so delicate, permit me to say, that my kinsman's birth and connexions entitled him to a patient hearing, and at least a civil refusal, even in case of his being so ambitious as to raise his eyes to the daughter of Sir William Ashton.'
'You will recollect, my lord, of what blood Miss Lucy Ashton is come by the mother's side,' said the lady.
'I do remember your descent—from a younger branch of the house of Angus,' said the Marquis; 'and your ladyship—forgive me, lady—ought not to forget that the Ravenswoods have thrice intermarried with the main stem. Come, madam, I know how matters stand—old and long-fostered prejudices are difficult to get over, I make every allowance for them; I ought not, and I would not, otherwise have suffered my kinsman to depart alone, expelled, in a manner, from this house, but I had hopes of being a mediator. I am still unwilling to leave you in anger, and shall not set forward till after noon, as I rejoin the Master of Ravenswood upon the road a few miles from hence. Let us talk over this matter more coolly.'
'It is what I anxiously desire, my lord,' said Sir William Ashton, eagerly. 'Lady Ashton, we will not permit my Lord of A—— to leave us in displeasure. We must compel him to tarry dinner at the castle.'
'The castle,' said the lady, 'and all that it contains, are at the command of the Marquis, so long as he chooses to honour it with his residence; but touching the farther discussion of this disagreeable topic——'
