Patience by Barbara Hofland (ebook offline reader .TXT) đ
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last till our decay, and console us in some measure for those which,
though sweeter and stronger, are too often rent asunder by vice, or worn
out by indifference.
Mrs. Aylmer had always been so much beloved by Frank, that she was
immediately admitted to his room with less than the usual interdict; and
as he was by degrees permitted to speak, she enquired very naturally
âwhat had been the cause of an attack so unexpected, and so contrary to
the hopes of his friends.â Frank shook his head, but never replied; and
when he perceived she thought he had been blameable in using improper
exertion, he looked satisfied and relievedâthe feelings of the wife at
these moments were agitating to the last degree; the more of
Stancliffeâs faults were inevitably exposed, the more she sought to veil
the rest, yet how difficult was it to forbear thanking Frank, and in the
very expression of her grateful overflowing heart, endangering the
existence which hung on so fine a fibre.
More than a month had passed, and not a single line had been received
from Stancliffe, proof decisive of his guilt, and also of his shame,
since policy alone would have dictated enquiries after one with whom he
was so nearly connected. The silence was broken by a letter received by
Mr. Hazlewood, his principal clerk, which was as follows.
Sir,
I am requested to inform you, that in consequence of a
meeting which took place between Mr. Stancliffe and
lieutenant Grainger, the former lies extremely ill, he having
received a wound in the shoulder, by which he has lost much
blood, and is exceedingly reduced. He wishes his lady to be
informed of this circumstance in the manner you judge best,
and that she be earnestly requested to come to his
assistance, bringing with her a sum of money adequate to the
case.
I am, &c. &c.
J. EUSTACE,
Surgeon, &c. &c.
The contents of this letter were first made known to Harriett, who,
although shocked at the circumstance, had no idea that her sister could
feel sympathy in the degree a wife, however treated, was sure to
experience in such a case; she therefore ventured, after a short
preamble, to place the letter in her hands.
But scarcely had Dora cast her eyes over it when the light forsook them,
her head swam, and she would have fallen but for immediate assistance.
She was conveyed to a sofa, and a flood of tears came to her
reliefâafter which, she sat silent in deep rumination, uninterrupted by
those around, who beheld with true commiseration, a heart so tender and
so patient pierced with so many sorrows.
âPray keep this sad news from Frank,â was the first word Dora uttered,
and she was going to give further orders when Mr. Blackwell was
announced, and in another moment, to her increased dismay, he stood
before her.
Unable to speak, she again sunk back, pale and trembling, and Harriett
observed, âthat her sister was extremely unwell, and unequal to
receiving a stranger.â
âBut not to receiving a friend,â said the old man, sitting down by
her, with a look of pity that relaxed his hard features into gentleness.
âYou are indeed a friend,â said Dora, as she again respired freely, and
wiped away the tears which would flow perforceââyou are come to enquire
after our dear Francis.â
âNo, I am now come to enquire after his sister; for I am well aware he
is under the best hands, and although unfit to see me, yet not unfit
to bear the change I propose, which is that of removing him into the
house opposite, which I have taken for that purpose.â
âI am glad of that,â said Harriett, eagerly;ââI was born in this house,
but I hate it nowâStancliffe has made me loathe it.â
Dora looked up reproachingly to her sister, and Mr. Blackwell resuming
his usual manner, said, âYou, maâam, surely can have no wish to remain
here? what has it afforded you, save unkindness, ingratitude, want, and
misery?â
âAlas!â said Dora, with a deep sigh, âsorrow is to be found every
where;âI shall certainly be glad to have my brother removed, (provided
Mrs. Aylmer goes with him, and she will not refuse us,)âas for myself,
I have another destination.ââ
As Dora spoke the last words, she placed the letter from Dublin in Mr.
Blackwellâs hands, who scarcely cast his eye over it when he exclaimed,
âAll this I knowâthe wretched girl who is the companion of his flight,
(believing him to be Frank, a single man, and the one to whom she had
been taught to look up) on discovering who he was, wrote to her mother
in extreme distress, a few days ago. Yesterday another letter arrived,
to tell of the duel, which was entirely of Stancliffeâs provoking, and
for which he is properly punished by a severe though not dangerous
wound.â
âHis conduct in this elopement,â continued Mr. Blackwell, âgives you a
happy opportunity legally to emancipate yourself from worse than
Egyptian bondage, and I come as your guardian to take you under my
protection, and to prosecute your claims, which I can in fact do better
than your own father, of whose concurrence we can have no possible
doubt, but whose situation as Stancliffeâs partner might have
embarrassed him.â
âPart from him for everâdivorce himâmake myself his prosecutorâexpose
himâruin him?âoh! never, never, never.â
The wild agony with which Dora uttered these words alarmed her friends,
and Mrs. Aylmer, who had heard all in silence, approaching her, said,
âDo not terrify yourself in this manner, Dora, you shall do none of
these things, but you will leave for ever a wicked man who is unworthy
of you, and with whom you have suffered more than is necessary to advert
to:â-he has in fact divorced you, he has abandoned you, deserted
you.â
Dora wept in agony.
âBut God has not deserted you, he gives you a mother who has never
forsaken you; and with a bleeding anxious heart, has long watched over
you, though at a distanceâand a friend, who will be more than your
father has ever been.â
âI know all your goodnessâI know, too, that I love you, my more than
mother, better than any human being:âbut my husband is in great
distress, he desires to see me, he is doubtless afflicted and
repentantâI cannot refuse to comfort and aid him.â
âHe suffers justlyâlet him drink of the cup he has dealt so freely;â
said Mr. Blackwell.
âAh!â exclaimed Dora, âbut if we were all so dealt by, what would become
of us? Our blessed Lord came down to call sinners to repentance; to die,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God;âought not I,
then, as his disciple, to bear a little longer with the man to whom I
have promised obedience, and who now invites me to perform my
duty?âought I not to forgive even seventy times seven offences, if
there is hope that I may save him, as there is now?â
âDora,â said Mr. Blackwell, in a firm but mild voice, âyour motives are
as pure as your conduct is without fault, but your judgment is
wrongâyou have adopted ideas neither scripture nor reason justify; for
though they call for the rational submission and proper obedience of a
wife to her husband, it is under the idea that his power is exercised in
wisdom and loveâif a man acts as if devoid of either, he compels the
woman to become her own guardian, and exercise her own judgment, upon
those points which concern her happiness. Such has long been your case,
and I am fully persuaded, that had Stancliffe been married to a high
spirited woman, who would have conceded his rights, yet have asserted
her own, he never would have played the fool as he has doneâyour
self-denying economy made him extravagant and avaricious,âyour
abilities and exertions plunged him in indolence, and from that very
circumstance he became a gambler, because, though idle, his mind was
activeâhis violent temper increased from your submission, and he played
the tiger because a lamb was always near him;ânaturally selfish, and
having no principle of religious self-controul from within, he
certainly required some coercive operation from without, which (since
the death of his father, and in the absence of yours) you should have
endeavoured to supply, as many women do.â
âAh!â cried Mrs. Aylmer, âwhat could a girl so young, so timid, and so
affectionate, exact?â
âNot that, madam, which your sex are too apt to seek, power, but
justiceâthe right to be treated with the kindness due to a faithful
wife, the consideration and respect claimed by a gentlewoman. When these
are not accorded, what is a wife but a servant without wages? a slave,
whose bondage death or infamy alone can loosen?â
âThe violent should be met by violenceâthe ungenerous overbearing
spirit, repelled by its own weapons; but gentle and meek as Doraâs
temper has ever been, she is too high-minded to descend to the language
of a scolding vixen, or the wheedling of a cunning coaxerâshe used
perseveringly the only arms her nature, and her principles as a
Christian, permitted, long-suffering, patience, forgetfulness of injury,
and cheerful complianceâwhat could she do more?â said Mrs. Aylmer.
âNothing, madam, to win a generous mind, even if subject to many
errors; but Stancliffe was not of that description, except by fits
and starts:âwith considerable abilities, and occasionally good
propensities, and the promise of virtue, he has been ever unsteady,
volatile, and inconstant, in pursuit either of good or evil, shewing
a singular deficiency in that property in which his wife
excelled.ââUnstable as water, thou shalt not excel,â says the
patriarch; and when she saw this disposition, ought she not to have
opposed it by every possible means; and engrafted her own mild
firmness on his irresolution, her endurance on his?ââ
âImpossible, sirâman will not be taught by woman; ask your own heart,
Mr. Blackwell!â
âI am a bachelor, madam, and not one of the initiated, I confess; and
the reply my heart makes, would be to own myself a stubborn subjectânor
can I say that I should wish my daughter to stoop to conduct unworthy of
herself, in order to manage her husband; yet when I look round the
world, and see women every way far inferior to Dora, preserve spouses
originally inferior to Stancliffe also, without suffering the open
injuries, or the secret miseries which have afflicted her, how can I
help concluding that she has âloved not wisely, but too well?â and that
suffering martyrdom with the patience of a saint, is not the way to
reform a sinner.â
âYou are right, sir,â said Dora, slowly, as under the influence of full
conviction, âperfectly rightâpoor Stancliffeâs mind, ruined by
excessive indulgence in childhood, and the unhappy liberty given to his
youth by a residence abroad, required a very different helpmate to what
I have been. Alas! I have injured whilst I sought to bless himâGod
forbid that I should forsake him now he is sunk in the abyss where my
weakness and blindness have helped to plunge himâoh! no.â
As Dora spoke, she rose from the sofa, assuming a strength she was far
from feeling, and indicating by the action as well as by her words, her
intention of going to Stancliffe. As nothing could be farther from Mr.
Blackwellâs intention than to increase the bias of her mind this way, he
now began strongly to descant on the faults of Stancliffe towards her
and others, and insist on the folly, madness, indelicacy, and even
wickedness, of again, by
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