The Loyalists, Volumes 1-3 | Page 7

an obscure life of little usefulness to others,
and less enjoyment to myself. Among my privations I must rank that of
spending my days in unconnected solitude. Who will willingly share
the scant portion of bare sufficiency, or interweave their destiny with
the tangled web of my intricate fortunes? Would you plant a flourishing
eglantine under the blasted oak? Remove it from such a neighbourhood,
or the blessed rain passing through the blighted branches, will affect its
verdure with pestilent mildew, instead of cherishing it with wholesome
shade."
Some short time after this conversation, Mrs. Beaumont observed to
her husband that an extraordinary change had taken place in Isabel's
manners since Evellin had become a frequent visitor. "She very rarely
laughs," said she; "but that I do not wonder at, for the infection of his
melancholy has made us all grave; but she often, weeps. Then she is so

absent, that she cut out the frieze gowns for the alms-women too short,
and spoiled Mrs. Mellicent's eye-water. The tapestry chairs are thrown
aside, and she steals from us to the bower in the yew-tree that
overlooks the green, where she devotes her mornings to reading
Sydney's Arcadia. My dear Eusebius, I see her disease, for I recollect
my own behaviour when I was doubtful whether you preferred me; but
surely, if a connection with Evellin would involve our dear Isabel in
distress, ought I not to warn her of her danger in so disposing of her
heart?"
"I fear," replied the Doctor, "if your observations are correct, that the
caution would now come too late. Isabel is of an age to judge for
herself, and if she prefers a partner in whom high degrees of desert and
suffering seem united, ought her friends to interfere? If her own
feelings tell her that she considers personal merit as an equipoise to
adversity, shall we tell her that outward splendour constitutes intrinsic
greatness? I marvel not that Evellin interests my sister; he engages
most of my thoughts, and I have employed myself in collecting
instances of good men suffering wrongfully, and of the piety, humility,
and patience with which they endured chastening. These may be useful
to Evellin; if not, they will be so to ourselves whenever sorrow visits
our abode, as she is sure some time to do while she is travelling to and
fro on the earth."
Mrs. Beaumont acquiesced in her husband's opinion, and determined
that love should take its course, but it met with an opponent in the
person of Mrs. Mellicent Beaumont, who perhaps was not free from
those objections which elder sisters often entertain to the engagements
of the younger branches of the family, while they themselves write
spinster. She had now, however, a more colourable plea; the beauty of
Mrs. Isabel had attracted the notice of Sir William Waverly, and to see
her sister the lady of Waverly Park, roused that desire of pre-eminence
which, though absolutely foreign to the principles of Dr. Beaumont,
was not overlooked by all his family. She thought it became her to
lecture Isabel on her preference, and unwittingly confirmed it by
exhibiting, in opposition, two men of most dissimilar characters and
endowments; the one, brave, generous, enlightened, accomplished, but

unhappy; the other, lord of a vast demesne, but selfish, ignorant, scant
of courtesy, and proud of wealth. "Tell me not of Waverly Park," said
Mrs. Isabel, "I would sooner gather cresses by his lakes as a beggar,
than sail over them under a silken awning with him by my side as my
companion for life. His language, his ideas, his manners, differ from
those of our meanest rustics in no other way than that theirs is the
native simplicity which had no means of improvement, and his the
wilful grossness which rejected it when offered, resting satisfied in
what he received from his ancestors, without adding to it attainments
that would properly have been his own. I know not what Evellin has
been: clouds and storms hover over his future prospects. I see him only
as he is the chief among ten thousand, and one who suffers no
diminution even while conversing with our honoured brother; and I
should be prouder of allying him to our house than of changing this
silken braid for a golden coronet." Mrs. Mellicent, after some remarks
on the inconsiderate obstinacy of three and twenty, and the sure
repentance of head-strong people, withdrew her opposition, to be
renewed when the event should justify her predictions.
The lovers did not long rest in that unavowed consciousness which left
a shadow of doubt as to their reciprocal attachment. To Evellin's
declaration of unalterable love, Isabella answered, that she knew too
little of his situation to say whether she ought to be his, but her heart
told her she