The Three Brides | Page 2

wife rather than son and
mother. And though she knew she ought to wish for his marriage, she
could not but be secretly relieved that there were no symptoms of any
such went impending.
At last, during the first spring after Raymond Charnock Poynsett,
Esquire, had been elected member for the little borough of
Willansborough, his mother, while riding with her two youngest boys,
met with an accident so severe, that in two years she had never quitted
the morning-room, whither she had at first been carried. She was daily
lifted to a couch, but she could endure no further motion, though her
general health had become good, and her cheerfulness made her room
pleasant to her sons when the rest of the house was very dreary to them.
Raymond, always the home son, would never have absented himself
but for his parliamentary duties, and vibrated between London and
home, until, when his mother had settled into a condition that seemed
likely to be permanent, and his two youngest brothers were at home,
reading each for his examination, the one for a Government clerkship,
the other for the army, he yielded to the general recommendation, and
set out for a journey on the Continent.
A few weeks later came the electrifying news of his engagement to his
second cousin, Cecil Charnock. It was precisely the most obvious and
suitable of connections. She was the only child of the head of the
family of which his father had been a cadet, and there were
complications of inheritance thus happily disposed of. Mrs. Poynsett

had not seen her since her earliest childhood; but she was known to
have been educated with elaborate care, and had been taken to the
Continent as the completion of her education, and there Raymond had
met her, and sped so rapidly with his wooing, that he had been married
at Venice just four weeks previously.
Somewhat less recent was the wedding of the second son Commander
Miles Charnock. (The younger sons bore their patronymic alone.) His
ship had been stationed at the Cape and there, on a hunting expedition
up the country, he had been detained by a severe illness at a settler's
house; and this had resulted in his marrying the eldest daughter, Anne
Fraser. She had spent some months at Simon's Bay while his ship was
there, and when he found himself under orders for the eastern coast of
Africa, she would fain have awaited him at Glen Fraser; but he
preferred sending her home to fulfil the mission of daughterhood to his
own mother.
The passage had been long and unfavourable, and the consequences to
her had been so serious that when she landed she could not travel until
after a few days' rest.
The marriage of the third son had been a much greater surprise.
Compton Poynsett was not a family living; but the patron, hearing of
Julius Charnock as a hard-working curate in a distant seaport, wrote to
offer it to him; and the same letter to Mrs. Poynsett to offer it to him;
and the same letter to Mrs Poynsett which conveyed this gratifying
intelligence, also informed her of his having proposed to the daughter
of the commanding officer of the regiment stationed at the town where
lay his present charge. Her father enjoyed the barren honours of the
Earldom of Rathforlane, an unimprovable estate in a remote corner of
Ireland, burthened with successive families of numerous daughters, so
that he was forced to continue in the service, and the marriage had been
hastened by the embarkation of the regiment for India only two days
later. The Rectory had, however, been found in such a state of
dilapidation, that demolition was the only cure; and thus the Reverend
Julius and Lady Rosamond Charnock were to begin their married life in
the family home.

The two youngest sons, Francis and Charles, stood on the other side of
a gap made by the loss of two infants, and were only twenty-one and
nineteen. Frank had passed through Oxford with credit, and had been
promised a Government office; while Charles was intended for the
army; and both had been reading with a tutor who lived at
Willansborough, and was continually employed in cramming, being
reported of as the best 'coach' in the country. Charlie, however, had
passed a week previously, and was to repair to Sandhurst in another
fortnight.
At half-past four there was a light tap at Mrs. Poynsett's door, and
Charlie announced, "Here's the first, mother!" as he brought in a
gray-cloaked figure; and Mrs. Poynsett took a trembling hand, and
bestowed a kiss on a cheek which had languor and exhaustion in the
very touch.
"She was tired to death, mother," said Charlie, "so we did not wait for
the train."
"Quite right!"