The Twins | Page 2

came the furlough's end: Mr. Tracy, in his then habitual
reserve (a quiet man was he), had concealed its existence altogether:
and, for aught Jane knew, the hearty invalid was to remain at home for
ever: but months soon slip away; and so it came to pass, that on a
certain next Wednesday he must be on his way back to the Presidency
of Madras, and--if she will not follow him--he must leave her.
However, there was a certain old relative, one Mrs. Green, a childless
widow--rich, capricious, and infirm--whom Jane Tracy did not wish to
lose sight of: her money was well worth both watching and waiting for;
and the captain, whom a lucky chance had now lifted out of the
lieutenancy, was easily persuaded to forego the pleasure of his wife's
company till the somewhat indefinite period of her old aunt's death.
How far sundry discoveries made in the unknown regions of each
other's temper reconciled him to this retrograding bachelorship, and her
to her widowhood-bewitched, I will not undertake to say: but I will
hazard the remark, anti-poor-law though it seemeth, that the separation
of man and wife, however convenient, lucrative, or even mutually
pleasant, is a dereliction of duty, which always deserves, and generally
meets, its proper and discriminative punishment. Had the young wife
faithfully performed her Maker's bidding, and left all other ties
unstrung to cleave unto her lord; had she considered a husband's true

affections before all other wealth, and resolved to share his dangers, to
solace his cares, to be his blessing through life, and his partner even
unto death, rather than selfishly to seek her own comfort, and consult
her own interest--the tale of crime and sadness, which it is my lot to tell,
would never have had truth for its foundation.
Ill-matched for happiness though they were, however well-matched as
to mutual merit, the common man of pleasure and the frivolous woman
of fashion, still the wisest way to fuse their minds to union, the likeliest
receipt for moral good and social comfort, would have been this course
of foreign scenes, of new faces, sprinkled with a seasoning of adventure,
hardship, danger, in a distant land. Gradually would they have learned
to bear and forbear; the petty quarrel would have been forgotten in the
frequent kindness; the rougher edges of temper and opinion would
insensibly have smoothed away; new circumstances would have
brought out better feelings under happier skies; old acquaintances, false
friends forgotten, would have neutralized old feuds: and, by long-living
together, though it were perhaps amid various worries and many cares,
they might still have come to a good old age with more than average
happiness, and more than the common run of love. Patience in dutiful
enduring brings a sure reward: and marriage, however irksome a
constraint to the foolish and the gay, is still so wise an ordinance, that
the most ill-assorted couple imaginable will unconsciously grow happy,
if they only remain true to one another, and will learn the wisdom
always to hope and often to forgive.
The Tracys, however, overlooked all this, and mutual friends (those
invariable foes to all that is generous and unworldly) smiled upon the
prudence of their temporary separation. The captain was to come home
again on furlough in five years at furthest, even if the aunt held out so
long; and this availed to keep his wife in the rear-guard; therefore, Mrs.
Tracy wiped her eyes, bade adieu to her retreating lord in Plymouth
Sound, and determined to abide, with other expectant dames and
Asiatic invalided heroes, at Burleigh-Singleton, until she might go to
him, or he return to her: for pleasant little Burleigh, besides its
contiguity to arriving Indiamen, was advantageous as being the
dwelling-place of aforesaid Mrs. Green;--that wealthy, widowed aunt,

devoutly wished in heaven: and the considerate old soul had offered her
designing niece a home with her till Tracy could come back.
During the first year of absence, ship-letters and India-letters arrived
duteously in consecutive succession: but somehow or other, the regular
post, in no long time afterwards, became unfaithful to its trust; and if
Mrs. Jane heard quarterly, which at any rate she did through the agent,
when he remitted her allowance, she consoled herself as to the captain's
well-being: in due course of things, even this became irregular; he was
far up the country, hunting, fighting, surveying, and what not; and no
wonder that letters, if written at all, which I rather doubt, got lost. Then
there came a long period of positive and protracted silence--months of
it--years of it; barring that her checks for cash were honoured still at
Hancock's, though they could tell her nothing of her lord; so that Mrs.
Tracy was at length seriously recommended by her friends to become a
widow;