"You are too metaphysical for me, Mary;" and he would fain have smiled.

"I want you to be hopeful. Half the object would be attained if you were, and he really deserves that you should."

"He will not let me. If I hope at one moment, I am disappointed the next."

"And how? By nothing worse than boyishness. You confirm what my aunt tells me, that there has never been a serious complaint of him."

"Never. His conduct has always been blameless; but every tutor has said the same--that he has no application, and allows himself to be surpa.s.sed by any one of moderate energy!"

"Blameless conduct! How many fathers would give worlds to be able to give such a character of a son!"

"There are faults that are the very indications of a manly spirit,"

began the Earl, impatiently. "Not that I mean that I wish--he has never given me any trouble--but just look at James Frost, and you would see what I mean! There"s energy in him--fire--independence; you feel there is substance in him, and like him the better for having a will and way of his own."

"So, I think, has Louis; but it is so often thwarted, that it sinks away under the sense of duty and submission."

"If there were any consistency or reason in his fancies, they would not give way so easily; but it is all talk, all extravagant notions--here one day, gone the next. Not a spark of ambition!"

"Ambition is not so safe a spark that we should wish to see it lighted."

"A man must wish to see his son hold his proper station, and aim high!

No one can be satisfied to see him a trifler."

"I have been trying to find out why he trifles. As far as I can see, he has no ambition, and I do not think his turn will be for a life like yours. His bent is towards what is to do good to others. He would make an admirable country gentleman."

"A mere farmer, idling away his time in his fields."

"No; doing infinite good by example and influence, and coming forward whenever duty required it. Depend upon it, the benefit to others is the impulse which can work on Louis, not personal ambition. Birth has already given him more than he values."

"You may be right," said Lord Ormersfield, "but it is hard to see so many advantages thrown away, and what sometimes seems like so much ability wasted. But who can tell? he is never the same for an hour together."

"May it not be for want of a sphere of wholesome action?"

"He is not fit for it, Mary. You know I resolved that the whole burthen of our losses should fall on me; I made it my object that he should not suffer, and should freely have whatever I had at the same age. Everything is cleared at last. I could give him the same income as I started in life with; but he is so reckless of money, that I cannot feel justified in putting it into his hands. Say what I will, not a vacation occurs but he comes to tell me of some paltry debt of ten or fifteen pounds."

"He comes to tell you! Nay, never say he has no resolution! Such debts as those, what are they compared with other young men"s, of which they do not tell their fathers?"

"If he were like other youths, I should know how to deal with him. But you agree with me, he is not fit to have a larger sum in his hands."

"Perhaps not; he is too impulsive and inexperienced. If you were to ask me how to make it conduce to his happiness, I should say, lay out more on the estate, so as to employ more men, and make improvements in which he would take interest."

"I cannot make him care for the estate. Last winter, when he came of age, I tried to explain the state of affairs; but he was utterly indifferent--would not trouble himself to understand the papers he was to sign, and made me quite ashamed of such an exhibition before Richardson."

"I wish I could defend him! And yet--you will think me unreasonable, but I do believe that if he had thought the welfare of others was concerned, he would have attended more."

"Umph!"

"I am not sure that it is not his good qualities that make him so hard to deal with. The want of selfishness and vanity seem to take away two common springs of action, but I do believe that patience will bring out something much higher when you have found the way to reach it."

"That I certainly have not, if it be there!"

"To cultivate his sympathies with you," said Mrs. Ponsonby, hesitating, and not venturing to look into his face.

"Enough, Mary," he said, hastily. You said the like to me once before."

"But," said Mrs. Ponsonby, firmly, "_here_ there is a foundation to work on. There are affections that only need to be drawn out to make you happy, and him--not, perhaps, what you now wish, but better than you wish."

His face had become hard as he answered, "Thank you, Mary; you have always meant the best. You have always been kind to me, and to all belonging to me."

Her heart ached for the father and son, understanding each other so little, and paining each other so much, and she feared that the Earl"s mind had been too much cramped, and his feelings too much chilled, for such softening on his part as could alone, as it seemed, prevent Louis from being estranged, and left to his naturally fickle and indolent disposition.

Mary had in the mean time completed her copies, and left them on the Earl"s table; and wishing neither to be thanked nor contrasted with Louis, she put on her bonnet, to go in search of Aunt Catharine. Not finding her in the garden, she decided on visiting old Gervas and his wife, who had gladly caught at her offer of reading to them. The visit over, she returned by the favourite path above Ferny dell, gathering primroses, and meditating how to stir up Louis to finish off his rocky steps, and make one piece of work complete. She paused at the summit of them, and was much inclined to descend and examine what was wanting, when she started at hearing a rustling beneath, then a low moan and an attempt at a call. The bushes and a projecting rock cut off her view; but, in some trepidation, she called out, "Is any one there?" Little did she expect the answer--

"It is I--Fitzjocelyn. Come!--I have had a fall."

"I"m coming--are you hurt?" she cried, as with shaking limbs she prepared to begin the descent.

"Not that way," he called; "it gave way--go to the left."

She was almost disobeying; but, recalling herself to thought, she hurried along the top till the bank became practicable, and tore her way through brake and brier, till she could return along the side of the stream.

Horror-struck, she perceived that a heavy stone had given way and rolled down, bearing Louis with it, to the bottom, where he lay, ghastly and helpless. She called to him; and he tried to raise himself, but sank back. "Mary! is it you? I thought I should have died here," he said; as she knelt by him, exclaiming, "Oh, Louis!

Louis! what a dreadful fall!"

"It is my fault," he eagerly interrupted. "I am glad it has happened to no one else."

"And you are terribly hurt! I must go for help! but what can I do for you? Would you like some water?

"Water! Oh! I have heard it all this time gurgling there!"

She filled his cap, and bathed his face, apparently to his great relief, and she ventured to ask if he had been long there.

"Very long!" he said. "I must have fainted after I got the stone off my foot, so I missed Gervas going by. I thought no one else would come near. Thank G.o.d!"

Mary almost grew sick as she saw how dreadfully his left ankle had been crushed by a heavy stone; and her very turning towards it made him shudder, and say, "Don"t touch me! I am shattered all over."

"I am afraid I should only hurt you," she said, with difficulty controlling herself. "I had better fetch some one."

He did not know how to be left again; but the damp chilliness of his hands made her the more anxious to procure a.s.sistance, and, after spreading her shawl over him, she made the utmost speed out of the thicket. As she emerged, she saw Lord Ormersfield riding with his groom, and her scream and sign arrested him; but, by the time they met, she could utter nothing but "Louis!"

"Another accident!" was the almost impatient answer.

"He is dreadfully hurt!" she said, sobbing and breathless. "His foot is crushed! He has been there this hour!"

The alarm was indeed given. The Earl seemed about to rush away without knowing whither; and she had absolutely to withhold him, while, summoning her faculties, she gave directions to Poynings. Then she let him draw her on, too fast for speaking, until they reached the spot where Louis lay, so spent with pain and cold, that he barely opened his eyes at their voices, made no distinct answers as to his hurts, and shrank and moaned when his father would have raised him.

Mary contrived to place his head on her lap, bathed his forehead and chafed his hands, while Lord Ormersfield stood watching him with looks of misery, or paced about, anxiously looking for the servants.

They came at last, all too soon for poor Louis, who suffered terribly in the transport, and gave few tokens of consciousness, except a cry now and then extorted by a rougher movement.