CHAPTER XIV.
"Pardon the slowness of my visit, friend,
For such occasions have detained me hence
As, if thou knew'st, I know thou would'st excuse."
May.
The season was far advanced when Mr. Martindale came to town with his family. Lady Woodstock and her daughters made their appearance at the same time. Mr. Henderson's chapel was fuller than ever. All the world was flocking to hear him; and while he was exhorting his hearers to humility, his hearers were presenting to him the incense of adulation, and were flattering him into vanity with all their heart and with all their strength. This was not as it should be; but it was as it was, and as it ever will be.
Mr. Martindale was not much given to flattery; but he liked Mr. Henderson as being a kind-hearted and worthy man, who preached fine sermons not so much to gratify his own vanity as innocently to please fastidious ears. It was Mr. Martindale's habit, whenever he liked or approved any person or thing, to insist upon it that all his friends and acquaintance should like and approve the same; and if by any accident or caprice he changed his sentiments from liking to disliking, then he wondered that any one could have so little taste as to like or tolerate the same. This kind of despotism he exercised over all his acquaintance except Signora Rivolta, who rather governed him. But so it was that Signora Rivolta, notwithstanding her Catholic faith, did not unfrequently attend Mr. Henderson's chapel.
The day after Mr. Martindale arrived in town was Sunday; and on that day the old gentleman went to Mr. Henderson's chapel, and was accompanied by Clara. Markham was there also, and for the first time since his return to England had the pleasure of seeing Clara. Pleasant indeed we may hardly call it, excepting so far that it was agreeable to gaze upon a lovely good-humored countenance; but there were recollections and associations not altogether pleasant. There was also the mortification of seeing Clara attended by a young gentleman of great apparent assiduity of manners, who was on mighty good terms with himself, and looked as if he thought that he was on as good terms with the rest of the party. People ought not to stare about in church time, but they will; there is no preventing it. Even Mr. Henderson himself, who frequently expressed his sense of the impropriety of so doing, could not help, while his assistant was reading the prayers, looking at the door every time it was opened to see who was coming, especially if carriage-wheels were previously heard. We give this as a gentle hint to our readers, not that we think it will do much good; but if we were to refrain from giving good advice on the ground that it would not be taken, how mute would be the tongue of exhortation; and what a number of excellent moral treatises, which now issue from the press in various forms, would cease to delight their writers and profit their publishers! Besides, it is always worth while to give good advice, if it be only for the pleasure of thereby looking wiser and better than the rest of mankind; and if any evil arises from the neglect of it, how pleasant it is to say, "Did not I tell you so?"
How much Markham heard of Mr. Henderson's sermon on the morning when he first saw Clara at the chapel is not known, but we may take it for granted that it was not much. Nor was Miss Henderson quite so attentive as she should have been. Her eyes, and her thoughts too, wandered very much. She could not help feeling what she called some tender emotions at seeing Tippetson so very attentive to Clara; and she could not help feeling a little alarmed at observing the interest with which Markham gazed at the young lady, and the apparent jealousy with which she imagined that he also gazed at the young gentleman with her. Now it was very well both for Clara and Miss Henderson that the former did not recognise Markham, or there perhaps might have been in her countenance some indications of a feeling which Miss Henderson would not at all have approved of. It was very generous of Miss Henderson to make over to Clara one of her admirers, or more properly speaking her admireds; she could not possibly afford to give her another so soon. When service was over, Markham was moving almost instinctively and unconsciously to join Mr. Martindale's party; but Miss Henderson by some contrivance, most ingeniously detained him, and from that moment began to be somewhat jealous, and thought that it would be highly proper to contrive by some means to let him know, that after all the attentions which he had paid to her, it would not be handsome or generous to forsake her. Markham, totally unconscious and quite unsuspicious of all that was passing in Miss Henderson's mind, very placidly suffered himself to be engrossed by her, and very quietly and calmly walked home with her after church was over. As they were walking together, the young lady took the opportunity of sounding Mr. Markham on a very interesting topic.
"Are you at all acquainted, sir, with Mr. Martindale and his family?" inquired Miss Henderson.