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THE UNHOLY WISH.
I.
She was certainly a wondrously pretty girl (and she knew it), with her brown glossy ringlets, the damask colour on her cheeks, and her laughing eyes, dark as an April violet As to her figure, it was for ever being compared to all things that were light and beautiful, a sylph and the Venus di Medicis; but to those who had really seen Medicis's goddess, the former comparison appeared by far the more suitable.
But what a flirt she was! it spoilt all. Why, how many lovers had she numbered since they settled at Ebury? First, there was Mr. Grey, a handsome young fellow who came down for the shooting season; next followed young Campbell, an out-and-out flirt himself; then came the sentimental walks with that tall college chap, who was reading with the Reverend Mr. Tuck's curate—much reading he did, no wonder he got plucked in the Little Go; and now it was James Ailsa, the new assistant to the good old surgeon, Mr. Winninton. And all these, without reckoning Tom Hardwick, who had been her admirer, in an off-hand manner, all along! Go on—go on. Miss Emily Bell; have a try at all the hearts in the village, and see how many you can break.
Ebury, one of your highly aristocratic country places, never found out what Mr. Bell had been. All agreed he was "retired," but some said from stockbroking; others suggested pawnbroking; a few declared he had been an eminent solicitor; and that toping busybody, old, Dick Flockaway, insinuated that he might have kept a gin shop. However, as he was a companionable, gentlemanly sort of man, the village tacitly agreed to reject the liquor and lending businesses, and went to call upon them.
They took upon lease the pretty villa at the turning of the road, near to Beech Wood, and lived in very good style; nobody better, except the squire, whose large, handsome mansion was half filled with dependents; grooms, gamekeepers, horses, dogs, and the like—who were eating him up. The callers found Mrs. Bell a delicate, quiet woman, her ill health having been their chief inducement to change their London residence for a country one; and Miss Emily, the eldest of six children, one to be very much admired.
It was a great pity James Ailsa fell so madly in love with her the moment he came. He was told to beware of her blandishments, and how she would serve him; how many she had loved, or professed to love; but the warning came too late. Besides,. he did not believe it: to him she seemed an angel upon earth : and they might have talked him deaf ere he would credit aught against her. So they left him to his fate and to the seductions of Miss Bell. It could have been only for amusement that Emily began the flirtation: he was a quiet, gentlemanly man, attractive in person and manners; but as to anything serious, his position, with her high notions, would forbid that—a surgeon's assistant, and without prospects. It was understood he had no money, and was quite friendless; so many, Tom Hardwick especially, were fond of cutting their jokes at him.
Mr. Tom Hardwick (half the village wrote it Hardick, according to its
