CHAPTER XII. Practised to lisp and hang the head aside.-POPE. LADY SEAGROVE had been so long habituated to the society and flattery of Miss Trimmer, that that society and flattery had grown absolutely necessary to her. It was, therefore, with much pleasure that she found herself on the evening of her favourite's return, after nearly a fortnight's absence, seated on a sofa in her dressing-room, to enjoy half an hour's tête-à-tête before retiring to rest. "You cannot think how I missed you, my dear Wilhelmina,” she said. "It is very kind of your ladythip to thay tho," returned Miss Trimmer, "for indeed I could hardly flatter mythelf I thould be mithed; the time theemth to have pathed tho agreeably during my abthenth.” "Why, certainly Captain Wentworth has made us miss you less than we should have done; though "Oh yeth! thertainly; I do not wonder that you like Captain Wentworth; he ith a very thuperior young man, and I wath dithtrethed to be away tho much of hith vithit. Hath Thir Robert been here often whiltht I wath out?" "He has not called once, which is very extraordinary; and he has refused two or three invitations to dinner. I hope nothing has affronted him." "No," said Miss Trimmer, rather pointedly, "I hope not." "He is very soon affronted," said Lady Seagrove. "I wish he had but such a temper as Captain Wentworth !" "Ah! your ladythip ith very fond of Captain Wentworth; but indeed I think you do thometimth try poor Thir Roberth temper a little." "Do I? How?" "Why," answered Miss Trimmer, "you know that he and Captain Wentworth never from the firtht theemed to like each other, and poor Thir Robert, I think, may very naturally feel a little jealouth, when he findth Captain Wentworth domithiled here for a fortnight together." "My dear Wilhelmina, do you really think so! I thought I could not do less than invite him, as his illness was entirely owing to an injury received in defending you and Florence." "That ith true, perhapth; but the baronet, doubtleth, cannot help foretheeing the almotht inevitable conthequentheth.' Lady Seagrove looked inquiringly at her, and Miss Trimmer continued: "When a handthome young man ith for a whole fortnight in the houthe with an amiable and accomplished young lady, drawing, botanithing, walking, reading, and thinging duetth with her all day long, what can the conthequentheth be, but that he mutht fall in love with her?" Lady Seagrove laughed. "No, no, my dear," she replied; "he has too much sense to do that. Florence Hamilton, the representative of one of the most ancient and illustrious families of England, the heiress of Seagrove Hall, to marry a man of unknown family, without even great wealth to recommend him! Why, the mere mention of such a thing is enough to make her father, General Sir Walter Hamilton, her grandfather, Lord Rowland Hamilton, and all her noble ancestors back to the time of William the Conqueror, rise from their graves, and come and reprimand us." "Moth undoubtedly it ith," replied Miss Trimmer; "but perhaps Florenth "Florence," interrupted Lady Seagrove, "has far too much spirit to love any one so unequal to her as Captain Wentworth. I have the most perfect confidence in her. I know that she would never for one moment think of falling in love without my entire consent and approbation." "Your ladythip thows your uthual thenth and judthment," said Miss Trimmer, with an air of profound deference, thinking to herself, as she spoke, "Lady Seagrove is still more silly and inconsequente this evening than she is in general." "You know, I am sure," continued Lady Seagrove, "how much attached Florence is to me?" "Yeth, indeed. It would be motht ecthtraordinary if she were not, when your ladythip hath been ath kind ath the betht and fondetht mother to her. And she has been with you almotht from infanthy." "Yes, from the time she was eleven years old, when on the death of Lady Hamilton, who, as you know, survived her husband but a few months, she was sent over from India, as well as her little sister, then an infant in arms." "How kind it wath of you," said Miss Trimmer, who knew that this was a subject on which her patroness liked to descant, "not only to adopt Florenth and promith to make her your heir, ath you did when you firtht found that her father wath ruined, and that it wath probable, from the impaired thate of the generalth conthtitution, and the fact of Lady Hamilton's being in a conthumption, that the dear girl would thoon be left an orphan; but also, when the thecond child wath born, to undertake the charge of her also." "I could not think of the poor little things being left in a state of destitution, or to the mercy of strangers," said Lady Seagrove. "Although, as I told her mother, Florence would continue to be my heir-first, because I had made the promise when there seemed no probability of another child; secondly, because I was her godmother, and had seen and taken a fancy to her before she went to India, when she was only seven years old; thirdly, because she was about the age of my nephew, to whom I even then had set my heart on seeing her married; and, fourthly (though, of course, I did not say that), because I knew she was the poor dear general's favourite-I promised that Adela should be well provided for, although not an heiress; and have always treated them with equal kindness and indulgence." Miss Trimmer murmured, "That I am thure you have;" and Lady Seagrove resumed, with a sigh, "Poor General Hamilton, his history is a melancholy example of the changeableness of human affairs! He was a brave and honourable man, but shockingly extravagant, and liberal to a fault. Then he would always be speculating, till he lost all his fine fortune; and what would have become of his two unprotected orphans, had it not been for me, Providence alone knows." "How very, very, very kind it wath of you!" exclaimed Miss Trimmer, with animation, although she was feeling, to use her own favourite expression, "almost bored to death," at having to listen again to a history which she had heard, chapter and verse, at least fifty times before. 66 The next morning, as Miss Trimmer stood practising smiles before her mirror, she thought much of her favourite scheme. This was to pretend to promote Florence's marriage with Sir Robert Craven, and then, by skilful management, contrive that the affair should end in his marrying herself. She thought she had observed that Sir Robert was quite inclined to like and admire her; not, certainly, as much as he did Miss Hamilton, but when he found that Florence would never love him, Thurely," she said, half aloud, as she moved backwards and forwards, for the thirtieth time, before the mirror, in order to perfect herself in a peculiar manner of walking, or rather tripping, across a room, which she had admired in the Comtesse de Trenise, and was particularly desirous of imitating correctly-" thurely I muth contratht very advantageouthly with Mith Hamilton, whothe frigid mannerth and behaviour are enough to chill his love completely; and he will, like Romeo, turn with gratitude to thome kind charming Juliet, who will not thcorn or reject him. But I mutht play my game well, and it is one that will require no little care and judgment." Miss Trimmer sat down and continued meditating, while her fingers were busily employed in constructing an elaborate ornament of feathers and flowers for her hair. Just as she had completed this coiffure, and was taking a last admiring gaze at the reflection of her round, plump, simpering face, she heard a gentle tap at the door. Not knowing who it was, she hastily deposited the flowers in a little box on her toilet, and then retreating from the mirror, and seating herself on a chair at some distance, with Milton's "Paradise Lost" in her hand, which she wished to appear to be studying intently, called out, "Come in;" and little Adela entered. "Miss Trimmer," said the child, "will you not come and bid Captain Wentworth good-by? He is going in a few minutes." "Ith he indeed!" said Miss Trimmer, closing her book, after carefully marking the place. "What, before luntheon? Where ith he?" "In the library." "Who ith with him?" "Nobody. Lady Seagrove and Florence are speaking to a poor woman." "Now then," said Miss Trimmer to herself, "is my time for a little private conversation with Captain Wentworth. His preference for Florence is most provoking. He hardly spoke or looked at me once yesterday, though I did my utmost to be fascinating. But I'll make him remember it. No one shall slight my charms with impunity." 266 RAILWAY SPECULATION. BY E. P. ROWSELL, ESQ. IT is astonishing how soon a spirit of gambling is created. The boy who purchases "three throws for a penny," is almost certain, if he have a second penny, to expend it in another three throws; the luckless individual who is deluded into joining the raffles at bazaars, is never satisfied without he suffers a second loss; the singularly sanguine personage who, dazzled by the advertisement headed "A Fortune for a Guinea," places his money in a Derby sweep, is by no means enlightened as to the real state of the case by losing one guinea-he will, almost assuredly, send another after it; and, in the same way, the railway speculator, fortunate or unfortunate, keeps on; the fire has been kindled, and it will burn, under ordinary circumstances, so long as there shall be a morsel of fuel left. When it happens that this spirit of gambling has arisen in numbers at one time, and the direction taken has been the same, we have what is termed "a mania." We have the public mind brought into that state that on this one point it cannot be considered sane or healthy, and instead of being afflicted with only some hundreds of monomaniacs in our land, we are burdened with tens of thousands. Railways do undoubtedly offer a tremendous field for speculation. You cannot fix the value of railway shares. The worth of a railroad is so entirely dependent upon circumstances, that no one can absolutely say so-and-so is its precise extent. Railway shares highly valuable to-day, may be comparatively worthless ten years hence, and vice versâ; and it is the possibility of this change that creates such numerous and tempting opportunities to those who are inclined to speculate or to gamble to gratify their inclinations to the utmost. And if anybody should take exception to the word "gamble," let us ask, can any other term be used in regard to railway speculation? We are not now speaking of the purchase of shares as an investment-the buying them for the sake of the dividend they will produce; we are referring to what is termed " dabbling in shares-the frequently purchasing with the object of selling within a short period at a better price, and so making an immediate profit. Now, without passing any very harsh judgment on this practice-nay, without even denying that a man of sufficient means may, if it so please him, follow it as a business, it is right we should bear in mind that the system may be designated as pure gambling; as much gambling, reader, as any other system of risk or chance which is so characterised. If I buy shares upon the chance of their "going up," or "bear" them upon the likelihood of their "going down," I gamble; there can be no doubt about it; and without, as I have said, pressing the question as to the morality of the proceeding-leaving it open, at all events, for others to decide-I repeat, it should be confessed at once that in this transaction I am abso-` lutely and positively a "gambler." The fact is, there is hardly anybody who does not gamble in some way or other. Immediately there exists a doubt as to value, transactions in connexion with the doubtful property become, of course, tinctured with risk. A man buying under such circumstances, buys a chance. The property may or may not be worth what he is about to give for it; he may win or lose by the transaction. Very well; we do not see that this, as a solitary case, could be called gambling, otherwise you would prohibit nearly all buying and selling, for doubt is more or less present in all business dealings. But we think there can be no dispute that if the buyer in this case, not satisfied with having purchased one risk, should purchase twenty or thirty chances, so that he might have a great amount of property, the value of which neither he nor any one else could tell, because it would have-could have-no fixed value-because its worth, as he knew when he bought it, was entirely dependent on events, and might be to-morrow wonderfully elevated or frightfully depressed-there can be no dispute that this man would be in reality and truth "a gambler." His money would be invested in chances, just as much as the coin of the player at rouge-et-noir. The speculator in railway shares gambles; he buys risks, even as the billiard-player-the speculator hoping that the shares may rise or fall, as he wants them; the billiardplayer trusting that the game may be won or lost, as may suit his stake or his betting-book. And we do hope that the circumstance of this similarity of motive, this sameness of term by which the course of action noted may in either case be truly designated, may be a little more regarded than it is. Don't let my pious friend turn up his eyes when he hears I lost half-a-crown last night at whist, knowing all the while, the sinner, that he has this day purchased fifty Diddleton and Diddleburys, forty Carleton and Marltons, and twenty Wisberry and Fisberry Junctions, because he has a conviction they will all go up prior to the "settling," and, therefore, he has done wisely in purchasing the chance. He says I gambled when I played at whist, and points after my half-crown. Well, what did he do when he bought the Diddleton and Diddleburys, and other shares, in the hope to gain some hundreds of pounds? Reader, let us be a little charitable; let us look deeper than we are accustomed to do into our own hearts; let us more closely examine our own actions, and it may be that we shall blush-blush scarlet, at finding that the very thing we have condemned so hotly, so unmercifully in others, we ourselves have been fully guilty of; only, in our case, they have been so wrapped up, so screened and concealed, that even in our own breasts their true nature has not been recognised. But now there is another remark, in reference to this railway speculation, which we should wish to make. We have come to the conclusion that, say what you will, you cannot disprove the assertion, that it is gambling, although, as we have intimated, the amount of moral guilt attaching to it is a question upon which we are not prepared, and do not care to enter at the present time. But, having decided that it is gambling, an unpleasant inquiry suggests itself: Does it not oftentimes involve something-(we really are almost afraid to put the question)-does it not oftentimes involve something of cheating? What we mean is this. If, reader, you and I and others sit down to cards together, playing for stakes, we gamble; in a darker or a ligher sense we gamble; but we play fairly-it is all open and aboveboard; if I win, I do so either through better luck or superior skill, or both; if an opponent wins, he does so through the same causes; we all fully understand the chances, and are prepared for them. It is true the skill of each player may not be known at the outset, but this is quickly evidenced, and after the first deal or so, the combatants are aware exactly how the chance runs. Now, compare this with the mode of operation in share speculations. Smith comes to me, and he has just seen Brown, the Director of the Diddleton and Diddlebury Line, and Brown has whispered to him the mysterious words, "Diddletons are good." This is quite enough for both of us. Smith and I call the cab with the best-looking horse in it, |